Barge cruise, anyone? My trip report of European Waterways' Athos on Canal du Midi!

[JustinPlusLauren]

Has anyone ever taken a luxury barge cruise? I recently went on a trip on the Athos hotel barge on the Canal du Midi in the South of France. It was absolutely amazing and so different from any other cruise I've ever taken (I have yet to take a river cruise, but I've taken many ocean cruises!).

 

First, there's only the maximum of 10 passengers on board with 4 crew members. It's all inclusive (three gourmet meals a day, wine pairings, any other alcohol, too!) and includes all excursions and tours to the little medieval villages we visited. We went sightseeing every morning and sailed the canal every afternoon, docking in the evening. Sometimes there was time for a bike ride or a walk before dinner. We also took our barge through the famous set of staircase locks in Beziers, which was quite the treat!

 

If you'd like to read more and see a ton of photos, I've started writing about it on my blog. 

 

This is the overall blog post all about the cruise itself with all of the details! I'll be writing in more detail soon about other aspects of the trip, including the ports.

 

https://justinpluslauren.com/cruising-the-canal-du-midi/

 

Let me know if you have any questions! 🙂

 

 

[acwmom]

Lauren,

 

This is fantastic. I'm so glad to see a barge cruise trip report on these boards. It's on my list of things to do:-)  Did the barge have wi-fi? (As a small business owner, I have to be able to connect, even when on vacation) Were excursions pre-determined, or could you ask to do something on the fly? (For example, if the chef went to market to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables, could you tag along?)

 

Robin

[philw1776]

Looks fantastic.  Slightly worried about close quarters with random strangers.
What is the tipping expectation?  Boat crew, guide(s)?

[JustinPlusLauren]

1 hour ago, acwmom said:

Lauren,

 

This is fantastic. I'm so glad to see a barge cruise trip report on these boards. It's on my list of things to do:-)  Did the barge have wi-fi? (As a small business owner, I have to be able to connect, even when on vacation) Were excursions pre-determined, or could you ask to do something on the fly? (For example, if the chef went to market to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables, could you tag along?)

 

Robin

 

Hi Robin! The barge did have Wi-Fi. They had a portable device on board. It worked most of the time, except a couple of odd times here and there where we might have gone into a spot not near a cell tower. I brought my own Mi-Fi device as a back-up just in case.

 

The excursions are all pre-planned with the guide on board, and then some of the ones later in the day are optional. You have free time in each spot, too. It's a great mix of guided small group tour and free time. I feel like they totally aim to please. I'm sure if you asked one day to tag along to the market with the chef, you could! With that in mind, there was a market day (in Narbonne) where we visited a market and had a meal at the market. 

[JustinPlusLauren]

43 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

Looks fantastic.  Slightly worried about close quarters with random strangers.
What is the tipping expectation?  Boat crew, guide(s)?

 

I could totally see why you'd think that - I was concerned too, as I'm not exactly an extroverted person! However, I felt like I had enough of my own space. On my trip, there were just 7 of us on board. We had meals together and it was always very easy going. While sailing in the afternoon, I liked to keep to myself and read a book. There's also the saloon indoors if you feel like a quiet space (rarely was anyone in there) or of course, your own cabin. 

Everyone was SO nice and it was lovely to spend time with the other couples! Everyone was very laid back and easy to get along with, I was so grateful for that! 

 

Tipping expectation is 5% of the cost of the cruise. They give you a little booklet with an itinerary and all the info you need, and they'll actually give you a price that's an average of what people pay (which is around 5%) - up to your discretion. The staff were AMAZING and I happily gave them a tip because they took of us so well!!

[JustinPlusLauren]

New blog post up on my site! 

 

It's all about our first day in Marseillan, France. Here's everything that I did and the spots I visited in this tiny port town in the South of France!

 

https://justinpluslauren.com/marseillan-france/

[acwmom]

6 hours ago, JustinPlusLauren said:

New blog post up on my site! 

 

It's all about our first day in Marseillan, France. Here's everything that I did and the spots I visited in this tiny port town in the South of France!

 

https://justinpluslauren.com/marseillan-france/

Great post! Thanks for sharing.

 

Robin

[Roz]

Lauren,

 

Thank you for your report on barge cruising.  It's nice to see both you and Mrs. B posting barge reviews, as it provides some variety in this forum and gives information on companies a lot of us don't know much or anything about. 

 

What is the language spoken onboard?

 

Roz

[JustinPlusLauren]

7 hours ago, Roz said:

Lauren,

 

Thank you for your report on barge cruising.  It's nice to see both you and Mrs. B posting barge reviews, as it provides some variety in this forum and gives information on companies a lot of us don't know much or anything about. 

 

What is the language spoken onboard?

 

Roz

 

We only spoke English on board, but that's because everyone was English. I'm sure some of the crew members could speak other languages. I am fairly certain that those booking the cruise are overwhelmingly from English speaking countries - I got the impression that it's popular among Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and Brits. 

 

[JustinPlusLauren]

Brand new blog post today - day 2 on the cruise! We traveled to Pézenas, France for the morning - a beautiful historic town with a perfectly preserved Old Town. It's seriously the most charming place ever!

 

Read more and see tons of pics here: https://justinpluslauren.com/pezenas-france/

[Lois R]

Hi Lauren, thank you from me as well. I had actually looked at their website and was thinking about trying a cruise but never ended up doing one.  I travel solo....Just read the blog....so you went on your own too!

It looks fantastic......I may have to look at this again!!!!

[JustinPlusLauren]

4 hours ago, Lois R said:

Hi Lauren, thank you from me as well. I had actually looked at their website and was thinking about trying a cruise but never ended up doing one.  I travel solo....Just read the blog....so you went on your own too!

It looks fantastic......I may have to look at this again!!!!

 

Lois, yes! I did this one on my own! It was great because I was traveling in a small group and had a great combination of group time and alone time, just how I like it! 

[SeaYouThere]

It looks like a lovely way to travel!  Thank you for sharing your photos and experience.

[JustinPlusLauren]

4 hours ago, SeaYouThere said:

It looks like a lovely way to travel!  Thank you for sharing your photos and experience.

 

Thank you so much! I had a great time and it was so different from any cruise I've taken in the past!

[JustinPlusLauren]

Good afternoon everyone! I've created a video of the Athos barge traveling through the Fonserannes Locks on the Canal du Midi. This is an impressive staircase lock where boats pass through 6 gates and 5 lock chambers (it was once 9 gates in total!). Our barge raised to a height of 21.5m over a distance of 300m.   

 

It's amazing to see how much water rushes into each chamber. Many people came to watch this great spectacle. It's such a great feat of modern engineering! 

 

At the beginning of the video, you'll watch as Athos enters the locks from a viewpoint on the actual barge itself. Then, I moved to the sidelines for the rest of the video and followed Athos as she sailed through each lock and eventually continued on the Canal du Midi.

 

 

 

[Lois R]

4 hours ago, JustinPlusLauren said:

Good afternoon everyone! I've created a video of the Athos barge traveling through the Fonserannes Locks on the Canal du Midi. This is an impressive staircase lock where boats pass through 6 gates and 5 lock chambers (it was once 9 gates in total!). Our barge raised to a height of 21.5m over a distance of 300m.   

 

It's amazing to see how much water rushes into each chamber. Many people came to watch this great spectacle. It's such a great feat of modern engineering! 

 

At the beginning of the video, you'll watch as Athos enters the locks from a viewpoint on the actual barge itself. Then, I moved to the sidelines for the rest of the video and followed Athos as she sailed through each lock and eventually continued on the Canal du Midi.

 

 

 

VERY COOL!!!!!

[Hoyaheel]

Considering "la canicule" at the moment - is there air conditioning??

 

We've been looking at this sort of trip for a while (says my husband...I thought he'd only looked at the barges where you either self- drive or have to rent the entire barge. I never knew options like this existing -thank you for the review!

[JustinPlusLauren]

1 hour ago, Hoyaheel said:

Considering "la canicule" at the moment - is there air conditioning??

 

We've been looking at this sort of trip for a while (says my husband...I thought he'd only looked at the barges where you either self- drive or have to rent the entire barge. I never knew options like this existing -thank you for the review!

 

Yes, there's air conditioning on board and in all the cabins! It wasn't warm enough to use it when I was there in late May, but there's definitely air conditioning to keep you nice and cool 🙂

[JustinPlusLauren]

3 hours ago, Lois R said:

VERY COOL!!!!!

 

Thank you!!! 🙂

[Lois R]

Good morning, I am thinking about Ireland or Scotland....sounds like it would be a really fun, interesting way to see those places.

[beanpittsburgh]

Thanks for the Blog.  A canal cruise has been on my bucket list for many years.  I want to do one that is more "wine" focused though, possibly visiting a few vineyards.  It looks like there would be several places to taste wine in these charming villages.  I should just pull the trigger and book a trip!!  Thanks Again!!

[Lois R]

On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 12:33 PM, beanpittsburgh said:

Thanks for the Blog.  A canal cruise has been on my bucket list for many years.  I want to do one that is more "wine" focused though, possibly visiting a few vineyards.  It looks like there would be several places to taste wine in these charming villages.  I should just pull the trigger and book a trip!!  Thanks Again!!

 

Me too..…..(about just doing it LOL)

[cormike1]

Thank you Lauren for your posts and wonderful pictures.  My husband and I are always looking for different places to travel to and having done 4 river cruises, which we loved, this looks like it would be so much fun.  I will definitely look into this type of vacation. Thanks again!

[JustinPlusLauren]

On 6/28/2019 at 7:06 AM, Lois R said:

Good morning, I am thinking about Ireland or Scotland....sounds like it would be a really fun, interesting way to see those places.

 

Definitely - and those are both amazing destinations!

[JustinPlusLauren]

On 6/28/2019 at 12:33 PM, beanpittsburgh said:

Thanks for the Blog.  A canal cruise has been on my bucket list for many years.  I want to do one that is more "wine" focused though, possibly visiting a few vineyards.  It looks like there would be several places to taste wine in these charming villages.  I should just pull the trigger and book a trip!!  Thanks Again!!

 

Yes, we were supposed to visit a vineyard on ours, but it just so happened that we were sailing on a holiday and the vineyard was closed! However, we ended up doing other things instead so it all worked out 🙂 This one was pretty wine focused, but I didn't personally focus on it a lot because wine is not my main interest. I think there are some barge cruises that are even more wine focused than this one though, take a look on the France Cruises website and you'll see a ton!