{"id":405299,"date":"2025-09-07T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405299\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:13:10","slug":"a-vacation-on-a-narrowboat-in-wales-canals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/405299\/","title":{"rendered":"A vacation on a narrowboat in Wales’ canals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking to escape? Here\u2019s a recent trip local readers took to Wales. Check it out, then find more reader travel inspiration at www.mercurynews.com\/tag\/wish-you-were-here\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WALES:<\/strong> Willow Glen residents Allan and Maly Hughes say they had the loveliest time taking an unusual vacation. They traveled the canals of Wales in a 55-foot-long \u201cnarrowboat\u201d that is less than 7 feet wide. Resembling a minnow near the surface of the water, these rental boats come with easy instructions for beginners who are unfamiliar with how to operate the canal\u2019s lock system along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought food at a local market before picking up the boat, mostly breakfast stuff and a few pre-packaged dinners, since there\u2019s both a microwave and an oven on the boat,\u201d Allan Hughes explained. \u201cAlthough the boat is long and narrow, it\u2019s surprisingly roomy for two people.\u201d Their boat had a full-size bedroom, bathroom and fireplace,<\/p>\n

Traveling at speeds of just 2-3 mph, the couple was able to enjoy the leisurely pace of their nautical adventures. At dinnertime, they could tie up the boat and walk to the nearest pub, then hop back on.<\/p>\n

They spent four nights on the Llangollen Canal, crossing the aqueduct outside the town of Llangollen in North Wales. They also used the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which \u201ccrosses the Dee Valley on 19 cast-iron spans at a height of 126 feet, and it\u2019s recognized internationally as a masterpiece of canal architecture,\u201d Allan said.<\/p>\n

After four nights in North Wales, they took a train to South Wales and spent seven more nights on a narrowboat, this time traveling on the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal.<\/p>\n

\"WillowWillow Glen residents Allan and Maly Hughes rented a narrowboat to travel the Llangollen Canal in North Wales (photo courtesy of Allan Hughes).\u00a0<\/p>\n

TRAVEL TIPS<\/strong>: \u201cWe flew to Gatwick from LAX nonstop,\u201d Hughes said, \u201cand had purchased a BritRail pass and took a train into Wales to the town nearest the boat rental, then a taxi to the boat rental. Canals are all over England and Wales, so we chose which part of the country to visit, then did an online search for narrow boat rentals in that area and always had several to choose from.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all rentals require you to return the boat to where you started and provide plenty of fuel for the duration of the trip; you have to fill the water tank every couple of days from canal-side water taps. Travel light! Not too much storage on the boat, so small suitcases are the order of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it rains often in the U.K., dress accordingly. We brought rain gear and only used it one day. You can always pull over and tie up on the canal but then you don\u2019t see as much so there\u2019s an urge to keep going even if it\u2019s raining. And the rain didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn excellent website, which pretty much answers all questions about narrowboats, is beaconparkboats.com in Wales, where we rented the \u2018Heron.\u2019 The cost was about $260\/night for a seven night rental, which includes everything except food.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor airfare, we tried Norse Atlantic, which is a great low-cost airline, flies only out of LAX, nonstop to Gatwick, Rome and other European destinations. They fly only the Boeing 787 \u2018Dreamliner,\u2019 which is a very nice plane. We chose the \u2018premium\u2019 class, their equivalent to business class, and one way from LAX to Gatwick was $550, including meals, checked luggage, etc. Not a bad deal! So we took Southwest to LAX, then walked to the Norse Atlantic gate. Great flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join the fun! Send a photo of yourself on your latest adventures \u2014 local, domestic or international \u2014 to jmastrodonato@bayareanewsgroup.com<\/a>. Tell us where you are, who everyone is and where they\u2019re from, and share a travel tip or two to help fellow readers go there, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking to escape? Here\u2019s a recent trip local readers took to Wales. Check it out, then find more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[23787,15002,748,42539,52944,4884,139698,183,16,15,65096,1764,139697],"class_list":{"0":"post-405299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-adventure","9":"tag-boat","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-european-travel","12":"tag-family-travel","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-narrowboat","15":"tag-travel","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-vacation","19":"tag-wales","20":"tag-wish-you-were-here"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115163195326978132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}