Looking to rent a bare boat or barge for 4-6 people next July. What’s the best company and canal to navigate?
We have boating experience.
We’re looking at the Shannon waterways.
Posted by
Glostrup, Denmark
1394 posts
In 2012 we used https://www.leboat.co.uk/boating-holidays/ireland/shannon for a trip on Shannon and enjoyed it very much. We had 7 days of sunshine and no rain in daytime - but don't count on that.
Posted by
Mountains of S. Oregon
785 posts
We used LeBoat from Carrick-on-Shannon (return) for 7 days with two couples. Made it as far as Clonacnoise before turning around. You could do a one way ending in Portumna (with LeBoat) or Banagher (with CarrickCraft).
We've used LeBoat in France and plan to use them again in 2025. The two firms offer different floorplans and LeBoat pencils out cheaper when I looked at our next trip.
LeBoat offers shuttles to /from both DUB and SNN for $35/pp but it always seems like a rental car offers more flexibility and lower overall cost, although doing a one-way trip is attractive with the shuttles. LeBoat offers a shuttle between bases, but it's $280/pp which is silly.
The Shannon has lots of wildlife and scenery, and lots of small towns with quays for overnight mooring with restaurants and pubs if you get sick of boat cooking.
Narrowboats are rare in Ireland (as opposed to the UK).
Posted by
Mountains of S. Oregon
785 posts
I've excerpted the Shannon portion of my trip report:
http://user.cavenet.com/jgurley/travel/shannon.pdf