Narrowboat Holiday Hire

Narrowboat Hire in the UK

This site is designed to give you a taste of the options that a narrowboat hire holiday can offer, featuring some of the most experienced narrowboat hire companies in the UK. Details within this site give options of 11 different start locations throughout the UK and a wide variety of narrowboat layouts to choose from.

Holidays start from short breaks and can be as long as you wish. We have a few customers who return every year for a month's 'sabbatical' on the canals, often from overseas. Short breaks are from 3 days over the weekend (Friday afternoon to Monday morning) or 4 days midweek (Monday afternoon to Friday morning).

Weekly starts vary from Friday through to Monday depending on the particular boat and start base.

The next step

We hope that, as you browse this site, the thought of experiencing the peace and freedom of the vast waterway system throughout England, Scotland and Wales will be opened out to you.

This site gives you direct access to each narrowboat holiday hire company website from which any enquiries can be made directly with them via their central booking office. From initial enquiry up until the first day of your holiday (and beyond) you will be dealing with the same dedicated team regarding the whole narrowboat hire experience.

You can order brochures, check availability and make your reservation and payment on line, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Alternatively you can speak to a 'real' person 7 days a week - the booking offices are closed only on Christmas day and Boxing Day.

Narrow boat hire will introduce you to one of Britain's best kept secrets, the 2000 mile network of narrow waterways and navigations, for which the hire boat was specially designed, that meander across some of the most beautiful countryside, and past pubs, cottages and warehouses. Here you will discover the Britain most tourists miss on their holidays.

We will introduce you to two of Britain's largest and most successful hire boat holiday operators. First time boaters are given a friendly welcome by everybody on the canal. But you won't be inexperienced for very long, for within a short time you will be gliding serenely around the first bend into a whole new and different world.

Your narrow boat will be fully equipped with every modern amenity, so self-catering becomes a pleasure, but there are also many canalside pubs, once essential 'staging posts' for the working boats of the last century, which are now popular watering holes for holiday boaters; and most offer great food at reasonable prices.

All the boats operating by these companies are Tourist Board inspected and given an English Tourism Council star rating each year so you can be assured that the highest standards are maintained.

Come along to any of our bases any day throughout the year, including weekends, and have a look at our boats. You'll be made welcome, and although no appointment is necessary, you should check with us in advance if there is a particular boat you want to look around.

A civilised adventure

On hire boat holidays , you are welcomed as part of the scenery, rather than just another tourist. Your whole holiday is at walking pace, there's time to savour the scenery, talk to people and get in touch with a more social type of lifestyle.

Put the world behind you and set off up the canal. Free at last. Stop when you feel like it. Get up when you feel like it and above all go where you want to go. Give us a call and make this the year you escape to the real England.

Contents - Brochure - Availability - FAQ's - Short Breaks - Narrowboats- Resources - Privacy