The Amsterdam Canal Race (Grachtenrace) has been a fixture on the Amsterdam event calendar since 1986 and is a lot of fun to cheer on!

Amsterdam Canal Race (Grachtenrace)

The Dutch love any excuse to get out on the water, so it's little surprise that rowing is a popular sport here. The race is often rowed in old-fashioned, wooden sloops instead of the modern light-weight carbon-fibre boats you generally see plying the Amstel, making it quite a feat of endurance.

The 25km route winds its way all through the Dutch capital, from Stadiongracht in Amsterdam Zuid, up the Amstel and then along Singlegracht, past Artis Zoo, back round towards the central train station, up and down the tourist hotspots of Herengracht and Keizersgracht before heading back to the start point.

There are definite hotspots to watch the action from. The canal race works the opposite way to most races: the slowest sloops start first with the faster ones intent on catching them up. This means that in the narrow city centre, the bottlenecks and tour boats make the necessary overtaking a dramatic and skilful manoeuvre! The hairpin bend from Herengracht to Keizersgracht along Leliegracht is a particularly famous pinch point that leads to exciting scenes!

The number of participants has grown from 35 in 1986 to more than 140 participating teams in recent years, making the competition very fierce indeed!

Attending the Amsterdam Canal Race

The event is all along the public canals so it's completely free to watch and cheer them on. They set off from by the old Olympic Stadium between 11am and 1pm, and so you can expect to find them in the city centre from around midday onwards. It's a great event to do alongside enjoying some of Amsterdam's many other tourist attractions. You can see the full route on the Amsterdam Canal Race wesbite.