DGP

Thank you, Tony 👍

Hi All, I'm new to the forum and am a very newbie to boating. I'm looking for some advice, please and apologies in advance for any incorrect terminology: I'm trying to plan a narrowboat / canal midweek (three or four nights) trip in spring / early summer 2024 for a mate of mine, me and my dog. I've looked at lots of rental company websites, all of which look great, but I'm looking for some independent advice rather than these sites' insights to their own view of "best short trip with locks, nice countryside and pubs", which is inevitably based on areas close to their bases. Faced with lots of great info, I'm finding it difficult to choose, and maybe this request will help or make the choice more difficult, but here goes... What am I loooking for is tricky to define given this will be a first trip for all of us (including the dog), but in my mind the boat will be straightforward to use (probably a narrowboat with 4 berths so my dog and I have a "separate" space near an access hatch) and the canals not too tricky to navigate, but with enough locks, countryisde, pubs and other canal users (maybe not too many) to make it a successful, relaxing, "bucket trip" type holiday / taster. There would also need to be fairly ready access to dog walking places - the dog is a spaniel and probably needs to stretch his legs a bit more than a jog along a tow path. In terms of travel to and from the rental location we live in the M3 / M4 area to the west of London. Travel anywhere in UK would be ok in principle and we'd anticipated a shore-based stopover at the start or end of the 3/4 days on the canal to be able to fit in with boat rental start / end times. Many thanks in anticipation, David & Rolo (the dog)