C&O Canal Boat Tours Are Back for the Season Starting May 5

Georgetown Heritage will resume its community boat rides together the C&O Canal on May well 5.

That’s two many years before than earlier reported final slide, when it was nevertheless unclear whether a tentative multi-yr restoration venture alongside the canal would have to terminate this total year. Even though that undertaking, spearheaded by the Nationwide Park Company, is nevertheless anticipated to start off sometime this year—and will likely reduce this boat period short—Georgetown Heritage is prepared to have men and women aboard its green-and-white canal boat although it can. (This period will probably be your final possibility to experience the boat until eventually following construction wraps up a pair yrs from now.)

This will mark the next year that the 19th-century canal has a boat back again on its waters given that rides ceased in 2011 owing to the prior vessel’s inadequate problem. An additional new multi-year renovation task and the purchase of a 80-foot-prolonged, $1.5-million packet boat (funded by a grant from the town) manufactured rides doable all over again past summer time. 

Very last year’s excursions proved extra popular than expected, with extra than 20,000 tickets purchased, according to the nonprofit Georgetown Heritage. Riders arrived from 52 U.S. territories and states as properly as 48 nations around the world.

“We are glad to construct on final year’s results and offer you new approaches to link folks with this vital milestone of American historical past,” claimed S. Rex Carnegie, director of education and learning and partnerships for Georgetown Heritage in a press release. 

Each individual hourlong tour will take travellers together a one-mile stretch of the canal where they can encounter what it is like to go through a increasing and slipping carry lock. Along the way, enthusiastic (and historically dressed) guides share specifics about lifetime on the canal much more than a century in the past. “Every boat tour is a singular glimpse into the earlier,” reported Carnegie.

Rides depart 4 periods a day on Wednesdays by Sundays. You can reserve tickets listed here.

Or, if you’re a Georgetown fanatic and have $300 to donate, you can kick off the 2023 season with Georgetown Heritage at its “All Aboard the Spring Soiree” celebration, featuring a catered reception and open bar, on Could 4. Individuals can also e book the docked canal boat for personal evening rentals by emailing [email protected].