Neighbourhoods & Routes
Canal Cruise Through the Jordaan, Amsterdam
The Jordaan is Amsterdam's most sought-after neighbourhood for a reason: narrow streets, intimate canals, independent shops, and brown cafés that have barely changed in decades. On the water, the Jordaan canal experience is quieter and more personal than the main ring. Boats must be small to fit the narrower channels. The scenery is houseboats, flower-laden bridges, and the backs of 17th-century workshop buildings. BoatLocal lists several private and small-group boats that specialise in Jordaan routes.
What Makes the Jordaan Canals Different
The Jordaan's canals — Bloemgracht, Egelantiersgracht, Lauriergracht, and Looiersgracht — were built as part of the same 17th-century expansion as the main ring but for a different purpose. While Herengracht was lined with merchant palaces, these narrower channels served the craftsmen, tanners, and artisans who supported the merchant economy.
The result is a different architectural texture: smaller façades, more varied gable shapes, and a sense of human scale that the grand ring canals lack. Many of the buildings are now among Amsterdam's most expensive addresses — the Jordaan has gentrified entirely since the 1980s — but the canal widths and bridge heights haven't changed, keeping the character intact.
Highlights Along a Jordaan Canal Route
Bloemgracht (Flower Canal) is often called the "Herengracht of the Jordaan" — three 1642 step-gable houses at numbers 87–91 are the most photographed facades on the smaller canals. Egelantiersgracht is quieter still, lined with houseboats and ending near the Claes Claesz Anslo almshouse. Lauriergracht stretches from the Jordaan south toward the Leidsekade, passing under a series of low iron bridges.
All of these connect back to Prinsengracht, so a Jordaan route typically starts and ends on the main ring, giving you a circuit that contrasts the grand and the intimate.
