Barge Holidays on the canals and rivers of Europe

You may prefer the flexibility of a self-drive barge holiday, where you hire a boat or barge, and captain it yourself on the canals and rivers of Europe. These well equipped hire boats are available on the most interesting waterways - the Canal du Midi in France, the canals and rivers of Burgundy, the Venice lagoon, the lakes of Germany and Poland, the waterways of Holland and Belgium, and the canals and broads of the UK.

The hire barges sleep from 2 to 12 people, and are normally hired by the week or short break from over 100 boat bases throughout Europe. You can choose an 'out and back' hire where you return the boat to the same base, or a 'one-way' route where you start and finish at different bases. Whichever you choose, provided you return the boat to the correct base on time, you are completely flexible on where you stop and what you choose to do.

All the hire boats have cooking facilities, so you can eat on board or go ashore to a convenient restaurant, pub, cafe or bar. The boats are graded from 2 to 6 star according to their specific facilities. On higher graded boats you would expect en-suite cabins and appropriate amenities.