csmart01

Has anyone done one recently? I did some searching and found some older posts and was wondering if anyone had any recent experiences to share. I have already been through the Locaboat and other sites but wanted some fellow traveler experiences. Looking to go early summer with two children (ages 8 and 13)

Thanks in advance!

Charlie

spaarne

You might get an answer if you mentioned a country or city.

csmart01

Valid point I kinda didn't want to mention one since I didn't want to limit replys but we were thinking France... but I'll take experiences from any canal boat trip in Europe. Are the locks a pain? Would you choose a trip that had very few locks or didn't it matter? How was shopping along the canals?,,, Anything on the general experience, positive or negative.

Thanks again.

nukesafe

Charlie,

The last trip on the canals we did was in September of 2005, but I can't believe the canals or the boats have changed significantly since then. That trip was on the Saone river from Pontailler sur Saone north.

In retrospect, that routing was a mistake, as we went in late September, and many of the restaurants, and other activities along the river were closing for the season. The river was lovely, of course, with lots of wildlife, and scenery, but we wound up eating a few meals aboard out of whatever was left over in the cupboard.

I would suggest you go earlier in the year, and find a stretch of canal with more for the kids to do. Your plan of early summer sounds perfect.

The locks are absolutely no problem. Most of them are fully automatic, and after you are shown how to manage one, you will be an expert. Certainly with two young deck apes aboard you will have no problems with line handling, after you do some practice runs, with an emphasis on safety.

The first run we made on the Canal du Burgogne, in the 1970's, my two boys, then seven and eight, did most of the work. If the locks were "up" locks, with those slimy ladders to climb, I'd put the boys ashore on the towpath downstream of the lock. The would then scamper up to the lock and stand by to catch the lines my "practice" wife would throw up to them.

While there, they could try out their rudimentary French on the lock keepers, and find out what sort of things they were selling. We got some wonderful cheese, wine, and jam that way.

I'm sure you will have a wonderful time!

csmart01

Thanks nukesafe! Now I just need the summer airfares to drop a little...

Jeff801

We've taken several canal trips and have found little trouble with the locks once we got over the illusion that our dignity was involved in dropped lines and misjudged angles.

While we have never traveled with children, the universal experience of the people we met with kids was that they practically had to drag them onto the boat when they arrived and then had trouble separating them from it when the trip was over.

Be certain to rent bicycles for visits to the local towns and for the kids to take a break from cruising while cycling along the tow paths.

Xenos

You might find Terry Darlington's book Narrow Dog to Carcassonne an interesting read.

Michael

When we took our trip on the Canal de Bourgogne between St. Florentin and Monbard, most of the locks were manual. I doubt that they have been changed to automatic. We discovered that the bottom half of the lock is usually kept open (to minimize algae growth on the walls?) so that it saves time to go upstream because one usually had the opportunity to glide right into the lock rather than wait for the lock to be filled.

kybourbon

I think LLindaC did this last summer and wrote a report.

kybourbon

Here's her trip report.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35137406

csmart01

Thanks again everyone for this great info.

sprin2

We did one in 2007 in Friesland, Netherlands. I posted a trip report http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35050500

The route we did had no locks. It was wonderful and we hope to do another soon.