Guy Dresser | Royal Canoe Club - Well, we’ve known it for years. But now it’s official. Following the Thames through the Cotswolds, Berkshire, Middlesex, Surrey and London is one of the world’s ‘best experiences’, according to Lonely Planet.

The travel books company reckons that navigating the river is one experience that everyone should have at some point in their life.

Scaling the world’s highest peaks or trekking through the rainforest are adventures many dream of for a lifetime.

Boating the Thames is a trip that’s been ranked alongside the likes of climbing Everest and rafting the Amazon as one of the greatest experiences in the world.

It joins a list, compiled by influential guidebook firm Lonely Planet, which also includes tracking mountain gorillas in Uganda and diving with sharks in South Africa.

It’s not hard to see why. A trip down the Thames affords those hardy enough a snapshot of England, an experience of country life, urban sprawl, sights and sounds that define all aspects of life from rural idyll to metropolitan attractions.

Rather like Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three men in a boat’, you could do it in a canoe. From Lechlade to Teddington, there are 45 locks, 104 bridges and an awful lot of water.

But don’t just take our word for it…check out the Lonely Planet site.