weekend away on a barge

[ronnie963]

my mum and dad would love to go away for the weekend on a barge does anybody know where i should start looking. we are in manchester

[raysparx]

why not pop over to north wales you can hire a narrow boat at chirk marina I think they have a web site it isn't a cheap break, though the scenery is glorious

[Buenchico]

British Waterways have their own site with links to barge holidays throughout the country:
http://www.waterscape.com/holidays/Waterscape_barge_holi days.html

This might also be of interest:
http://www.viking-afloat.com/barge.htm

Chris

[Argee]

There was a programme on ITV1 (Granada) last Thursday at 7.30 called Locks and Quays with Fred Talbot which showed a hotel barge (narrowboat) travelling between Preston and Lancaster. I think it continues next Thursday or you might find details on their site. It looked great!

[ronnie963]

thank you all

[spudqueen]

Do you mean a barge (a really wide boat) or a narrowboat? If you mean a barge you can hire them in France, if you mean a narrowboat there are loads of places in this country where you can hire them for a day, a long weekend, a week or even longer. Pop down to W H Smiths and pick up a magazine called Waterways World which has classified ads in the back from a lot of narrowboat hire companies. You can have self drive ones or go on hotel boats where you just sit back and watch the scenery go by. Whatever they choose hope they have fun!

[kaz20]

If they are planning on going on a narrowboat as opposed to a hotel boat, then once they know in what area they want to go, it'd be worth finding out opinions on the companies in that area. One of the main problems that boat hirers have with some of the hire boat companies is that some don't provide very much training on how to steer and control it... which can obviously cause some quite serious problems!!