Countryman Magazine editor Mark Whitley describes his recent Drifters narrow boat holiday, cruising the Kennet & Avon Canal from Hilperton to Keynsham, via Bradford on Avon and Bath. Created in the white heat of the Industrial Revolution, canals are nowadays places for pleasure and relaxation. One of the most popular canals is the Kennet & […]
Narrow boat holidays provide a floating holiday home. Cruising along at just four miles per hour, watching out for wildlife along the way, you can take all the supplies you need for an adventure afloat. A licence isn’t required to steer a canal boat, and all our narrow boat hire operators provide boat steering tuition […]
The Avon Ring is one of a dozen or so popular circular routes for narrowboat holiday-makers. It covers a distance of 108 miles, passes through 130 locks and takes around two weeks to complete. Sections of the Stratford Canal, Worcester & Birmingham Canal, River Severn and River Avon make up the route. Drifters has canal […]
The waterways look set to be very busy this summer, so it’s more important than ever to have good boating manners. Tuition is included in all our holiday packages. During your boat handover, as well as showing you how to operate your boat, our boat yard staff will explain the rules and how to navigate […]
A canal boat holiday is a great way to enjoy the splendid colours of autumn in the hedgerows and trees that line our waterways. And there’s plenty of wildlife to spot along the way during the autumn months, including flocks of fieldfare and redwing searching for hawthorn berries. Here are Drifters’ top nine narrowboat holiday […]
Nigel and Kathryn Crawford of MrandMrs50Plus.com recently enjoyed a Drifters narrowboat holiday, setting off from our canal boat hire base at Worcester. The UK weather is a fickle thing. A May weekend on the canals can throw just about everything at you in just three days. On our recent Drifters narrowboat holiday we bounced from […]
This year’s City of Culture – Coventry – is a key destination on the midlands canal network, so it’s a great place to visit on a canal boat holiday. The city, which led the way in the cloth and textiles trade, has its own canal. The Coventry Canal runs 38 miles from Coventry Basin, up […]
Canalside pubs are popular destinations for canal boat holiday-makers, and there are hundreds to choose from. They often have names like The Lock Inn, The Navigation Inn, The Narrowboat, The Tunnel and The Bridge. And many date back to the days when canals were the transport infrastructure of the industrial revolution. Canalside inns provided refreshment […]
Today’s narrowboats for hire are fully equipped with all the essential mod cons. These include central heating, hot water, televisions, DVD players, fully-equipped kitchens, showers and flushing toilets. And some boats are fitted with extras, like wider beds, larger showers, baths, solid-fuel stoves and WiFi. Each year dozens of new boats are added to the […]
From rural retreats to vibrant city centres, narrowboat holiday-makers can use their boat as a floating holiday home. You can explore Britain’s beautiful 3,000-mile network of inland waterways, with the choice of hundreds of waterside destinations to visit along the way. It’s free to moor almost anywhere on the network, so you can plan your […]