Life With The Libbys | Houseboat Vacation on Lake Powell

Looking for a destination for your next friendscation? Look no further than a houseboat on Lake Powell.

We're finally getting around to sharing details from one of our favorite friend vacations and it has us ready to book our next one. Seriously, it doesn't get much better than the epic views of Lake Powell, warm water, bathing suit only dress code, no makeup, and even better - no decisions or plans to make. Just you, your friends, good drinks, fun music, in one of the most beautiful places. I feel like I rarely make plans to go back to the same destination because there are so many places in this world I want to visit first - but I would do this vacation on repeat.

So here's the details & some pictures to get you inspired.

Traveling to Lake Powell:

There unfortunately are not a ton of large airports near Lake Powell (there's a small one in Page, AZ) so we chose to fly into Vegas. From Vegas it's about 4 hour drive to Lake Powell so we rented a 15 passenger van (for 8 of us + luggage) and headed to Hurricane, Utah to cut our trip in half. We crashed at an (this) airbnb for the night (also stayed here recently and loved it). If you were looking to make a bigger trip out of it Zion National Park is nearby and would make a great stop on your trip!

The next morning we headed to Page, AZ where we rented our houseboat from Wahweap Marina.

The Houseboat:

We rented the 59 ft. Discovery XL which was decent for the price. It had a full kitchen, slept 12, 1.5 bathrooms, and a large upper deck both open and covered. We went mid to end of August and it was hot. Our AC didn't work the best especially when trying to cook or do other things so we all said if we were to do it again we would definitely do an upgrade on the boat to a newer, nicer model. Another thing we would have done differently is rented a power boat or other water toy rental. The houseboat moves very slowly so if you want to explore more of the lake definitely look into jet skis, power boats, or even SUP or kayaks would be great to navigate the narrow canals.

What to Do & More Details:

The company offers sample itineraries but we really just went with the flow. We planned all our meals in advance and grabbed all our groceries prior to getting on the boat (though we did stop at one of the little marinas for gas and snacks). I believe there is a few dining options on the lake but it's limited. One of my favorite parts of the trip was that we had no plans and no decisions had to be made. We just enjoyed being out on the water and relaxing with each other. When we found a spot we wanted to land for the night we just beached the boat up on the sand.

We explored, did some rock jumping, drank, played cards, danced, watched the sunset, watched the stars. It truly was the most epic vacation and I highly recommend!