First time afloat?
All Your questions answered…
Boating holidays on the canals are becoming more popular
Britain’s canals are in the best condition of their 250-year history. And top quality boats like ours make it a pleasure to holiday on them.
With such a wide choice of canals to cruise, there’s something to suit everyone.
You can enjoy the peace of the countryside, the sightseeing in historic towns and cities, quaint country pubs, working the locks, seeing the industrial heritage. Or just getting away from it all for a really relaxing and enjoyable break, taking everything at your own pace.
Step back in time and take a relaxing break aboard a modern, purpose-built self-drive boat. Canal boat holidays allow you the freedom to cruise through the unspoilt heart of the British countryside enjoying life in the slow lane.
Use this website to help you to unlock the secret world that is Britain’s inland waterways and find the perfect location for your boating holiday.
What are the boats like?
Most of Britain’s canals were built with locks 7ft wide and 70ft long. This meant that a particular style of boat was developed to navigate along them. These boats are known as narrowboats, sometimes referred to as barges or long boats.
The canal engineers worked out that wider canals (and boats) were more profitable and so some canals were later widened to allow 14ft wide beam boats/barges (or two narrowboats) to navigate along them.
Over the last 60 years the system has been revitalised by the development of the leisure industry. So what was a freight transport system in the 19th century, is now a unique holiday experience that allows you to cruise along these forgotten highways and see the countryside at its very best.
New holiday hire boats are specially designed and constructed to provide comfort on board. All our boats have 6ft plus headroom, central heating, hot water, TV’s, flushing toilets and showers.
Canal boats from Drifters have:
- Comfortable beds
- Bathroom with shower and flush toilet (many boats have two)
- Fully fitted kitchen with cooker, fridge – and many boats have a microwave
- Comfortable saloon with table
- Central heating and hot water
- Radio CD player, TV and in many cases DVD player
- Diesel engine with simple controls
- Full safety equipment and certification, including lifejackets for children and non-swimmers
- Comprehensive instruction, quality assessed by British Marine
Where can we go?
Drifters has over 40 holiday starting points for you to choose from, stretching from central Scotland down to the South West of England and including Wales.
But to make choosing your first holiday on the canals a bit easier, we have detailed below some ideal first trips for you to look at.
How do I choose a route?
There are hundreds of routes and destinations to choose from.
From easy short breaks for beginners, to longer more challenging circuits.
If you’d like to talk to some one about what’s best for you, call us on 0344 984 0322 (Overseas +44 1252 796404)
What to do
Your party should include two fit adults (if you don’t have two fit adults, consider taking a hotel boat cruise).
One adult needs to steer the boat. Youngsters can steer under the supervision of an adult.
When you reach locks, one person needs to stay on the boat and another gets ashore to work the paddles and gates. Children can help with the locks.
If you choose a route with lots of locks, it’s best to have extra adults in the party – two families together or a group of friends. We have boats suitable for between two to 12 people.
The boats all have fully equipped galleys, so you can do all the catering on the boat, shopping at village stores along the route. Or if you prefer, there are plenty of canalside pubs and restaurants.
Here are our Top 10 tips for canal boat holiday beginners.
Where to go
We offer canal boat hire from 40 places in England, Scotland and Wales. And there are around 3,000 miles of canals and rivers to choose from.
For a first cruise, we recommend choosing a route without many locks. There are beginners options from most of our bases, including Goytre in South Wales and Gayton in Northamptonshire.
Call us on 0344 984 0322 for free advice. (Overseas +44 1252 796404)
Start by planning which part of the country you’d like to visit, and then choose one of our bases there.
Use our availability search at the top of our homepage, to seach for the boats available from your selected base and travel dates. As well information on the boats, you’ll find information on the routes from that location.
The Canal & River Trust has an online mapping tool to help plan your route. And guide books are available from our bases, which describe the route you’ll take, with details of pubs, towns, shops and where to moor at night.
Things to do
There’s so much to do on a canal holiday: steering the boats, planning the route, exploring waterside villages and towns.
You may find the slower pace of life on a canal holiday means you want to do less. It’s a great way of relaxing and slowing down.
Children love the canals – there is so much to see, with close up views of animal and birds, locks to do and keeping a log of where you’ve been. There are even some amusement parks next to the canals in places.
The guide books available from our bases give lots of background information on what to do on or near the water.
What to Pack
- We recommend packing all weather/waterproof clothing and deck shoes, pumps or sneakers
- It’s a good idea to bring slippers or thick socks to wear on board
- Bedding is provided
- Towels are provided by most of our operators
- Our canal boats have well equipped kitchens with everything you need to cook with, including gas cookers with hob, oven and grill, cooking utensils, saucepans, plates, bowls, mugs, knives, forks, spoons, etc
- The fridges are small so it’s best to buy smaller items and do regular top-up shops en-route
- There isn’t any freezer space on board so don’t bring frozen food
- We recommend bringing wine in a box/carton rather than a bottle
- It’s useful to have a canal map to help plan your trip. You can usually buy one at the boat yard when you arrive to pick up your boat. Or you can buy one online beforehand. For example Amazon sells Nicholson’s and Pearson guides to individual canals. The Canal & River Trust also has a free online route planner Planning your boat route | Canal & River Trust (canalrivertrust.org.uk)
For more information on what to pack go to What to pack for your canal boat holiday – Drifters
10 top tips for canal boat holiday beginners
Click here for our ten top tips to help you navigate your first canal boat holiday.
Do I need to know anything about boats?
You don’t need a licence to steer a canal boat and all our operators provide tuition as part of the hire cost.
The National Guide to Hire Boat Handover promotes the safe enjoyment of the inland waterways. All Drifters members are members of the scheme. They have undergone an audited process to insure their instruction and handover process includes all the information you need to handle the boat and facilities aboard safely.
The scheme draws together good practice from practical experience of the best hire boat operators in the UK.
All of our personnel are accredited by BM (British Marine) for Hire Boat Instruction & Handover Procedures, so you will be in safe hands!
Great British Boating Holidays