Narrowboats and Holidays Direct

Drifters is the flagship organisation for narrowboat holidays in Britain. Comprising the very best independent boat hire fleets, and working in partnership with British Waterways, the Drifters brand represents the most respected names on the inland waterways, with nearly 500 boats to choose from. There are over 2000 miles of waterways for you to discover with Drifters narrowboat Holidays.

Narrowboats Direct allows you to book your boating holiday directly with Drifters operators meaning you get the very best attention and some of the very best deals around. take a look at the Drifters Club with its unique approach to finding you great prices and opportunities to take a very special holiday afloat.

Use the portal on the left of this page to find your perfect boat and location and even book your holiday at the time it suits you best. With Drifters Narrowboat Holidays, nothing is left to chance and you have the additional security and reassurance of the Drifters Grading Scheme to ensure your boat is simply one of the finest craft available for hire anywhere in the UK.

Narrowboat History:

Britain's earliest canals were built with locks just 7 ft wide and 70 ft long. This meant that a particular style of boat was developed to navigate along them. These boats are known as narrowboats, or narrow boats. As things developed, the logic of building bigger and wider canals and canal locks became obvious and so some of the major canals were later widened to allow 14 ft wide boats (or two 7 ft boats) to navigate along them. However this process of widening the canals was never completed across England or Wales and so to this day we have an eclectic mix of wide beam and narrowbeam navigations.

Since the 1970's the system has been revitalised by the development of the leisure industry and so what was a 19th century freight transport system, is now a very special holiday experience that allows you to cruise along these restored, once forgotten highways and see the UK countryside at its very best.

As part of this growth in leisure, the narrowboat holiday industry began to develop and build purpose-built holiday cruisers, full of all the modern comforts expected by discerning holidaymaker's, but of course conforming to the overall dimensions of the original waterways and their features.

The level of comfort and luxury in these new narrowboats is quite amazing and imaginative use of modern materials and technology means that they lack for nothing and provide comfortable and practical accommodation for the boaters as well as of course being their versatile mode of transport across and through some of the most beautiful landscapes and countryside.

But these forgotten highways were only built to transport goods and service industry and so it is the cities and towns that sprung up as a direct result of the canals that they also pass through.So the once derelict and disused wharves, which lined the dilapidated and rubbish filled waterways are now thriving bustling centres of commerce. Shopping malls and cafes compete with lively attractions, theatres and all manor of others to sit alongside the vibrant restored canals with their busy colourful holiday traffic.

Taking a narrowboat holiday puts you into the very centre of this picture as you make your way through these modern regenerated centres and pass back out into the secret rural Britain that so few people ever see or even know about. Get away from the rush and bustle of modern high paced life and relax enjoying the pace of life afloat. Unwind as the miles float by and you come to understand the timeless concept of going with the flow. Truly narrowboat holidays are - and always have been the 'fastest way of slowing down'!

Drifters Narrowboat Holidays Direct.