The Purple Boat Narrowboat Holiday Hire

Just back from 4 nights on the Kwa Heri. The boat is well equipped and very easy to manage. It was our first time on the Trent Mersey canal, which was pleasant and peaceful with an abundance of mooring places. Sue was very efficient with the booking and could not have been more helpful. A lovely short holiday.

What an experience!! Sue was lovely and very clear on her instructions during the induction. It was very helpful to be taken through the first lock by Sue as this helped with our confidence for future ones. We can’t recommend this enough. Our 10 and 12 year old girls came with for the first 2 days and they loved it. Despite it being a relatively active holiday working the locks, it’s the most relaxed I’ve been while away.As a side note, the canal boat community is one of the kindest and helpful I’ve come across.

We have just returned from our break on the purple boat. Despite being completely new to canal life, once Sue showed us what to do and took us through the first lock, we took to it like pros, and with 2 dogs, 2 teenagers in tow myself and my husband made our way to Whittington bridge before heading back. The boat has everything needed for a relaxing break and everyone along the canal is so helpful. Highly recommend the purple boat company

Sue was the perfect host for our 6 nights on The Purple Boat, for me, my husband and our sweet old dog. Sue was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Communications before, during and after the trip were excellent.The boat was perfect in every way and kitted out with absolutely everything we could have needed. The layout was great and huge bed incredibly comfortable.We had no previous experience, so took a while to get used to the locks, but wherever we were, there was usually a friendly boater to advise us.The slow pace of life was just what we needed to wind down and as we were so lucky with the May weather, had some lovely scenery every day.Nice having so many pubs to moor up near every night!Thanks for everything Sue!

We hired The Purple Boat from Friday to Sunday at late notice after being let down on a booking with another hirer. As complete novices we were grateful for Sue’s guidance and detailed information - including her suggested routes that were printed off ready for us. We were lucky to meet another couple and shared the locks up toWillington - which made life a lot easier and was also good fun.The boat is compact but well equipped. The bed was surprising comfortable and the facilities all worked well. We appreciated the central heating which warmed the boat up very quickly and the hot water with good pressure. The oven worked well as did the 12v converter which allowed us to watch TV and use our normal devices. The deck is a good size and our dog loved sitting out there watching the boats go by.All in all a wonderful weekend away and a highly recommended boat hire for anyone wanting to give it a go!

We had a brilliant family holiday on the purple boat. Sue welcomed us and gave a comprehensive handover.Despite rainy weather, the kids (12 and 8) had a brilliant week, and really enjoyed helping with the locks. Would definitely recommend the purple boat to friends and family!

This was a great experience for our first time on a narrowboat. The purple boat is a good size for two adults. We had our two dogs with us and we were very comfortable. The size of the boat made steering and navigating the locks easier than it might otherwise be.Sue gave excellent advice and took us through the first lock, which gave us confidence to go on to manage the others.The galley was well equipped with a full size fridge , hob grill and small oven.We only had a few days so travelled from Shardlow to Burton through the Derbyshire countryside. We stopped at several pubs for food. The Crewe and Harpur and the Dragon being our favourites.All the people we met along the way were friendly and helpful so we never felt rushed and came back feeling relaxed.

We hired the Purple boat for 6 days starting 17th September 2023. Sue explained all the details of the boat and its operation quite clearly and backed it up with a comprehensive manual. She escorted us through the first lock out of Shardlow and we continued with no difficulty thereafter. Despite heavy rainfall and strong winds the boat was reliable and easy to handle.We journeyed to Fazeley Junction up the Trent and Mersey & Coventry canals. On our last day we went back through Shardlow before turning round at Trent Lock.We noted a few minor details which merited attention on the boat and fed them back to Sue on our return. Overall we were satisfied with our holiday and recommend other hirers to use this boat.John & Linda

Me and my partner rented The Purple Boat for 6 nights.Sue was very informative whilst showing us how everything worked, how to do the locks and also advising us on routes to take.The boat was well equipped with everything we needed, even a good choice of dvds, and some playing cards which we used every night.The bed was comfortable and large, with clean bedding provided, we slept well every night.I would highly recommend this boat to anyone wanting to have a canal boat holiday, it’s the perfect size for what we needed.We had the best time and will definitely be returning to hire this boat again.Craig and Kerry

We recently hired the Purple boat and were excited to go on our 1st narrowboat adventure. The tuition from Sue consisted of an internal in depth tour of the boat and being shown where everything was located.Regarding the driving of the boat... We were expecting Sue to drive the boat to the 1st lock whilst we observed, or even had a go alongside her but this did not happen, we were left to drive the boat from its mooring at Sue's yard past other moored boats to the 1st lock with Sue giving verbal instruction to us as she walked alongside us on the towpath. Being absolute beginners we found this very daunting.At the 1st lock Sue started to show us how to go through the lock but she was distracted by another boat owner therefore cutting short our lock tuition.Inside the boat there was food and condiments left from a previous trip this took up valuable space that we needed for our own food.One wardrobe was unsuitable for use due to a very strong smell resembling fumes.When we moored for the night we were chatting with a narrowboat owner, we asked if he would check the mooring ropes that we had tied, just to be extra safe on our first time mooring. His immediate concern was had we washed our hands after handling the ropes? he explained the great risk of contracting Weil's disease from ropes that may have been in the canal water. It would have been nice if Sue had mentioned this great risk too.Response to SueEverything we wrote in the review was a true reflection of our experience.We did call you Sue to ask for help, in light of Amanda suffering a fall up the steep boat steps not sure how having made you aware of this and you and your daughter picking us up from the boat itself {which was an 8 mile car trip} asking you you to check the boat over and you locking the boat up yourself constitutes abandonment.As for being frustrated we explained to you face to face that we did not expect the £700 price of the boat hire to be refunded as it was our decision to unfortunately have to cut our holiday short.As far as the £250 returnable deposit is concerned we would have thought that you may have offered us a percentage of that back in light of the reason for having to cut the holiday short being Amanda's injuries... the bruising that came out over the next couple of days from her knee to her foot was considerable. Therefore, we made the right decision as it would have been impossible for us to operate the locks etc in order to get the boat back to you.By the way Sue you have remarked on Amanda and I being partners..which we are not, we are long time friends. You really should not presume.Please note if we did pick up a box of weetabix by mistake whilst we were packing up then we apologise, if £950 is not enough for you for less than 24 hours by all means send us a bill for them.Melanie