Riverly Arvostelua 962

Well maintained, well equipped and well prepared boat were the main factors that made this a special trip.

Great job with entire process-from check in to check out—

Es war ein schönes und entspanntes Pfingstfest. Das Personal sehr freundlich. Die Boote von der Ausstattung auch gut, soweit alles da. Uns hat es gefallen und wir kommen wieder.

We can’t thank the Locaboat people enough for our wonderful week (13/05-20/05) boating between Argens-Minervois and Bram. It was a trip of a lifetime we had planned for since before Covid.

Instead of staying in home port the first night, as was suggested, we set off for Le Somail, a short ride up the canal and oozing with small cafe’s. It’s a great place for your first nights’ stay.

May is a great time on the canal. Not too many boats competing to get through the locks, not to many people competing for restaurants. Weather during the day was in the high 60’s, at night it dipped to around 50. The heat on our 1500FB Penichette had an easy time keeping us comfortable.

We spent overnights in Le Somail, Capestang, Homps, Marseillette, Carcassonne (2), and Bram. The only one to skip would be Marseillette, there’s one cafe and it’s not very good at all.

I’ll talk briefly about food and drink. Two restaurants stand out and you better get reservations. Le Cathare, in Carcassonne, has wonderful dry-aged steaks and delicious fois gras. Just get the house red wine, it’s delicious! The other restaurant to call out, and the biggest surprise, was L'Île aux Oiseaux which is in the same building as the Port Captain (Locaboat) in the Port of Bram. Don’t miss either of these. They are overwhelmingly good.

As for vineyards, they’re all over the place! My favorite happens to be the most convenient to boaters, the Chateau Paraza between Argens-Minervois and Le Somail. Wonderful, family-owned business has struggled through COVID and the loss of the patriarch. The wines are exceptional, tasting is free, tie up right in front of the place and just walk up the path.

One final word. After covering 143km of canal, and talking with other boaters, we realized that Locaboat has the newest and cleanest boats with the best maintenance programs. We’ll never use anyone else.

Checking in was easy. Thorough introduction to the boat and test drive. Boat had most of the basics, the bow thrusters are a must for ease of navigating locks. Canal du Midi is a great way to see France at 8kph.

We had a very good experience
We liked the service and the kind people

The boating holiday was very exciting. As I first time boat user I was a bit scared, but Locaboat helped us enlist of the way. Good training, great easy to use boat, fantastic customer service when we needed extra help along the way

The boats clean & tidty great kitchen for on board cooking, plenty of plates glasses etc & utensils.on our boat I was a little disappointed in the fridge,freezer worked well but fridge did not..Predeparture instructions were good,but some minor technical problems,which in fairness were partially solved at the base half way through our trip,made some aspects of our trip a little annoying . Overall a pleasant trip . A little bit more care could be taken to proactively solve the problems we encountered before the trip commenced.

Everyone at the Loosdrecht site was very friendly and helpful. Check-in and out was quick and efficient. Boat functioned exactly as it should, no problems. Kitchen was fully stocked with pots, pans, dishes and glassware and we were able to make complete meals. Refrigerator space was more than generous. Just wish weather was better so we could have enjoyed the deck more!

We loved traveling on the canals with the boat. Very peaceful. Locks can be challenging but part of the experience.

it was the first time we had that expirience. it was great.

Whilst we still enjoyed our canal trip, it was hampered a great deal by a misrepresentation of the number of locks (66 as opposed to the 45 advertised) and by being accused at the end of our trip of having damaged (bent) the bimini - thanks to a photo we had taken on our departure day, we were able to prove it was already damaged. Otherwise we were to be charged 550 euro. It made us wonder how many other people had been accused of, and charged for, this existing damage. This canal was also our third choice after Locaboat had closed bases twice on two earlier bookings - the other two choices had 33/36 locks, and so even the jump to 45 locks was not ideal. The excuse that a triple lock is counted as one was ridiculous - they took so much time and energy and amounted to an average of a lock every 2kms.

The boat was in excellent shape. Frank gave a full briefing and made instructions simple and easy to understand. My French is appalling, but regardless he helped us understand all that was required.

My two adult children and I had a wonderful time, and we are very grateful to the staff for helping make this such a memorable experience.

End of October was a good time to be on the Canal du Midi as there was no problem with long queues for locks and plenty of places to stop.
Our boat was a bit tired, but the engine was good.
Really disappointed that Locaboat boats do not have holding tanks, so all foul water goes straight into the canal.

Everything went extremely well, exept possibly the weather...
The boat was in great shape and worked flawlessly. Operating it was easy and the lochkeepers were very patient and helpful. The Locaboat staff we worked with were excellent.
We rented the 935 which was nicely laid out for a couple, and would work for a couple plus one. We cooked about half the meals onboard, which was easy and saved a few Euros. At Bram the grocery store was about a 25 minute walk. We rented M-F and followed their advice for where to go on our trip. It was very pleasant and scenic. We would love to go again.
Getting back to the weather, we rented during the last week of the season. As it turns out, the week before was quite warm and sunny, while our week it was cool and rained half the time. You take your chances in the shoulder season!

This is one of 5 trips we have been on Locaboat, the trip was fun but the boat has some issues. The heat did not work and at the end the toilet in front cabin had an issue. We did call about the heating issue and your tech came out to help but said that it did not always work, batteries needed to be replaced. The second to last night we did see the tech and asked about looking into toilet issue and he declined, which is why you are not getting the best score. Customer Service is so very important and to be put off really let the other parties very upset.

The staff and mechanics were professional, informative and helpful. I give them 5 stars.
However, all the guidebooks and even locaboat's own information about our route was wrong.
We chose Argens-Minervois as pick up and drop-off point and cruised to Carcassonne and return.
All information of this route plainly stated that this could be achieved in 3 and a half hours cruising per day. Due to the amount of traffic on Canal du midi, we were cruising 7 to 9 hours per day because of the sheer number of boaters. We waited to enter the triple lock of fonfille for three hours.
We always choose shoulder season to avoid crowds but according to your own Locaboat staff, there is no shoulder season on canal du midi and October is even more crowded than September.
your travel /cruising times need to be updated and communicated to boaters so they may make more accurate itineraries.
IT is for this reason that we will not be using Argens as a base in the future.
Regretfully,
Laurent Martel and Amanda Eurich

Great help from Christophe at Agen.