I, my wife and two friends enjoyed a wonderful weeks cruising aboard a barge called Nilaya this summer ( www.bargenilaya.com ) We found it an enjoyable and inexpensive way to hit the canals of France, without having to actually rent and pilot our own hire boat.
Hotel barge cruises are far too structured and expensive for our tastes, although for the wealthy and paupers like us just once, a really excellent splurge!
Having only just discovered this trip advisor thingy, I%26#39;m now keen to explore what others of you out there know about barging that I don%26#39;t.
The week aboard Nilaya will be hard to top, but can you offer any personal experience of laid back boating / barging opportunities on the French canals? If so please let me know them...
During our cruise we came across another holiday barge which offered purely self catering cruises. It has a less luxurious fit out, but is capable of carrying up to six I believe and also at reasonable rates. In fact, I understand that Johanna ( www.johannacharters.com ) cruises similar routes to Nilaya and could possibly cruise in tandem with Johanna as long as a good lead time was allowed.
This could open up the possibility of groups of up to ten people travelling aboard the two barges who would tie up together at night. The barges not the people!
We have a big anniversary coming up in 2010 and are seriously thinking of treating our two sons, two daughters and partners to a once in a lifetime family vacation.
Please let me know any affordable barge recomendations you have.
Thanks in advance
Hughie %26amp; Jess
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Hello Hughie,
I am considering staying on a barge in Paris for four nights, near the Louvre. Can you please tell me if these barges are very quiet? I have a problem sleeping with a lot of noise.
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Hello David
I travelled aboard a large cruiser through Paris before and we tied up for a few nights near the Eiffel tower.
You are always going to get background noise in a big city but other than the amazing central location, have to honest that it was not the most comfortable couple of nights.
There are HUGE numbers of Bateau Mouche trip boats roaring up and down every minute from 9am until 2 am. The huge surges had our boat and even full size house boats (barges) literally straining and tearing at their mooring lines, rocking extremely violently with the combined surges from multiple passing boats.
Personally I%26#39;d stay land based if visiting again. I love the water but found being on even a large boat VERY unpleasent. If anything, those on barges had it worse!
Hughie
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How much boating experience do you think one would need to rent a self drive barge? This is a dream of mine, and I have some, but not much power boating experience, crewing for others.
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%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;How much boating experience do you think one would need to rent a self drive barge? %26gt;%26gt;%26gt;
None
http://www.franceafloat.com/
http://www.leboat.com/
http://www.locaboat.com/
http://www.nicols.com/
http://www.rive-de-france.com/
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