A Day on Lake Austin with Float On Boat Rentals

What’s up, y’all?

Today we wanted to share with you one of our favorite ~~summertime~~ year-long activities right in the heart of Austin … boating! Boating is the best way to spend a day, especially with the weather in Austin being in a consecutive state of summer for 10 months of the year. However, boats are expensive and we don’t have one to call our own, so we had to resort to professionals to provide us the best Austin boat rental experience … with dogs!

Float On Boat Rentals provides dog-friendly Lake Travis and Lake Austin boat rentals year-round. They provide you with everything you could possibly need for a day on the lake including the boat, a fantastic captain, lily pads and even offer a cooler/ice package!

Apollo giving Captain Will some well-deserved licks

So, naturally, we had to grab the dogs, some friends, some beers and head out to Lake Austin to enjoy a Thursday afternoon. Our captain’s name was Will and he was phenomenal, especially with the dogs. He mentioned all of their boats allow dogs (just not on the seats) and on the lily pads, plus the captains always enjoy having a furry passenger aboard.

Cooper and Apollo had never been on a boat before, so Will made sure to start off slow and help us get them used to the rocking of the boat. Naturally, they both loved it and enjoyed sticking their head over the rail to feel the summer breeze on their faces.

We chose to drive around a little bit before anchoring down to swim, which granted us views of million-dollar lake houses and stunning views of the Pennybacker Bridge. Then, we went to the cove to do a bit of swimming, which is where we met our newfound love: the aquatic lily pad. Seriously, these pads allow several people to comfortably lay/float above the water and they even supported the dogs! It was a great way for us to chill with the dogs without having them have to constantly be swimming around us. They both took to the pad naturally and stayed there while we swam around them.

Yep, even the 150lb Great Dane enjoyed the lily pad.

Float On offers Lake Travis boat rentals and Lake Austin boat rentals, offering pontoons and speed boats at both locations. Since we had a larger group, we chose the 12 person pontoon and were pleasantly surprised at the speeds that little boat could reach! We opted to bring our own cooler full of beer, snacks and water, which fit perfectly aboard the boat. We had a captain, 11 people, two large dogs and a giant cooler and still had plenty of room to walk around.

If you’re bringing dogs (which, why wouldn’t you?!) we totally recommend bringing:

A towel/waterproof bed for them to lay on since they are not allowed on the seats.
A jug of water to help avoid the inevitable squirts that come with chugging lake water.
A metal water bowl. The plastic/portable water bowls would be fine, but since the boat is either driving or rocking in the waves, we recommend a sturdier bowl to avoid spillage.
Lots of towels to get them dry afterward.
A life-vest if your pups are inexperienced or average swimmers.
Extra tip for your captain. They are not only keeping YOU safe, but your pup(s) as well.