I’m fortunate that we have relatives that live on the broads, but we never really experienced the broads as a tourist. In 2021, as uk hospitality was starting to recover we decided we would try something new, a broads holiday.
We rented an inexpensive boat from Richardson Boating Holidays – our boat, San Selino was super affordable around £400 for the week (off-peak) plus fuel, which was kinda amazing.
We turned up on the day, and received our orientation. On the whole its fairly straight forward but practise definitely makes perfect.
This little boat, has a living room, kitchen, toilet/shower, and two bedrooms. Its compact living!
There was something quite special moving slowly along at 3-4mph, watching the wildlife.
On the first day we sailed from Stalham to Neatishead and moored up (fortunately on a very empty dock)
2nd day we travelled from Neatishead to How Hill Reserve
Day 3 we sailed at 8am from How Hill to St Bennett’s Abbey, then to Ludham Bridge for lunch we were aiming to stay at Horning, but due to no spaces tried Wroxham, we had hoped to moor in Wroxham after the bridge, but the tide was high so it was un-passable. We were lucky and found 1 space and settled in for the night.
Day 4 we grabbed breakfast in Wroxham and found a space in Horning.
We decided to stay at Neatishead Staithe so we can have an easy sail to return the boat the next day.
Day 5 we sailed back and somehow completely forgot how to turn in the marina so looked a bit of an idiot, but I got there in the end! In April it was quite cold, we took extra blankets, we survived and it was an enjoyable new adventure.
If you’re interested give it a try. There’s some very affordable (and also very expensive boats) available.