There are over 1,800 locks on the 2,000 miles of navigable waterways in England and Wales, all enabling boats to travel up and down hills. These structures have been around for hundreds of years but can be daunting for canal boat holiday newcomers, especially when there are lots of them in quick succession. Fortunately there’s […]
Narrowboat holidays are fantastic for families, offering the chance to set off on an adventure together, learning how to navigate the waterways and speak the boating lingo, as well as spotting wildlife, exploring traffic-free towpaths and visiting waterside pubs and attractions along the way. So if you are thinking of packing up and shipping out […]
With ghosts galore, bats, toads, moths, spiders and frogs aplenty – as well as creepy tunnels, spooky locks and misty towpaths – Britain’s 2,000-mile, 200-year old canal network provides the perfect backdrop for a haunting Halloween. Here’s a guide to our spookiest destinations for Halloween 2018: 1. Look out for the ghost of the lusty […]
A canal boat holiday is a great way to enjoy the vibrant colours of autumn in the hedgerows and trees that line our waterways – dramatically mirrored in the water. There’s plenty of wildlife to spot along the way during the autumn months, including flocks of fieldfare and redwing searching for hawthorn berries, and wood […]
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 […]
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 […]
There are now over 30,000 canal boats on our inland waterways, more than at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and half a century after the 1968 Transport Act officially recognised Britain’s canal network as a major leisure resource, the popularity of canal boat holidays continues to increase. Today’s canal boats for hire are fully […]
With boats travelling at a maximum speed of 4mph, and over 3,000 miles of navigable peaceful inland waterways to explore across Britain, canal boat holidays really are the fastest way to slow down. From rural retreats to vibrant city centres, narrowboat holiday-makers can use their boat as a floating holiday home to explore. Drifters’ offers […]
A recent survey suggested that the pace and pressures of 21st-century living are taking their toll, with families, on average, now spending fewer than seven hours of quality time together each week. Heron Publications editor Mike Firth decided to do something to redress the balance by taking his family – and their dog – on […]
A canal boat holiday is a great way to enjoy the splendid colours of autumn in the hedgerows and trees that line our waterways. These colours are dramatically mirrored in the water and there’s plenty of wildlife to spot along the way, including the arrival of flocks of birds in search of berries. There are […]