Gone are the days of trade when the skipper and mate had 2 buckets on board – one for washing the vegetables and the other for you know what ! Each barge has two well-appointed toilets – we don’t expect you to cross your legs !

Don’t panic, if you book a barge cruise, you will receive detailed joining instructions which include ideas for where to park at each location. Maldon has a public car park at the bottom of the High Street which is the closest and cheapest.  Ipswich has loads of car parks close to where you board the barge.  There is limited disabled parking, so we suggest any guest with mobility concerns is dropped off near the barge and then the driver goes to park.

Barges are very heavy craft and don’t do any bobbing about or moving up and down and there is no nasty smell of diesel. If there is a fresh breeze, they lean to one side slightly.  Most of our cruises are within the confines of the rivers which are classified as “calm waters”.  The only types of cruise you may feel any discomfort on, could be the Clacton Air Show where we do head out of the shelter of the river, and sometimes on a Thames Cruise when we are moored at a pier waiting to set off, but once we have left the pier, this usually dissipates.

The bar takings are an important part of each barge’s earnings and we aim to keep to normal pub prices. On board you will find local beer, artisan gins, Prosecco, nice quality wines and all the usual selection of drinks you would expect to find.

Sorry, but no. There may be a guest on board who is very allergic to animals or scared of dogs, and it is difficult to keep them away from food preparation areas. While you may have “one small well behaved” dog, it wouldn’t take long to have a multitude of them on one trip !  In Maldon, there are at least two professional dog walkers who could look after your dog on a short cruise – please ask us for their details.