Clementine

Hi Bellamina, Thanks for your response! Lots of good details for us to think over, and I'll check out those companies you mention. Canal cruising must indeed be addictive -- sounds like you got "hooked" early on!

We are hiring a car the second week; I've been looking at a one-way rental from Leeds back to Heathrow for that week. But I see your point and will check out just getting the car for two weeks... it seems wrong somehow to pay for one to just sit in a boatyard for a week, but it may well be the easiest and most economical overall. Thanks to you and the other folks who've suggested alternate airports. I already bought tickets to Heathrow -- got the airfare squared away before we started looking at other aspects of the holiday. Live and learn!!! We're coming the end of March, so I hope stoppages won't be an issue. Me again -- Thanks to everybody for the great suggestions, and helping me crack the code of the train, coach, and bus fares. (How did anyone ever do this before the internet?) Now it looks like we have plenty of choices -- I'm looking principally at Canal Boat Escapes or Rose Narrowboats on the L&L, or Chas Hardern near Chester, though the Reading/Thames idea is interesting too...

Aha! Thank you so much! It certainly does bring the cost WAY down. We're considering the Leeds and Liverpool again...

My husband and I are coming to Britain from the US in March and really want to take a narrowboat holiday our first week. After a few weeks spent blissfully comparing the merits of various canal routes and boats, we've come down to earth and realized that one factor in our decision really needs to be how cheaply we can reach the hire base to begin our holiday. We really liked the idea of the L&L or alternatively visiting Chester, but it seems that getting to those areas by train will be nearly as expensive as renting a boat for a week, which to be honest is already a bit of a stretch. Can anyone suggest any good starting bases we can reach inexpensively? I'm looking into coach travel between Heathrow and Oxford, for example. Any boatyards/routes you'd recommend from there? Are there other particular cities that have fairly inexpensive travel connections (such as Birmingham or Rugby, maybe?) and narrowboat hire firms you'd recommend there? Just to make it harder, we aren't terribly interested in cruising in toward London, and are also not too excited by the Kennet & Avon because we've spent a lot of time in Bath & Wiltshire (though on land) on past trips. The second week of our holiday we'll be in the Nottingham area -- renting a cottage there. Thanks in advance for any hints or suggestions...