Last weekend, I travelled down to London to see my friend Kariss and to drive a boat. Driving a boat in London is not something that I had ever considered doing before. If I’m honest, I thought the Thames was the only bit of water you could drive a boat on in London. I was invited to drive a boat on Regents Canal by GoBoat London, which sounded like a lot of fun. I was checking the weather for Sunday all week and it was forecast to be very windy and rainy. We had been warned that if the weather got too bad, that we would have to reschedule. Luckily for us, although it was quite windy and wet, it wasn’t too bad for us to take the boat out. So, we braved it and went along to Merchants Square for our ride.

GoBoat London

Located on Merchant Square, part of Paddington Basin, GoBoat London is a boat rental service. The base is easy to get to from either Edgware Road or Paddington stations. You can hire small, electric powered boats which are big enough to seat eight people. These boats are rented out by the hour and prices start at £59 for one hour. 80% of the boats are made from recycled plastic and all wood that is used is sourced sustainably. The electric engines that are used on board ensure that there is no noise or environmental pollution.

As mentioned earlier, the boats seat eight people although dogs are allowed too. You are given cushions to sit on and blankets if the weather is not too great. There are also umbrellas on board if you wish to use them. The day we went was particularly windy, so the blankets were very much needed.

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Before you set out on the boat, one of the GoBoat London team will go over the safety instructions. You will be shown a map of the route, told the rules of the canal and shown how to drive the boat. Before we set off, one of us had to do a quick lap around Paddington Basin to get the hang of the steering. After that, it was up to us to control the boat for the next two hours. As long as we followed the rules of the canal and the driver was sober (you’re allowed to eat and drink on board!) then we were free to go!

The route

The route that GoBoat London recommend takes you from Paddington Basin, through Little Venice, through Regents Park and past London Zoo then up towards Camden. The boats can go a maximum of 4 mph. The average time to get up to Camden is around 60 mins. As we had our boat for two hours, we were advised to get as far as we could in 60 mins and then turn around to get back to the base.

Onboard the boat

As we were given cushions to sit on, the boat was really comfortable. We were also provided with blankets which we were all grateful for. They really made a difference as it was so cold out there. In the middle of the boat, there’s a wooden picnic table. If the weather had been nicer, we definitely would have got some food and drinks for a picnic. However, as it was really drizzly, we just used the table to put our bags under to protect them from the rain.

As I mentioned earlier on, there are umbrellas on board in one of the compartments. There are also lifejackets if you want to wear them. We are all confident swimmers, so we chose not to use them. There is also a hook in case any rubbish gets caught on the engine and an air horn, just in case.

Driving the boat

Driving the boat looked fairly easy. There’s just one control to steer with and you twist the end of it to go forward or reverse. Leigh went first and he managed to make it look effortless, I think he must have been a captain in a previous life. However, when it was my turn it didn’t go too smoothly. It took me a good few minutes to actually get the hang of it! Once I worked out what I was doing, I managed to drive past the African Hunting Dogs at the zoo and up to Camden. I only hit the side of the canal (and another boat) a few times. Kariss and Ryan also had a few difficulties, but after a few minutes they were fine.

I have the same pained expression in all of the photos of me driving the boat. I can promise you that I was actually having a lot of fun. That must be my concentration face!

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The experience

We all thoroughly enjoyed our boat ride. It felt like the two hours went too fast. We managed to do the whole route and even turned around again before we got to the end to go through the long Maida Vale tunnel. This was actually a mistake as someone turned the boat around by accident, but we had plenty of time. It had been a while since I had been on a boat! In fact, I’d last been on one in Amsterdam and I’d forgotten how much fun boat rides are. I would definitely choose to use GoBoat London again. I want to go back in the summer when the weather is guaranteed to be nicer. The cost of the two hour ride on a Sunday is £109. Split between 8 people, it doesn’t work out to be much at all.

I was gifted this experience by GoBoat London in return for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.