Cruises
Bywater Hotelboat Cruise Schedule 2019
Choosing your hotelboat cruise
There is so much to see and so many possible routes on the inland waterways, it is understandably difficult to decide which particular hotelboat cruise you think you would enjoy the most. In this booklet we try and outline the character of each route, its highlights and points of interest. It is impossible to cover everything, but we hope that, combined with your own personal choice criteria (time of year, heritage, towns and cities etc) you will be able to pick the one for you. If you have any queries regarding any aspect of the hotelboat holidays, please do not hesitate to call, and we shall try and advise in anyway we can.
FULL HOTELBOAT CHARTER
Kerala and Karnataka are available for charter, offering full and exclusive use of the boats, services of the crew and full-board catering. With the advantage of a sizeable reduction in price, this represents excellent value.
As well as the scheduled cruises given in this booklet, we can provide tailor made itineraries at either end of the season to suit your individual needs or preferences. Please contact us on 07380 941042 or email to discuss.
SINGLE SUPPLEMENTS
Single occupancy of the twin/double cabin carries a supplement of 50%. There is no single supplement for a single guest in a single cabin.
PREVIOUS CUSTOMERS
A ‘Previous Customer’ discount of 10% applies to all guests who traveled with us in 2018, whilst any guest who has been on a Bywater cruise in previous years will enjoy a 5% discount on their booking. Any discounts shall be accounted for in the balance payment and noted in the confirmation letter.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE TO YOUR HOTELBOAT CRUISE
When planning our schedule we endeavour to include locations which have good travel connections, although this is not possible on some canals. We also avoid weekend arrivals in locations where we feel there may be disturbance from town centres on first or last evenings. This helps our guests to avoid engineering works on rail lines. and to enable them to take advantage of cheaper weekday travel on public transport.. For those arriving by car, we make every effort to arrange secure car parking facilities at most of our locations. We hope that your travel to and from your hotelboat cruise will be easy and convenient. Should you require any assistance in planning your travel, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
| Cruise | From | To | Highlights | Nights | Start Date | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banbury | Coventry | Training Cruise – crew only | 7 | Wed 17th Apr | £NA |
| 2 | Coventry | Stratford upon Avon | Travel down the intimate Stratford Canal to the heart of Shakespeare country. 68 miles and 77 locks Coventry Basin, Coventry Canal, Hawkesbury Junction, Atherstone Locks, Birmingham and Fazeley canal, the Grand Union, Kingswood Junction, Wilmcote, Forest of Arden, Stratford Canal, Stratford upon Avon. | 9 | Thu 25th Apr | £1050 |
| 3 | Stratford upon Avon | Gas Street Basin, Birmingham via the Black Country Museum. | From Shakespeare’s birthplace to the centre of the industrial revolution. 48 miles and 70 locks Stratford upon Avon and Shakespeare country, Wilmcote, the Forest of Arden, Stratford Canal, Kingswood Junction, Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, Farmers Bridge locks, BCN mainline, the Black Country Museum. | 7 | Tue 7th May | £850 |
| 4 | Gas Street Basin, Birmingham | Gas Street Basin, Birmingham | Explore the industrial heart of the English canal system on this tour of the BCN. 42 miles and 52 locks The Birmingham main line, Wyrley and Essington Canal, Daw End Branch, Rushall Canal, Tame Valley Canal and the Birmingham and Fazely. | 7 | Thu 16th May | £850 |
| 5 | Gas Street Basin, Birmingham | Nantwich | From the heart of Birmingham to Elizabethan Nantwich through the beautiful Shropshire countryside. 55 miles and 53 locks Gas Street Basin, Old Main Line, Wolverhampton Flight, Shropshire Union Canal, Woodeaves Cutting, Tyrley Locks, Audlem flight, Nantwich. | 7 | Sat 25th May | £850 |
| 6 | Nantwich | Llangollen | Dramatic engineering and peaceful countryside on this journey from England to Wales. 46 mile and 21 locks Hurleston Locks, Wrenbury, Grindley Brook Staircase, Ellesmere, Chirk Tunnel and Aqueduct, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Llangollen. | 7 | Mon 3rd Jun | £850 |
| 7 | Llangollen | Nantwich, via the Montgomery Canal | Dramatic engineering and peaceful countryside on this journey from Wales to England. 61 miles and 31 locks The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Chirk Tunnel & Aqueduct, Frankton Locks, The peaceful Montgomery, Grindley Brook Staircase Locks, Wrenbury, Hurleston Locks. | 8 | Tue 11th Jun | £960 |
| 8 | Nantwich | Whaley Bridge | From the Cheshire plains to the Peak District on five unique canals. 59 miles and 48 locks. The Shropshire Union Canal, the Middlewich Branch, Cheshire Paired locks, Hardings Wood Junction, Macclesfield Canal, Bosley Locks, Marple Junction, Peak Forest canal, Bugsworth Basin. | 8 | Thu 20th Jun | £960 |
| 9 | Whaley Bridge | Stoke on Trent via the Caldon Canal | Peaks, valleys and industrial heritage on this four canal cruise. 65 miles and 37 locks. Bugsworth Basin, Peak Forest Canal, Marple Junction, Bosley Locks, Macclesfield Canal, Hardings Wood Junction, Caldon Canal, Churnet Valley Steam Railway (if available), Leek Branch. | 9 | Sat 29th Jun | £1050 |
| 10 | Stoke on Trent | Coventry | Lively canal junctions, rural seclusion and plenty of good old English pubs! 70 miles and 31 locks Etruria, Meaford Flight, Stone, Great Haywood Junction, Trent and Mersey Canal, Fradley Junction, Atherstone Locks, Hawkesbury Junction, Coventry Canal, Coventry Arm. | 9 | Wed 10th Jul | £1050 |
| 11 | Coventry | Warwick | Contrast the twisty North Oxford with the straight and wide Grand Union. 47 miles and 29 locks Coventry Arm, Coventry Canal, Hawkesbury Junction, North Oxford Canal, Hillmorton paired Locks, Braunston Turn, Grand Union Canal, Stockton Locks, Bascote Locks, Cape Locks. | 6 | Sat 20th Jul | £750 |
| 12 | Warwick | Warwick | Lots of interest and variation, with wide, narrow and paired locks; industrial Birmingham contrasted with beautiful Warwickshire countryside. 100 miles and 83 locks Saltisford Arm, Stockton Flight, Braunston, Hill Morton Locks, Newbold Tunnel, Atherstone Locks, Knowle, Hatton locks | 10 | Mon 29th Jul | £1150 |
| 13 | Warwick | Tring | Walking and lock wheeling on the M40 of the canal system. 77 miles and 70 locks Bascote staircase, Stockton flight, Napton Junction, Braunston Tunnel, Blisworth tunnel, National Waterways Museum, Ouzel Valley, the Chilterns, Marsworth junction, summit at Tring. | 8 | Fri 9th Aug | £960 |
| 14 | Tring | Little Venice | Explore England’s capital city from the water and appreciate its architecture and heritage from a whole new, peaceful, angle. 62 miles and 62 locks Tring Cutting, Grand Union, Limehouse Basin, Islington & Maida Hill Tunnels, Regents Park, The Olympic Park, Little Venice,. | 9 | Mon 19th Aug | £1050 |
| 15 | Weybridge | Reading, via the River Wey | Travel the National Trust’s River Wey, then on to the Thames for a trip through the Berkshire countryside. 72 miles and 41 locks The River Wey, one of the earliest navigations in Britain, Dapdune Wharf, Guilford, Windsor, Henley, Reading. | 7 | Mon 2nd Sep | £850 |
| 16 | Reading | Bath | All the way from the Kennet to the Avon! 78 miles and 99 locks The River Kennet, Newbury, Hungerford, Crofton Flight, Devizes, Caen Hill Flight, Bradford-on-Avon, Avoncliffe and Dundas Aqueducts, Avon Valley, Bath. | 9 | Tue 10th Sep | £1050 |
| 17 | Bath | Bristol, via Devizes | Two beautiful cities to explore and the best of the Kennet and Avon Canal. 60 miles and 36 locks Bath, Avon Valley, Avoncliffe and Dundas Aqueducts, Bradford-on-Avon, Caen Hill Flight, Devizes, The River Avon and Bristol. | 7 | Fri 20th Sep | £850 |
| 18 | Bristol | Newbury | All the way from the Avon to the Kennet! 73 miles and 85 locks Bristol, the River Avon, Avoncliffe and Dundas Aqueducts, Bath, Bradford-on-Avon, Caen Hill Flight, Devizes, Crofton Flight, Hungerford, Newbury, The River Kennet. | 9 | Sat 28th Sep | £1050 |
| 19 | Newbury | Oxford | The best of the lower Thames! 58 miles and 35 locks Newbury, the River Kennet, Reading, The Thames, Wallingford, Abingdon, Oxfords’s Spires. | 7 | Tue 8th Oct | £850 |
| 20 | Oxford | Banbury, via the Upper Thames | A lovely rural cruise with intermittent locks. An excellent introduction to canal boating! 33 miles and 19 locks The spires of Oxford, The Upper Thames, Dukes Cut, South Oxford Canal, Thrupp, The Cherwell River, Somerton Deep Lock. | 5 | Thu 17th Oct | £650 |