If you want the authentic Amsterdam houseboat experience, this is it! It is a great boat, located on a quiet canal with a view of the Rijksmuseum towers. Spotlessly clean, comfortable bed, hot shower, good wifi signal, nice kitchen with fridge, cofee maker, and stove for cooking meals. The location is very accessible to museums, gym bar and bakery on the corner, nine streets area with lots of resaraunts and bars and jazz clubs, Vondelpark, shopping on Utrechtstraat, and all of the sites of central Amsterdam.

Now for the special part: If you are at all interested in boats and maritime history, this one is a great find. The cabin where guests stay is actually the cargo hold within the original hull of a freight boat that once hauled goods all over Holland. (Just imagine the countless tons of cargo that came in and out of the place where you are sleeping!) And yet the interior beautifully and comfortably remodeled using new and salvaged materials including a number of hatches that serve as skylights. The original steerhouse is still intact, along with the original one-cylinder engine down below. But the highlight is the captain's quarters where the family who owned and operated the boat lived during the 1920s (not open for guests to sleep in, yet). Stepping down into the quarters, complete with original cabinets and cookstove, feels like traveling back in time. The host cares a lot about preserving the historical character of his boat, because most other boats like it have long since gone to the scrapyard. He showed us fascinating photographs of the original owners who lived on the boat when it plied the canals nearly 100 years ago.

There are many houseboats in Amsterdam. A lot of them are glorified trailer houses on flat barges. This one is a gem.