CANALS · RIVERS · CITY WATERWAYS
See the great cities the slow way, from the water.
Amsterdam's canal rings, the Seine past Notre-Dame, the Danube under Budapest's lit bridges and the Douro through Porto. Sightseeing glides, dinner cruises and after-dark city lights, reviewed and ranked by the people aboard.
Only by water
Three cities you have to see from a boat.
Plenty of places run a sightseeing cruise. In these three the water is the city — the canal ring, the river of skyscrapers, the working wine river — and the deck is the one seat that makes sense of it.
A UNESCO waterway
Amsterdam's Canal Rings
Amsterdam was built around water: four grand canals dug in a horseshoe in the 1600s, lined with merchant houses that still lean over the quays. The ring is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the only way to read its full geometry is from a low glass-roof boat slipping under the arched stone bridges.
- 1 Amsterdam Luxury Canal Cruise + Unlimited Drinks & Bites option
- 2 Amsterdam: Heated Canal Cruise with Unlimited Drinks & Bite
- 3 Amsterdam: 75 Minute City Canal Cruise with Audio Guide
Architecture afloat
The Chicago River
Chicago invented the skyscraper, and its river runs straight through the canyon of them. The architecture cruise is the city's signature outing: a guide naming the Wrigley Building, Marina City and the glass towers as they rise on both banks, with the river dyed green once a year for good measure.
- 1 Chicago Architecture River Cruise
- 2 Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise aboard First Lady
- 3 Chicago: Architecture River Cruise Skip-the-Ticket Line
A working river
The Douro at Porto
The Douro carried port wine down from the terraced valley to Porto's cellars for three centuries, and the old rabelo boats still line the quay at Gaia. The six-bridges cruise threads beneath Eiffel-era iron and the great Dom Luís arch, the port lodges stacked up the far bank.
- 1 Porto: 6 Bridges Douro River Cruise
- 2 Porto: Guided Tour by Tuk-Tuk & Optional Douro River Cruise
- 3 Porto Walking Tour, Lello Bookshop, River Cruise and Cable Car
Start with the standout
The most popular cruise on the whole site.
More travellers have booked and reviewed this one than any other cruise we cover. If you only take a single boat, take this.
The most booked
The Cruises Travellers Book Most
Amsterdam's canals, the Seine after dark, the Chicago River and the Douro. The sailings that fill up first across every city we cover.
Where to begin
The cities worth boarding a boat for.
Six waterways most cruise trips are planned around — the canal rings, the river capitals and the port-wine valley — and the best boat to take in each.
The famous waterways
Know the river, pick the city.
The headline city
How to cruise the Amsterdam canals.
A hundred boats leave the same quays every day, and they are not the same trip. Three ways to ride the canal ring, depending on whether you want the commentary, the bar, or the after-dark version.
The Douro Valley
A river that runs on port wine.
Upstream from Porto the Douro narrows into the oldest demarcated wine region on earth, terraces of vine cut into schist on slopes too steep for a tractor. Day cruises run from the city to Régua and Pinhão, locking through the dams, with tastings at the quintas and lunch on deck between the hills.
Read the guide: the best Douro wine cruises →After sunset
The same city, lit and reflected.
A river city changes after dark. The Eiffel Tower sparkles on the hour over the Seine, Budapest's Parliament floods gold above the Danube, and Amsterdam's bridges string the canals with light. Evening and sunset cruises trade the daytime commentary for the view, usually with a drink in hand.
See the evening & sunset cruises →The great river
One river, a string of capitals.
The Danube runs nearly 2,900 kilometres across Europe and threads four capital cities on the way — Vienna's palaces, Bratislava's old town, Budapest between its hills and its plain, each one best read from a boat on the water. The night cruise under Budapest's lit bridges is the one nobody forgets.
Danube cruises in Budapest →Chicago, Illinois
The river that explains the skyline.
Nowhere else turns a boat trip into an architecture lecture quite like Chicago. The river forks through the heart of downtown, walled by the towers that invented the form, and a docent names each one as it slides past. It is consistently the city's top-rated thing to do, water or not.
- 1 Chicago Architecture River Cruise
- 2 Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise aboard First Lady
- 3 Chicago: Architecture River Cruise Skip-the-Ticket Line
By pace
Pick your kind of evening on the water.
A river cruise can be a silent glide or a floating party, and everything between. Slow when you want to look, a table when you want to linger, drinks and lights when you want the night out.
Slow and quiet
Just you and the waterline.A glass-roof day boat or an audio-guided glide. The bridges and the old facades drift past while you do nothing but look.
Dinner aboard
A table by the window, moving.Sunset dinner cruises and lunch sailings, with the lit waterfront for a backdrop and a glass of something local in hand.
After dark, lively
The city lit, drinks flowing.Evening party boats and unlimited-drinks canal cruises, when the bridges glow and the deck is the best seat in town.
Paris, on the Seine
The whole city lines up along one river.
Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower — the landmarks of Paris are strung along the Seine like beads, which is why the river cruise is the single most efficient hour in the city. Open-top sightseeing boats run all day; the evening sailings catch the tower mid-sparkle, glass of champagne optional but recommended.
See all 45 Seine cruises →By city
Six cities, six waterways.
Amsterdam for the canal rings. Paris for the Seine. Porto for the Douro. Budapest for the lit bridges. Prague for the Vltava. London for the Thames. Pick a city and see what leaves the quay.
By style
Pick the kind of cruise.
Sightseeing if you want the landmarks named. Dinner if you want a table on the water. Sunset for the lights, wine and champagne for the occasion, or a simple canal-and-boat tour anywhere we sail.
Plan it
A long weekend, three cruises.
New to a canal city? Here is how to use the water across three days — one to orient, one to linger, one for the lights.
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