Wide choice of narrowboat holiday hire routes from Marine Cruises

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Choosing your narrowboat holiday hire route

Marine Cruises have two great bases, all close to wonderful scenery and offering over 20 different interesting narrowboat holiday hire routes on over 10 different canals. We have detailed pages describing some of the different routes and canals you can cruise.

The Llangollen Canal is probably the most beautiful canal in Britain, its scenery changing from isolated sheep pastures to ancient peat mosses, from tree lined lakes to the foothills of Snowdonia. There are locks, tunnels, castles, villages, pubs and the magnificent aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte which have been awarded World Heritage status. From our new Llangollen Canal base at Swanley Marina you can cruise the full length of the Llangollen canal up to Llangollen. You can also start to circumnavigate the Four Counties Ring within a few hours, and reach Chester or be on the Cheshire Ring, Macclesfield canal or Caldon Canal in a few days.

From our convenient bases you can head down to the Coventry Canal and explore the lock free Ashby Canal and the infamous Harecastle Tunnel or down the wide River Trent, or circumnavigate a wide choice of canal rings including the Black Country Ring, the Leicester Ring and the Warwickshire Ring.

And our Falkirk base is right at the foot of the stunning Falkirk Wheel, with routes west towards Glasgow, and east to Edinburgh through great Scottish Lowlands scenery!

So with all that choice, how do you choose?

Well it really depends what sort of narrowboat holiday hire you want! If you are a first time hirer or want a relaxed holiday with time to explore your surroundings, think about the Shropshire Union Canal, Coventry and Ashby Canals, or the Scottish Canals. On the Scottish Canals you don’t even have to work the locks, they are all done for you by British Waterways. ‘Out and back’ routes are great for first timers because you don’t need to worry about getting the boat back on time, just turn around and start heading back half way through the week!

If you want a more energetic cruise with plenty of things to see and do, including locks, then try the Llangollen Canal or cross Scotland visiting both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

If you want a cruising ring, rather than an out and back route, you are spoilt for choice, the Four Counties Ring can be done in a week from our Llangollen base, if you have a little longer you can consider the Leicester Ring, Cheshire Ring or Warwickshire Ring.

There’s much more about all of the narrowboat holiday hire routes on our individual Routes pages.

 

Choosing your Route …

Exciting Cross the Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts, or ride the Falkirk Wheel
Peaceful The Caldon Canal, Shropshire Union Canal or the Scottish Lowland Canals.
Energetic Try a Canal Ring with lots of locks, the Four Counties Ring or the Cheshire Ring.
History & Culture Visit the Ellesmere Port Waterways Museum, experience the Harecastle Tunnel or moor below Roman Walls in Chester.