Roman and Ivan.
Founders of AmsterCap.

Before the Netherlands, I lived in Indonesia and travelled around Asia and beyond, getting to know the world and the many ways people live in it. I worked wherever I could open a laptop: freelance jobs, advertising, digital projects and assorted tech work.

Then my cousin invited me to the Netherlands. I planned to come for about six months, look around and decide where to go next. I stayed a little longer.

Back in Ukraine I started various projects and worked in trade and sales. I was always looking for ideas I could try out and turn into something that worked.

I followed my mother and brother to the Netherlands. Roman and I hadn’t met yet. We each had our own lives and were trying to figure out what to do next in a new country.

Ivan got into boats first. He saw an opportunity, tried it, learnt how the business worked and looked at the numbers. Then he brought Roman in.

We worked as skippers and hosts for other companies, on other people’s boats. We saw Amsterdam’s tourism trade from the inside: how guests were welcomed, how trips were run and how the work was organised. We learnt what people enjoyed, what they missed and what we would do differently.

Our skills fitted together. One of us knew advertising, technology and content. The other knew sales, negotiations and getting projects off the ground. We joined forces, and AmsterCap became our shared business.

It’s easy to see Amsterdam as a pretty backdrop. Canals, bikes, narrow houses. Take a few photos, try some herring and you feel you’ve met the city. But the longer you live here, the more questions you have.

How do so much freedom and so many rules coexist in one country? How did a small city become so wealthy and influential? What connects trade, religion and art with the habits of people you pass in the street today?

Those connections are what interest us. Behind the façades are people: what they invented, what they believed, what they risked and how their decisions changed the city. That curiosity is where our tours began.

Living in Amsterdam and understanding Amsterdam are two different things. You can walk the same street for years without realising what you’re looking at.

So we keep studying. We read books and academic work about Amsterdam and the Netherlands and explore the country’s history and culture. We want to know how things came to be the way they are and which of those forces still shape life today.

We also take tours ourselves. We go out with experienced Dutch guides, including people you’re unlikely to find on a list of Amsterdam’s ten best guides. They’re locals who have worked with the city’s history for years.

They notice things you’ve walked past, uncover unexpected connections and explain familiar places from within their own culture. Afterwards, the city feels unfamiliar again, in the best way. You realise how much you still have to learn.

Then our work begins: make sense of what we heard, check it, and find a way to tell you about it clearly, accurately and in a way that makes you want to keep listening.

One part of AmsterCap became our boat project, Flamingo Boat Tours. We bought a Dutch saloon boat built in 1929 and recognised as part of the Netherlands’ historic heritage. It was built long before either of us was born. Restoring and fitting it out became our chapter in its story.

Behind the nice photos were repairs, contractors, technical surprises and paperwork. Quite a lot of life fitted between “Let’s buy a boat” and “Welcome aboard.”

Now we have our own place on the water: a historic boat with a warm saloon, an open deck and Amsterdam outside the windows.

There’s a lot more to this city than any boat route can cover. You can get to know it on foot, through art and food, in courtyards and in conversation. At AmsterCap we bring those ways of exploring the city together.

It comes down to what interests you and who you’re talking to. One person wants to understand Dutch history, seventeenth-century trade and where the country’s wealth came from.

Someone else wants a relaxed walk, a chat about Amsterdam today, a laugh and a chance to finally ask why things are the way they are here.

We can go deep into the history or take an easy walk without making it feel as if there’s an exam tomorrow. We can do both: start with merchants, end up discussing house prices and work out how the two are connected along the way.

That takes listening and adapting. The guide brings the same knowledge, and each group makes the conversation different. What matters is that you find it interesting.

When we started working in local tourism, a few things surprised us. Many people who moved here from where we grew up will know the feeling: everything works, but sometimes you have to ask twice for a little personal attention.

We wanted our Amsterdam tours to offer the care we’d expect ourselves. Someone listens to what you want, explains the terms clearly and thinks about your comfort ahead of time. You can ask a question without feeling like a nuisance.

For us, good service comes down to those details: how we talk before we meet, how we welcome you and how much attention we pay to what matters to you.

We want the story to be interesting. We also want it to be true.

A local legend is worth telling as a legend. When historians disagree, we can say there’s no single answer. Amsterdam’s past is surprising enough on its own.

We want you to come away with both an experience and a better understanding of the city. A familiar façade can become more than a pretty building, and a painting more than another thing you’re supposed to stand in front of.

AmsterCap is our own project. We develop the tours, research the material, look after the boat and plan how your visit will go. We put our own work into everything from the stories we tell to the atmosphere on board.

We lead private Amsterdam tours for small groups: city walks, canal trips on our historic boat, museum visits and food tours in English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Every group has its own pace and interests. So it starts before we meet, when we find out who’s coming and what will make the day interesting for you.

We each arrived here with our own story. Now we have one in common, and a city we keep getting to know alongside the people who join our tours.