Sunshine Houseboats & Marina - Newgate

We love it here! The water park is perfect for our boys (10 and under) and the Cantina is perfect for a lunch or late dinner after bouncing. We love the staff at the Cantina, they are friendly and very accommodating. Can’t wait to come back next year!

We just spent the last week of July 2018 with Sunshine Houseboats 18 passenger boat on the beautiful Koocanusa Lake. I have been on plenty of vacations and and this was the 3rd time on a houseboat. Sunhine Houseboats operate from a remote/secluded location approximately 1hr southwest of Fernie, B.C. These guys are worth the trip. Very friendly and helpful staff. This is not a five star hotel folks and I would describe the operation as remote and rustic. You are going to have to do some work to get yourself and your gear onto your chosen boat but the staff will bend over backwards to help you and will haul your belongings from your vehicle to your boat with golf carts. We had 13 on an 18 sleeper and I felt like I was riding around in a condo. The houseboats are older models and the unit we took out had close to 7000 hours on the meter but it was very clean and worked well from start to finish and I was very happy to have it for our four days. All the essentials worked as they should. The hot tub up top was a big plus and easy to empty and refill each day with fresh clean lake water. The orientation at the marina before we left was excellent and covered everything we needed to know so pay attention because these boats have plenty of features and you are going to make use of them all at some point. No worries about charging your ever important cell phones. There were enough 120V receptacles to keep them all charged up and a generator for when the on-board batteries/inverter run low. Awesome! We did encounter areas where we had to share our space with wasps but if you keep your boat clean, your empty beverage containers bagged up and food put away, the wasps are not likely to be a factor. The all inclusive pricing which includes your gasoline and propane is a really great added value from Sunshine - likely $5-$600.00. Lake Koocanusa is beautiful, the water is green and clear and was 79 degrees F for our experience. Overnight mooring sites are plentiful on the lake shoreline but you are going to have to search a bit for the real gems. We found 8 spectacular spots offering both rocky shores and sandy beaches. We drove 926kms to arrive at Sunshine Houseboats marina and the 4 day lake adventure was worth every cent. This review is our kind thank you to the staff/ownership for delivering on their promise of offering a great, non-crowded beautiful lake experience for a fair price. Thank you from the Davidson Crew.

Have been calling them for 1 week, left messages, they didn't bother calling back. Also the extensions the voice mail suggest to dial don't work at all. Not very customer service oriented.

Checked off one of the boxes on our bucket list!! It was our first time renting a houseboat but will definitely not be our last. A huge thank you to "The team" at the marina. You are all absolutely fantastic! Helpful, polite and encouraging. My rating should read 13/10... We would definitely float with them again.

Super fun!! Not a lot of seating but a great way to spend an afternoon!

Had a fantastic long weekend trip mid September. Boat was great, beaches are awesome here. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful at every step. Can't wait to go back! Thank you Brant and crew

We’re making plans for another staycation, and Koocanusa is at the top of our list! We spent two weekends surfing and sunning on the Nautique last summer, and we can’t wait to do it again. We are previous boat owners, and I can’t tell you how much more enjoyable it is to leave all the details and responsibility with Sunshine Houseboats. Our chauffeur, Chloe, was a fabulous driver and a fantastic teacher to our newbie surfers. Chloe had all the patience in the world and made sure everyone could get up on the surfboard.

Staff was very helpful with getting our luggage onto the ESCAPADE. Orientation completely covered the operation of the houseboat. When some of our party had to leave early they were again helpful in transporting their personal to their vehicles. I highly endorse this company.