Here's why you should take a narrowboating holiday in the UK this Summer

Last spring, we decided to trade out life driving across the U.S. in our converted sprinter van to something a little more unconventional… traveling the U.K. by narrowboat. Our 3 day trip through the canals of England to Wales included squeezing through tunnels, ducking under bridges and floating over the tallest aqueduct in the world!

One of the best parts of this trip was our flight from the U.S. to the U.K. on JetBlue’s Business Class, which we figured out how to book for completely free! At the end of this article, we’ll show you how you can also book what is now one of our favorite ways to fly across the Atlantic so you too can experience your dream U.K. vacation!

But first– let’s talk about our crazy narrowboating adventure!

Day 1

After taking a train from London to Ellesmere, London we picked up our 55-foot long narrowboat that would be our home for the next 3 days. The rental boat company gave us a quick lesson on how to steer the boat and then we were off on our own for a 22 mile journey through the canals. At first, driving the boat seemed deceptively simple as narrowboats have a speed limit of only 4 miles per hour (2.5kph), but after nearly crashing into the side of our first bridge, we realized we might be in for a bit of a challenge.

However, the steering was not so challenging that we weren’t able to appreciate the stunning view of the English countryside- seriously, it was like floating through a painting! All around us the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and baby ducks were swimming in the water. In the evening, we parked the boat on the side of the canal and spent our time eating, drinking wine, and gazing at the rolling green hills and fields of sheep!

Day 2

By the second day, we felt that we had gotten a little better at steering , so we spent some time exploring the inside of our boat! This boat can technically fit a total of 6 people, so it’s the perfect little adventure to take with a group of friends. If you book your flights with credit card points and split the price of the boat with your group, you’re looking at a pretty affordable vacation.

Our boat had a total of 3 full beds and 2 bathrooms, so there was plenty of space for the two of us to relax. The U.K. can get a little bit chilly, but the boat is equipped with at least 4 heaters, so we stayed toasty warm at all times. Inside the kitchen, we had a stove, oven, fridge and all the necessary kitchen tools. The shelves were stocked with glass cups, which is a true testament of how smooth and peaceful this journey was because if we were inside our van, those cups would absolutely fall out onto the floor and break. The boat also had a back deck, which was perfect to spend time eating dinner, sipping coffee or wine and enjoying the views!

Our adventure of the day was learning how to navigate our boat through a couple of locks, which are basically elevators for boats. After watching a YouTube video and panicking the whole way through the lock, we kind of figured it out and made it through. Luckily, there were some people to help us make it through our second lock. Since we made it out through that challenge alive, we parked the boat and took a quick walk to a nearby pub located right on the England-Wales border before heading to our parking spot for the night.

Day 3

Day 3 brought us face-to-face with the biggest challenge of this entire adventure: crossing the world’s tallest aqueduct, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. We had one experience with a smaller aqueduct, but we still didn’t feel quite prepared enough for this one, but on we went.

Fun fact: the world’s tallest aqueduct doesn’t have any railings so the whole time you are crossing, it feels like you could fall straight off the edge. At the end of the aqueduct, you must make a sharp 90-degree turn to continue through the canal. Apparently, the turn is so hard to make that people gather at the bridge above to watch tourists attempt it and oftentimes fail. Luckily, we made the turn without much trouble and with the completion of our final challenge, we were able to relax and enjoy the last few leisurely hours soaking in the views of the Welsh countryside.

Our Review

This adventure is budget-friendly and the perfect combination of leisure and adventure. We recommend gathering some friends, renting a boat, and enjoying the beauty of the UK countryside. We would absolutely do this again!

How to book with miles and points

Have we convinced you yet that you need to visit the U.K. and embark on your own narrowboating adventure? Are you ready to learn how you can book your own business-class flights to the U.K. for free?!

Booking these flights with points and miles is pretty simple. They can be booked through the rewards portals of any of your favorite travel credit cards. However, you can find even better deals if you book directly through JetBlue’s True Blue loyalty program. We’ve seen flights for as low as 15,000 miles in economy class and 35,000 miles in business class. You can easily transfer your credit card points into JetBlue miles and then book from there. To learn exactly how to transfer your credit card points to airline miles, check out our guide to credit card transfer partners and our transfer partner cheat sheet.

By now you’re probably wondering, “how do I earn enough miles and points to be able to book this flight?” Well, we’ve found that one of the fastest ways to earn points is through credit card sign-up bonuses. We know credit cards can be scary for some, but if you’re strategic about it, they are an amazing way to get access to once-in-a-lifetime experiences like this that you might not have been able to pay for otherwise. To learn more about earning points, we recommend the Miles & Points 101 course over on Daily Drop as a great place to start!

Need Travel Tips?

Do you want to learn more about all the bucket list travel adventures you could book for free? You can head over to our website to sign up for our DailyDrop Newsletter to receive, you guessed it, daily advice on all the current best travel deals. If you want to see the full breakdown of our experience traveling the U.K. by narrowboat, check out the video below and hopefully we’ll see you floating the canals soon!