During our walk through Camden and then down to Regents Park with my bestie, I noticed some fun-looking boats on the canal. The little boats basically had just a picnic table on board, and groups were seated around, eating snacks and boating in the sun. It looked so fun and like the perfect London summer activity!
A couple weeks later, I got an email from a friend inviting Andrew and me to boat on the canal. They had rented a GoBoat for a September Saturday afternoon, the earliest reservation they could get. Obviously, we were in!
Luckily, the weather mostly held on that Saturday as we ventured to Paddington to get to our boat. Tube issues aside, we made it, snacks and drinks in tow, ready for our boating adventure.
The GoBoat instructor gave the men a quick rundown of how the boat worked, and we were off. It was that easy!
They don’t go very fast, so it is a very relaxing ride. It takes about 2 hours to go from Paddington up through Regents Park to Camden and return.
This was such a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon and we were the envy of everyone walking along the canal!
I highly recommend this as a unique and relaxing way to see a lovely part of London. If you do choose to GoBoat, I highly recommend booking far in advance. It took weeks for us to secure a weekend timeslot.
Despite our slow speed, we had moments of excitement, like when a Waitrose bag got tangled in our motor and the manly men of our GoBoat worked together to get it off and remove some rubbish from the canal. Great work, guys!
There is also a long narrow tunnel at one point in the canal. You have to wait your turn to go through and it gets pretty dark! Luckily, Chris brought a speaker so we had our Latin beats to guide us through.
The rain held until the very end. Captain Andrew navigated us to a lovely perch under the branches of a willow tree to wait out the rain.
Molly (read her awesome blog here!) and Chris were prepared for the ever unpredictable London weather.
The rain passed and we cruised back to Paddington after a truly lovely afternoon!
Next up for this boat crew…a hot tug in the canal!!
Jenn is an American expat living in London, spending her time freelancing, traveling and writing on this here blog. Thank you for reading. Are you planning a trip here? Tell me your plans in the comments!
What a fun way to spend a weekend! I am especially excited about this HotTug!! Do you think it would fair well on the Charles? hehe
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Should we book one for your visit? Tehehee