Enjoy your first houseboat vacation with important planning.

Prepare for a fantastic time to escape the ordinary life with a houseboat vacation. Immerse yourself in nature and unwind in your floating home away from home. Put away the electronics and lose the sense of time as you enjoy living on the water.

Being on a houseboat with those important people in your life is a definite memory making experience! You spend hours with them, so choose wisely! Ha! Ha! Seriously, you do spend your entire time on the boat with them. You have nothing else to distract you.

Your electronic devices aren’t important on this trip. There is no Wifi, only data, available.

This is a trip to reconnect with others. A time to take it slow to enjoy the people around you, nature, and the quiet. You set the tone for your trip. You can set a schedule or just go with the flow.

My first vacation on a houseboat

I had never heard of vacationing on a houseboat before I meet my husband. It wasn’t until my, then, fiancé suggested it as a honeymoon destination. He told me that he had a friend that would vacation on a houseboat. He raved about it! Which is why we reserved our houseboat at a marina in Dale Hallow for our honeymoon. We rented a small houseboat for $600.

Our honeymoon started with directions on how to steer the boat and all the other important information about being on houseboat. It was a grey morning as we pulled away from the dock. On board we had the food, games and wedding thank you cards we had brought. Moving slowly with our dingy in tow we looked for an inlet that was not already occupied. Finally, after what seemed a long drive, with spotted an unoccupied inlet on the man-made Dale Hallow lake. We attached our houseboat to a tree along the shoreline after a few attempts.

This type of trip was perfect for me. It’s nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of life. I enjoy just sitting even though my family might disagree. I am always doing something at home. This type of vacation forced me to be just be.

We didn’t just sit quietly the whole time, we had plenty of fun. I caught a couple blue gill with my homemade fishing rod. We swam in the water and went down the slide. We even got our thank you cards done from our wedding.

On our second to last day we woke to find a houseboat in our inlet. We had plenty of space between us. Despite the fact that our inlet was invaded, our honeymoon was a peaceful, relaxing and quiet.

My second vacation on a houseboat

In 2018, my husband and I decided to go back to Dale Hallow. We would bring some of our children along to discover how fantastic a houseboat vacation is.

I looked into the Hendricks Creek Resort. This is where we rented our houseboat for our honeymoon. We didn’t have issues with them and considered looking at them first. Based on boat size and the time we were going we decided not to rent from them. We decided to rented from Sunset Marina.

Upon arrival, we had to wait quite a while. The wait was due to low staff. As we waited to be on our way, we loaded everything on to our boat, we unpacked our things in our rooms, put away the groceries and surveyed the boat. The inside was clean. On the outside, there some spider webs and daddy long legs which were probably there as we were renting at the beginning of the season.

After getting all of the rules, we were on our way. Our first goal was to find a place to dock our boat before dark. It didn’t take too long. Our first docking was fantastic. No problems. Soon dinner was started as the sun began to set. We spent our first evening chatting and playing the games we brought with us. My husband played songs on the portable speaker. It was a serene night under the clear starry sky.

The family had a great time!

On our first full day on the boat, we swam and kayaked. At some point during the day we decided to untie our boat from shore. We wanted to venture out into the great unknown, or Dale Hallow Lake. There were only a few boats on the lake. We could see several houseboats attached to the shoreline.

Out on the main lake the kids had a blast jumping off the top of the houseboat, going down the slide, kayaking and swimming. My youngest loved jumping off the boat after finally being coxed to do so. All of them would compete on how far they could jump away from the boat. They would all jump at the same time. They had a blast!

Tying the houseboat to land

We loved the experience of being on the lake with hardly anyone else. Which is why we went out on the lake each day. Be warned if you decide to move your boat every morning. You have to find a new location if you don’t go back to old one. We could never find it after wandering around. Which is why we always had to attach in a new location.

Keep in mind that some locations can be tricky to tie your boat to. We liked docking where the back of the boat was out in the deep water. We also wanted to secure the back of boat to avoid drifting into the shore. In order for us to accomplish this, we roped both end to the shoreline.

How my husband and older son docked the boat

To tie our boat to the shoreline, my older son got in the kayak and held the rope that was attached to the boat. He would pull the back of the boat into the shoreline. When that rope was attached, my son kayaked with the other rope to attach it to a tree. My husband would steer the boat.

Once, while docking, my son jumped out of the kayak and into the water. He emerged yelling, “Bees were attacking me!” In trying to wrap a rope around a tree he had disturbed some bees. Do be wiser than us when you dock your boat!

Other things to do with the kayak

One afternoon, my husband and son took the kayak to a shoreline where they could climb. We didn’t know that Dale Hallow Lake was once a town with hills and mountains. For your information, the hills and mountains are pure shale which will crumble under your feet if you step wrong. My husband did just that and slid down the hill from pretty high up. Thanks goodness he didn’t get hurt!

On our last full day, the kids kayaked to an island. The island contained only nature. The kids spent some time exploring.

My family really enjoyed the houseboat vacation. My younger kids have requested another houseboat vacation. If this sounds interesting to you in a good way, then do it! You won’t be disappointed!

Find out more about Dale Hallow with these articles:

Willow Grove: The town that drowned

Houseboat vacations are laid back. They are for relaxing and getting away from the world. They are for “just being” and enjoying your surroundings. Houseboat vacations is upscale camping or glamping.