Ok, a few people have expressed some interest, so I'll give a very brief report.
This was a trip that my wife and I had planned pre-Covid. I honestly thought that it would be cancelled. In fact, we even didn't buy airfare until mid-August. I really never believed that we'd go. But we went!
So we had planned a 4-night river cruise on a "hotel boat". We flew into Heathrow on the morning of Sept 9 and met the boat in Ware, about an hour and a half by train from the airport. Ware was a really cute town, actually. We were there much too early to meet the boat, so we grabbed an outdoor table at a restaurant right next to the river, and we hoped to see the boat as it came in to meet us. While we waited, our traveling companions met us and we had some lunch.
We didn't see the boat come in, but we emailed the owner and he told us where they were moored, so we walked down and met them. It's a flat-bottomed boat, about 60' long and 12' wide. Not very big. It carries a maximum of 4 passengers and the 2 owners are the only crew (except when they bring a pilot onboard to navigate the Thames). There are two staterooms; one has a Queen bed and one has two twins. Both staterooms have a private bathroom and shower. There's a public room with seating, which also doubles as the dining room, and there's an outdoor sitting area at the front of the boat. There's no live entertainment like you would find on bigger cruise ship. But there's a TV and some DVDs if you're desperate for something to watch. The husband, Gordon, drove the boat; and the wife, Dorenda, did all the cooking and housekeeping.
The first two days of our trip were on the River Lee and then the last two days were on the Thames. To be honest, there's not a lot to see on the River Lee. We sailed through some very pretty countryside, but the boat doesn't stop in a town so you can get off and explore. Mostly we saw other boats moored on the river with people living in them. Once we got to the Thames, though, we saw all the sights of London and that was really fun. We sailed up the Thames, all the way to the Hampton Court Palace, then made a u-turn to our final destination in Kingston.
The experience on the boat was pretty good. The food was all prepared onboard and was generally very good. There wasn't a menu with dishes that you could choose. There's not a ton of room for storage on the boat, so Dorenda makes the menu for the night and that's what you get. (If there's anything that you just won't eat, you can tell them before you arrive at the boat.) She's a self-taught, but very good chef. I would say that our dinners were a small step down from what we might expect on a traditional cruise. Very good, but certainly not high cuisine. Wine was included with dinner, and there was a bar if you wanted something else to drink. Breakfast and lunch were also included; and we got mid-morning coffee (with snack) and tea every afternoon.
We also helped operate the locks on the river. We would fill the lock, open it so the boat could go in, then close the lock, drain it, and open the other end so the boat could leave the lock. We did this 5 or 6 times a day. You don't HAVE to help, but they did sort of complain to us about past guests who didn't help. As we got really close to the Thames, the locks were operated electrically and we didn't need to help.
Once we disembarked in Kingston, we rented a car and drove north to the Cotswold region, staying in Bibury for a night and Moreton for another night. The countryside was beautiful. I really loved Bibury, and the hotel we stayed in was gorgeous. We walked all over the town, saw some really cool buildings. Moreton was a somewhat bigger town and didn't have the same charm, but we found a great pub for dinner. During this part of the trip, we also stopped for a day in Oxford and that was amazing. So much history and great architecture. I loved it. In Oxford, we found the Turf Pub, which was awesome. Great food, really fun place and hidden out of the way.
I liked our time in the Cotswolds much better than the cruise, but the other people with me definitely loved the boat trip. If I were going to try another boat trip like that, I would only cruise the Thames. I found the River Lee portion to be pretty boring, to be honest. But, again, my wife absolutely loved it.
I'll post pictures soon.
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