Llangollen

[pomkitanner]

We have recently been blessed with the Julia Bradbury series "Canal walks" Yeah i know you all saw it 3 years ago !! Todays episode was on the Llangollen, Looks sooooo scenic. Almost tempted to reappraise my choice of The Leeds Liverpool for my next Holiday. But would i ever find a hire boat as well appointed as "Grace ?" Unlikely i am thinking . Has anyone done both canals and able to report their thoughts ? I have however gleaned the info that Llangollen is almost lock free ? definitely a disincentive .

[Heffalump]

Locks are the best bit!

[cotswoldsman]

L & L has a lot more variety. I think The Llangollen is a bit over rated and The L & L under rated.

[Tuscan]

L & L has a lot more variety. I think The Llangollen is a bit over rated and The L & L under rated.

 

 

 

I agree has a lot more interest

[john6767]

Depends on what part of the Langollen you are talking about. The full length has 21 locks, but most are towards the eastern end ( the Julia Bradbury program was just about the western few miles). You can do the full canal, there and back, in a week, so depends on if you think 42 is enough or not!

 

Whilst I was born and bread in Yorkshire, I don't know the Leeds Liverpool that well, but I would say it is quite different to the Llangollen in terms of the surroundings, and from a canal point of view you have wide/narrow, quiet/busy, so depends on what you want.

[Grace and Favour]

I found the Llangollen a beautiful, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable canal, with the pontcysyllte aqueduct , Whitehurst and Chirk tunnels wonderful contrasts to the abundance of verdant stretches

[mrsmelly]

We have recently been blessed with the Julia Bradbury series "Canal walks" Yeah i know you all saw it 3 years ago !! Todays episode was on the Llangollen, Looks sooooo scenic. Almost tempted to reappraise my choice of The Leeds Liverpool for my next Holiday. But would i ever find a hire boat as well appointed as "Grace ?" Unlikely i am thinking . Has anyone done both canals and able to report their thoughts ? I have however gleaned the info that Llangollen is almost lock free ? definitely a disincentive .

 

We all like different things, having done both canals on more than one occasion I personaly think the L and L is way better especialy the scenery linked with the old industrial bits makes it more interesting. The welsh offering is ok and the big ponty thingy aqueduct is of great interest.

 

Tim

[the grinch]

likewise i've done both and its like comparing chalk with cheese. i like both and each has its own good and bad bits

the LLangollen gets very busy in summer, the L&L can be very wet in winter. i love the llangollen in late autunm and winter when its quiet and floating over Pont'y above the morning mist is strangely appealing

head north to the L&L in summer has the advantage of fewer boats and so more moorings to be had.

[Dyad]

We have recently been blessed with the Julia Bradbury series "Canal walks" Yeah i know you all saw it 3 years ago !! Todays episode was on the Llangollen, Looks sooooo scenic. Almost tempted to reappraise my choice of The Leeds Liverpool for my next Holiday. But would i ever find a hire boat as well appointed as "Grace ?" Unlikely i am thinking . Has anyone done both canals and able to report their thoughts ? I have however gleaned the info that Llangollen is almost lock free ? definitely a disincentive .

 

Don't think I did see all of them, certainly worth a second look, thanks for the reminder.

[Proper Job]

likewise i've done both and its like comparing chalk with cheese. i like both and each has its own good and bad bits

the LLangollen gets very busy in summer, the L&L can be very wet in winter. i love the llangollen in late autunm and winter when its quiet and floating over Pont'y above the morning mist is strangely appealing

head north to the L&L in summer has the advantage of fewer boats and so more moorings to be had.

Does that mean that it's dry in the Summer?

 

If so, we'll all be heading there

[Ange]

We're on the Llangollen at the moment, currently in a very slow moving convoy of boats heading towards the Ponty wotsit aqueduct. It is a lovely canal but very very busy, and we're not even into school holiday time yet.

 

We're aiming to head up the Montgomery next - I suspect that'll be quieter.

 

The Leeds & Liverpool is lovely - I think I'd stick with plan A if I were you, maybe visit the Llangollen another year in the spring or autumn.

[magpie patrick]

I have done both, and the Llangollen is over-rated...

 

That doesn't mean it isn't good though, there is a reason why it is the most popular canal in the country. To get the best, start from somewhere near Chester, and go to Trevor or, if you must, Llangollen itself.

 

You will get rural areas, and country towns, if you start from near Chester you will get wide locks and narrow locks, a three rise staircase at Grindley Brook and a two rise one at Bunbury, lift bridges, tunnels, oh and canal side pubs (although less frequent than other bits of the system). It could have been designed as a holiday canal.

 

One thing I wished when we were on Juno last week was that the Kennet and Avon was narrow, the locks were blimmin' heavy, I know people will argue against this, but if the Leeds and Liverpool has a problem it is heavy locks (which weren't so heavy before BW vandalised them...)

[Pete of Ebor]

likewise i've done both and its like comparing chalk with cheese. i like both and each has its own good and bad bits

the LLangollen gets very busy in summer, the L&L can be very wet..

 

Chalk tastes sh*te, but then again cheese isn't much good at writing on a blackboard... It all depends on what you want from your trip. We've done both in the past, in fact we did The Llangollen (and the connected bit of the Montgomery..) this year back in May. It wasn't busy by Llangollen standards (..or so we were told by the BW 'parking attendant' at Llangollen..) but even so we had to queue at Grindley Brook twice and at Frankton Locks twice. To be honest, we usually prefer someething with a bit more action, and in our 21 years, this was the shortest trip we have ever done - 121 lock-miles in the week compared to an average of 197.

[ditchcrawler]

We have recently been blessed with the Julia Bradbury series "Canal walks" Yeah i know you all saw it 3 years ago !! Todays episode was on the Llangollen, Looks sooooo scenic. Almost tempted to reappraise my choice of The Leeds Liverpool for my next Holiday. But would i ever find a hire boat as well appointed as "Grace ?" Unlikely i am thinking . Has anyone done both canals and able to report their thoughts ? I have however gleaned the info that Llangollen is almost lock free ? definitely a disincentive .

I seem to remember a few including 3 in the first half mile and also a staircase there somewhere.

 

Does school holidays make that much difference, do kids still go on boating holidays.

[john6767]

We will be doing the Llangollen in August, the only other time we did it was August as well. Sure it is busy, but last time it was not that bad, I am hoping for the same again this year. Watch this space I guess.

[johnmck]

We are heading that way and hoping to meet up with family in order to give them a trip over the Ponty. Yes it is very busy, but I like the challenge and speaking with people at the inevitable lock que's. Been out since late march and astounded by the lack of boats on the system.

[NickF]

Probably a bit late in the day to reply but still ... I would go for the L and L every time. The Llangollen is very beautiful but last time I went was late October and i have never seen so many boats on the move! We just went from queue to queue. We waited a couple of hours to do the two locks up to the summit and the same on the way back. We had to wait for a gap in the traffic before we could pull out from the waterpoint onto the aqueduct and we went across at the back of a long procession of boats. (the diversion onto the Monty however was well worth while). By contrast I am just back from the L and l and it is wonderful and peaceful and beautiful (in places) and not too busy.

Nick

[Filligree Fairy]

We did the Llangollen as an end to the Shropshire Ring, and it's beautiful. The only down side was the narrowness - the bottom is cut in a V, and we got temporarily stuck on a bend trying to pass another boat. The end towards Llangollen itself is also narrow - largely single boat passage, and we got caught up with some dayboaters who ended up needing to be rescued. So, all in all, beautiful and quite good fun, but can be a bit of a 'mare if it's busy.