House Boating in the Shuswap

House boating in the Shuswaps is something that everyone needs to experience at least once as a young adult. It is a week of relaxing and having a good time with all of your close buddies and meeting great people along the way. With British Columbia great summers you are almost guaranteed to have a great weather on the lake.

Photo by Mateo Abella

When you first arrive at the houseboat docks everyone is so anxious to get on the boats and get out of the marina. People are frantically trying to find parking spots and then quickly unloading their vehicles so that they can get down to marina. Little do most people know is that you have to wait 3-4 hours before you are actually aloud to board the boat. This waiting period gets everybody restless but before you know you are on your way.

Photo by Mateo Abella

The Shuswap is one massive lake with multiple arms to explore and as a house boater you can either choose to tour all the arms of the lake to get the full experience of the lake itself or you can choose to stay at the beach where all the partiers go. The first year I went house boating we decided that we wanted to check things out so we took one big tour of the lake to check everything out. And let me tell you it did not disappoint. We found areas to cliff dive, hidden waterfalls, and of course private beaches to ourselves. To add on to it the weather was perfect all week and we never encountered any bad weather so the trip turned out to be perfect.

Photo by Mateo Abella

The second time I went house boating I was 4 years older and we only went for 3 nights. We decided that if we wanted to make the most of the trip we should hit the party goers beach all 3 nights. This so called party beach is called Nielsen beach and it is the location where all the young adults park their boats at night. If you aren’t fond of staying up until the wee hours of the morning then you should definitely avoid this place. I had no regrets going to this beach all 3 nights except for the fact that random people would come on your boat at times while you were parked which made me a little uneasy about my personal belongings.

I think that if you’re a young adult and your looking to have a good time for 3 nights or week I would suggest sticking around the Nielsen beach area. You will meet a lot of great people and have a great time in the process. If you want a more quiet vacation you can avoid the whole Nielsen area and park your boat on the numerous beaches surrounding the lake.

House boating has something for people of all ages and it should be experienced once in your lifetime. So has anyone else ever gone house boating to the Shuswap? If so, how was your experience?