Canal cruises in England

Check this web site as it has info re "hotel boats".

https://www.hotelboating.co.uk/canal-river-cruising-holidays.html

Thanks so much. I guess my problem was in the terminology. Hotel boating was what I needed.

This is the umbrella web site you want for all UK Hotel Boats- https://www.hotelboating.co.uk/

This company specialises in holiday cruises along the canals of England, but you would be with a small group of people...

By their very nature hotel narrowboats are very small and can only accommodate a very small number of guests. The boats are only 7 feet wide and a maximum of 70 feet long. Whilst many operate as a pair, one with an engine and a butty boat behind they will still only take numbers in single figures. As a result many get booked up very quickly each year it may already be too late for 2025. Maybe if you are completely flexible on dates and locations you might find something.

Reconsider hiring a crew. The whole fun of narrowboating is that you do it yourself (and it is very easy to do). The boats have a small but fully equipped kitchen to cook for yourself, and there is usually a supermarket near the marina for you to stock up. Its a fantastic holiday. We've done it ourselves twice, via Canaltime (https://www.canaltime.co.uk/).

I agree hiring a crew defeats the whole object of doing it.

I agree hiring a crew defeats the whole object of doing it.

I don't agree at all. I've done quite a few hotelboat cruises. The beauty of them is you can be active or as lazy as you want. If you want to walk (or cycle on some of the boats) the towing path ahead of the boat that's absolutely fine. If you want to lockwheel that's just fine as well (or water the boat and such tasks). Having passengers go ahead to lockwheel can actually help the crew as that lets them get on with preparing your meals etc and smoothes the boats passage. And you tend to get fed very well indeed. It's amazing what can be produced from a small galley.

Sometimes that even allows you to do a bit of side exploration into nearby villages you might otherwise have missed.

I've done exactly that quite a lot- prepared the locks and helped other boaters through beforehand or afterwards. Especially on long lock flights like the Hatton 21 the more people working the locks the better. I've assisted in some seriously good timings up and down there, probably getting close to when it was a working canal.

Likewise if you want to be indolent (especially if it's teeming down with rain) then that's entirely your choice.

Doing a hotelboat cruise would actually be a really good introduction into the skills of boating.