Canal Boat Holiday Highlights.

Whatever your expectations of a canal boat holiday you will not be disappointed. Hiring a canal boat can lead you to some wonderful places crossing breathtaking aqueducts and cruising through two hundred year old tunnels. With your crew to help take your narrowboat through the biggest flight of locks on the canal system or over the highest aqueduct. Whether it's lifts, bridges, tunnels or aqueducts be prepared to be amazed at the feats of engineering you will find on your narrowboat holiday. Here you will find a selection of some of the best experiences and challenges you may encounter on your canal boat holiday

At 3.5 miles long, Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is the longest of all Britain's navigable canal tunnels. As it burrows its way through the Pennines it can also claim to be the highest and the deepest. At one and a half miles long The Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey is reputed to be not one of the longest or deepest but the most haunted. It is thought to be haunted by a young woman whose headless corpse was found here. The Boatman of the 19th Century would not travel though the tunnel alone and often avoided making the journey by taking a longer route.

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is arguably the most beautiful of Thomas Telford's creations the Aqueduct is on the Llangollen Canal and spans 1000 feet over the beautiful Dee valley. At 125 feet high when you pass over this in your narrow boat you have the feeling of being suspended in mid air. The aqueduct at Chirk, also on the Llangollen canal, is smaller that the mighty Pontcysyllte aqueduct but nether the less still impressive. As you pass over in your narrowboat you are flanked by the Chirk Railway Viaduct that stands closeby.

Choose to take your narrowboat holiday on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and you will encounter the challenge of the Tardebigge Locks. These locks are the longest flight of on the canal system and the 30 locks raise the canal for over 220 feet and are spread over 2 miles. The locks at Foxton are in a lovely rural setting on the Grand Union Canal and is popular with visitors who sit and watch the colourful narrowboats pass by. Take your boat through the ten locks of this staircase locks and pass as you go the Foxton Inclined Plane. Known as the Stairway to Heaven the locks at Hatton, on the Grand Union Canal, are a challenge to any narrowboat crew. The 21 locks at Hatton are set in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside and with Warwick Castle only a stones throw away.

Situated on the Trent and Mersey Canal a trip on your narrowboat on the Anderton Boat lift is a must. Be amazed as you and your narrowboat are lifted for 15 metre from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is a magnificent structure and achievement in engineering. Connecting the Forth and Clyde to the Union Canal the Falkirk Wheel lifts the narrowboats for an amazing 115 feet!