Why a canal boating holiday is the perfect answer for a slow mum summer

Words by Jordan Forgie

Complete darkness, a tiny pinprick of daylight somewhere far ahead and the low thrum of an engine we still weren’t entirely sure how to handle. Five minutes into our first tunnel, lights on and horn sounding to warn anything coming the other way, it occurred to me and my partner that a slow holiday doesn’t necessarily mean boring.

We’re on a three-night canal boat holiday in Chirk, Wales, with luxury self-drive narrowboat company, Black Prince Holidays, to swap London traffic for towpaths. As well as getting some much-needed R&R, this trip is also an experiment. “Slow mum summer” has become a bit of a buzzphrase this year and I wanted to know whether a holiday could actually deliver on the promise.

The concept focuses on fewer back-to-back activities, fewer screens and more unstructured days, so essentially disconnecting from routine and reconnecting together as a family. And what better way to test this out than on a narrowboat that can’t even travel over 5mph? Here’s what happened when total beginners took to the tiller on the Llangollen canal.

Family cruising the Llangollen canal

What is a Black Prince narrowboat like?

Our boat, a Princess Signature 4 called Julia, was definitely grander than expected. Two double beds in the middle and rear cabins, a dinette in the saloon that converts into an extra bed if needed and a kitchen complete with a gas cooker, oven, fridge freezer and microwave.

No licence and no previous experience are required to take one of these boats out. Instead, one of the Black Prince team talked us through everything before we left, including starting the engine, working the controls, what to do at locks, how to moor up safely and the small rules of canal etiquette. Their best advice was to turn right out of Chirk marina rather than left because it’s a lot quieter traffic-wise and gave us a couple of hours to practice steering without the worry of hitting another boat.

– READ MORE: Your essential family guide to all 15 National Parks in the UK –

Black Prince narrow boats at Chirk Marina

How easy is it to steer a narrowboat?

Steering makes no sense until it suddenly does… well that was my experience at least. You push the tiller the opposite way to where you want to go and for the first hour every turn brought a small internal panic of, “Ah no, the other way,” but my partner picked it up almost at once. Long story short, I was quickly relegated from captain to crew after a small brush with the canal bank whilst my partner had popped to the loo.

Locks took a little longer to click. We stood staring at the first until Linda, a retired primary school teacher who happened to live in the house next door, appeared and talked us through it. Turning the boat around in a designated turning point required a little more persuading, largely via the long pole kept on board for exactly this purpose but by the time we met the locks again on the return leg, we were handling them like pros.

UNESCO-listed Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

What are the highlights of the Chirk route?

Two structures on this stretch of canal are worth seeing. The first, Chirk Aqueduct, appears not long after you cross the invisible line from Wales into England and is a high, narrow crossing with the valley falling away on either side and the old railway viaduct running parallel to it.

The second, further along near Llangollen, is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which carries the canal in a slender iron trough far above the River Dee: footpath on one side, sheer drop on the other. It’s spectacular and slightly dizzying if you’re not keen on heights like me so our tip is to keep younger crew members inside to watch from the windows.

Almost as memorable was Chirk Tunnel, its several hundred yards of complete darkness taking a good ten minutes to pass through, the hull nudging the walls as you steer toward a sliver of daylight ahead – mildly terrifying the first time.

– READ MORE: 15 beautiful beaches kids won’t believe are in the UK –

Inside a Black Prince Princess Signature 4 narrowboat

What’s life like on board a narrowboat?

There’s no fixed itinerary on a trip like this, which is kind of the point. Mornings tend to start slowly, cruising quietly while the canal is still quiet too; afternoons bring whatever the day throws at you, a lock, a lift bridge or gentle walks in the surrounding countryside.

Evenings were the best part for us. We moored wherever looked good (often somewhere quiet with no other boats around), climbed onto the deck and watched a family of ducks settle in on the bank beside us. Walks along the towpath and card games after dinner, along with an afternoon in Llangollen itself, ending with a drink at The Old Mill and its views over the River Dee.

Cruising the Llangollen canal with Black Prince

The verdict

By the time we brought Julia back to Chirk Marina, we’d gone from a couple who’d never touched a tiller to a crew who could handle a lock, a tunnel and a 126-foot aqueduct without blinking.

There was barely any phone signal the whole trip and we didn’t go searching for it either. This, it turned out, was what “slow mum summer” actually meant: cruising along at four miles an hour, a tiller I’d stopped fighting with, and days filled with nothing but choosing where to walk and finding the next mooring spot. If a slow summer holiday is what you’re after, this is about as close as a short break gets to delivering it.