Who: Carter and Karan Brower of Clayton, N.M., and David and Karen Feeder of Loveland.
Where: On a narrowboat going over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal in England and Wales.
Best meal: Near the source of the Llangollen Canal we had a wonderful lunch of gourmet sandwiches and tea at the Iron Bridge Hotel. (We cooked most of our meals, as the narrowboat is fully equipped with a kitchen and everything needed for eating and cooking.)
Best deal: The narrowboat provided us with our transportation, lodging and most of our meals. (It’s like an RV on the water.) We got to see the countryside and areas that are off the beaten path. By going off-season we rented the narrowboat for less and also paid much less for our airline tickets.
Best time to go: We went in March, and it was still pretty chilly most of the time. April and October would be the best times to go as the canals get very crowded during the summer.
Best travel tip: Search the Web to decide which canal you’d like to travel (there are more than 2,000 miles of navigable waterways in Britain) and to find boats for hire. Rent a boat that sleeps six if four are going; the extra space is great for storing luggage (britishwaterways.com and waterscape.com). Since there were four of us we found it much cheaper to rent a car than to ride trains.
