Take your Holiday Home with you along the Canals of Europe

Better Than a Villa Rental

A hotel barge is really a floating luxury villa – with a doting crew at your service, an open bar and freshly cooked gourmet meals every day! Chartering a hotel barge gives you the best of both worlds – a private, luxury setting for your entire group and personalised attention, so that everyone can spend quality time together enjoying themselves instead of worrying about the itinerary.

Our cruises are all-inclusive, with all gourmet meals, drinks, transportation and tours of local attractions included, compared to villa rentals, when most of these expenses are additional and can significantly increase the final cost of a holiday.

We Make It Easy

On our cruises, there is no need to make reservations at expensive restaurants, or pack everyone into rental cars to visit attractions. Every hotel barge carries its guests in luxury, pampered by a crew that includes a master chef, a hostess, an English- speaking tour guide and a professional, highly personable captain.

Your guide drives and accompanies you to local vineyards for private tastings, colourful food markets and châteaux in a wide range of historic and cultural excursions. On-board bicycles allow guests to pedal along the towpaths and explore the nearby towns or, if you prefer, they can relax in the on-deck spa pool with a glass of chilled wine as your hotel barge glides slowly through the ever-changing countryside.

Your Holiday Home Away from Home

Choosing one place for a week’s vacation is really choosing a home away from home. A place where you can put away your luggage, put up your feet and call the space your own. Want to leave that not quite finished book next to your favourite reading chair, you can. The family has not quite finished a puzzle before dinner, no problem, come back to it after you eat your meal provided by your chef.

Choosing a hotel barge means your home moves with you. Now that’s a unique luxury. You can actually choose to sit and simply enjoy the scenery pass slowly by your deck chair, while your hostess brings you a cold drink. Or maybe watch your kids ride their bikes alongside your boat whilst you enjoy a soak in the hot tub on deck.

Choices, Choices

Among the wide range of hotel barge cruises available from European Waterways, L’Art de Vivre in Burgundy and Anjodi on the Canal du Midi in Southwest France are perfect holiday home away from home choices. With both being eight-passenger vessels, they are ideal for families and small groups to enjoy views of ever-changing landscapes, charming villages and lush vineyards on a gentle voyage of exploration – unlike villas, which offer just one view.

Do you prefer a cooler climate, with lush greenery and sun shining on an abundance of flowers? Then Burgundy will fit you like a glove. Or long for something more Mediterranean, more heat and that summer vacation feel? Then head to southern France. One of the wonders of France is its temperate climate, and yet there are also a range of choices for climate.

Floating in Luxury

The traditionally-built L’Art de Vivre in Burgundy cruises gracefully along the Canal du Nivernais, one of France’s most charming inland waterways. Family itineraries can include swimming, theme park visits and supervised activities for the young, while a château visit and a private tasting at one of the oldest wine cellars in the town of Chablis are offered for the adults.

The Anjodi, cruising the 300-year-old Canal du Midi in Southwest France, features hand-crafted wood and brass interiors to create an ambience reminiscent of a classic yacht. It takes guests from the sunny shores of the Mediterranean across lagoons full of migrating birds and past canal-side vineyards to ancient Cathar cities like Carcassonne. Along the way there are plenty of family activities such as a visit to the underground Caves of Limousis.

Have we whetted your appetite to try your own holiday home away from home? You can easily Contact Us for more information.