Houseboat vacation with teenagers

A spring field trial in the Mecklenburg Lake District

Author: Anna Monterroso Carneiro
Published: March 31, 2025

Two houseboats are lying next to each other on a lake and a person is floating next to them. — ©© TMV/Gänsicke

A houseboat leaves a canal towards the lake and in the background you can see houses with vacation apartments. — ©© TMV/Tiemann

The Mecklenburg Lake District is a fantastic houseboat area. Even teenagers have a lot of fun here as recreational captains. Especially when their best buddy is also along for the ride. As in the case of Theo and his friend Ferri, who, together with their parents, Ferri's sister Élodie and two boats from Kuhnle-Tours, chugged along the Müritz & Co. for a week in May.

„Febomobil to Kormoran. We're hungry!" the cell phone shrieks in tune. Ferri looks around the Kleine Müritz, keeping an eye out for his buddy Theo's houseboat. „We're hungry too! What do you fancy? Fish fry or cake?" the teenager speaks into the device as he confidently steers the Kormoran on course with one hand as if he had never done anything else. The answer comes immediately: "Mom says you should come to the fish fry. Over.“

The two friends and their families have been out and about on the Müritz and the neighboring lakes and rivers for a week now. Today is their last vacation day on the water. The largest lake in Germany is the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District, whose more than a thousand bodies of water are almost all connected to each other. A real paradise, also because you don't need a boating license here. The boys would like to sail even longer from one lake to the next, because they think this kind of vacation is really cool, even though their parents and Ferri's little sister are there. Of course, this is mainly due to the two houseboats that the families chartered from Kuhnle-Tours in Rechlin in the harbor village of Müritz. The modern Febomobil with roof terrace and the Kormoran, a cuddly steel displacement boat, are not just great for social media; teenagers can also do their own thing here.

Vacation on a houseboat

Two families, two boats, one vacation together

Each family has rented their own houseboat, which allows for an individual program. In theory! After all, they were almost always traveling in a harmonious double pack on the waters. After all, not only are Ferri and Theo best friends, their mothers Inga and Nora are also close friends. Luckily, the boys think, they can leave their parents to their own devices and embark on a few real adventures on board and in the water. Theo taught Ferri stand-up paddling on the first morning of their vacation - and he immediately proved to be a natural. Ferri, in turn, showed Theo how to fish - he has been fishing since he was six years old. Sometimes they hung the inflatable bathing island on the Kormoran to be pulled across the lake by Ferri's dad, or organized long jump competitions in the lake with Ferri's sister Élodie. Occasionally, the boys also accompanied their families ashore. For example, they visited the Müritzeum nature discovery center in Waren or climbed through the Müritz climbing forest. Of course, all the adventures were recorded on their cell phones and immediately shared with the world. The mobile router on board makes this possible even in the middle of the lake.

Two houseboats are moored next to each other, each with a family eating cake. — ©© TMV/Tiemann

A mother and child at the wheel of a houseboat — ©© TMV/Tiemann

Two children fishing from the roof of a houseboat in the sunshine. — ©© TMV/Tiemann

Two children on a bathing island being towed behind a boat. — ©© TMV/Tiemann

On the bathing island, Ferri and Theo let themselves be pulled across the lake. Who will manage to stay standing for longer?

A couple sits on the deck of a houseboat and hugs each other — ©© TMV/Tiemann

Relaxed houseboat vacation

With children in the Mecklenburg Lake District

The two pairs of parents also enjoyed their time together. In the evening, they went to a harbor or anchored in a bay, moored the two boats next to each other, had a barbecue and sat together for a long time. The teenagers did the same as their parents - undisturbed on the boat next door, with their fishing rods out and a cold Coke.

The two families spent the last few nights on the mudflats between Alt Gaarz and Vipperow. On the one hand, for very practical reasons, as there was a free choice of houseboat berths thanks to the low traffic - you should keep a minimum distance of four to seven boat lengths from other boats. And on the other hand, as the water was nice and calm, it was great for swimming, SUPing and relaxing. Vipperow is also home to the Fischerhof, the address for fish fry, where the white houseboat of hungry Theo and his family had already moored when Ferri arrived with the Kormoran.

Cake connects

And so now the entire double crew gets some well-deserved refreshment. The seven of them make themselves comfortable on the wooden benches on the meadow in front of the Fischerhof with delicious mackerel, pike and fried fish. Dessert is served at Café Loni on the opposite bank, a few hundred meters away. Delicious rhubarb meringue tart, fluffy strawberry cake and Russian plucked cake, which Inga and Nora pick up on the SUP, eliciting an appreciative nod from Theo and Ferri: "These mothers are fierce! Especially because the cake tastes great. Water splashes against the ship's hull, the smell of cocoa and freshly roasted coffee fills the air and the teenagers are all smiles. Cake unites the generations! It's just a shame that the houseboat vacation is almost over.

The anchors are lifted one last time and we head back to the harbor village of Müritz in Rechlin-Nord. Very slowly, as if they wanted to savor every second, the two boats chug past dense reed beds. Past ancient forests and avenues through which the rapeseed fields are now glowing yellow in May. Two white-tailed eagles fly out of the riparian forest as if in a final salute and the swallows also show off their impressive flight maneuvers one last time.

While the adults stay ashore and have a cocktail in the Pirate’s Bar in the harbor, Theo, Ferri and Élodie head back to the boats. They check how many likes their vacation posts have (quite a lot!). And although they often feel quite grown up, the exuberant children in them come through again that evening: With water pistols, the three of them play pirates on the high seas deep into the night, casting out their fishing rods and dreaming of the big catch.