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Houseboat Holidays - pontoon boat rentals in Ontario and 1000 Islands

by IAN from www.all-about-houseboats.com

Houseboat Holidays - a great rental vacation

Houseboat Holidays - a great rental vacation

When it comes to a houseboat vacation rental, there's nothing better than vacationing in the 1000 Islands, Gananoque, Ontario, area of Canada. There's houseboats of various sizes available along with a multitude of rental packages.


The season off in early May, and takes the houseboats out late in October to allow the folks who enjoy the relaxed quiet pace that those times offer. Don't forget that before late June and after Labor Day, there are no crowds and that there is excellent fishing, especially around the local 22 islands. You can travel the west towards Kingston and do the Rideau Canal, or stay local and visit the many attractions in the Thousand Islands area located in the St Lawrence River.

The pontoon houseboats range from 38-48 feet, are fully equipped, and are easy to maneuver.The Mercury Big Foot outboard engines are fuel efficient so doing a little traveling sightseeing won't break the bank in gas.

For those who love to fish, the area is filled with excellent fishing especially for pike, muskie, bass, and plenty of huge tasty perch.

For those who like to scuba dive or even snorkeling the Thousand Islands area is renowned for some of the cleanest and clearest water making it ideal for underwater discoveries like for old boat wrecks.

There's some incredible local attractions like the many free
docks and mooring all part of the National Parks, the amazing Boldt Castle, and even some top notch golfing at Smugglers Glen.

From the boats themselves to first class service, they strive to make each vacation a lasting memory for you. If you are looking to book yourself a vacation, I would recommend doing it early, as they become filled rather quickly.

Some of the commonly asked questions are:

* Pets are Welcome
* Fishing License and Boats available
* Boaters Operator Card not required
* There's a boater orientation session included
* Insurance buy-down available
* Free bedding and children's PFD's included





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Lastly, hopefully some of our readers and visitors will share and post comments about their houseboat holiday experiences.

Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.

Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats


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Comments for Houseboat Holidays - pontoon boat rentals in Ontario and 1000 Islands

Average Rating starstarstar

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Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		We had a great vacation there.
by: Cliff and Wendi

I was surfing around the net when I ran across your site, and I saw this article about Holiday Houseboats. It brought back memories because my wife and I had rented a houseboat from them years back when our kids were small.

The area is gorgeous and the weather was fabulous, as the boats were very clean and well maintained. The week flew by before we knew it and we had to bring it back. We will have to try renting there again, this time however just the two of us because the kids are all grown and have flown the coop.

Well worth the money. Cliff & Wendi.
Rating
star 		The boat was riddled with problems and very old ….but we made the best of it and enjoyed the time with the family.
by: TravelingFamily

The boat was riddled with problems and very old…. but we made the best of it and enjoyed the time with the family. We rented Big Blue 1, the 48 foot monster on the 5 day package - 3 adults and 4 kids, in late July.

On the morning of the second day the engine was smoking horribly and upon inspection we noted the fuel line had a leak in it.

We called the company - no one called back so we drove 30 minutes back to the marina and they fixed it no problem (one of the co-owners met us upon arrival and was really nice about it).

We also had him fix half of the screens that had holes in them as we were overrun with bugs our first night out. We had to close the windows which made for a very hot night of sleeping. He mentioned that this should have been handled before we were given the boat.

When we received the boat, the refrigerator and freezer were turned off by mistake. The freezer never did get cold enough to freeze anything, so we lost a bit of the food we brought with us that didn’t last.

On the third day we ran out of fresh water. We used maybe 2 gallons (brushing teeth and filled one pot for cooking hotdogs because the grill wouldn’t stay lit). We had plastic bottles of water for everyone to drink and 10 liter spout containers for our use in the kitchen.

On the fourth day the sewage backed up and began to leak out the back drain plug. I won’t even go into the odor, I’m sure you can imagine.

The last afternoon we drove to back to our original anchoring spot about 30 minutes from the rental place and anchored for the night.

At about 9 PM the anchor lights and interior lights were dimming. By 10 PM all lights were out - batteries were dead.

That meant no lights and no water at all. The motor still started (different batteries) so we called the rental place and let them know, but figured we’d make due until morning when we had to turn the boat in anyway.

There was no answer so we left a message - no one called back. The next morning the motor didn't start – those two batteries were dead.

We called about 5 AM and left a message that we were stranded and the wind was blowing us towards the rocks.

Called again at 6 AM and left another message. Called again at 7 AM and still no answer. Called again at 7:30 and the owner, Peter, answered.

We explained the situation and he said he "must have missed that one" when we asked why no one called us back. I’m not sure why they have a "help" line posted on the boat, if the phone is only answered during office hours.

Finally, about 40 minutes later he showed up and changed out the batteries. We asked him if that was normal for the batteries to go dead and he said no.

When we returned the boat, we asked one of the dock mates at the rental place the same question and he said they had been having problems with those batteries for a while.

When we explained all the problems to the other co-owner of the company, Peter, he didn't seem to care or be concerned when we explained the 40 gallons of fresh water ran out after two days, the sewage was full after 3 days, the batteries went dead even though we had run the boat for over an hour every day.

He kept making excuses saying "there could be any number of reasons." Anyway, the boat was old, more like an old camper than a nice house boat.

It has wood paneling and brown musty curtains and cushions. It could definitely use some updating. The boat goes about 7 miles an hour and drinks a lot of gas.

When I told him because of his houseboat a great deal of fuel leaked into the river he took off half the price of the fuel, (20 gallons at $7.00/gallon).

I told him it wasn’t the money I was frustrated with it was the poor working condition of the boat and having to listen to my wife, sister-in-law and four kids complain because the fresh water ran out so quickly, the toilet stunk after a few days and became unusable after 4 days, etc.

Overall we made the best of it and had a nice adventure, but next time we'll rent a cottage on the river and take our ski boat out every day to enjoy the beauty of the 1000 Islands area.

Definitely won’t rent a houseboat from Houseboat Holidays, Ltd.

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