Routes that fit your boat.
Turn-by-turn navigation for Amsterdam's canals, with bridge heights, one-way rules and lock hours built in.
Free to use · runs in your browser · built on official Amsterdam data
Not every boat fits under every bridge.
Amsterdam's waterways hide 675 bridges and locks. Some give you three metres of headroom, some barely 1.80. A few canals only flow one way, and locks keep office hours. Vaarwater knows all of it before you cast off, so you never find out the hard way.
Three things it does, and does properly.
Routes for your boat
Enter your boat's height and width once. Every route from then on avoids bridges you can't clear and canals you may not enter. Sailboat with a mast? It plans around openable bridges too.
Navigation on the water
GPS guidance like a car navigator, redrawn for the water: oversized targets for wet thumbs, contrast that survives full sunlight, and instructions that speak canal: "under the second bridge, then starboard".
Every bridge and lock, documented
Clearance heights, opening hours and the operator's phone number, straight from the official municipal registers. Tap any bridge on the map and know where you stand.
On the water in a minute.
No download: it runs straight from the browser and installs to your home screen if you want it to.
1. Tell it your boat
Height and width, once. Saved on your phone, used for every route.
2. Pick where you're going
Tap the map or search. It plans the best legal route that fits.
3. Follow the blue line
Live guidance, bridge by bridge, until you moor at B.
Free, and honest about it.
The map, the routes and the navigation cost nothing. A small ad keeps it afloat; the Skipper subscription removes it if you would rather cruise ad-free. That is the whole business model. Your location never leaves your phone and your data is never sold.
Open the app