• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Houseboat interior.    (Photo: Courtesy of Miller’s Marina of Suwanee)

Pack up your fishing gear, load up on groceries, and check into a 44-foot, wood-paneled houseboat at Miller’s Marina of Suwanee ($750 for two nights in high season, March through November). To get started on your private cruise of the Suwanee River, request a map and cruising manual, take a 45-minute navigation lesson from owner Bill Miller, then steer your boat up the swampy, tea-colored water at an easy five miles an hour. Spend the heat of the day (lower seventies in late winter) catching rays and your lunch from the top deck and watching for the rare manatee or the heronlike anhinga, perched on a cypress limb. Many lazy hours later, drop anchor back near the mouth of the river—there's a killer view of the sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico. Cook up the Suwannee bass you caught on the gas grill.

Published on Feb 14, 2008 as a web exclusive.