Ireland & Scotland

[id4elizabeth]

Are there any small boat river cruises in Ireland and / or Scotland?

[TrulyBlonde]

European Waterways does small, luxury barge cruises in Ireland and Scotland. There are also luxury train trips if that would interest you.

[john watson]

If you google "Hotelboats and canal cruising" you should find a range of people who offer skippered "Narrowboats" that do canal cruising in the various parts of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. This is assuming you do not want to do a self-drive river cruise. The crew will do all the sailing, navigation and cooking etc. unless you want to help.

 

Typically Hotelboats are owner operated or sometimes under a franchise and the crew do a continuous circuit of a range of canals; with people arriving to board and getting off at different locations as the cruise continues. You generally share a bigger boat with other passengers unless you travel with enough friends and hire the whole boat for the canal cruise sector.

 

In Ireland the River Shannon is the main boating area.

 

This type of holiday is not widely known about!

 

Regards John

Edited May 28, 2016 by john watson

[Shorex]

Lord of the Glens is on our to-do list. The itineraries look delightful.

 

You cruise the Caledonian Canal and the islands. Only one third of the entire length of the canal is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.

 

Every two or three years we re-visit Scotland just because. :)

[ural guy]

That looks great! I really wish I had seen that about earlier. I bought tickets for Toronto-Glascow, Amsterdam-Toronto for next May. AirTransat, $650. Direct flight. Loving the Candian/US exchange rate.

 

None of the dates line up. Maybe we'll like it enough to go back. :)

 

We've made it to Ireland 3 times so far....

[notamermaid]

Hello ural guy,

 

from your flight plans I presume you have time to spare in Glasgow/Scotland? How are you getting from Glasgow to Amsterdam? If you are planning to go through Britain to get to Amsterdam I have just the idea for you... If you are interested I can give you some details. Meanwhile about the boating holiday: the previous posters have given you great suggestions. Narrowboats are a big thing in England. A lot of those boat trips are on the old industrial canals. I have been to the canals in the Peak District (wandered alongside). These boats are self-driven, meaning you can learn to use them yourself on a holiday and hire them. Some people live on them. Here is an idea of what it looks like: http://www.macclesfieldcanal.org.uk/index.htm For Glasgow I would suggest seeing the Arts & Crafts architecture. A good tourist page - I have done "some work" searching for things for you - is this one: https://www.visitscotland.com/search-results?freesearch=narrowboat Or just go back to the home page for other ideas.

 

notamermaid

[KathyK13]

That looks great! I really wish I had seen that about earlier. I bought tickets for Toronto-Glascow, Amsterdam-Toronto for next May. AirTransat, $650. Direct flight. Loving the Candian/US exchange rate.

 

None of the dates line up. Maybe we'll like it enough to go back. :)

 

We've made it to Ireland 3 times so far....

 

We took advantage of the Canadian/US exchange rate last September flying from Toronto to Munich, returning from Paris that saved us hundreds of dollars, with the added benefit of direct flights saving the need to make connections. AirTransat was cheaper than Air Canada, but we had never heard of the airline, so we went with Air Canada and were very pleased with them. Very comfortable seats and extra legroom. I'm interested in hearing your opinion of AirTransat.

[jklc123]

Lord of the Glens is on our to-do list. The itineraries look delightful.

 

You cruise the Caledonian Canal and the islands. Only one third of the entire length of the canal is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.

 

Every two or three years we re-visit Scotland just because. :)

 

Well, our to-do list is now longer. The Lord of the Glen trips do sound wonderful. I wonder if fall or spring would be better, weather-wise. Fairly unpredictable, I suppose.

[H2Otstr]

Well, our to-do list is now longer. The Lord of the Glen trips do sound wonderful. I wonder if fall or spring would be better, weather-wise. Fairly unpredictable, I suppose.

 

LOL, mine, too.:D

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Lord of the Glens is on our to-do list. The itineraries look delightful.

 

You cruise the Caledonian Canal and the islands. Only one third of the entire length of the canal is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.

 

Every two or three years we re-visit Scotland just because. :)

 

Wow, that looks amazing and is also now on my list of todos! I've been to that part of the world, several times, but would love to go back. I think it would have to be the 7-day, or else I'd stay in Oban and go over to Iona on our own after the cruise--Oban and Mull are amazing.

 

I wonder what kind of excursions they provide.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Wendy The Wanderer

[pully8]

http://www.hebridean.co.uk/ is another company that rates highly and is all inclusive for the lucky few. both look tempting.

[Mimosa09]

Lord of the Glens is on our to-do list. The itineraries look delightful.

 

You cruise the Caledonian Canal and the islands. Only one third of the entire length of the canal is man-made, the rest being formed by Loch Dochfour, Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.

 

Wow! Very interesting! This is the benefit of using Cruise Critic. Thank you for posting this information. We are taking a Tauck land tour of Ireland this fall before sailing on the Douro in Portugal. Was wondering about a way to visit Scotland in the future.

 

-Rose

[Host Jazzbeau]

Lord of the Glens can also be booked through National Geographic/Lindblad:

http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/scotland-cruise/detail

My understanding is that they charter the enter boat for these cruises, and add their own enrichment activities.

[ural guy]

KathyK13- I first flew Airtransat this fall, TOR-AMS. I liked the price, direct flight was great. Cons, the food was really bad, seats were narrow. If you select seats early enough (extra fee, of course), you can get in the 2x2 rows, where the plane narrows from the 3x3 seating in the majority of seats. The aisle is a little wider so the cart isn't bumping into you. Pretty good for steerage class.

 

Bottom line, they got me there on time, in one piece. Not for everyone. The flight time of 2215 meant I was able to work almost a full day and leave from work, which is closer to Toronto. It being a direct flight, you get into your destination with plenty of time to wander around on your arrival day. The Scotland flight we depart @ 2100 and land @ 0845 local.

 

Parking @ Toronto is cheaper than @ Syracuse airport!

 

Notamermaid- We're thinking of 2 nights in Glasgow, 7 nights with a rental car, 3 nights in Edinburgh, then Easyjet to Amsterdam. Hopefully we'll have our 2 younger daughters with us (18 and 24) for the first part of trip, they'll head back early for work and dog watching. :D

 

No real plan for driving portion of Scotland yet. Car rental prices very reasonable for different location drop off. Looking at some sort of horseshoe route.

[notamermaid]

Hello ural guy,

 

so no plans for venturing into England... I am sure you will love Scotland. The little I have seen of it so far I was impressed and would love to see more. One note: Gretna Green, the famous eloping place for getting married is a little overrated I find. Edinburgh I have not seen but the people who have told me said "you must go and see it". The botanical gardens look awesome (on the television programme I watched). For sightseeing the highlands are probably more interesting than the lowlands and do get a boat trip on Loch Ness if you can, I am sure it is fantastic.

 

The Firth of Forth bridge is on my bucket list for train travel...

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

notamermaid

[Wendy The Wanderer]

There are links to a lengthy blog about the Lord of the Glens trip in this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1859789&highlight=lords+of+the+glen

 

It was three years ago, so maybe things have improved, but sounded rather unorganized. I'm familiar with the blogger, she tends to write in the same style, kind of matter of fact, no superlatives. They had terrible weather, something that is always a possibility in Scotland, especially in the West Highlands.

 

She says that the fares are much steeper when National Geographic is in charge--guess that's all the enrichment, of which it sounded like there was little on the basic cruise.

[pacmom]

We embark on river cruise #22 in Oct. We are sailing the Loire on CroisEurope's new boat--only one on the Loire. Guess we won't be rafting. As DH says, we are running out of rivers--these sound very appealing--do some genealogy along the way!!!!!:D