Narrowboat canal travel UK

Many routes match that specification

A key question is how active you want to be. Do you want to be working locks and (on some canals) swing bridges?
Or would you prefer a contour canal, which has few locks but meanders round the countryside to stay level, remaining on a contour.
The Oxford Canal is a prime example of that. Lazy, hazy days in great countryside through beautiful little villages.

If you are happy to work locks do you want a narrow canal, or a broader one?

The Grand Union, from London to Birmingham, is a broader canal. In its day it was the I90 or the I5 of the waterways system. Built to handle lots of traffic 24 hours a day at speed. So the locks fill and empty fast, and the gates are meant to be handled fast, with built in short cuts to work them faster.

A really good crew can work the locks on there very fast. I've been on a pair working down the GU when we've set ourselves targets to keep ourselves fit and showcase our experience, and keep bettering previous "bests". Great fun. Equally you can take your time.

I was on the Shroppie (Shropshire Union) on Tuesday for the first time in years and had forgotten just how nice a canal that is.

Two that might suit you to a T are the Leeds and Liverpool, and the Cheshire Ring. People often cruise in rings, using multiple canals.
The Cheshire Ring is a marvellous example of that. It is invidious to divide out best bits of that ring, but to me the Peak Forest Canal is the very best of a superlatively good ring. I would say that, but mean it, as it passes through my home village.

PS- A pair is a motor boat and an unpowered butty boat behind. You can't self drive hire pairs.

As Stuart says there is a lot of choice. I have been holidaying on the canal network since 1975 and we have owned our own boat since 2003 so I have covered most of the connected network.

To meet all three of your requests will probably require a mix of urban and rural scenery but that is easily done over a 1/2 week period. Firstly I would advise against a couple of routes for a beginner. The Rochdale canal crosses the Pennines from Manchester to Yorkshire - fabulous scenery but a huge number of locks and pretty hard work. The Kennet & Avon canal goes from Reading on the Thames west to Bath - on the surface an excellent tourist route but again very hard work and a dearth of places to moor.

Some of my favourites are the Leeds & Liverpool, the Northern Trent & Mersey, the Macclesfield and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire. My very favourite is the short Caldon canal from Stoke up to the edge of the Peak District. If I were to make a suggestion for a leisurely two week holiday it would probably be the 4 Counties Ring with a side trip up the Caldon canal - mostly rural but with a dose of urban scenery in Stoke, the home of the British pottery industry.

There are a few companies with a number of bases across the country - Black Prince, ABC and Anglo Welsh are the main ones. Many smaller companies band together for marketing under Canal Holidays UK. Have a good look at their websites and then maybe come back with more specific questions.

https://www.canalholidays.com
https://www.black-prince.com
https://www.anglowelsh.co.uk
https://www.abcboathire.com

and whichever route you choose, get the appropriate Nicholson Guide To The Waterways book which will show boat facilities and boatyards and marinas, as well as a number of convenient canalside pubs, and show where groceries may be obtained. These guides are really easy to use and they stay open to the chosen page. Oh, and they show and give dimensions for all the locks and bridges. They also give brief descriptions of canalside towns and villages and their main attractions, and commentary on the state of the towpaths.

These are all very informative responses. Thank you! We are happy to do some locks and swing bridges, but yes, we are new to longboats. However, I am travelling with two men who will be capable of looking after the locks and bridges. We are adventurous, so locks and swing bridges will be fun. To be honest, I’m more concerned about there being a pub for dinner every night. :)

To demonstrate my inner pedantic nerd it's a narrowboat, not a longboat. And never a barge.

To be honest, I’m more concerned about there being a pub for dinner every night. :)

Our experience was that the boats go 3 mph and there is a pub every 3 miles, so you do the math.

I'm glad to hear of people doing narrowboat holidays. Its one of the most fun things I have ever done in Europe. We have done two one-week narrowboat excursions, with a company called Canaltime. Even if you don't go with them, their website shows some sample excursions of varying lengths that you can take from their several locations (https://www.canaltime.co.uk/). One trip was from Milton Keynes, north on the Grand Union Canal to Braunston, and back. The other was from Market Harborough, south on the Grand Union Leicester Branch to Napton Junction on the Oxford Canal, and back. With more time, you may be able to do a circle tour so you don't have to double back.

The trip I've always wanted to do is the Llangollen Canal, over the towering Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (a bridge for boats), but that is a "there-and-back" trip. The circle route I've always wanted to do is the Cheshire Ring and the Anderton Boat Lift (an elevator for boats). Google all these terms to see if any of them interest you.

I am curious about a pub every three miles. Never heard that one before.

It's true that you will never be far from one, even if it is across a field or two in a nearby village. Nicholson's is very good about marking pubs and indicating mooring sites. And you can always Google suggested pubs to check on their opening times and menus. Almost every pub now will have a web site.
On a more prosaic note Nicholson's also marks Sanitary Stations to empty your toilets and also marks water points. In a week or two cruise you may or may not need a San station, but will probably need to top up your water.
Nicholson's also marks food shops.

There definitely aren't pubs every 3 miles on the canals, at least not these days. In some places there are pubs across the canal from each other and you might be able to go to several from one stop. In other places, though, there might not be any available at a practical overnight stop. Pubs have been closing at a fairly fast rate over the last few years so there will be places where pubs in Nicholsons have gone for good. The Llangollen is one that is these days a bit short of pubs. In contrast the western end of the Leeds & Liverpool where we permanently moor our boat still has lots - there are 13 in a 12 mile stretch west of Wigan.

The trip I've always wanted to do is the Llangollen Canal, over the towering Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (a bridge for boats), but that is a "there-and-back" trip

A friend did that a couple of years ago and it was his first time narrow boating. He reported it as great experience.

To be honest I would not recommend the Llangollen canal for a first timer. It's not about the difficulty, but rather that it gets very busy on the short section at the end near the aqueduct at the Llangollen end and has a lot of other beginners on a narrow canal, especially the bit from the aqueduct into Llangollen itself. It's also a fairly plain canal apart from the last bit and as I said it's a bit short of pubs. Planning a route for a 1 or 2 week trip would have you on a relatively dull canal for most of the time. Finally the aqueduct is quite challenging for anyone with a fear of heights - on the side opposite the towpath there is a thin strip of metal and nothing else between you and the river below.

The best plan is to have your holiday elsewhere and then plan a separate visit to the aqueduct before or after.

There are a couple of YouTubers in their 30's who have recently gone on narrowboat canal trips in the UK. One is "Kara and Nate" and the other is a British couple, "Travel Beans". I'm not sure that either could help you with your routing but the videos are interesting and entertaining.

Love the info on the easy canals. Always wanted to do this. Is there a stigma if one doesn't want a narrow boat, and opts for renting a small conventional fiberglass boat with cuddy cabin bunks, toilet and stove?

As you can see from this site, narrowboats have kitchens, bedrooms, toilets and showers.
https://www.black-prince.com/canal-boats/

No stigma, except among the narrowboat enthusiasts, but a narrow boat will offer you all the facilities you have listed.
As with anything some will give you chapter and verse of its history.
Any toilet on any boat still needs emptying. And the beds will be as good on a narrow boat as on a fibreglass boat.
As will the heating and the stoves.
Any boat is about living very comfortably in a compact environment. Depending how many there are on the boat a narrow boat may be more spacious simply by its length.
It's a broad beam boat, but look up the Piano Boat on you tube for how luxurious a boat can be. That one is a floating concert hall with a Steinway grand piano, of all things.
There are scores of UK canal you tubers. Holly the Cafe Boat is another good one.

the big problems related to fibreglass boats are related to the fragility of the fibreglass. Narrowboats are steel hulled and hire narrowboats (and others driven by newbies) often do a fair bit of lock wall, lock gate, and bridge bashing, to say nothing of when mooring, and the steel boats mostly just shake it off whereas the fibreglass boats show witness marks much more easily, and can even wind up being cracked or otherwise damaged. Don't wind up on the lock cill with either type of boat. Fibreglass boats need fenders all over. Many fibreglass boats are wider than the narrow profile of both the narrowboats as well as the bridges and locks so are more suited to the few wide canals. Do remember how very low many canal bridges are (especially on the scenic Stratford Canal), so no matter what type of boat be very careful if you sit on the roof.

When kitted out properly it can be very hard to beat a narrowboat for comfort.

A fibreglass cruiser will be smaller and the facilities considerably more spartan than a narrowboat. It will also be pretty difficult to find a cruiser to hire on the canals.

Fibreglass cruisers of a decent size and with good facilities will be widely available on the Norfolk Broads but that will be a very different holiday experience than the canals.