Houseboat on Lake Powell

[Karen G]

Has anyone ever rented a houseboat on Lake Powell in Arizona? Travelzoo has this deal and I'm wondering if it's a good one.

 

[Rent_Share]

Outside of a rental of a fractional from a private party (i do believe an "owner" needs to be om board at all times) There is only one company with the the "right" to commercially Houseboats on Lake Powell

The fine print

With this deal, you don’t have to decide yet when to go. Just purchase a voucher from Travelzoo then call Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas directly at 888-896-3829 to make a reservation for your desired travel dates. Reservations are subject to availability and early booking is encouraged. To reserve a boat, pay the refundable damage deposit ($600 for 46’ Expedition and 48’ Navigator or $1000 for 59’ Discovery XL) at time of booking. Once the boat is reserved, cancellation policy prevails. See below for full terms and conditions

.

Not sure if there is any way to confirm availability with Lake Powel Resrts, prior to purchasing from Travel Zoo

 

[DaveNV]

FWIW: I've gone houseboating on Lake Powell for a week seven times. Renting a houeboat usually costs several thousand dollars for a week, so this price sounds fairly good. Keep it mind it's "bare boat," so you'd need to bring your own food and beverages, and pay for gas - which is way higher priced than at your local gas station. You normally pick up the boat after 12:00 noon, and return it before noon on ending day (not unlike a timeshare), so your actual usage days are limited with a three-day rental.

For the money, if you brought some friends, it'd be fun. I'd do it, if I lived closer to Powell. We liked to go in September, after the crazy summer crowds are gone, but the weather is still great. Not too hot or cold.

YMMV.

Dave

 

[Dollie]

In June, 2011 we rented a houseboat for three days at Bullfrog marina on Lake Powell. It was just the two of us, but we got a boat one size up from the smallest available. (The smallest houseboat was much slower and we wouldn’t be able to go where we wanted.)

- We paid for the night before on board at the dock so we could be all set up and ready to go early in the morning.

- Bullfrog marina is in the middle of the lake with nothing around. All food had to be purchased beforehand and brought to the marina. The marina near Page has shopping available in Page.

- The air conditioning was too noisy to run especially at night. Required the generator to run which was noisy and used up gas.

- The two separate bedrooms had just double beds which had walls on three sides and weren’t very roomy. Without the air conditioner running the doors had to be left open.

- You don’t really anchor the boat, the lake is too deep. You beach the boat, dig two holes 2 feet deep in the sand and drop an anchor in each, and tie them off on the stern of the boat. We hit a snag, the lake had risen 8 inches in 12 hours and was still rising, the sandy beaches were under water. We had too jury rig the anchors as best we could and were up most of the night tightening lines. This is probably not a common situation. It was caused by a combination of melting heavy winter snows in the mountain and lots of rain.

- The lake is very long. Do your homework and know how far you can go. Houseboats are slow.

- Mouse traps are supplied for the houseboat mice. Good luck catching them. They kept us company at night while we were watching the lines.

- After the trip, we came to the conclusion that we would have enjoyed having a room at the marina hotel and renting a speedboat to go out on the lake during the day.