Houseboat owners association link

http://www.houseboatowners.org/accomadation.html

Has anyone availed their services please. Any feedback.

thanks, will check it.

do not try to book thru the association. there are several categories of boats A , B , C , D .They will promise LUXURY COMFORT and cheat you. stright away go to dal lake and see and bargain heavily start from 50% .

category B is good.

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do not book in advance. 3 years ago we booked de-luxe house boat for 70$ a night.
not de-luxe at all, it was including food, but the food was so poor we almost starve....every day the left-over from the day before...
go ,check,bargain....

i stayed in a deluxe boat in Oct or Nov05 around INR 3500 for 2 days - i can never forgrt the taste of food. such a tasty food cooked by the owner's familiy. it was also an Eid night. climate very very cold . deodar furniture , friendly owner,clean toilet , running hot water.

see the pictures on this link

http://community.webshots.com/user/sheineshk

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Specify whether it is Kashmir or Aleppey

There's one thing for SURE - you are NOT going to arrive in Srinagar and find all the houseboats fully booked!!!! Therefore, why book in advance - you are only wasting money. Better to wait until you get there, then tour around, bargaining hard for the best deals.

Tim in Ireland - had a GREAT time in Srinagar last year.

why doubt? this is a J&K thread & we were discussing kashmir .

we had the best food where we stayed.. and good time
and still email the nice owner ones a while
he's getting married soon
check out this site i made for him 2years ago if your interested:
www.chicagohouseboats.com

Hello Friends

It is such a coincidence that i just came back from Srinagar after staying at Chicago which Kokopelli mentioned!

Book in advance or not but do checkout 'Chicago Houseboats' where i stayed.

( I am writing my personal experience with no undertakings - please use your own judgment. )

I agree with Kokopelli 'Chicago Houseboats' was a great place to stay. 10/10 to the very friendly owners & staff for making us feel secure & giving us good advice.

The best was to find a houseboat where the owner was so very flexible. Nice clean houseboat with good people on board.

The people of Kashmir were fantastic & so was the place. However beware the horse owners of Gulmarg!

Tks

It is a new thread,, and yours the first post.

You must have done a New Thread instead of a Reply!

Ho hum, these things happen... ...

Might as well carry on here now

Sorry Nick, clicked the button instinctively.

My husband and stayed on Dal Lake in late April of this year. I'd wanted to go straight to the lake and check out a few options, but a Houseboat Owners Assn rep who was stationed at the airport (they have a little kiosk there) pursuaded us to let him book us there. He was a little dishonest with us, telling us that most of the houseboats were full because we were getting into the high season for domestic tourism (granted, there were a lot of Indian tourists there, but I was suspicious of that one!) and leading us to believe that we had to indicate where we were staying on our tourist registration form. After I protested that I wanted to see a few places before I committed, he assured us that if we just selected a boat category and paid a deposit, that we'd then be taken around to see a few boats and make our own selection. That was a lie. Outside the airport we were met by our "guide," who turned out to be the owner of the houseboat (yes, the only houseboat we were shown)!

The houseboat itself was pretty nice, but not fabulous. We selected the Class A category (at the set rate of Rs1200 per night incl. breakfast), but I suspect that if we'd chosen Class B, we would have been placed on the same boat. The name of the boat escapes me, but the owner's name was Farook. He was a little socially awkward -- launched into a sales pitch of tours and packages as soon as we were sitting down with our "welcome tea" and didn't have a whole lot to say to say to us once we'd declined most of his offers. The food there was fine but far from memorable.

Despite our houseboat disappointments, we had a fantastic time. Spring was just starting to ... spring: the apple trees and mustard plants were blossoming in the valleys; snow was starting to melt at higher elevations but there was still plenty for us to enjoy a day trip to Gulmarg. We also had one of our nicest shopping experiences in India -- we bought some pashmina shawls from Mr. Kumar (I think the shop is called Kumar and Sons), a very sweet man who he had us stay for lunch and then come back for dinner that night to discuss politics and such.

My nushell advice at the end of a long story: Bypass the Houseboat Association folks at the airport--and anything they might tell you--and head for the lake. Or book with the Chicago place--it sounds like quite a few people have had good experiences with them.

Are there non floating accomadations for visitors in Srinagar?

I'm not directly experienced enough in this matter. My friends say that do not book houseboat from the Delhi travel agents either. The best place to book directly (ie walk in to one). you are in command with choice open till the final dot!