Tourist guides
We’ve had some amazing coincidences while on our narrowboat trips, such as town festivals and open houses that fall on the day that we’re in a town, but we’ve also missed some opportunities by a day. No trip can be perfect no matter how carefully it’s planned, but it’s good to know in advance what trade-offs you’ll have to make.
To really take advantage of those opportunities, you should visit the website of the various tourism agencies promoting the cities and towns along your canal. Some of them are quite obvious, such as VisitLondon.com, the official visitor guide. But smaller cities, towns and villages also have their own tourism websites. For instance, there is a website just for the Falkirk Wheel, but if you search for “visit Falkirk,” you’ll also find the website VisitFalkirk.com for the city of Falkirk and the surrounding area. One of the useful items you’ll discover at the website is TheLoop, a bus service that stops at the two Falkirk train stations, the Wheel and The Kelpies—30-meter high horse head statues along the Forth & Clyde Canal that many associate with the Wheel, but are not actually at the Wheel.
Other city and local tourism websites include VisitLiverpool.com and VisitWiltshire.co.uk. Of course there are also websites for the whole of Britain and for each of the kingdoms: VisitEngland.com, VisitWales.com and VisitScotland.com. There’s also DiscoverNorthernIreland.comand DiscoverIreland.ie.
These official tourism websites have calendars of events and usually a lodging database: put in the city where you wish to stay and the dates and you’ll see a listing of hotels, serviced apartments and bed and breakfasts sorted by price and ratings.