Riverly Arvostelua 962

Locaboat were great. We were very happy with the entire experience, from booking, arrival and pre-departure briefing, right through to the handover at the end....very smooth process and a very professional operation.

The boat was easy to operate and because we were a late season booking, the heater definitely came in handy!

Every thing was exactly what we have come expect from Locaboat. Excellent people, nice boat and travel guide and a wonderful season to visit this area of France.

The towns along the Petite Baise were fabulous with power and water at most stops. It exceeded all expectations.
The boat was old, beds uncomfortable with very thin mattress and pillows, and mould around most windows. There was a wet rope type smell in the forward cabin that we could not remove. The thermostat did not work on the heating. Our refrigerator broke down but the male staff member delivered a replacement fridge pronto. His name is Camille and he could not have been more helpful- 10/10! He is professional in every way. Despite these unfortunate things, we made our own fun and do not regret doing the trip.

Lots of pre-booking info, prompt answering of questions. Friendly and accomodating. Good travelling advice.
Boat systems issues were dealt with promptly.

After much online research, we chose LocaBoat for our two week vacation based on location, cost and types of boats available. Questions and requests were handled quickly although at times the language barrier made it a little challenging. The LocaBoat crew in the marina at Dompierre were helpful, knowledgable and friendly.

Clean, well appointed boat and what could be better than being on the water in the South of France. The Argens-Minervois crew are customer focused and very helpful.

The team are welcoming and friendly. It's a very straightforward experience getting settled in the boat, and the instruction is great.

The vessel is easy to operate as it's had a bow thruster.

There lock keepers are really nice and helpful, especially when you first set out. As a guest in France I tried my terrible french on them and we had a laugh :)

Overall the trip was simply a magnificent experience.

A great trip down the Canal Du Midi from from Argens across to Lattes.

Boat was in great shape and well equiped with lots of storage.

The service at the base was outstanding. Went out of their way to accommodate us. We thought that a more thorough description of where some things were on the boat would have been helpful.

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. We are just now returning to our home in Minnesota after our month in France, the first week of which was aboard the penichette “Clamecy,” from Joigny to Corbigny on the wonderful Canal du Nivernais.
Our cruise was everything I dreamed it would be — the magnificent French countryside, the fabulous restaurants, and the ancient ecluses with their friendly locktenders. The boat performed flawlessly, every component working as advertised, and clear explanations of everything before we left Base Joigny. There were explicit manuals onboard to answer any questions that might arise. But as I said, everything worked perfectly.

My only issue (and it is a very small issue) is that when I tried to reserve a WiFi box in advance I was told there would be no problem simply asking for one on the day of our departure. Except there were no WiFi boxes available and we had to do without, which created a few problems for one of our passengers who runs a business back home. She was able to get her work done in a few of the larger villages where we moored.

I posted on Facebook as we travelled and so many people were completely taken by the beauty of the Yonne River Valley. They want to try their penichette in the future. I highly recommend it.

Bonjour!

This was our third time renting with Locaboat in 3 years. We continue to go back to Locaboat because the boats are in outstanding condition, they provide excellent training and handover for non-boaters like ourselves, and the variety of locations to rent from and boat on is really interesting.

The check in and check out process was good. The instructions were helpful but we were certainly glad that one of us had boat experience, especially when docking in strong currents and wind. It was a lovely route, though, and we enjoyed the experience. The boat we had was old but OK - a more updated interior would have been nice.

The on-site staff were great. They drove us to the grocery to get food for our trip and arranged a taxi before and after our trip. Their English was good so we had no communication issues.
One problem we had is that the heat wouldn't come on in the last few days of our trip. Luckily, the weather wasn't too cold or it would have been a real problem.
Also, the steering from the bridge seemed sloppy and hard to control. We don't remember this issue when we rented the same model boat a few years ago.

All the staff were friendly and helpful with excellent English. The introductory instruction was very thorough. The boat performed faultlessly. We enjoyed our 7 nights and highly recommend this company.

The information and instruction provided allowed us to easily manage the boat and the locks plus plan our stops and sightseeing. The boat was a good size for our family of 4 to be very comfortable. Everything provided on board was of good quality and worked well.

Awesome experience as always! Excellent quality boats, easy to manoeuvre, and great to be able to travel slowly without unpacking.

The overall experience was great, since the very first contact with Locaboat. You were very kind changing our first reservation of boat type and drop off location.
I think that you could improve the briefing pré departure about the boat funcionalities and the route to follow.

If you are doing this for the first time MAKE SURE YOU GET A BOAT WITH BOW THRUSTERS

Okay where to start.
Enjoyable mostly, with times of high stress.
With two of us on board we were given some instruction on the basics. Never having done this before it was a bit daunting and all too quick to take on.
I found steering very difficult at first.
The only thing we were told about the locks was don't jump off the boat as people have hurt themselves and even ended up in hospital doing this. First lock 10 minutes away and end of holiday for some.
The seat for the steering was to say the least, very very uncomfortable; it seemed to have been repaired badly at some point.
As no instruction was given about ropes, we were totally inept at getting the ropes around the bollards.
We looked up the best way to do it on YouTube after three days of messing about.

Now I was sure that I had ordered a boat with bow thrusters, but that model was not available in France, so without them we were floundering about in high winds with the boat swinging around uncontrollably, with our limited ability.

Without the help of other people at locks getting ropes for us and helping out we would have been packing up and abandoning the trip.
The boat was not easy to handle for two people, as the information suggested when we booked, and we are fit over 60s who run and cycle.

On the trip we met two women. One had fallen into a lock, and the other had fallen and hit her head and ended up in hospital.

In short, to hire out a boat without thrusters, to two people, with no experience and no adequate warning on the booking site, is to be honest nigh on insane. It very nearly spoilt the whole experience.
I would not recommend it to young people let alone older persons.
People we met, who had bow thrusters, wondered how in the world we had managed, as even with them they had trouble, and most of them had more people on the boat than just two.
When we mentioned this when we returned the boat the explanation was. “Well thirty years ago no boat had thrusters.” Yea well 70 years ago vehicles had no power steering and drum brakes, and cross ply tyres , but I would not expect to go to Hertz and hire one today.

I will be doing a Youtube video of some of the experiences and will have to BLEEP out quite a bit through the locks. The worst one was a Five F lock and that was just from my wife,who is normally not given to profanities.

Le Boat, another company who hires boats, does have a warning on their website about boats needing at least three people to operate them.

The back up service and emergency call out worked very well for us when we had a mechanical problem.

We enjoyed our cruise. The boat was well outfitted, performed well and was comfortable. There were a few small details that popped up: when a lock master was not present, we called our base for some assistance, they helped. Our ending base was titled differently than what we were expecting, but all ended well. We will return for a different canal cruise in the future.