Enjoy a Luxury Boating Holiday with Bywater Hotelboat Cruises!

WHO ARE BYWATER BOATING HOLIDAYS?

Bywater Holidays was established in 2002 by Stephen Rees-Jones to introduce the canals to those who had never before considered them an option.

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It could be said that Hanna has canal water running through her veins. Her parents owned and ran hotelboat pair Tsarina & Tsarevna for a number of years, up until she was born. She has no small pangs of guilt to know that it was her arrival which prompted them to move off the boats. As a toddler she could be found ‘helping’ her father run the horsedrawn trip boat Iona, on The Shropshire Union and as a teenager enjoyed regular family holidays afloat and a few stints as crew aboard hotelboat pair Snipe & Tauras.

It was whilst studying for their degrees at Oxford Brookes University that Hanna & John met, a mutual desire to live afloat quickly became apparent, as their eyes met across the pages of a boats for sale magazine, but was postponed when the opportunity to run a city centre wine bar in Oxford presented itself. In 2006, having spent a few weeks helping with the preparations for Bywater’s Horse Drawn boat, Sian, the idea of hotelboating took hold. With the help of ex-hotelboat operator and good friend, Dave Dare, Bywater Hotelboat Cruises was born. Dave’s boat Rose served as motor for 3 seasons and was joined by newly commissioned butty, Karnataka for 2008 and eventually replaced by new motor, Kerala for 2010.

They are passionate about the way they boat, using traditional skills which are rarely seen on today’s canals, and about sharing this with guests. They endeavour to carry out all aspects of the holiday to the best of their abilities. Whether finishing off a four course feast with homemade peppermint creams, bow hauling the butty through grooves worn in cast iron bridges by centuries of boaters doing the same or providing that hot water bottle for those with cold feet, they enjoy looking after the small things that make the difference to your holiday.