Norfolk Boat Hire – Bishy Barney Boats

Earlier in the week we had a ‘family day’ where we visited Bishy Barney Boats and enjoyed a 3 hour hire in one of their adorable little red boats.

Bishy Barney boats are a brand new business, they opened recently late July. They operate from the edge of Thorpe Green from a green gazebo temporarily. They currently work all week but will be running a few days a week slowly reducing as the weather changes over the coming months. Keep an eye on their facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/BishyBarneyBoats/ for further information.

They provide you with life jackets, they even have dog life jackets but our Benji is too little to fit these. This was Benji’s first time on a boat, he wasn’t keen initially but as time went on he became happier and more relaxed looking either side of the boat at the sights.

Hire starts from just £20 per hour with a £50 cash deposit. Mark was very friendly and talked us through the best route to take to see the sites of Norwich. He also suggested a couple of places we could stop on route including the Ribs of beef pub. The boats are adorable, each boat hold 5 passengers including dogs & babies.They have a little sliding red roof in case it rains… tall people may need to duck haha!

It was lovely to see Norwich from a different angle. From the water you can appreciate all the beautiful sights we have in Norwich….  and the not so beautiful buildings which have been left derelict but this is a true reflection of Norwich. Some areas are utterly beautiful and others need some TLC. We didn’t bother stopping off for a drink as the weather was a bit grey so we just keep boating instead.

The girls enjoyed having a turn driving the boat, the boat was easy to maneuver and we pretty much had the river to ourselves, as larger cruising boats cannot access the shallower river areas and are only allowed so far into the city. We certainly had lots of people to wave at along the way as people walk through the city alongside the river.

We travelled an hour and a half in one direction turned around and headed back, we spotted 3 herons on the way and saw lots of cheeky swans. The swans were a bit grumpy and kept hissing at us.

We would love to hire a boat from this company again and head the other direction up to Surlingham and have a spot of lunch at the Surlingham Ferry, we would highly recommend Bishy Barney boats and would love to see their business thrive next summer when I am sure their name will become well-known around Norwich. This would be the perfect boat hire for tourists who want to see the sights of Norwich plus those who live locally who fancy a trip without heading all the way to Wroxham for boat hire.

If you would like to find out more check out their website : http://www.bishybarneyboats.co.uk/

Thanks for reading

*We received a free boat trip in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are our own.