Pontcysyllte Itinerary

We rented a narrowboat and went on a 5-day water adventure to cross the world-famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales, United Kingdom. We want to share our lessons learned so others can benefit. We got the narrowboat from the Black Prince at the Chirk Marina. See the section below on packing tips.

DAY ONE PONTCYSYLLTE

We were able to load the boat at 2:30 pm. We had an instructor teach us everything about the boa,t and by 300pm, we were off on our new exciting adventure. We arrived at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct by 4 pm. It was so exciting! It is SUPER TALL! There is NO GUARD rail as you slowly float across the Aqueduct. It looks crazy! It feels like you are floating on air and that maybe, just maybe, with a wee bit more water in the canal, you might float over the edge. I tried not to think about that and focused on the fantastic views and the other visitors who were walking alongside the Aqueduct. There is a walking path across. You don't have to be in a boat. There are also day boat trips across if you want to float over, but don't want the hassle and stress of doing it yourself.

From there, it took us another 3.5 hours to reach Llangollen, where we parked the boat for the night. We were fortunate and got the last spot that had water and electricity hook-ups. The 64 ft narrowboat is like a long, skinny floating recreational vehicle (RV), and when you park your boat, it's called mooring, much like hooking up your RV at a campsite. Along the way from Pontcysyllte to Llangollen, we had to travel through some narrow, black tunnels and several long stretches of canal that were barely wide enough for one narrowboat. We quickly learned to send a “runner” ahead to stop other boats from entering the narrow stretches until our boat passed through.

KEYNOTE: The runner needs a working UK cell phone or a walkie-talkie to communicate with their boat about the status and whether it is clear to enter the single-lane canal and single-lane tunnels. The runner also needs a flashlight as it is pitch black in the long tunnels.

DAY TWO LIONS QUAY

Departed Llangollen and made our way back across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Once on the other side, we parked the boat and walked to the Aqueduct Inn for lunch. KILLER VIEW of the canal! Glorious! Great double cheeseburger. Pepperoni pizza is large enough for two.

* We had British Cash because when we were there, it was a cash-only system.

After lunch, we traveled a couple of hours and stopped at the Lions QUAY Resort.

DAY 3 ELESMERE

IMPORTANT: IF you want to park overnight in Ellesmere at the Black Water Marina, you must book in advance (01691-624391). We got there and called, but they were already full.

Elesmere is a great spot to refill your water tank and get rid of trash. After you refill, you move out of the way so other boats can do the same. We drove down along the right side of the canal, opposite a farmer's field with cows, and parked there for the night. We walked into the town. It was only a 10-minute walk. There is a Tesco grocery store and several restaurants. We ate at the Thai Mere restaurant. It was delicious! Highly recommend! Then, we took a nice walk back to our boat for showers and relaxation.

DAY FOUR - THE RETURN TREK

We left Elesmere at 7:15 a.m. and arrived at the first of two locks at 9:45 a.m. We only waited on one boat before we could enter.

By 1030am, we were through both locks and on our way back to the Lions QUAY Resort, where we enjoyed another free drink.

It was brutally hot. Inside our narrowboat, the temperature was 94 degrees. Initially, we had planned to heat our frozen beef enchiladas, but that was going to require heating the oven and baking it for at least 45 minutes to heat it properly.

Given the heat, we quickly abandoned that idea in favor of eating at the resort restaurant. Additionally, it was our son's 33rd birthday, which gave us even more reason to eat out and celebrate. This way, we could avoid heating up the boat even more.

Note: The boat does not have fans. No screens on the windows, which only open slightly at the top. Obviously, no air conditioning.

Around 8 pm, we decided to make our way back over the Chirk Aqueduct and the Chirk tunnel before nightfall. Our goal was (1) to move closer to the marina, as we have to return and completely vacate the boat by 9:30 a.m., and (2) to move to a shaded area to help with the inner heat.


We had a lot of fun on a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We traveled over the world's largest aqueduct!

We managed to navigate thru several canal locks.

We learned to navigate a 64 ft wooden submarine shaped boat and not kill each other after 5 blistering hot days!

Packing Tips

Our boat rental was 4 nights, 5 days.

We boarded the boat on Monday afternoon and disembarked early Friday morning. There were three of us, all adults. We rented a narrowboat that had two double beds, two toilets, and one shower. The boat had a kitchen, a table with four chairs for eating, and two lounge chairs. There was a TV monitor but we never turned it on.

Keynote: Kitchen is well equipped; however, there is no microwave, no toaster, and the refrigerator is the size of a hotel or small college dorm fridge (includes small freezer we're talking like two ice trays max). In other words, we packed a serious cooler.

Packing list

  • Clothes for 5 days

  • Waterproof shoes

  • Light rain jacket

  • Hat - sun visor style or basketball cap to block sun

  • Sunglasses

  • Sunscreen

  • Bath towels - quick dry camping style - one towel each is provided, but we wanted extra and we wanted the kind that dries quickly

  • Washcloth- none are provided

  • Diddybag- toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, dental floss, q-tips, perfume

  • Shower soap, etc

  • Toilet paper - they provide you with one roll per toilet, and it is the 1-ply style because of the RV-type of toilet. The boat toilet can NOT handle thick toilet paper or anything. Trust me! You do NOT want the toilet to clog! It will be a disaster and your whole boat will stink etc. We packed extra toilet paper because we knew we would need it with three adults on a five-day trip. Plus we brought good Charmin quality toilet paper and just put used TP in the trash can. That worked great! No issues with blocking the boat toilet by doing it like that.

  • Paper towels- for clean up in the kitchen etc

  • Trash bags- they give you two, but we knew that wouldn't be enough, especially with used toilet paper trash. We knew we would want to empty that often so we packed extra trash bags.

  • Ziplock bags - always useful

  • Tin foil - since there's no microwave, you need to heat up all your food on the stove top or in the oven. Tin foil makes that so much easier. I even packed a couple empty tin foil square pans so we would be able to heat up leftovers.

  • Spices - salt, pepper, etc

  • Olive oil- I filled a small recycled plastic bottle with extra virgin olive oil

  • Kitchen scrubby sponge & dish soap - definitely glad I packed a scrubby sponge but they provided an entire bottle of dish soap so save on packing that next time.

FOOD

We planned our meals ahead and froze them. This made things so much easier because the frozen dishes stayed cold in the cooler and when we stopped for the night, we only had to heat things up in the oven. It worked out great

We planned all our meals because no one could explain to us where or how to get food or supplies along the canal. It was not obvious to us despite calling the boat rental office and spending numerous hours searching the internet. That's why we are sharing these tips with you.

Meals for 3 adults, 4 nights

Breakfast

  • Frozen homemade banana bread

  • Whipped cream cheese

  • Fruit

  • Orange juice

  • Coffee * we packed our French Press

  • Butter

  • Frozen crepes * versatile

  • Bananas

  • Nutella

  • (Or leftovers fruit & cream cheese)

  • (Or scrambled eggs on another day)

  • Eggs

  • English muffins (toasted these in the oven)

  • Butter

  • Jam (great excuse to use up those tiny assorted jam jars if you have them)

  • Ham lunch meat

  • Pre-cooked bacon (warmed it in oven)

Lunches

  • Wraps

  • Lunch meat

  • Sliced cheese * also used to make egg McMuffin breakfast sandwiches earlier)

  • Potatoe chips

  • Cole slaw

  • Homemade chocolate chip cookies

*** LOTS OF BOTTLED WATER ***

Can not emphasize the water enough

Dinners (4 nights, but we packed 3 dinners*)

  • Frozen pulled pork BBQ

  • Buns

  • Frozen French fries

  • coleslaw from earlier I'm from the south, I like coleslaw on my BBQ

  • Frozen homemade spaghetti sauce

  • Box of noodles

  • Parmesan cheese

  • Frozen homemade beef enchiladas

  • Toasted chips

  • Jar of chip cheese sauce

*We factored in being able to enjoy one dinner out - we just didn't know when or where.

SNACKS

Cheese blocks, crackers, cheese sticks, and fruit

BEVERAGES

  • WATER, WATER, WATER

  • Peach Iced Tea

  • Gatorade

  • Canned fruit ciders

  • Small bottles of assorted gins

  • Small single-serve cans of tonic

  • Lemon, lime

MISC

  • Paper plates, plastic utensils

  • Coffee travel mugs

  • Battery-operated white decorative lights for fun

  • Board games, card games

  • Power cords and battery packs for our electronics

  • Pillows

  • Sunscreen

  • Offline maps - be they paper or digital.

Highly Recommend the Osmand app. Not only can you download large sections ahead of time, but it's also capable of water navigation.

Travel Notes

  • We wish someone had shared tips with us because I would have packed a bit less food.

  • In Llangollen, we found a COOP store and purchased eggs.

  • In Elesmere, we were able to eat dinner and find the Tesco grocery store.

  • Between Elesmere and Chirk, there was the Narrowboat Inn (pub) and the Lion's Quay Resort, which also has a hotel if needed.

  • We packed without knowing about these stops, so keep that in mind as you plan your trip.

How Much Did It Cost?

Our 5 day trip on a 64ft narrowboat with two bedrooms and two bathrooms for 3 adults was roughly $2,000 US.

There are several different types of narrowboats to rent so your cost may vary.

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Contact

Dreams

clarissachiffon@gmail.com

970-235-0216

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