Happy to help ! If you want to ask anything about boating please e-mail me, I regularly get mail from all over the place, including the USA and ALWAYS reply.

Reaching the decision to hire a narrowboat can be quite daunting in it's own right, there's nothing else even remotely like it. You are opting to be in something no more than 7 feet wide, and anything up to 70 feet long, with little or no mains facilities, reduced cooking facilities, limited storage space, the list goes on, and to boot you could go abroad for the same money where you've a better chance of good weather.

But then again you've decided that being able to stop where you like, when you like, always to have cooking facilities, toilet facilities, move along at such a leisurely pace that it's not unusual to have pedestrians overtake you, see wildlife living in harmony with a man made system, find some great pubs and restaurants with no drink driving to worry about and be totally undisturbable is what you want. So, what to look for ?

First decide how many beds you are going to need, can you put up with having to convert the dinette into an extra double every night, or are you prepared to pay for the extra permanent berths ?. If there are to be two families going, make sure both can access the kitchen area without disturbing the other, this way who ever is up first won't have to wait for the others to get up before they can make a drink, the same applies for toilets, are you able to get to a toilet without going through the other family's bedroom ?

Next look for a boat who's layout offers you the accommodation you need. Blakes and Hoeseasons are two of the largest booking agents in the UK, but there are several large multi base hire companies worth looking at too, check out my LINKS page for more details. Alternatively, try buying a copy of  'Canal Boat' magazine, there are always adverts for both small single operators as well as the larger outfits. In boat hiring size isn't everything, the smaller bases are often family run and take a real pride in their service, the only disadvantage is they normally only work from one base.

Now you've found the boat layout you want and the boatyards (s) that can offer it all that remains is deciding where to go. There are three choices, either spend half your holiday cruising in one direction turn round and come back, choose a circular route, but remember this requires more careful route planning, or make use of one of the 'one way' cruises some boatyards now offer where you start at one of their bases, finish at another and get transferred back by road to your start base.

One last thing to consider, the times around school holidays naturally get very busy (and expensive). You will need to book in mid December at the latest to get the boat you ideally want, there is some chance of a last minute bargain but I sure wouldn't rely on it. The up-side of this is many companies offer an early booking discount, and as this saves you more than the interest you would earn if the money were in the bank it's a good way of spreading the cost.