Berryessa houseboat a hit with the kids
You’ve got kids – lots of kids – and you’re wondering how you’re going to fit them into that resort condo unit. You also wonder how you’re going to keep them all happy and, maybe most important, how you’re going to be able to get away from them. Even the most devoted parent, now and then, needs to de-compress.
The answer: a really big houseboat. Being confined to a boat might not immediately top your list of good things to do with large numbers of kids. But if our recent experiment is any indication, the houseboat thing really does work.
So just how many kids are we talking about here? In our case, a total of eight: our grade-school age daughter and our grown-up daughter’s seven kids, ages 1 through 13. Figure in three adults and you can see that planning for this trip would be only slightly less complex than the Normandy invasion.
If you haven’t rented a houseboat before, the first thing to understand is that these boats are far bigger and more spacious than regular boats. In our first houseboat articles we used to compare them to waterborne RV’s, but the truth is houseboats nowadays are much bigger than even the most spacious RV’s. On this particular trip to Northern California’s Lake Berryessa, we rented a 70-foot Millenium – which is to a small power boat what a 747 is to a Cessna 150.
The 70-foot Mellennium features a kind of great room in the front salon along with a large dining table and chairs. There is a breakfast counter and fully equipped kitchen along with four private bedrooms, six queen beds, two full baths, a wet bar, sun canopy and a hot tub on the top deck. Like most houseboat rentals, this also featured a waterslide on the top deck that kids find irresistible.
The setting for our experiment – Lake Berryessa – is less than an hour’s drive east from Napa, and shares with the Napa Valley a landscape of sun-drenched scenery that is as pretty as anyplace you’ll find in California. The wooded hills, forests and country roads in this part of the state are perfect for enchanting Sunday drives or picnics or hikes. Adding to that is the 23-mile-long Lake Berryessa, a turquoise jewel that is as practical as it is scenic. This man-made lake is actually a reservoir known for excellent fishing and warm summer temperatures that make it ideal for swimming and other water sports.
Endless water recreation is one reason houseboats work for large families. It’s not like you’re crammed into a boat for your entire vacation – the boat is just a place to hang while you’re putting meals together or watching a movie on the elaborate satellite wall-mounted television. When you are beached, the water in that particular cove is now your swimming pool and a pretty big one at that. More than likely, you’ll find trails from your beach leading to hours of fun hikes and exploration, another activity that will keep the kids occupied and completely engrossed in what they’re doing.
With a houseboat, you can be as stationary or mobile as you want to be. We’ve done houseboat trips where we spent hours each day cruising and then found a new beach mid-afternoon to explore and settle in for the night. On our Lake Berryessa trip, we found the kids especially enjoyed the shore activities, so we kept our cruising to a minimum and set up camp sometimes two nights in a row in the same location. The point is, you can do whatever you want to do – there is no itinerary to keep, no deadlines to worry about. Just go where the spirit takes you. Read more »
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activity holidays,
cheap vacations
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Posted December 22, 2009 
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