The sun is out and Britain’s beautiful canal network offers over 2,000 miles of waterways to explore. If you’ve ever fancied taking a canal boat holiday, what better time to take the plunge? Here are the top 9 things you need to know about narrowboating: 1. You don’t need a licence – it’s easy to […]

Canal boats provide a floating holiday home, so it’s possible to take all sorts of pets on the canals. And as well as hundreds of dogs each year, Drifters’ canal boat hire operators have accommodated many other kinds of pets aboard their canal boats, including rabbits, hamsters, caged birds, goldfish and tortoises. Here are our […]

Born in the dying days of the canal boat carrying trade on the Grand Union and Oxford Canals at Braunston, and in the year that Barbara Castle’s 1968 Transport Act officially recognised the nation’s canals as a leisure resource, Drifters’ member Union Canal Carriers helped pioneer narrow boating for pleasure. The family-run narrowboat hire firm […]

From romantic waterside encounters to gritty urban scenes, Britain’s canals and rivers have featured in many movies and television shows over the years. And recently, a number of television series have put canal boat holidays at very the centre of the action, with popular series like Tim and Pru’s ‘Great Canal Journeys’ and ‘Celebrity Carry […]

Travelling through the countryside and waterside towns and villages at just four-miles-an-hour, canal boat holidays are the fastest way to slow down. You don’t need a licence and it’s easy to learn how to steer a narrowboat. Drifters offers 590 narrowboats for hire from 47 bases across England, Scotland and Wales. Our summer holiday prices […]

The Canal & River Trust, the charity that cares for the nation’s 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, has published research that shows spending time by the waterways can make you happier and improve your life satisfaction. ‘Assessing the wellbeing impacts of waterways usage in England and Wales’ reveals: • the associated benefits of visiting […]

Hundreds of pubs can be found alongside Britain’s inland waterways, many of them historic rural locals offering the perfect place to eat, drink and relax on a canal boat holiday. With names like the Lock, the Navigation, the Narrowboat and Bridge, canalside pubs often date back to the construction of the canals over 200 years […]

  Day boat hire on the canals offers the chance to treat Dads with a fun day out on the water, nourished by a pint and a pub lunch along the way. Drifters offers day boat hire from 18 canal boat hire yards, from less than £10 per person. Full tuition is included so if […]

Britain’s canals and rivers host hundreds of exciting events each year, bringing people to the waterways and celebrating the things that make them special. Waterway events make great destinations for canal boat holiday-makers, so we’ve put together a list of the top 10 events for 2018, along with information on our nearest canal boat hire […]

To celebrate the approaching May bank holiday holidays, Drifters has put together its top five short break narrowboat holidays: 1. See the pop-up art installations on the Droitwich Ring – as part of the Canal & River Trust’s Arts of the Waterways programme, the charity has commissioned artists to produce dynamic temporary artworks and live […]