Canal boat holidays get top marks

New research by the Canal & River Trust reveals 87% of people would recommend canal boat holidays

Canal boat holidays get top marks in the Canal & River Trust’s 2024 Hire Boat Survey.

The research reveals 87% of people who took a quintessentially British holiday on the nation’s historic navigable canals and rivers would definitely recommend it to others.

Attracting domestic and overseas holiday makers from all over the globe, an impressive 92% felt their holiday was value for money and overall satisfaction with the experience was at 93%, with 80% very satisfied.

The research was led by Canal & River Trust, the charity that cares for 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales, a historic network which hosts over 1,000 holiday hire boats and 283 day boats for hire.

Haley Hadley, of Drifters Waterway Holidays, welcomed the results:

“Travelling at less than four miles per hour through peaceful countryside, past canalside pubs, sleepy villages and vibrant waterside towns and cities, canal boat holidays are often described as ‘the fastest way to slow down’.

“Every year around 450,000* people enjoy holidaying on Britain’s canal network, and with tuition included in our hire fees, around a fifth of hirers are new. We’re delighted to see that the majority of our holidaymakers would recommend the experience to others, and they feel their holiday is value for money.”

Matthew Symonds, head of boating & customer service at Canal & River Trust, said:

“Our unique British canals are still navigated by boats just as they were hundreds of years ago. Today, people recognise that spending time on the water is a tonic for mind and body. Boating holidays are a way people can step back in time and connect with nature and our nation’s living heritage. It’s fantastic to see that people find them so rewarding.

“Boating holidays also make an important contribution to the local economy, with our 2024 Hire Boat Survey revealing 71% of canal boat holidaymakers use local shops, pubs or cafes daily and 18% of hire boaters travelled from outside the UK to experience boating on our waterways.”

*Source: British Marine’s ‘Watersports Participation Survey 2018’