Houseboat Vacations on a Canal: Tips and Experience Recap

Traveling by houseboat: a beautiful way to travel differently, to discover or rediscover a region from a new angle, to take time to glide along the water, enjoy the landscapes, and savor good food all in great company... You guessed it, we loved our first houseboat vacation experience (and even a little more)! After detailing our itinerary and our favorites on the Canal du Midi, here comes our experience recap and practical advice for those who want to embark on the adventure!

Before diving into the heart of the topic, here's a little video setup: here is our stay on the houseboat on the Canal du Midi summarized in less than 2 minutes.

We had already had several opportunities to travel by boat, and we knew we loved it, whether it was on the little sailboat in the Mediterranean or the large ferry in the Finnish archipelago, either as crew or on a charter. Here are 5 advantages I found to this new way of vacationing.

Slow travel, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the idea of traveling slowly, taking time... Quality over quantity, leaving behind crowded tourist routes to venture off the beaten path and seek to connect: with the region we're visiting, its people, their culture and lifestyle... and with ourselves! Reconnecting to time and what's essential, moving slowly. Slow travel is a wonderful way to take time for oneself: it is often with this kind of pace that personal growth and travel go hand in hand.

Needless to say, I love this concept! And what better way to step off the beaten path... than being out on the water? On the canal, there's no schedule of visits, no white rabbit reminding us that we're late; here, it's the current, the sun, and our stomachs that set the rhythm for the day!

Feeling connected, to oneself, to a region, to the world... for me, this also comes from a lot of contact with nature. The boat journey wonderfully allows for a disconnection from the stressful, hyper-connected sedentary world, making way for a connection with the wind and the song of the birds.

I don't know about you, but our travels are often dictated by the rhythm set by our stomachs! Sometimes, they even decide the organization of the day, or even the destination of the trip. And when we travel slowly, meals become even more significant: we have all the time to think about them!

Traveling by houseboat also means traversing regions, each with its culinary riches and specialties. The meal serves as an excuse to discover the region from the end of a fork. And during this trip, we treated ourselves and indulged: olives and tapenade, cinnamon cookies, fresh fruits and vegetables...

For us, used to traveling by a thousand and one means of transport, but always with our backpack, the boat is an adventure of an entirely different nature! We leave the backpack in the closet and take our bedroom, our kitchen, and our living room with us! How comfortable it is to enjoy the sun on the deck of the boat, then decide to take a nap on the couch while watching the branches dance through the window!

No need to wonder where to eat or where to sleep each day: the answer comes with us! The mind can focus solely on admiring the slowly passing landscapes...

On our little boat: just us, and the world flowing along our hull, allowing us to decide when we wished to reconnect by stepping ashore to engage with the rest of the universe.

On board, it's us, our rhythm, our desires. A small quiet meal, a nap to the sound of birds and the wind rustling the branches above the deck protecting our heads, conversations that motion alone can bring... The pleasure of an extended tête-à-tête with a loved one!

We thought it must also be a fantastic way to travel with friends (our boat had two additional unoccupied cabins this time, which would have been great filled with friends!) and family.

Traveling on the water gives a completely different perspective on the region we are exploring, allowing us to discover or rediscover it in a new way. We were not yet familiar with the region of the Canal du Midi and were delighted to explore it by houseboat... while thinking it would be enjoyable to try this experience elsewhere, perhaps in Ireland or Italy.

Renting a boat can be daunting:

But I've never done this before!

I don't have a license!

I'm going to sink the boat!

A thousand thoughts invade the mind before departure... and that's normal! For my first boat experience, if I had been left alone on board, I would have felt lost and frankly terrified! But my first experience was at sea, which is very different from canal navigation: there are no tides to consider, no risk of grounding and rocks to scratch the boat's hull, no current, no problem parking and tying up the boat, no sails to manage... In fact, once on board our houseboat, I felt like I was in a big bumper car version of a houseboat! You quickly feel at ease, reassured, and comfortable on board. And then, not many questions to ask, it's always straight ahead!

It always depends on where and how, but there are many boats that do not require a license, typically measuring between 30 and 49 feet long, to navigate on low-traffic canals and rivers. And the agencies managing this kind of boat usually assist novices in handling the boat to ensure everything goes smoothly! They also have a phone assistance service in case of need: in short, the new captain isn't left alone in the wilderness! Moreover, the captain cannot be alone: generally, to rent this type of boat, there need to be at least two people.

Yes, as always, but the rules are really few:

Piloting a houseboat is very easy: it's always straight ahead! There are very few buttons and other levers to operate; it's child's play. The only difficulties are:

And what's magical is that for all these difficulties, you just need to keep calm, and everything usually goes very well, or even better when a more experienced captain comes to help - which often happens, especially in ports and locks.

Yes! A technician boards before departure and takes us for a little tour... or rather, it's us who take them, since we have the controls directly: a direct situational training! A great opportunity to try out all the possible maneuvers (there aren't many on a canal...) and ask any last questions that are on our minds. The technician also takes the time to go around the boat with us to explain every button and relay all safety instructions.

These boats are truly comfortable apartments on the water: several bedrooms, a living - dining room, a fully equipped kitchen (refrigerator, cooktops, oven, dishes, and kitchen utensils), showers and toilets (boat-style: in the same small room, but you quickly get used to it, and with the luxury of hot water!)... All bedding is provided, and there's even a grocery shopping service offered to have everything onboard when you arrive.

We loved this first houseboat vacation experience - I say first because we can easily imagine repeating the experience, perhaps in another country, perhaps with some friends...

We thank Locaboat for this wonderful experience, as well as the tourist offices of Capestang and Le Somail for playing along for our adventure (you can check out the Canal du Midi tourist office website where you'll find all sorts of information about the area).

In partnership with Locaboat.

To continue reading