Featured Routes - 7+ nights

Hungerford & Return

7 nights • 120 locks • Cruising time per day: 7 hrs • Total: 50 hrs

• Devizes is a historic market town which hosts a traditional market every Thursday. It is one of the largest marketplaces in the West Country. Look out for the Wadworth Brewery Shire Horse Dray which still delivers to the towns Public Houses.
• Beyond Pewsey and through lush Wiltshire countryside.
• The highest point of the Kennet & Avon is marked by the 502-yard Bruce Tunnel.
• The canal then follows close alongside the Great Western main railway line through the Bedwyns Great & Little and down to Hungerford.
• Pass by Savernake Forest, an ancient woodland mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Newbury & Return

10-11 nights • 140 locks • Cruising time per day: 5.5 hrs • Total: 60 hrs

• Beyond Hungerford, the canal shares the valley with both the railway and the River Kennet.
• The Kennet & Avon Canal is so central to Newbury that the main shopping street passes directly over it.
• Take a day out at the races and visit Newbury Racecourse.

Reading & Return

14 nights • 186 locks • Cruising time per day: 6 hrs • Total: 85 hrs

• Some of the very best countryside in the UK canal system.
• Through a variety of towns and villages to Reading.
• Blakes Lock Museum.
• Reading Museum.
• Museum of English Rural Life.
• Or you could shop at the retail park known as "The Oracle" which is located next to the canal.

Bristol & Return

7 nights • 28 locks • Cruising time per day: 4 hrs • Total: 25 hrs

• The route includes Bradford on Avon, Bath, Bristol and, unusually, many more towns and villages that the canal passes through the centre of.
• Stop off at the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath and explore the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and the Royal Crescent.
• Having followed the route of the River Avon by the canal, after Bath the navigation uses the River itself, reverting to the canal to divert into Bristol city centre.
• Stunning weirs accompany each river lock, down to Bristol.
• Museums and waterside features reflect the city’s former importance as a seaport.
• Visitor moorings are available right in the centre of the city in the floating harbour (mooring charges apply).
• Reminders of the route’s industrial history such as the brass mill at Kelston are found within rolling valley countryside.

Short Breaks - 3/4 nights

Devizes & Return

4 nights • 72 locks • Cruising time per day: 7 hrs • Total: 21 hrs

The spectacular Devizes flight consists of 29 wide beam locks, rising by 237 feet over just two miles.

Bath & Return

3-4 nights • 2/14 locks • Cruising time per day: 5 hrs • Total: 12/18 hrs

The canal passes very close to the city centre and Bath is without doubt, worthy of exploration.

Bradford-on-Avon/Bottom of Caen & Return

3 nights • 14 locks • Cruising time per day: 7 hrs • Total: 11 hours

For an easy weekend to combine cruising and exploring, spend a day in Bradford and another cruising to the base of Caen Hill Locks.