Guide
Choosing a Canal Route
The route makes the holiday. Choose well and you will spend a week unwinding past hedgerows, market towns and good pubs; choose badly and you will spend half of
3 min read · Updated 2025-12-17
Choosing a Canal Route
The route makes the holiday. Choose well and you will spend a week unwinding past hedgerows, market towns and good pubs; choose badly and you will spend half of it staring at the same stretch of water trying to make up time. This guide walks through how to pick a route that actually fits the days you have.
Start with the time you have
Canal boats cruise at three to four miles per hour. A useful rule of thumb is to allow four to five hours of cruising a day on a week-long trip, plus around 10-15 minutes for each lock you go through. That means a typical week realistically covers 50-70 miles of cruising and 30-50 locks. A long weekend is more like 20-30 miles and 10-20 locks.
Don't plan to cruise the maximum each day. Wind, queues at locks, mechanical hiccups and the desire to stop for an extra pint all eat into the schedule. Build in a slack day.
Linear or ring?
A linear route runs out and back along the same canal: simple, low-mileage, and you see each stretch twice (often surprisingly different in the opposite direction). A ring is a circular journey that joins two or more canals, so you never repeat scenery. Rings are more rewarding but less forgiving if anything goes wrong, because you can't simply turn round.
Common UK rings include the Four Counties, the Cheshire Ring, the Stourport Ring, the Warwickshire Ring and the Avon Ring. Some are doable in a week, others are tight.
Locks: how many do you actually want?
Locks are the social, scenic heart of a canal holiday for some crews and the back-aching chore that ruins it for others. Be honest about which one you are. A "lock-light" route like the Llangollen, the Lancaster, or the lower Shropshire Union is far gentler. A flight like Hatton (21 locks), Caen Hill (29 locks) or Tardebigge (30 locks) is a satisfying day's work but exhausting if you are short on hands.
If you have small children, older guests or just two adults aboard, lean towards lighter lock counts.
Scenery and stops
Look beyond mileage. What do you actually want to see and do? Pubs, market towns, cathedral cities, aqueducts, tunnels, wildlife, vineyards, castles, country shows? Cross-reference your route with canalside attractions and stops along the way. A route across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct or through the Standedge Tunnel becomes a holiday in itself.
Practical constraints
A few things will quietly veto otherwise lovely routes:
- Boat size. Some northern, Welsh and southern canals are limited to 60ft or 70ft boats, or to narrow beam only. Hire firms know this for their fleet but check.
- Stoppages. Canal & River Trust schedules planned maintenance ("stoppages") in winter and shoulder seasons. Check the CRT stoppages page before booking.
- Tidal sections. The Trent, the Thames, the Ribble Link and others involve tides and are not first-time territory.
- Water levels. Welsh and northern canals can occasionally close in dry summers.
A simple checklist
Before you commit, run through:
- Does the daily mileage stay below five hours of cruising?
- Does the lock count match the crew?
- Are there enough stops, pubs and shops along the way?
- Is it a ring or linear, and does that suit your appetite for risk?
- Are there any planned stoppages on your dates?
- Does your hire base have boats that fit the canal's restrictions?
Conclusion
The best route is one your crew will enjoy at the pace they actually want to travel, not the most ambitious one on the map. If in doubt, choose the shorter, prettier option and stop more often.