Narrow Boat Canal Cruises in England

We just did our first in Wales last September. We are a couple in our mid 50s. I posted a trip report here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/narrowboat-anniversary-trip

As far as operating the boat, my advice is to watch as many how to videos as you can in advance. Get a canal guide for the canal, or canals you will be on before you go. Get used to deciphering it. North will rarely be at the top of the page.

Boats travel on the right side of the canal, even in England. Go really, really slow when passing moored boats. Locks are often a cooperative sport. Expect surprisingly talkative Englishmen on the canal.

A double bed is considerably narrower than even ordinary European beds. If you don't have the beds made up as twins, you will sleep very close indeed.

Grocery shop before you board, and remember you will only have a hotel sized refrigerator.

Shower at night, the engine warmed water will be lukewarm by morning. Bring a flashlight and rain gear. Leave your hard luggage behind.

You are going to have a great time.

With 2 couples, don’t take the smallest 4 berth boat you can find, as it will be far too cosy. I would look at a 6 berth. The Shropshire Union or the Llangollen Canals are good options.

I've hired a boat twice for week-long cruises, once from Milton Keynes north to Braunston (and back) on the Grand Union; and once from Market Harborough south to Napton-on-Hill (and back) on the Grand Union Leicester Branch and Oxford canals. Both were among the best travel experiences I've ever had.

I agree with the previous poster to rent a boat sized for 2 more people than you actually are. We were two in a 45' 4-person boat.

Make sure you rent from an outfit that offers proper tuition in boat handling, lock operation, mooring and winding (turning around). None of these is complicated, but an hour's tuition goes a long way.

What I loved about cruising the Grand Union is they are wide locks, meaning you may go up and down the locks with another boat. As all boats go about the same speed, you may end up sharing locks with this boat for most of your day. We met some wonderful people doing this, and often agreed to stop at the same pub for lunch or supper. Once we even got an invitation back to their house in Milton Keynes which was a nice surprise. On the other hand, if there is no other boat, a wide lock is a few steps harder to manage than a narrow lock with just one boat.

Get a Nicholson's Guide from Amazon or a local bookseller. These are guides to the canal system with a page covering about 5 miles of canal, with information on directions, locks, bridges, hazards, pubs, shopping, waterpoints, etc. There are others, but we found Nicholson's to be the best.

If you get your guide before you leave, you can use it to estimate how far you can go in a day. We found that you could do 3 mph and 4 locks per hour, and that 6 hours per day was a nice amount, allowing time for a pub lunch and walking around your overnight village (a bit longer if you are going to moor up "on the cut", out in the countryside outside of a town or village).

If you have any specific questions, by all means DM me. I hope you have a wonderful narrowboat adventure.

I've hired a boat twice for week-long cruises, once from Milton Keynes north to Braunston (and back) on the Grand Union; and once from Market Harborough south to Napton-on-Hill (and back) on the Grand Union Leicester Branch and Oxford canals. Both were among the best travel experiences I've ever had.

I agree with the previous poster to rent a boat sized for 2 more people than you actually are. We were two in a 45' 4-person boat.

Make sure you rent from an outfit that offers proper tuition in boat handling, lock operation, mooring and winding (turning around). None of these is complicated, but an hour's tuition goes a long way.

What I loved about cruising the Grand Union is they are wide locks, meaning you may go up and down the locks with another boat. As all boats go about the same speed, you may end up sharing locks with this boat for most of your day. We met some wonderful people doing this, and often agreed to stop at the same pub for lunch or supper. Once we even got an invitation back to their house in Milton Keynes which was a nice surprise. On the other hand, if there is no other boat, a wide lock is a few steps harder to manage than a narrow lock with just one boat.

Get a Nicholson's Guide from Amazon or a local bookseller. These are guides to the canal system with a page covering about 5 miles of canal, with information on directions, locks, bridges, hazards, pubs, shopping, waterpoints, etc. There are others, but we found Nicholson's to be the best.

If you get your guide before you leave, you can use it to estimate how far you can go in a day. We found that you could do 3 mph and 4 locks per hour, and that 6 hours per day was a nice amount, allowing time for a pub lunch and walking around your overnight village (a bit longer if you are going to moor up "on the cut", out in the countryside outside of a town or village).

If you have any specific questions, by all means DM me. I hope you have a wonderful narrowboat adventure.

Following. We are hoping to do this in the future and the answers given so far have been very informative.

My wife I have hired narrowboats twice. Once with another couple and once with two other couples. In both cases each couple hired their own narrowboat. We cruised independently and met for lunch, dinner, and shore outings. This approach eliminated excessive “togetherness”. We were all still friends when we were done.

That's a clever idea Mike. Besides the togetherness aspect, we found that we both liked piloting the boat. If all four adults turn out to like it, having two boats would halve the competition for the tiller.

We like narrow-boating so much we are looking at doing it again this coming September.

We are also. Depending on the Coronavirus implications. We have paid a deposit on a boat, will need to make the full commitment in July.