Good spot for canalboat long weekend

[dontlookdown]

Daughter and I fancy a long weekend on a narrowboat somewhere. Mrs DLD not keen so will jsu tbe the two of us.

Never been on a canal before, any pointers as to good spots with plenty of interest for a 3 night mini-cruise? I guess we aren't going to get far in that time.

I'd love to go over the Pontcysyllte (sp??) aqueduct but that might be a step too far for a novice..?

Ideally within a four hour drive of London (another reason not to go to N Wales!)

[Puggit]

Check out this 4 part boating youtube story by a novice (he normally blogs about trains):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcGMcj2dWM

[Puggit]

I live near ABC's base at Aldermaston (between Newbury and Reading) - might be a good place to start:

https://www.abcboathire.com/our-locations/aldermas...

[22]

Puggit said:

Check out this 4 part boating youtube story by a novice (he normally blogs about trains):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcGMcj2dWM

Random thread click but he seems like a smashing lad and really watchable.

We did a bank holiday weekend canal trip 20+ years ago (Grand Union). Broke down on day 3 and the chap from the boatyard drove to us in about 20 minutes so we hadn't got far! Everyone fought to do the first lock and fought to not do the later ones! Still half fancy doing it again one day.

[Puggit]

22 said:

Random thread click but he seems like a smashing lad and really watchable.

Mainly because he's Canadian and not American

[spitfire-ian]

dontlookdown said:

Daughter and I fancy a long weekend on a narrowboat somewhere. Mrs DLD not keen so will jsu tbe the two of us.

Never been on a canal before, any pointers as to good spots with plenty of interest for a 3 night mini-cruise? I guess we aren't going to get far in that time.

I'd love to go over the Pontcysyllte (sp??) aqueduct but that might be a step too far for a novice..?

Ideally within a four hour drive of London (another reason not to go to N Wales!)

Anglo Welsh have a base at Trevor which is at the end of the aqueduct

https://www.anglowelsh.co.uk/locations/departure-p...

As for it being a step too far for a novice, I think it is far from it. As it's only 7 feet wide you could, and it has happened, when crossing the aqueduct let go of the thing and walk on the towpath alongside it

Other than wanting to do the aqueduct, it might be worth giving an indication as to what part of the country you are in as you will probably get more recommendations nearer to you. Also do you want countryside, towns and cities, no locks, lots of locks? All will have a bearing on where and what route to take.

Edited by spitfire-ian on Wednesday 17th April 09:39

[dontlookdown]

Puggit said:

Check out this 4 part boating youtube story by a novice (he normally blogs about trains):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcGMcj2dWM

Great link tks. Funnily enough we have a weekend place near Crickhowell that is v close to the Mon & Brec canal - it's a lovely part of the world but for this trip we'd like to go somewhere new.

[//j17]

dontlookdown said:

I'd love to go over the Pontcysyllte (sp??) aqueduct but that might be a step too far for a novice..?

The aqueduct's probably the easiest part of the Llangothlin canal - so long as the engines running you'll go across just with more or less rubbing between boat and bridge The rest of the canal can be shallow though, especially late summer so running around's you more difficult issue (but even then you'd have to go in at ramming speed to not be able to get out of trouble with a mix of engine and barge pole).

[GreatGranny]

We've used this company for a long weekend.

Had an excellent time.

https://www.oxfordshire-narrowboats.co.uk/holidays...

[LimmerickLad]

We hired from Hilperton not far from Bath on the Kennet & Avon

[PurpleTurtle]

I'm going back about 20yrs now but we did a weekend for a mate's very low key stag do out of Oxford, it was great.

Hired from these people: https://www.collegecruisers.com/

It's within walking distance of Oxford station if you don't want to drive.

Am inspired to do it with my wife and 9yo son, we are just waiting for him to become a bit more of a competent swimmer in case of any man overboard style incidents. Lifejackets are provided but I just want him to be able to cope if he were to go in the drink.

Amusingly of the 10 blokes on my trip everyone had a degree, and a couple of PhDs, but nobody other than me had a scooby about the correct procedure to operate a lock! I just thought everyone knew this!?

[dontlookdown]

Great suggestions re Oxford and Bradford on Avon tks.

Llangollen is a bit too far from us for a weekend. Maybe next time, I would like to do that aqueduct.

Am also thinking about heading north to the Leeds and Liverpool, maybe from Silsden or Skipton.

A q for those who have done it before - do the boats come with any basic store cupboard food supplies or do you buy/bring everything with you? I am thinking milk, salt and pepper, bottles of sauce etc;)

If we drive doing some shopping will be easy, but we may train it in which case getting the supplies in might be harder work.

[soxboy]

There’s a couple of companies from Skipton and it’s a nice route along the Leeds-Liverpool canal (although can get a bit blustery if the weather isn’t great).

I don’t know about supplies, but there’s a big Morrisons within walking distance of the Skipton canal basin and the station if necessary.

Good shout re the Oxford canal. I also did this for a mate’s stag do 17 years ago, very scenic with nice pubs (although I am still scarred with the vision of the stag standing on the bow of the boat in a Borat mankini).

[bennno]

dontlookdown said:

Daughter and I fancy a long weekend on a narrowboat somewhere. Mrs DLD not keen so will jsu tbe the two of us.

Never been on a canal before, any pointers as to good spots with plenty of interest for a 3 night mini-cruise? I guess we aren't going to get far in that time.

I'd love to go over the Pontcysyllte (sp??) aqueduct but that might be a step too far for a novice..?

Ideally within a four hour drive of London (another reason not to go to N Wales!)

Aldermaston to hungerford stretch is nice and easy to access.

[Puggit]

bennno said:

Aldermaston to hungerford stretch is nice and easy to access.

My local towpath for cycling

[StevieBee]

dontlookdown said:

Ideally within a four hour drive of London

How about 1?

https://www.willowboathire.co.uk

The Chelmer and Blackwater navigation is some way off being the Grand Union but is a really lovely stretch of water. 11 locks and some nice stop off points too. You could easily do the whole stretch and back in a weekend.

I made a little film about the canal if you wanted to see what it's like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4f9AN_kbig

[WillB]

dontlookdown said:

A q for those who have done it before - do the boats come with any basic store cupboard food supplies or do you buy/bring everything with you? I am thinking milk, salt and pepper, bottles of sauce etc;)

If we drive doing some shopping will be easy, but we may train it in which case getting the supplies in might be harder work.

You'll need to do it yourself (think floating AirBnB) but easy to find shops / pubs along the way and many boatyards who hire will have a basic shop on site

[Saleen836]

LimmerickLad said:

We hired from Hilperton not far from Bath on the Kennet & Avon

Not far from me, did you get to do Caen Hill Locks?

[LimmerickLad]

Saleen836 said:

LimmerickLad said:

We hired from Hilperton not far from Bath on the Kennet & Avon

Not far from me, did you get to do Caen Hill Locks?

Nope we only had a long weekend So we went from Hilpertone to the bottom lock to get used to the boat and then turned around.....back to bradfor upon Avon where we moored up for refreshements,,,,,,,,,,,,,,then towards Bath and morred for the night at Bathampton for the evening and had a few bevvies in the towpath pub...next morning to Bath but not onto river.........couple of hours around Bath then start return....moored for the night along canal just past Aqeueduct (can't remember name) then made way back to Hilperton next day....................week later bought a small Dutch barge (money pit) which I sold during covid and actually made money on........but loved every minute.

ps wives / husbands & locks can = divorce

pps excuse the typos The Hammers lost tonight and had a few glasses of

[C70GT]

spitfire-ian said:

dontlookdown said:

Daughter and I fancy a long weekend on a narrowboat somewhere. Mrs DLD not keen so will jsu tbe the two of us.

Never been on a canal before, any pointers as to good spots with plenty of interest for a 3 night mini-cruise? I guess we aren't going to get far in that time.

I'd love to go over the Pontcysyllte (sp??) aqueduct but that might be a step too far for a novice..?

Ideally within a four hour drive of London (another reason not to go to N Wales!)

Anglo Welsh have a base at Trevor which is at the end of the aqueduct

https://www.anglowelsh.co.uk/locations/departure-p...

As for it being a step too far for a novice, I think it is far from it. As it's only 7 feet wide you could, and it has happened, when crossing the aqueduct let go of the thing and walk on the towpath alongside it

Other than wanting to do the aqueduct, it might be worth giving an indication as to what part of the country you are in as you will probably get more recommendations nearer to you. Also do you want countryside, towns and cities, no locks, lots of locks? All will have a bearing on where and what route to take.

Edited by spitfire-ian on Wednesday 17th April 09:39

When we went across the aqueduct for the first time, I was a nervous wreck anticipating steering the boat in such a narrow channel and not rubbing the sides. However, I soon realised the boat self centres due to the pointed front end and narrowness of the channel - there is always an equal amount of water on both sides between boat and channel side. Wonderful experience and thoroughly reccomend to anyone contemplating doing it.