Types of Canal Holiday

TYPES OF CANAL HOLIDAY:
Until recently, unless you owned your own narrowboat (or had an expensive 'shared ownership' deal), you have had only two main choices of canal boat holiday: Either you went on a "HIRE BOAT" narrowboat holiday (active holiday but self catering), or you went with a "Traditional HOTEL Narrowboat" (full-board but mainly 'less active' guests).

If you take a "HIRE BOAT" you choose your own canal route (but not always the cruise dates) to suit your own requirements; It's self catering so you decide what you eat and when (but cook and wash up for yourselves) or moor up near a local hostelry and hope the pub grub’s up to standard (and so often it isn't); You steer the boat and operate the locks yourselves (even if it's raining) - but you should have been given basic albeit rudimentary training by the Hire Fleet staff; Sadly you may encounter (wrongly) a bit of 'attitude' from some private boaters; Hire costs are for the whole boat - Fine for a party of six but expensive if there are only two of you. If you have 4 or more persons in your party to share the cost and physical activity, hiring from a quality hire base can indeed provide a good value, and enjoyable, activity holiday:

On a "Traditional HOTEL Narrowboat" you will be joining a predefined cruise of fixed duration. You should have a qualified proficient crew - doing all of the boat handling. All cooking and washing-up will be done for you - but with other guests to consider the menus are unlikely to be designed for you alone, no matter how high the quality. If you are in search of company, with up to 8 guests sharing the narrowboat accommodation, this type of holiday may suit you well. BUT will all the guests be compatible and of a similar age group? Will everyone 'get on'? If you don’t ‘get on’, avoiding other guests in the confines of a narrowboat may be difficult; Even the most proficient hotelboat crew will have their work cut out to keep all guests happy, all of the time. Traditional hotel narrowboats do present good value for money to those that use them regularly, often with high standards of service - but will the other passengers suit you?

Now discover the third option and the advantages of 'Willow' and our innovative Private Charter service. We believe that we have drawn together the advantages of both types of holiday, without the disadvantages.

WILLOW IS A NON-SMOKING BOAT.