New web site for Green River Canoes

Green River Canoes 

Our travel company which provides Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoe Trips to the south of France, the Belgium Ardennes and the Garden of England has had a web-site makeover,

Although I was happy with the original site and the way it looked I had the feeling over the past year that some people were finding the site difficult to navigate. To find out everything for a trip you had to visit several pages. On the new site you can find out everything you need to know from one page: that is the Trip description, its scheduled dates & prices, the day-to-day itinerary and the details of the hotels we use as well as photographs and maps.

Design-wise I've gone for a simple bi-colour scheme based on the Pullman colours of Umber (Dark Brown) & Cream with a 3rd highlight colour a shade of Green. It terms of graphics I've opted for a simple silhouette style which echoes something of the Penguin paperback design ethos of the 1950s.

I was aiming for something that looked reassuring & comfortable and without the common 'in your face' promotional feel of many similar sites. I took some inspiration from the Rapha Travel site as well.

Although the site makes use of photographs from the trips - slide-shows are available for each trip - I've made extensive use of the 'posters' I made earlier in the year and these are used as menus to the trip pages from the front page.

Here is a screen shot of the opening page:

Green River Canoes: Family Trips

Connect with nature: Canoeing in the School Holidays

During each season Green River Canoes dedicates some of its Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoe Trips to the idea of families with youngish children to come canoeing with us to the Belgium Ardennes and to the Perigord and Lot regions in the south of France.

These trips will coincide with the school holidays, including the breaks around Easter and Whitsun, the long summer holidays and the half-term holiday in the Autumn term (usually towards the end of October).

The trips will operate on the same schedule as our other trips to the region except that we will make special efforts to ensure that the focus is on the wants of the children especially when it comes to the amount of time spent canoeing, the activities we pursue away from the river and making sure the children are fed and watered at suitable times. This is not to say that the adults will not also have a great time.

The trips we schedule in the school holidays will be those of a shorter duration: 5, 6 or 7 days. Although of course longer trips can be arranged.

We offer a discount to children under 12 years of age of 25% for the first child and 50% for subsequent children. For young adults under 18 the discount is 15% for the first and 25% for others.

The 7 Day Trip to the Belgium Ardennes also has a discount of 10% for all adults.

For the 2014 season we are offering the following trips to coincide with the school holidays:

5th-11th   April:        Seven Days in the Belgium Ardennes
13th-19th April:        Seven Days in the Belgium Ardennes
25th-30th May:         Five Days on the Célé in the south of France
23rd-29th August:    Seven Days in the Belgium Ardennes
25th-30th October:  Five Days on the Célé in the south of France

On all the trips we will endeavour to engage the children not only in learning how to canoe, but also assist them in attaining a certain level of water-craft and to become involved in the natural history surrounding us in and around the rivers.

We will also encourage the children to become engaged in the history of the region we visit in particular where we can visit castles and other historical sites. Of course we realise that this is a holiday too so we will try to avoid a too heavy-handed approach and take our lead from both the parents and the children about how we spend our time.
We will also encourage the children to learn something of the local culture where we are; this will involve the local cuisine obviously but also the observation and joining in of local events. We often come across Fêtes and Fairs and Festivals during the summer months.

We will usually canoe in tandem with one adult and one child per canoe, and if the paddlers become sufficiently proficient during the week then we may allow two children to paddle together. Closely watched, of course.

Children must be 7 years of age and be able to swim 25 metres. Life-jackets are worn by everyone when on the water.

Children older than 12 may canoe together after we have observed how competent they are.

The rivers on these trips have no white-water or rapids although the river can flow quickly in places. On our first few days canoe instruction will be given and everyday we will go over the safety drill before starting the paddle for the day.




Brochures can be browsed here and downloaded for offline reading.

 

Introducing Green River Canoes

Green River Canoes Ltd

My friend Steve Lines and I have just kicked off a new project for the New Year. It's called Green River Canoes and it's a small company that runs Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoe Trips to the south of France.

All the links to our web site, blog, facebook and twitter are in the panel on the right.

Here is what our Home page says:

Welcome to the Green River Canoes blog. We are a company offering Inn-to-Inn Guided Canoe Trips in the south of France. Our main website is here. We are currently offering a 6 Day Trip in the Perigord region on the Vezere and Dordogne rivers and a 5 Day Trip in the Lot region on the Cele river. A combination 12 Day, 3 Rivers trip is also available.

Bespoke/Custom Trips can be arranged if required. Here are some ideas.

All our holidays comprise of mostly canoeing with some (often optional)  hiking. The itinerary is planned but is flexible enough to be changed on the day if required. These are detailed here for the Perigord trip and here for the Lot Trip.

All our holidays are guided. Our guests will be accompanied on the river and trail by an experienced guide who knows the area and rivers well. Our other guide will accompany us in the background by driving our vehicle between lodgings. When necessary this vehicle will be transferring our luggage, rendezvousing with us for lunch and generally being available as and when needed.

All the accommodation on our trips is in small local Hotels, Chambre D'Hotes or B&Bs, which are detailed here for the Perigord trip and here for the Lot trip.

All our holiday prices include transfers, canoe hire, accommodation and meals (except one).
All trips have a maximum size of 9 people. That is 7 guests and 2 guides.

On all our trips we will enjoy the natural history and local history of the region and see many of the fabulous sites along the way. Needless to say we will also enjoy the local wines and regional cuisine.

We take trips from late spring, through summer (avoiding August) until the autumn and fall. When to go? These books and maps will also help you enjoy the trip.

More detailed questions are answered here.

If you have any other questions we would be delighted to hear from you. All the details are on the panel to the right, where you can also sign-up for our quarterly Newsletter.