Four operators in Cambridge will hire you a punt and leave the pole to you: Trinity College, Cambridge Chauffeur Punts, Scudamore’s and Granta. That is the whole list, nobody else on the river does self hire. Every price below is per punt rather than per person, and was taken from each operator’s own website in October 2026.
| Operator | Where you start | Price per punt | Book ahead? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity College | Garret Hostel Lane, on the Backs | £24 an hour (£20 for Cambridge residents & university alumni) | No, walk-up only |
| Cambridge Chauffeur Punts | Silver Street bridge, Mill Pond | £30 to £32 an hour | Not needed, but recommended for groups & early or late hires |
| Scudamore’s | Mill Lane or Quayside for the Backs, Granta Place for Grantchester | From £28.50 for an hour on the Backs, from £35.50 for 90 minutes to Grantchester | Yes, recommended |
| Granta | Newnham Mill Pond, by The Granta pub | £38 an hour (£34 students & CAMcard holders) | Yes, online |
Split six ways, an hour on a Scudamore’s punt from £28.50 comes to under £5 a head. The catch is that one of the six has to punt (although that’s true of any self hire punting).
The cheapest: Trinity College
Trinity’s punts are the cheapest self hire in Cambridge at £24 an hour, and cheaper again if you are a Cambridge resident, an alumnus or a member of the university. They also come with the most conditions:
- The season runs from Good Friday to the end of October, so there is no Trinity self hire through the winter.
- The punt house opens at 11am on weekdays and 10am at weekends, hiring stops at 5.30pm and the punts have to be back by 6pm.
- There is no advance booking. It is first come, first served.
- Some days are closed to the public when the college needs the punts for its own events, the May Ball being one.
- You need photo ID as a deposit. Cash and cards are both accepted.
You reach the punt house along Garret Hostel Lane, or from Queens Road on the other side of the river.
Cambridge Chauffeur Punts
Cambridge Chauffeur Punts run tours and also hire out self drive punts, from their station on Silver Street bridge, across the Mill Pond from Scudamore’s at Mill Lane. Their website gives £30 an hour on one page and £32 on another, with time after the first hour charged by the quarter hour, so expect somewhere between the two.
A punt takes six people including whoever is punting. You can hire on the day, but on weekend afternoons in the busy months it is first come, first served and they will not take a booking at all. Groups, multiple punts and early morning or late evening hires are worth booking ahead. They advertise discounts for all-day hire, students and Cambridge residents without saying how much.
They are open all year from 9am until dusk.
Scudamore’s
Scudamore’s has the largest fleet in Cambridge and two stations for the Backs, Mill Lane at the southern end and Quayside by Magdalene Bridge at the northern end. Self hire on the Backs is sold in fixed slots, from £28.50 for an hour, £35.50 for 90 minutes and £54 for three hours. Go over your slot and it is £3.50 for every six minutes, which is £35 an hour.
Grantchester hire leaves from the Boatyard at Granta Place and starts at 90 minutes, from £35.50, then £54 for three hours and £72 for six. They also have a 13-seat punt at roughly double those prices.
All of these are “from” prices. Scudamore’s does not publish its peak or weekend rates on the page, so the figure you see at checkout may be higher.
The rest of the small print:
- Six to a standard punt, five passengers plus the punter, and babies count.
- You need to be 16 to hire without an adult.
- They take a contactless card deposit at check-in, so arrive about 15 minutes early.
- Cancel more than 48 hours ahead and you get a refund less 30% (capped at £50). Inside 48 hours there is no refund unless conditions are unsafe.
Granta
Granta hire punts from Newnham Mill Pond, next to The Granta pub, and you can take them either down through the Backs or, over the rollers, up to Grantchester Meadows. At £38 an hour it is the dearest self hire in Cambridge, the same price day, evening and weekend, with students and CAMcard holders paying £34. Time after the first hour is charged by the quarter hour.
In return you can book online at any hour, they will give you some tuition before you set off if you ask, buoyancy aids are free and dogs are welcome. Summer opening is 9am to 9pm. A punt takes five or six, and they need ID as a deposit before you leave.
The Backs or Grantchester?
The Backs is the stretch everyone pictures, past King’s, Clare, Trinity and St John’s. All four operators punt it.
Grantchester is the other direction, upstream from the Mill Pond along the Granta to the village and its meadows. Of the four, Scudamore’s is the only one with a station on the upper river. If you want to punt to Grantchester using anyone other than Scudamore’s, there’s the added complication that you need to get your punt from the middle river to the upper river. This involves going over the rollers, i.e. physically dragging the punt up hill, over metal rollers in the ground and over the tow path at the top. Punting to Grantchester takes about 1.5 hours, longer for an inexperienced punter. The water is deeper and the river bed siltier than along the Backs. Not for the faint hearted. More on the village itself in our guide to exploring Grantchester.
One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced punters make is trying to keep hold of the pole if it gets stuck. This is usually the quickest way to end up falling into the river. If the pole does get stuck, the trick is to give it a twist before trying to pull it out. If that doesn’t work, simply let go of it. It’s always better to lose your pole and have to go back for it than lose your punt…
If you would rather not punt
A chauffeured tour costs more per head than splitting a self hire punt, but someone who knows the river does the punting and tells you what you are passing. Our Cambridge punt companies page lists who runs tours and from where, or you can book a shared punt tour with Cambridge River Tours directly.
For where each station sits on the river, see the map on our geography page.