We are going to spend a week either on a narrowboat on UK canals, or alternatively hire something on the Norfolk Broads.
I have something of a sentimental attachment to doing something on the Broads because I have a great fondness for Arthur Ransome’s books. On the other hand, they just might be a bit dull compared to the canals which have locks to play around in and viaducts and so on.
Anyone done both and have a view?
And assuming canals are the go, does anyone have recommendations regarding where?
Have you researched prices? I was hoping to do the same this year but the prices are unbelievable - a boat for a weekend on the Regent’s Canal would be £895 (there’s not much variation in prices) and it’d be me paying almost all of that myself (most of the others would be kids).
I suspect it must be seasonal. I am looking at quotes for less than that for a whole week.
I’ve gone boating on the Thames a couple of (separate) weeks - starting around Reading and working up to Lechlade (about as far as you can go upstream in a river cruiser) and back - and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
The upper Thames is nothing like the fat, muddy thing that runs through London - it’s a clean, meandering river that winds its way though some lovely countryside, cities, towns and villages. Loads of locks (mostly attended), loads of riverside pubs and restaurants and historic and interesting places to visit right on the river’s edge.
Nope, I looked at the entire year. But I assume you’re looking at smaller barges.
Arthur Ransomes stories were set in the Lake District, not the Norfolk Broads, totally different kettle of fish.
I’ve never been on one myself, but friends have, and they say its a mostly "chill out " holiday plus dining and drinking in waterside pubs.
Given that you clearly haven’t read his books, you might not want to attempt to correct a Ransome fanatic, grasshopper 
Five of Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series were set in the Lake District and that is the location which popularly is where the stories are most closely associated. However, there are twelve books in the series. One concerns a voyage from Lowestoft to the Carribean and back, one is set in the Outer Hebrides, one is set on the estuary north of Walton on the Naze, one starts near Harwich and concerns a trip across the English Channel, one is set in the South China Sea, and two (Coot Club and the Big Six) were set on the Norfolk Broads.
Yep your right, ignorance fought !
I did actually read them though as a kid, so it was mostly by gaslight !
Must have missed the more exoticly located ones .