I was interested to know if anyone has stayed on Jonas houseboat in Amsterdam? I have looked up quite a few different houseboats, however Jonas is the cheapest and seems to be in quite a good location near Centraal station and as I can visualise (as I have never been ) on one of the main canals! Just thought that as we are in country made up of water it would be nice to stay on the water.
We have a trailer sailor in Australia and are used to sleeping on boats confined spaces etc so this isn't an issue, but if anyone has done it and had some issues can they let me know.

Any info would be great.
Thanks kathdb

If you look it up on Google maps, it seems to be by a highway and the tram lines, not very 'scenic' and possibly quite noisy. Use the 'street view' to see a 360 image...(you can't actually see any boats, just the landside). Doesn't seem that conveniently placed for sightseeing either. (for anyone else Google placed it by Bimhuis/ IJ tunnel area).

We really enjoyed our houseboat on the Amstel near the Blue Bridge for five days with our three offspring, who were then pre-teen, young teen and mid-teen. We booked through http://www.amsterdamhouse.com/houseboats.htm# and had no problems, just loved it all - but it’s now too many years ago to give a valid recommendation as much may have changed in the intervening years.

There’s a previous Fodor’s thread on houseboats in Amsterdam:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...eboats-pls.cfm

and an earlier one, http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...houseboats.cfm

Hope this is helpful.

thanks for your help I sort of googled it on the web site I saw it advertised but as I don't know the area or understand the language I wasn't sure exactly where it was. I looked at some of the other houseboats but they looked like they were on smaller canals in remote areas.

By the look of the map for Jonas it looked like it was on main canal. I will look at Google maps again, the description of boat said the owner sometimes took you in his smaller boat to town and sites so thought must be close.

I will also look at the above links I am new to this and don't know how to look stuff up they may have been already talked about other than putting country in search and scrolling through all the pages. So thanks for that

Jonas is a hostel, not a typical houseboat from what I understand.

It is quite a bit away from the centre, next to the main railway line into Centraal. The road it is on is not that busy, but the railway is! You may also have noise from the ventilation towers for the Ij tunnel.

Yes it is a Hostel, but looking at all types of reveiws it seems to be okay. It only has 2 rooms so owner, us 2 and maybe another 2 on the boat at the same time. It has private room,share bathroom but access to the kitchen and can sit on deck and watch passing water traffic.
I have tried to find out about tunnel noise and train noise etc but I can't write to Jonas direct I have to go through Hostel world and they are not very helpful, they keep telling me to go to their web site etc etc when I asked how far was it to walk from Centraal station with heavy bags and is Jonas on main canal and a few other questions. I have re emailed asking about the noises so will wait and see.

Have you looked at http://www.jonashouseboat.com?

His e-mail address is given as [email protected] on that site.

I don't know if he'll be honest about the noise though - he wants you to rent his rooms!

It is a bit of a walk into the centre from there, and maybe not such a nice walk back again in the evening.

Furry - that houseboat looks gorgeous.

Bookmarking for myself............ ;-)

hetismij- I did see that web site and email address, but because it didn't look very good with the swearing etc I thought it may have been like a reveiw type site that a guest may have written up. I will give it a try anyway. Thanks

Kath, that is the official website for the boat.
I admit the swearing put me right off it, but I don't think I'm the type of guest Jonas aspires to .

me too, hetismij

I'd give this one a wide berth (pun intended)

I sent him an email and he responded but your right he didn't answer my question very well, here is his response.!!!
Hello K\
My clientele are travellers who want an authentic experience and those are not too wurried about their comfortzone; they want something different more than anything.
My place is quirky in many ways so i get the impression you are better of in a nice hotel and just a visit to the houseboat museum.
Greetings Jonas

Jonas gave you a very candid response and were I you I'd be very pleased that he did so.

One of the links upthread describes my family's experience with a rental houseboat a couple of years ago. We enjoyed it and had no problems dealing wth the agency---there's a link to it in that thread. Several of the listnings there were for "bed & breakfast" arrangements that sound as if they might suit your needs. There were also smaller boats for just two people.

Note that a location on a smaller canal is not a bad thing.