Most Riviera Travel guests have a night or two in Amsterdam around their cruise. The fleet, with ships such as Riviera Resplendence, Emily Bronte and George Eliot, often begins or ends its Rhine and Dutch Waterways itineraries here, so there is usually time to enjoy the city before you board or after you step off. Below you can follow the Riviera Travel fleet live, check the 2026 and 2027 docking dates and find the exact quay your ship uses.
We turn those days into a private tour built around you: the canals, the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, or a day out to Keukenhof in spring and the Zaanse Schans windmills. Your own guide, your own pace, no coach and no fixed group.
Back at the right quay, on time, guaranteed. Riviera ships move around more than most, so knowing which berth you leave from and return to is half the job. We confirm it before the day starts. Send us your ship.
We track the awkward berths. Riviera uses Tolhuis, Zaandam and even the Zaanse Schans as well as the central quays, which catches a lot of guests out. Our calendar knows where your ship is, so you never wait in the wrong place. 4.9 stars from thousands of reviews.
Sailing the Rhine? Low water can change or cancel itineraries at short notice. See our live Rhine water level tracker before you travel.
Not sure which Riviera Travel ship or sailing is yours? Find my river cruise matches your line and dates to the ship, its Amsterdam berth and how long you are alongside.
If Amsterdam is a stop mid-itinerary rather than your start or finish, we build the day around the hours you have alongside.
Every Riviera call below comes live from our Amsterdam river cruise calendar, including the Zaandam and Zaanse Schans moorings.
If the Rhine runs low, Riviera Travel may reroute or arrange transfers around the affected stretch, so it helps to know the picture in advance; our Rhine water levels page shows the latest readings.
Riviera Travel ships berth centrally in Amsterdam. These are the quays used for Riviera Travel calls, each with a map so you know exactly where to meet:
Piet Heinkade, city centre · 20 min walk to Centraal
Right on the IJ waterfront in the city centre, a 10 minute walk or one tram stop from Central Station. LP is your berth number, and “via Muziekgebouw” or “via Vriesseveem” simply tells you which walkway leads to your gangway.
Amsterdam-Noord · 4 min free ferry to Central Station
On the north bank of the IJ beside the Buiksloterweg ferry landing, with the EYE Film Museum and A’DAM Tower on your doorstep. The free ferry crosses to Central Station in 4 minutes and runs around the clock.
Behind Central Station, west side · 5 min walk to Centraal
Behind Amsterdam Central Station, on the west side, so you are inside the station within 5 minutes of stepping ashore. The Dam, the canal ring and the Jordaan are all within an easy and very pleasant walk.
Central Zaandam · 12 min train to Amsterdam
Beside the Zaantheater in the centre of Zaandam, minutes from the shops and the station. Binnen and Buiten refer to the inner and outer berth positions, and the windmills of Zaanse Schans are a 10 minute ride away.
At the windmill village · 30 min to Amsterdam
A handful of ships dock right at the open-air windmill village. Berth 1 takes two 55 metre ships, berth 2 one of up to 115 metres, and you step off the gangway straight into the windmills, cheese farm and clog workshop.
Riviera names its river ships after British writers, and the roll call tells you who the operator is aimed at: Geoffrey Chaucer, George Eliot, William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Thomas Hardy and Emily Brontë, with Riviera Radiance, Rose, Resplendence and Reflection joining them. They are Swiss built and Swiss operated, and they typically carry between 160 and 180 guests.
The Dutch programme is deliberately short. Amsterdam, Kinderdijk and the Dutch Bulbfields runs four nights out and back through Enkhuizen, Rotterdam, Kinderdijk and the Keukenhof gardens at Lisse. There is a five day Spring in the Netherlands cruise, and an eight day itinerary that adds Bruges and medieval Flanders. Short cruises are wonderful value and they are also unforgiving: on a four night sailing, one wet afternoon or one queue costs you a quarter of the trip.
That is why the extra day at either end does more work on a Riviera holiday than on a fifteen night Rhine and Danube epic. Add a night in Amsterdam and you have gone from a long weekend to a proper break, and you have taken the pressure off the days when the ship is moving.
On board, Riviera includes all meals, an all-inclusive drinks package, Wi-Fi, port taxes and a daily guided excursion led by English-speaking local guides, with a Cruise Director and Cruise Concierge looking after the ship’s party. Those excursions are good, and they are also the whole ship walking together. If you want the Anne Frank story told properly rather than pointed at from a bridge, or the Rijksmuseum with somebody who knows which rooms to skip, that is a separate errand from the ship’s programme.
Riviera Travel is built on value, and its included excursions are perfectly competent. The trade-off is the coach, the group and the timetable, which is a lot of structure for people who came away to relax.
Riviera’s guests are almost all British and usually well travelled, which means they generally know what they want to see and would rather not be walked past it at somebody else’s speed. A guide of your own turns a decent overview into an actual day out.
Riviera uses a wider spread of berths than most lines here, including Tolhuis and, on some sailings, Zaandam and the Zaanse Schans itself. We confirm your quay from the schedule before we plan the pickup, so nobody is left standing in the wrong place.
On a Riviera sailing? Tell us your ship and we will build the day around it.
Header photo: Lady Diletta by Gerd Fahrenhorst (CC BY 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Travelling with Riviera Travel? Alongside your tours, we can arrange a private Schiphol airport transfer or a chauffeur to take you from the airport to your Riviera Travel ship or your hotel, and back again, timed around your cruise. Book your private transfer.
We look after guests from every river and ocean line calling in the Netherlands. Pick your cruise line to see the tours, berths and docking details that apply to your ship:
Riviera ships use a wider spread of berths than most: the Passenger Terminal, Tolhuis and De Ruijterkade, plus Zaandam and occasionally the Zaanse Schans. Your exact quay is shown in the schedule above.
You will see Riviera Resplendence and Riviera Reflection, along with Amicitia, Lady Diletta, Antonio Bellucci and River Duchess. Riviera’s literary ships, Emily Bronte, George Eliot and Oscar Wilde, also call. The schedule above lists them by date.
Yes, and it is a lovely place to start. We can meet you right there, walk the windmills before the coaches arrive, and then head into Amsterdam.
Yes. Your private guide meets you at the gangway, the terminal or your hotel, and the whole day runs on your timing.
The sooner the better for spring and peak dates, but we can often arrange a private guide at shorter notice too.