Forster's Boat Shed Number 1
Forster's Boat Shed Number 1
5
Boat ToursWater SportsBoat HireStand Up PaddleboardingKayaking & Canoeing
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Full view
About
Forster Houseboat Hire and Boatshed #1 is the gateway to an unforgettable day on the lake, we provide Houseboat Hire, Boat Hire, Luxury BBQ/ Party Boat Hire, Transparent Kayak Hire, Kayak Hire, Stand Up Paddle board hire, aqua bike hire and much more. We also provide great advice, Bait, Ice and are a quality family run business.
Forster, New South Wales, Australia
Awards
Travellers' Choice
2024
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listingRevenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Similar Experiences
Forster's Boat Shed Number 1
Booking unavailable on Tripadvisor
Want other options you can book now?
Show optionsTravellers talk about
Contribute
Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
5.0
137 reviews
Excellent
125
Very good
6
Average
3
Poor
2
Terrible
1
spinneretti
Sydney, Australia47 contributions
Jan 2021
The highlight of our houseboat experience was definitely the owners & staff at Boat Shed No1. Everyone was so friendly, patient, helpful and informative at the time of collecting and returning our houseboat. They happily told us where to go, let us know to ring if we felt uncomfortable moving it or if we had any issues.
The Wallis Lakes is a beautiful area but had lots of shallow sections and sandbars. We were there around the Australia Day long weekend, the weather was magic and the waterways were crazy busy! We didn't move the house around much but we did take the included runabout into town a few times.
The boat had everything you need, (maybe a sharper knife would have been good!!!) The Weber BBQ made meals easy. The 33' boat was compact and my son was continually hitting his head (he forgets that he is 6'4 and growing!)
A family of 4 fitted fine. If there was 6 of us we would have been a bit crowded! The price for 5 nights for a Summer holiday on the water was extremely fair.
I'll be honest, we are super glad we did the houseboat experience as a family, but our family aren't big swimmers and with teenagers we wouldn't do it again. We would however do it without the kids next time... only 5 more years before they pay for their own summer holidays! :)
Suggestions: On your webpage please mention that the motorised runabout is included. Maybe an extra salad bowl would be useful and sharper knives!
The Wallis Lakes is a beautiful area but had lots of shallow sections and sandbars. We were there around the Australia Day long weekend, the weather was magic and the waterways were crazy busy! We didn't move the house around much but we did take the included runabout into town a few times.
The boat had everything you need, (maybe a sharper knife would have been good!!!) The Weber BBQ made meals easy. The 33' boat was compact and my son was continually hitting his head (he forgets that he is 6'4 and growing!)
A family of 4 fitted fine. If there was 6 of us we would have been a bit crowded! The price for 5 nights for a Summer holiday on the water was extremely fair.
I'll be honest, we are super glad we did the houseboat experience as a family, but our family aren't big swimmers and with teenagers we wouldn't do it again. We would however do it without the kids next time... only 5 more years before they pay for their own summer holidays! :)
Suggestions: On your webpage please mention that the motorised runabout is included. Maybe an extra salad bowl would be useful and sharper knives!
Written 24 January 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
sharon m
New South Wales, Australia3 contributions
Jan 2021
We hired the 12 seater BBQ Boat and had a blast crusing the lake , stopped off at a picnic spot for our bbq lunch , swim and a fish, Staff are very welcoming and awesome people , nothing is ever too much trouble for them. you are given a map with picnic spots , toilets , best fishing spotsand best of all not expensive for 4hrs on the water. Covid safe cleaning was excellent before getting on the boat . Highly recommend anyone who holidays in Forster to go see these people , you won't be disappointed. Will be bac again at the end of the year.
Written 8 January 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tegan
Newcastle, Australia55 contributions
Aug 2021 • Friends
A mate and I hired 2 paddle boards for a hour to go around the island and have some exercise/time outside during lockdown. Rob was super professional, friendly and made us feel welcome. He got us fitted with some good size and easy to use boards, got us into the water, and gave us the ins and outs as well as where we could ride. Overall, such great value for money and excellent customer service. Would recommend and will be back!!
Written 22 August 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
david m
Coffs Harbour, Australia6 contributions
Jan 2023
My wife and I and our two teenage sons had an amazing time, for five days, on the 45' houseboat, Wallingat, on beautiful Wallis Lake in January 2023. Whilst the houseboat is relatively easy to control, Wallis Lake can be tricky to navigate because of shallow waters, narrow channels, the large number of other water vessels and holiday makers on the lake and silt relocation due to the 2022 floods. My wife and I were not particularly confident navigating the vessel. As it turns out this wasn't really an issue for the enjoyment of our holiday. The staff, Joel, Tessa, Charlie, Tim and Ferrero were sensational and simply could not do enough for all of us. When we wanted to move to a different spot, someone would come out and move us to a different location. The staff were never anything but friendly, helpful, extremely pleasant, informative and particularly safety conscious. In fact they are happy to move you every day to a different location if self navigation is not your thing in this large vessel. They even brought us out bait on one occasion which we felt was a stellar service! Fortunately we had hired an optional tender boat which allowed us to spend some time away from the houseboat exploring the magnificent waters of Wallis Lake. The Wallingat is an older vessel and probably needs a little bit of work inside here and there to make the experience even more pleasurable. Whilst the vessel sleeps 10, you may be a little crowded with this many passengers as some beds need to made up in the living and dining areas. The two permanent double beds below the deck however, were certainly very comfortable. None of this however, detracted from the wonderful experience we had on our holiday. This is an extremely reputable business with incredibly helpful and knowledgeable staff on the magnificent NSW North Coast offering a reasonably priced holiday, everyone should do at least once.
Written 22 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Steve
Castle Hill, Australia2 contributions
Jan 2021
We hired a runabout to take the kids out fishing. Of all the places we reviewed, the Boat Shed was really well priced and their boats are in very good condition compared to others. The check-in was quick and easy, the team were very help and made sure we were all ready prior to heading out. Boat was clean and we had no issues from start to finish.
Written 18 January 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
0762DMH
Tuncurry, Australia16 contributions
Mar 2020 • Couples
Joel and Callum were fantastic. They have us gre at tips on how to handle the boat, where to go to see the best of Wallis Lake, and even offered fishing rods and bait as ours were packed away.
Houseboat hire will be our next adventure with them.
Houseboat hire will be our next adventure with them.
Written 12 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Paul
1 contribution
May 2023 • Family
Joel, Tessa and the team at Forster Houseboat Hire are highly recommended. From organising the booking, checking-in, help with moving the houseboat to various parts of the lake, nothing was too difficult for them. One of their skippers - Tim - has excellent knowledge of the lake, was extremely catering and helpful. The 10 berth was affordable and great for our family of 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 fur babies. Great spots to relax, have a swim, cast a line out all day/night. We recommend staying in a quiet cove for a few nights, and finish off with a night near the bridge for amazing day time and night time views. Seeing dolphins swim next to the boat was an added bonus. Thank you for helping our family to make unforgettable memories.
Written 22 June 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Carmel C
25 contributions
Aug 2020 • Friends
We had a fantastic experience on Saturday on a BBQ boat. We were staying locally with relatives and luckily for us they booked with Boat Shed Number 1. When we arrived we were warmly welcomed, the boat was ready & we boarded and set off for an afternoon cruising the beautiful lakes, fishing, laughing & of course enjoying our BBQ. The boat was clean, great canopy, plenty of room to fish and super comfortable. Easy to get on and off at beaches when we required toilets. When we returned from a fantastic afternoon we were greeted by the gang to help our ‘captain’ navigate his way to the dock with great big smiles. Fantastic service, we received everything we were promised and highly recommend this experience. We plan to visit our relatives at the Big 4 leisure park again in a few months and we will definitely be booking another day with you guys. Thanks so much.
Written 3 August 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
John T
Sydney, Australia7 contributions
Nov 2021
from the moment we arrived, we felt welcome. Joel and Tessa were very friendly and enthusiastic. The dock crew that they have assisting them are extraordinary. Their help, banter and people skills were second to none. As we were going to be a board the 33' houseboat for a four nights, we had a fair bit of gear. No problem for the dock crew, we had everything on board in record time. As their bagged ice delivery hadn't arrived, it was no trouble for Tessa to go and source some bagged ice for us, whilst we were loading. The "induction" process was so comprehensive that we had no questions at the conclusion of it. When Tessa returned, she put an app on my phone that had all sorts of information regarding position and areas to avoid, recommended anchorage points and maps. The app also alerted me to when power was being compromised eg water pump etc when not required. Joel gave me his mobile number prior to our departure from the wharf, stating that he was available 24/7. It was very apparent that the whole crew from Boatshed One were determined to make our voyage as enjoyable and worry free as possible. We travelled to Coomba Park, where the lady in the local store was an absolute treasure, and anchored off there for a few nights. The "tinnie" that we were towing around with us provided access to a plethora of fishing spots, it was the best of both worlds, comfortable accommodation and access to fishing spots via the runabout. Upon our return, we rang Joel who gave us a preferred arrival time at the dock ( to avoid clutter and stacking) which we were happy to oblige. Joel came out into the channel to meet us with a far more competent skipper than myself ( for which I was very relieved) and we were taken into the dock. I cannot praise the dock crew enough for their assistance at the dock, very friendly folks who love dealing with people, obviously committed to ensuring that all hirers have fun, great bunch of folks. I would highly recommend Forster Houseboat Hire as a holiday option, it is just as peaceful, ambient and relaxing cruising around and exploring, visited by dolphins, watching eagles and osprey doing what they do best and, if you are lucky enough, you'll see skippy bounding around with his buddies near Coomba Park, not to mention good fishing. Thanks Joel, Tessa and the whole dock crew for a great holiday, you are a true reflection on "how to" make a holiday great, cheers. John and Karen
Written 20 November 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JoJo
2 contributions
Dec 2019 • Family
This is our second time hiring a houseboat from Boatshed no. 1. What a great way to spend 4 days - Boatshed No.1!run by Joel and Tessa supplied us with a clean and capable home on water. We had so much fun after being recommended where to anchor by Joel to escape some forecast stronger winds. It was easy to add on a run about, Sup and kayak and enjoy a simple holiday on the water appreciating the beautiful Wallis lake region. Lots of fish to catch too. Joel and Tess are super friendly - nothing is a problem - thanks for another great family holiday guys!
Written 1 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi JoelP1333, can we buy food and drinks at the boat shed to take on the boat with us?
Written 24 June 2019
Yes we have drinks, bait, coffee and food during school holidays and weekends. There are also food options within 100m
Written 24 June 2019
Showing results 1-2 of 2
*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.