First Time Afloat?
First Time Afloat? If you have not been on a boat before, you are not alone - many of our guests each year are complete newcomers and each and every one masters the controls to enjoy their holiday.
With the holiday experience they provide, you could easily be mistaken for thinking that canals were built entirely for pleasure, but their history is strongly industrial.
The first canals were built to take boats just 7ft (2m) wide but 70ft (20m) long, hence the rather unusual proportions of the typical 'narrowboat'.
However, you will find that every need is catered for in this intriguing living space.
Though designed to suit 200-year-old waterways, the modern narrowboats feature everything you need to enjoy a high quality self-catering holiday.
Appointed to the standard you would expect of a country cottage, you have the added bonus of changing the scenery, without re-packing your suitcase, each day.
The nature of the industrial routes takes the canals from the heart of one city to the next, via the easiest route - usually through open countryside, often through towns and villages.
Canal-side country pubs are not a fortuitous accident of location - they were the service stations of the time when the boats worked along the routes.
There is no itinerary - you set your own agenda. In a week by canal you are likely to cover the distance you could cover in an hour by car. But the journey will be a far richer one!