{"id":21111,"date":"2024-07-16T14:20:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T14:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/barge-trips-packing-check-list\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T21:06:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:06:41","slug":"barge-trips-packing-check-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/blog\/barge-trips-packing-check-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Barge trips: packing check-list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Final checks: before taking charge of your\u00a0<strong>canal boat<\/strong>, make sure you haven&#8217;t forgotten anything, even though there will be plenty of stop-offs at villages for shopping, whether for pleasure or necessities, on your\u00a0<strong>barge cruise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"\/en\/quotation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><button style=\"background-color: #ec008c; color: #ffffff; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: bold; font-size: 14px; border: 1px solid #ec008c !important; padding: 5px 25px; min-height: 44px; margin: 0 auto; height: 44px; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; border-radius: 290486px; -moz-border-radius: 290486px; -webkit-border-radius: 290486px; cursor: pointer;\" type=\"button\">booking enquiry<\/button><\/a><br>What do you need to pack for a trip on\u00a0<strong>a self-drive boat<\/strong>\u00a0? The first joy of\u00a0<strong>canal boat holidays\u00a0<\/strong>is that you can swap your formal clothes and shoes for a comfortable pair of jeans, a light dress, a warm jumper and your old trainers &#8230; preferably the non-slip type. That&#8217;s because safety tip Number 1 is about making sure you don&#8217;t slip, even though a dip in the water (when voluntary!) is another pleasure of\u00a0<strong>barge cruises<\/strong>. There are lots of opportunities for diving in, whether it&#8217;s along the\u00a0<a title=\"Canal du Midi, on the lakes of Mecklenburg or Masuria\" href=\"\/en\/boating-holidays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canal du Midi, on the lakes of Mecklenburg or Masuria<\/a>, so you need to take swim-suits, sun-cream, everything you would take to the beach, in other words; you can still use it in fresh water. But you don\u2019t need to weigh yourself down with towels and sheets: they are supplied on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Essential items for a\u00a0<strong>barge cruise<\/strong>\u00a0: a lighter, clothes pegs and \u2026 gardening gloves: so that you can cultivate your skills at mooring and steering without wrecking your hands. There is a first-aid box on board so you don\u2019t need to worry about that; just bring any of your own medications that you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other essentials: cables and chargers for phones and computers, although you may find they just gather dust while you enjoy playing cards or board games, reading a good novel or browsing through a travel guide, all of which you will need to bring with you as well. But if there\u2019s anything you find you\u2019ve forgotten, you&#8217;ll get the chance to make some last-minute purchases at the little shop at the base, and you might even come across a few local specialities and souvenirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A useful tip: it\u2019s better to go for a collapsible travel-bag rather than a hard suitcase that takes up too much room and that you would have to leave in your car boot or at the base. Fortunately,\u00a0<a title=\"canal barges\" href=\"https:\/\/www.locaboat.com\/en\/boats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Locaboat\u2019s canal barges (&#8220;P\u00e9nichettes<sup>\u00ae<\/sup>&#8220;)<\/a>\u00a0are fitted with cupboards and drawers which means you can store your personal items and quickly feel at home. One very last check before you get on board: make sure you have proof of identity, a few banknotes or a credit card for your stop-offs in towns and for day-to-day purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to cooking, you can buy food before you set off or bring your own provisions. Preparing meals will be very straightforward: the boats are equipped with an oven, fridge, crockery and all the kitchen tools you\u2019ll need. You&#8217;ll find that bikes are indispensable for trips around the local area. Locaboat bases offer cycles for hire and they are even included in the hirer\u2019s &#8220;No-worries Deal&#8221; (\u201cForfait S\u00e9r\u00e9nit\u00e9\u201d). You\u2019ll have no problem storing them while you\u2019re cruising: the boats are equipped with cycle-carriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to go aboard? Weigh the anchor, bosun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before taking charge of your\u00a0canal boat, make sure you haven&#8217;t forgotten anything, even though there will be plenty of stop-offs at villages for shopping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[207],"class_list":["post-21111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tricks","tag-unexperienced"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21112,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21111\/revisions\/21112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}