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holidays UK – Boating holidays on the River Thames – no airport tax or Air passenger Duty

Having just been on line searching for a ‘cheap holiday break’ for our family, we couldn’t believe how expensive it was to go abroad this Christmas period. As we are working during the summer months with river cruises and our boating holidays on the Thames, the winter time is the only time we can take our annual holiday. Having made a few enquiries as to why the prices per person to go on a package holiday were so high, it transpires it is largely due to Air passenger Duty (APD) and other related airport taxes.

So, may be a holiday in the UK is the best idea for our family holiday this year.

We are fortunate to operate our cruises in some of the most stunning countryside in England which provide the perfect holiday setting for our boat trips on the Thames.

Henley-On-Thames is an idyllic town combining a market town full of cafes, restaurants and pubs with countryside setting and an abundance of festivals such as the Henley 80’s Rewind Festival, Henley-On-Thames Royal Regatta, Henley Music Festival and many more. This makes our cruise destination Henley a popular choice with our guests. Henley is also close to Windsor and many guests use this as a base to visit Windsor castle, Legoland, Ascot Races as these places are only 25 minutes or so away by car or by train from Henley Train station.

Each week, we are featuring another video which we had made this summer to give our potential guests more of an idea of what our boat cruises and boating holidays. This week, the video is of Boat Geanna.

Hotel Boat Geanna is a skippered hire boat on the River Thames. We drive the boat and then having arrived at the destination, we moor up safely and leave guests to enjoy their holiday, whilst being only a few minutes away by car should they need us. Boat Geanna is 4 star rated with visitengland.com. The aim is to provide a comfortable, luxury boat with all the facilities one would expect from a 4 star holiday cottage, but on water. This is an ideal way for holiday makers to experience a boating holiday without all the stress of having to drive the boat. As the boat can accommodate up to 11 people, it is the perfect venue for hen parties, get-togethers, family holidays and other social events. Everyone under one roof, but with seperate cabins for privacy etc.

This boat has already been featured in the channel 4 programme ‘Four In A Bed’ which is a programme where B&B owners and hoteliers stay in each other’s establishment and then rate their stay. We were delighted to have won this competition and if you would like to watch it, here is the link to view it http://www.channel4.com/programmes/four-in-a-bed/episode-guide/series-2/episode-53

Alternatively why not have a look at our own video of boat Geanna. We’ve thought outside the box for our video’s and this one is no exception. Guess which advert on TV inspired this one! here’s the link to our Geanna boating holiday page where the video is located.

Boat Geanna river cruise video

Boating holidays River Thames – myrivercruising videos now on youtube

We are excited with the arrival of 6 short videos we had filmed over this summer at Henley-On-Thames, Sonning and Reading, now all uploaded on youtube.

We wanted to give a clearer picture of what actually happens on one of our River Thames boat cruises to help people decide whether it’s for them. Each week on this blog, we will give the link to one of these videos and we really would welcome your comments, especially if you’ve experienced one of our boat cruises on the Thames.

Our aim was to create a video that was different and ‘thinking outside the box‘ so that viewers wouldn’t automatically tune out. The key element is comedy and entertainment. For those of you who have been on one of our River Thames boating holidays or a day boat trip on the Thames, this will be a souvenir to remind you of your  boat cruise. Maybe you even star in one of the videos (don’t worry – we did seek permission first)

So here is the first video, aimed at parents of teenagers, teenagers, families and anyone who enjoys humour!

It’s about teenager ‘Kevin’ who doesn’t ‘do’ boating holidays and his reaction when his parents take him on a canal boating holiday on boat GINA.  Enjoy and please do comment on this blog!!

Boating holidays on the River Thames – kevin

Within 2 days of posting this video on youtube, it received 5200 views. That was totally unexpected and ‘wow’ were we amazed by the response. We really do want feed back as to why and how this spread so quickly.

Next week, we will link to the next video entitled ‘The cream Tea cruise.’ For all David Attenborough fans and those who enjoy nature programmes – combined with a subtle humour, this one is a must.

Our boat cruises on the Thames have been exciting and relaxing and we have had a busy season. The Groupon promotion has been successful this year and it was great to see many faces from last year’s Groupon. For people seeking a 2 hour boat trip on the River
Thames with a glass of bubbly and a cream tea with scones and jam and cream at a hugely discounted price, do seek out our Groupon promotions (next one will be April 2013)

Just a reminder that we are doing last minute deals for our winter breaks and if you subscribe to our newsletter, there are exclusive offers just for our customers and subscribers.

So, now we’re in the ‘movie business’ – well definitely on youtube. We hope that this venture into the realms of film will help spread the word that boating is fun and for everyone – complete with cinematic colouring and music.

The box office has opened and we look forward to your feedback soon!

To watch the kevin video click on this link:

Kevin takes a boating Holiday

Other links

Narrow boat holidays on boat Gina – as seen in Kevin

 

 

Boating Holidays on the Thames

boating holidays UK – a new idea to promote boating holidays on the River Thames

When deciding ‘Should we buy a canal boat or not?’ many moons ago, we remember avidly watching canal boating programmes on TV, including ‘The boat that Guy built’ which we enjoyed watching immensely.

However, in the back of our minds was, is this a holiday /lifestyle that would appeal to our family including 3 ‘dis-interested’ teenagers, a cat and a dog?! The image we were left with, having watched all these programmes was that boating on the river and canals was something one did if you were of an older generation or a past time enjoyed by ‘boating types’ that have done boating all their lives and you also had to know a lot about boats, be an accomplished boat handler and know how to fix engines etc. Could we do all this?

So, anyway, we took the plunge and had our first boat built and moved on, 6 months later. The verdict? we’ll never go back on land!

Now myrivercruising is growing as a business, we are accomplished boat handlers and our thoughts are returning to how we first thought about boating holidays and what might our potential guests be thinking before embarking on a river thames boat cruise of their own.

So firstly, we would like to alleviate all fears about boating holidays in the UK and to  tell everyone, give it a go! Teenagers love it (yes really – especially if there is an iPod dock, 240v sockets to charge phones, Ipads etc,  TV with PS3 connection and your own private cabin (space) all found in our narrow baot GINA and in our hotel boat GEANNA).

We have just finished filming a set of short videos which hopefully will give our potential guests an insight into River boat holidays. These videos will show that a boating holiday in the uk is for all the family, especially for kids and of course for your dog. We provide training for all our narrow boat holidays so that guests have confidence in driving the boat and knowledge of how to navigate the upper River Thames.

Most of our guests are families with children enjoying cheap boating holidays (our prices are very competitive). We have also had professional people escaping the stress of work. A river thames boating holiday is the best way to completely unwind and forget about work life and deadlines. The other advantage boatings holiday on the River Thames is that you don’t have to physically ‘do’ locks. Unlike canal boat holidays in UK, the locks on the River Thames are manned by friendly lock keepers who do it all for you.

Those of you who watch Channel 4 ‘Four In A Bed’ may have seen us with Hotel boat Geanna. people who saw this and who have subsequently booked, have all said they would never have thought of  booking a UK boating holiday had it not been for this programme and the fact that they saw that boating isn’t just for those few who ‘did’ boating, but was in fact a holiday for everyone. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/four-in-a-bed/episode-guide/series-2/episode-53

So, have we tempted you yet?

See our special offers – book now before our last minute deals are all gone!

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