This canal boat holiday route offers a leisurely one week cruise through canals and rivers in Bath and Keynsham to Bristol and return.

The beautiful city of Bath plays host to the meeting of the Avon Navigation and the Kennet and Avon Canal, the starting point for this narrowboat holiday route. Arguably only York and Chester on the inland waterways can muster such an appealing backdrop. The Avon is actually navigable by narrowboat for a short distance upstream of the junction of the canal with the river at the tail of Bath Bottom Lock. It’s a detour well worth making. Spring tides occasionally lick their salty tongues up as far as Keynsham.

Scenically the landscape pivots on Hanham: to the east, the valley is wide and water-meadowy; to the west, wooded and gorge like.

Your final stopping point on this canal holiday is Bristol, the hometown of such disparate characters as John Cabot, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Cary Grant. If you’re looking for boat hire in Bristol, this could be a unique way of reaching and discovering this lively yet historic city. Bristol is full of atmospheric passages and corners, alleyways and stairways as befits a former sea-trading port.