Spot Leopard deal
BAG a £200 discount for a week’s stay at the four star Leopard Beach Resort & Spa in Mombasa,Kenya, between June 25 and July 1 at £719 per person. The coastal resort offers water sports, a gym, spa and traditional African entertainment. The hotel is set in 25 acres of tropical gardens. For details see tropicalsky.co.uk or call 01342 886 941. LIFE afloat is bracing all right but we’re not all natural navigators. A moored houseboat is an ideal compromise – all the magic of being on the water but without the responsibilities. If you had to nominate one city where houseboats truly belong it has to be this Dutch metropolis with its concentric rings of canals.
Here there are houseboats right in the heart of the city, and they provide a real alternative to pricey hotels.
You can get even better deals out along the banks of the Amstel river, within a tram ride or cycling distance of downtown – many rentals also offer bikes. Floating terrace alongside? A wheelhouse of your own? Double decker by the skinny bridge? Bingo!
It’s hardly roughing it. Old Dutch barges such as the Hercules Seghers have been transformed below decks for boutique living. Hercules sleeps four, £270 per night. See houseboatrental. amsterdam. This romantic Flemish city, known for its gablefronted old houses, chocolatiers and arty interiors, has a network of canals making it almost as watery as Amsterdam.
It also offers the chance for city-breakers to be gently rocked asleep, and to wake to the sound of coots tapping on the hull, demanding their morning croissants. The barge Johanna, which normally runs summer luxury cruises through champagne country, comes to rest here in Bruges Katelijnepoort in winter, within easy walking distance of the historic centre, where it offers doubles from £100-a-night B&B. See bargejohanna.com. All the great cities of the world have rivers running through them. In the case of Paris, the Seine is next to some great museums – the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay – as well as the Eiffel Tower. The river’s newly pedestrianised south bank has become a place of recreation, the waters are busy with tour boats, and between the two are rows of péniches – converted barges – with live-aboard communities. Barges like the Nova, with gorgeous polished wood interiors and a terrace on top for watching the world go by. Sleeps up to 12, from £347 per night: bookahouseboat.com/rentals/paris. THE Twee Gebroeders – “two brothers”- is a beautifully renovated Dutch sailing barge, moored in the shadow of the Tide Mill on the river Deben in the Suffolk town of Woodbridge.
More than 110 years old, and painted a striking red, white and black, it’s the most eyecatching boat in the harbour.
It looks good below decks too, with a large living salon and a fully fitted kitchen complete with a cast-iron range cooker in ravishing red. Bathrooms are tiled in the Dutch Delft style, decorated with images of Suffolk’s celebrated avocets. Onshore there is the whole of the Not every houseboat is ready to cast off. Some are r purpose built as floating houses, meaning m more headroom and fewer things to trip over.
One such is the log cabin-style Grand Lodge on the river Bure at Horning, in the heart of the N Norfolk Broads.
This is a good spot to slow down and relax in into the pace of waterside life and maybe try so some fishing from your own front door. The lo lodge has a pine interior, French windows on to a small balcony, and is a five-minute walk to the