Brilliant Boating from the Broads Biggest Boatyard (Richardson's Boating Holidays)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	Richardson's Boating Holidays
Date:	01/08/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great choice of boats and great service.

Disadvantages: None.

The Norfolk Broads is a series of lakes (broads) connected by rivers covering nearly 200 miles of countryside in Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads contains a massive 125 miles of navigable waterways. One important advantage of the Broads over other river and canal systems is that there are no locks to negotiate.

In my opinion, a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads is one the best types of holiday possible in Britain, and I have done so three times.

In choosing a boating holiday, the boatyard (and its selection of boats) can make or break your holiday. Each of my trips has been arranged through Richardson's boatyard which is based at Stalham and is the largest boat yard in the Broads (if you want to see how large, go to Multimap.com, type in the postcode NR12 9BX and look at the aerial view).

As well as being the largest, Richardson's is also one of the oldest boat hire companies in the area; boats were first hired out in 1944 (I imagine the boats, boat yards, and the facilities were light years away from what we have now!).

Motor cruisers are an ideal way to explore the Broads. In what's basically a floating caravan, the users have showers, bedrooms, toilets, TV, CD player and all other 'mod-cons' in what's hopefully a well maintained and furnished mobile hotel.

The choice of motor cruiser can be bewildering; Richardson's have 130 on offer! These range from craft suitable for a couple, to some with berths for 10 people or more. Fortunately, the Richardson's website (www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk) is extremely well laid out with a great search engine and loads of pictures and information on all the boats on offer.

A happy couple of hours can easily be whiled away, discussing the various boats' features before deciding on one to hire (actually, it's best to pick a few in case the first choice has already been let).

The excellent website gives a start to the Richardson's boating holiday experience. Prices are reasonable and the standard of boats varies from acceptable (tend to be the cheapest to hire) to brand new and/or luxurious; there really are boats to suit most parties and budgets.

Booking can be completed wholly on line, but I did phone the boatyard to check that everything was OK (twice, once after paying the deposit, the second after paying the full amount). Each time, the staff were very friendly and really helpful.

Arriving at the boatyard, the visitor gets a real sense of the scale of the place. There are boats everywhere! Checking in at reception reinforces the impression of Richardson's as a quality organisation. The reception area is large, well furnished, and very clean, with an adequate number of staff.

The receptionists are capable, and friendly. Our few questions were answered immediately, we were assigned a 'departure slot' and directed to the life jacket measuring area (life jackets should be mandatory for anyone on the outside of the boat).

We had an hour or so to wait, so we wandered about looking at the boats and had a snack at the little café on site. At the appointed time, we were taken on to the boat and our guide showed us how to handle the boat and how to operate the facilities. Once he was satisfied that we weren't going to hit anything, he jumped off and we cruised out of the boatyard into our holiday.

Our boat was 'Monte Carlo' a large, but quite old cruiser. The boat was very clean (each boat is cleaned before hiring out by an army of cleaners) and well furnished; the kids absolutely loved it!

The boat is supplied with a full tank of fuel which is more than enough for a week's cruising. The water on the other hand, needs filling up (at any boatyard) every day or it will run out.

Onboard is quite a nice manual listing all of the places to stop, tourist attractions and the heights of bridges etc. Contact details to call out an engineer in an emergency were also shown. Although we did not need this, it was reassuring to know that, within an hour or so, an expert would be with us to sort out our problem.

We really enjoyed our week on the Broads on 'Monte Carlo'. Everything we needed was onboard and the six of us had a great time. All too soon, it was time to return to the boatyard and hand back the keys.

Again, the service we received was professional and friendly. We were assigned someone to check over the boat and measure the fuel to see how much we'd used. Fortunately, we'd not hit anything (well not hard enough to cause any lasting damage!) so did not have to pay any 'damages'.

A final visit to reception saw us credited for the fuel we'd not used and then we were on our way home.

All six of us agreed that it had been a lovely holiday. I believe that the smooth, professional service provided by Richardson's had made the holiday even more enjoyable. I have no hesitation in recommending Richardson's to people who want to cruise the Broads. We will certainly be using them when we next go back.

Summary: A sensible choice for anyone hiring a Broads cruiser.