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Featured Article: Vacation, on a Houseboat or in a Hotel?
From: Stephanie Phong
There's always lot of decisions to be made when planning for a vacation. Such simple decisions like where to go and where to stay are enough to keep you busy searching for information for days. But if you love water and wish to spend some relaxing time near some beautiful lakes, then you may want to consider of staying on a houseboat on your next vacation.
Houseboats, like hotels vary in their degree of luxury and have been accordingly graded by the Department of Tourism. Like hotels too, houseboats vary widely in their locations. Houseboating is an appealing and rewarding outdoor experience giving great variety of beautiful terrain depending on lake and time of year.
A luxury houseboat, like a luxury hotel has fine furniture, good carpets and modern bathroom fittings, while the 'D category' (the lowest category) of houseboats, like low-budget hotels, is spartanly furnished. Hence, for economy houseboats their prices are often very affordable whereas the luxury ones can cost up to a few thousand dollars.
The more affordable houseboats offer a more traditional, camping like outdoor experience, where fishing, camping and closer quarters offer more opportunities for families or small groups to experience the lake in a Huck Finn manner that offers its own quaint rewards.
Most houseboats are fully equipped with all kitchen appliances and linens, barbeque grills, televisions, radios, heat/air-conditioning, and back-up generators. Many houseboats have additional features such as a microwave oven, VCR, built-in stereo-system, washer/dryer and water slide. Some houseboats have an operating fly bridge that allows you to navigate the boat from atop the sun deck as well as from the helm in the cabin.
Which Lake to stay?
Lake Cumberland in Kentucky is said to be the birthplace of houseboating in the USA. Gaining in popularity, houseboats are a wonderful way to explore many of the natural wonders of the country.
Lake Powell is a massive primordial red-rock canyon filled with bright blue water and endless sandstone scenery. Houseboating on Lake Powell is an extremely popular vacation option for good reason: the imposing Glen Canyon Dam impounds water from the Colorado River to form almost 2000 miles of shoreline which is more than the entire West Coast of the United States, with 900 serpentine canyons, and incredible moon-like rock formations, Lake Powell offers an unforgettable houseboat vacation experience.
Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake in North America. Located 30 minutes from Las Vegas, Lake Mead is convenient and accessible by air.
Lake Shasta is known as the houseboat capital of the world. Lake Shasta is a beautiful man-made lake created by the Shasta Dam.
In Australia, especially on the Murray River and the sunny coastline of Queensland, there are many motorised, pontoon-based houseboats with two or more bedrooms; some of these houseboats have levels or storeys.
In Canada, houseboats are gaining major popularity in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec as there is an abundance of perfectly suited rivers and lakes for houseboaters to enjoy.
In Europe, some of the finest and costliest examples of houseboats can be seen along the canals of Amsterdam (in the Netherlands), which even has houseboat hotels.
In India, houseboats are common on the backwaters of Kerala, and on the Dal Lake near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. Srinagar's thousand or so houseboats are moored along sections of the Dal and Nagin Lakes and river Jhelum, each decorated fancifully and named romantically and even whimsically.
If you enjoy water activities like swimming, fishing, sunbathing, waterskiing just to name a few, then staying on a houseboat would be a wonderful leisure vacation and an excellent choice for you and your family.
