Myself, CO, 20 week old daughter and 16 month old working cocker really fancy a canal boat holiday. We live near Southampton so ideally looking south of the M4 and a canal that is more rural than urban with good pubs for meals etc. West Country would be ideal.

Anybody with any experiences, do’s, don’ts etc?

Don’ts- Go on a canal boat holiday. By some margin the worst holiday I’ve ever been on.

Do- Something else.

Not a canal as such, but just come back from a week on the Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire.

Loved it.

Never done it before but found it completely relaxing. The most chilled I have been in ages.

The 4 and 7 mph speed limits ensure that nothing happens quickly.

We started in Ely, went West to St Ives and St Neots, then back up to Whicken Fen. There are loads of choices of where to stay and loads of free moorings. We stayed in a couple of the small towns, at a couple of the riverside pubs and at a couple of “wild” moorings.

The boat was totally self sufficient, no mains hook up, just ran off a 12v system.

I can highly recommend it.

Kennet and Avon is nice. Plenty of pubs, some interesting canal architecture and good scenery. Lots of options for hire boats

Best way ever to fall out with the wife. When you try to park the things at a pub for lunch the moorings are all busy.(Norfolk Broads in high season) There is a one with a gap half an inch longer than your boat. You get it in there but the second adult on board wont step over to the shore with a rope in hand to tie the boat up. Repeat every time you want to get off the noisy, slow and cramped thing. Only good thing was fishing with the offspring off the back after you finally get the thing moored without any outside help having sacked the crew and demoted them to galley duties.
I blame the endless haven holiday adverts on TV as I grew up.

Had boats in the family for years and is a very relaxing way to spend your time. We used to cruise the Thames and also bike the Kennet which is slow and chilled. Perhaps get a boat from Reading and go up to Abingdon, Oxford to Lechlade. Oxford has Osney bridge, so the big boats cant get above there. Used to love the boats, shame my parents became too old to continue it.

Many years ago four of us booked a narrowboat from Gilwern on the Brecon canal in the Autumn. A fine time had by all. Memorable moment was a drunken party passing us on a broad section, skipper with a glass of wine, large ladies in bikinis sunbathing atop their craft – we shouted a warning about the low bridge/tunnel behind as they passed us on course to collision. Unheeded, they entered the narrow maw at a funny angle, the low roof of the tunnel rolling the sunbathing women in opposite directions. They tumbled/rolled down opposite sides of the boat into the drink. They were fished out largely unhurt, yet naked and scraped.

Sobering for them, amusing for us. Apart from that it was a very relaxing holiday with enough to do by way of locks and local sightseeing/pubs/wildlife to keep us happy.

We did Kennet & Avon when I was a kid and it was good, but there were a lot of locks and some of the river sections were quite tricky as there was high flow at the time.

We did one in France last year that was absolutely fantastic though, from Chatel Censoir to Auxerre and back on the Canal du Nivernais, can’t recommend highly enough, stunning French countryside and manned locks so no hassle. http://www.leboat.co.uk/holidays/destinations/france/nivernais

Thanks for the replies folks.

The CO is from the oxford area so I’ve been looking at the Kennet and Avon canal. Foxhangers looks like its ideally based in Devizes for a round trip over 4 nights to bath and back.

My wife did giggle at the divorce comments but I was really glad to see how relaxing it can be. That’s what I’m hoping for!

At the end of may we did a long weekend on the grand union canal for my 40th surprise. Me Mrs ws a 13 yr old and 10 yr old and our 8 month old pup.
One of the best laughs/holidays we’ve ever had. Drank far too much beer, sometimes disguising it in tea cups if it was too early in the day to be seen with a can of Stella, chatted to some great folk, nearly fell in a lock, briefly lost the dog, panicked when having to turn her round but spun it on a sixpence, and to top it all we were boarded by the owner of the boat company to help rescue a stag do boat that had run aground.
Great times.

What is a CO ?

😳

My recommendation, having just about survived a weekend in a canal boat:

Shut yourself and the crew in the front room with a bucket behind a wooden screen for the toilet and see how you all feel after a couple of days. If you’re still on speaking terms, you’ll love the canal boat!

Foxhangers to Bath and back should be good in 4 days. Gives you time to take it easy and not be driving all day. The novelty does wear off after a while so best not to do it all day long. The Caen Hill locks are quite a sight but a chore to navigate so good to start on that side

We did a short hire from Anglo Welsh at Trever in Wales. A bit away from what you#’re looking at but quiet canal, no problems parking at pubs and very few locks.
Also, crossed the pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which made the trip down from Scotland worthwhile

The CO is from the oxford area so I’ve been looking at the Kennet and Avon canal. Foxhangers looks like its ideally based in Devizes for a round trip over 4 nights to bath and back.

K&A is lovely – if you want quiet, go the other way toward Newbury. I think Foxhangeers is at the bottom of Caen Hill so a mighty lock session day 1, but then it’s flat till Wootton Rivers (I think, might be one or two more in devizes itself).

Honeystreet – Barge Inn for looneycroppy-watch
Pewsey Wharf, nice cafe.
Wootton rivers – pub up the street.
Bruce Tunnel. Who doesn’t want to drive a boat through a tunnel?
Crofton Beam Engines – industrial heritage at its finest in a beautiful location (my neck of the woods)
Bedwyns – pleasant villages with pub, shop, rail & bus links for days out.
Hungerford – nice town.
Newbury – also a nice market town with good transport links.

Take bikes and there are some wonderful spots in the North Wessex Downs a short spin from the towpath. Love it round here 🙂

CO = commanding officer = wife.

Just being childish!

The wife has now said she would like it to be a week long trip so might look further afield.

Start short, canal boats are slow. There’s a fine line between relaxing and tediously boring, you don’ know how your presonality will react to being a prisoner.
Try to avoid having to negotiate the Devizes lock system, it will take you all day to travel a mile. 27 of the damn things.

As you’re near Southampton, starting Newbury and heading west might work better, I’m sure there’s a hire company in Newbury.

Consider France – I’ve been on the Saone in Burgundy and the Lot et Garonne in SW France. Both excellent.

I love canal holidays, having done a few with the wife or family. We are very fortunate in being able to scrounge one; they are eyewateringly expensive to hire, so we’d have to think long and hard about spending the money if that were our only option.

If you’re willing to look further north there are better circular routes north of Birmingham; as previously mentioned the Llangollen branch has some real highlights (massive aqueducts, staircase locks…) and the Four Counties ring is very varied. By canal is definitely the best way to see many cities; even the outskirts of Wolverhampton are lovely (and at worst, historically interesting) by canal, whereas driving through bits of it is just grim.

Don’t be scared of too many locks on your route; one of my favourite aspects is meeting all sorts of people at locks. On the whole everyone is pleasant, and there are a surprising number of Europeans or people from even further afield who come over just for a canal holiday, which makes things even more interesting. We did the Wolverhampton locks at the weekend with a couple of other boats, it was a great few hours with everyone mucking in and having a good time.

If there are just two of us quite often we’re both at the back, but my wife likes to sit at the front with a book and a glass of wine where it’s much more peaceful; if there are more of you, especially if more than one person is confident with driving, you can be at the back, front or inside, it’s very flexible.

Drinking while boating is mandatory. Boats pivot from the middle; don’t try to drive it like a car. Driving into locks is a contact sport, especially if it’s not yours :-).

Get the Nicholson’s guidebooks for planning beforehand and during; they’re based on OS maps and are very useful.

As you’re near Southampton, starting Newbury and heading west might work better, I’m sure there’s a hire company in Newbury.

Theres a company in Aldermaston that rents boats. Not sure on Newbury . Always seem pretty tidy when I see them pootling up and down.