Blakes Holiday Boating

Fantastic boat from the outside but bedrooms very small with not much storage space. my elderly dad slept in the front single bed and each morning the sheets were soaking wet due to the window seal being damaged.A man came and stuck some tape over the seal but the dampness continued the whole week and we had to dry the sheet off every morning.Also duel steering is great but when weather was bad and we had to steer from the inside the windows are angled so it is difficult to see out of.

On a more cheerful note the wildlife was excellent,we saw lots of Herons,a kingfisher,ducks swans and we even saw a deer one morning. At Oulton broad theres a park and the squirrels are really tame and will eat out of your hand.

The Ferry house at Surlingham has a lovely atmosphere and food not too bad.

Best meal ever is in the Waveney on Oulton broads, we go there every year and the food is fantastic,especially the pies.

The Berney arms next to berney windmill has a great atmosphere,the pub is three miles off the road and the staff have to trek across the farmers fields for supplies,the staff are lovely,pool table,darts,tv,draughts,chess,bar skittles,dominoes.

Great breakfast at the stracey arms,friendly welcome.

Don't eat at the swan horning,very expensive,small amounts my cod was grey and tasteless.

Will come again next year but better boat although supermore cost nearly two thousand and we think it should have been in better condition for the money. Also there was some unprofessionalism within the company that we went with. Firstly we paid £40 for "undercover parking" and when we arrived, we were told that there was no undercover parking and so we had to leave the cars in the outside car park for a week. But outside parking should have only cost £30 and we were not refunded the £10 extra for undercover parking. Also we put down a £200 deposit for fuel for the boat, and at the end of the week we had only used half a tank of fuel, and we were told this by the company, and yet we were only given £60 back from our deposit which in my opinion should have been £100 as we only used half.

Several years ago, my then wife and I went on our first boating holiday on the Broads and it was O.K. 3 years and 5 years ago I went on my own. It was one of the best holidays I've been on for years. The friendliness of the boatyard owner at Reedham was excellent, as was the car parking. The tranquility, especially on an evening was brilliant. Other boat users were friendly, fishing was good. On my own recommendation, 3 of my friends have had family holidays down there and all enjoyed it. I'm taking 3 mates down there this September on a short break, with a view to them going down there with their families. Thoroughly recommend it.

Hired a Sandpiper cruiser from Blakes in Aug 2008, costing £1400 for 1 week! This "cruiser" had 4 star rating, like previous review, I wouldn't even give it 1/2 star! The interior was dark, dingy, outdated, scruffy. The 2 double beds had double duvets crammed into single covers! Pillows were like rocks, the toilet was a joke, the "shower" was even worse, warm for 10 seconds then icy for the rest! We took the boat back a day early, I think the boatyard employees were shocked. This boat needs sinking, if you are thinking of hiring it DON'T it was appalling. NEVER AGAIN.No wonder there were no interior pics in the brochure!

Booked a 2 week holiday and abandoned after a week of hell with persistant trouble with boat breaking down. After 5 days cruising boat had to be fixed 5 times. Blakes didnot want to know, poor customer service and attitude. Would not recommend Blakes or their boats to anyone. Absoulte nightmare the most stressful 5 days of muour lives.

This was our first experience of boating holidays. We hired an Osprey craft through Blakes Boating which was supposed to be a 4 star boat but seemed more like 1/2 star to us.

The boat was disappointing to say the least. The cleanliness of the boat in general left a lot to be desired. The windows were filthy. The crockery needed washing before we could use it.

The furniture and woodwork were tatty and battered. The outside of the boat was just as bad. It was the worst looking boat on the water.

The boat also smelled damp and fusty. We purchased air fresheners for both toilets and bedrooms to make things a bit more pleasant.

We saw lots of boats from Caley Cruisers which appeared to be much nicer with extras like microwaves, toasters etc included. On pricing them up when we came home they were not much more expensive. Le Boat also had boats moored at the same boatyard as ours but were not featured in Blakes brochures. They were also much nicer.

Al in all a brilliant holiday but we would be more selective about who we hired out boat from. If you want to go to the Scottish lochs/Caledonian canal try Caley Cruisers (Inverness) or Le Boat.com.

Spent a week on a 44 ft boot. This was our first ever time on a boat so as you can imagine it was quite a challenge. The instruction we got was minimal and did not really prepare us for the experience. However we had a great holiday, 5 adults and one child. Some of the waterways are extremely beautiful and peaceful even in August when we went. Cooking on board was brilliant, bacon sandwiches each morning whilst cruising down the broads - brilliant. Our only gripe or struggle was parking the boat. 44 ft is quite a size, going forward was great but trying to reverse was a struggle. The toilet experience was extremely amusing as we had a chemical toilet with an handle. Spent the first few days laughing about peoples experiences on the dreaded loo. Personally plan your land visits is my advice!! I think things would have been better had we got a newer boat as ours was a four star. Overall a memorable experience. Make sure you take someone with you is good at parking the boat and you will be fine.