Caldon Canal  – An easy week canal cruising down one of the most beautiful and quiet canals of them all. From the junction near the marina you progress up some locks including a staircase lock, to the outskirts of Stoke via factories and parks and an electric lift bridge. Here you encounter progressively more picturesque countryside as you enter the Churnet Valley. The Leek branch contains no locks from the junction, whereas the Froghall branch descends to the River Churnet. You travel through wooded hillsides, pass Cheddleton Flint Mill and may even see a steam train puffing past you as you head for the very low Froghall Tunnel, to the turning point at Froghall Wharf.
If time permits, canal cruising down the Trent and Mersey on your return to Stone is well worthwhile.

Four Counties Ring  – A more strenuous canal cruising route, you travel southwards from the marina past the Wedgewood factory with its visitor centre through the pretty canal town of Stone to the junction at Great Heywood, where you meet the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.
Meandering westwards through 12 locks through picturesque and peaceful countryside, you join the Shropshire Union at Autherley. The “Shroppie “ with it’s impressive architecture, banks and cuttings, and very pretty flights of locks carries you northwards through villages and open country, to the the Middlewich Arm. At Middlewich you rejoin the Trent and Mersey which carries you back up the Cheshire locks (also known as Heartbreak Hill) and the Harecastle Tunnel.

Cheshire Ring  – Another more strenuous canal cruising route; you travel northwards through the Harecastle Tunnel and join the Macclesfield via an aqueduct. This is a lovely canal passing through Congleton and Macclesfield to the junction at Marple. Her you bear left down the Marple flight of locks towards Manchester. A major city, with all the associated services, Manchester has undergone regeneration along its waterways for example the Castlefields complex.
A lock-free section of the Bridgewater (where it all started) follows and brings you through the Preston Brook Tunnel to join the Trent and Mersey canal at a very shallow stop lock. You continue lock free, travelling along the contours of the hill overlooking the Weaver Valley with two more short but twisty tunnels, passing the Anderton Lift with its new visitor centre, on through glorious countryside to Middlewich. Here the lock work starts in earnest with the Cheshire locks ahead of you stretching all the way up to the Harecastle Tunnel and back home.

East Midlands Ring  – Travel south from the base through pretty countryside passing the Wedgewood factory with its visitor centre, through the canal town of Stone to Great Heywood and on to Fradley Junction. Here you continue down the locks towards Burton-on–Trent and eventually turn onto the canalised River Soar to wind your way to Leicester. After Leicester you encounter the famous Foxton and Watford staircase locks and pass through undulating countryside and two tunnels to Norton Junction. Braunston Tunnel and locks bring you through this hub of the canal world before turning north once more at Braunston Junction with its fancy bridges.
Travelling towards Rugby and Coventry the canal takes a more direct route past old mining communities and down the beautiful Atherstone flight with cuttings and embankments to Fazeley and Fradley junctions and home. Most of this route is very rural and quiet.