Any Freedom Boat Club members on here? I'm considering joining one of the Lake Travis clubs or the Lake Austin club, but I'm curious if it's really worth it. Are boats always readily available? What kind of boats are available? How much is the entry fee? How much is the monthly fee?

Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I looked into it once and my recollection is that it was fairly expensive. May be different levels depending on what boats you want to use.

After owning several boats, two in a leased slip, I can tell you there is a cost to ownership/boat maintenance/slip maintenance. I would do all maintenance except upper unit/engine work.

I simply wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost, but would be more apt to eat that cost than buy another boat myself.

My biggest complaint was that you can't take a boat out during a holiday. No Memorial Day, no July 4, no Labor Day. The reasoning was that exposure to bad things possibly happening offsets revenue. That's what insurance is for. They don't tell you about this when you sign up for membership, you just find out when you try to reserve your first boat on a holiday.

Also, good luck competing with other members when it comes to trying to reserve one of their few high quality wake boats.

You're saying they won't let you take a boat out at all on a holiday? It's not even an option?

This was the information i got in 2016, seriously considered doing it with my buddy, the shared boating plan with a person who you would likely be with a lot anyways is a good way to do it. For us we were going to put Me and his wife on the plan so that both families could use it, the guys could use it, or the girls could use it.

Spring Special. $1,000 OFF THE ENTRY FEE Expires on April 25th, 2016.

MEMBERSHIP PACKAGES: FREEDOM BOAT CLUB offers 4 membership options, the Freedom Boating Plan, the Shared Freedom Boating Plan, the Economy Boating Plan, the Weekday Boating Plan, and the Toe in Water Plan. All prices are plus sales tax.


The Freedom Boating Plan has a one-time entry fee of $4,000 and additional fixed monthly payments of $399. This plan allows unlimited boating and includes both husband and wife or domestic partners.


The Shared Boating Plan allows you to put 2 people who are not married on one membership. The one time entry fee is $4,500 and additional fixed monthly payments of $499. This plan is limited to two advance weekend outings per month maximum. Plus, you still share the same limitations that a family membership includes.

If you are only interested in weekdays, the Economy Boating Plan allows you UNLIMITED boating Tuesday through Friday morning. In the winter months you are allowed to boat on weekends as well. (OCT 1st to APR 1) The one-time entry fee is $3,000 and additional fixed monthly payments of $299.

We also offer a Toe in the Water Plan. This plan allows people to try out the club without jumping in all the way. It will allows you to enjoy a maximum of 3 boat outings per month. Only 1 of the 3 outings can be a weekend or holiday shift and no weekend or holiday afternoon shifts are allowed during the summer months. This plan does give you the option to upgrade to the full plan at any time throughout the year. The one time entry fee is $3,000 and additional fixed monthly payments of $199.

FREEDOM ADVENTURES
Jeeps. This allows you to add the use of Jeeps to your membership. The $100 get you 2 full day Jeep Rentals. Extra outing are allowed based on availability. The one time entry fee is $500 and additional fixed monthly payments of $100 per month

Custom MotorCycles This allows you to add the use of motorcycles to your membership. The $100 get you 2 4-5 hour group rides per month. You can go for unlimited extra rides subject to availability. The one time entry fee is $500 and additional fixed monthly payments of $100 per month

I owned for 10+ years, primarily on Lake Austin, but would trailer to Lake Travis frequently. And I typically avoided the three major summer holidays by choice. Too many idiots, many of them trailering in from out of town for those weekends (especially big boats coming up from around Clear Lake).

The exception was the ACC fireworks show from the water, then racing down near Hula Hut to catch a glimpse of the Austin show. Good times.

hillcoag16 said:

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You're saying they won't let you take a boat out at all on a holiday? It's not even an option?

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Yes, that's what I am saying. This was the policy when I was a member.

Same here, we had access to one on Lake Austin and we avoided the holidays for the most part. It was not worth the hassle. If you are joining a boat club to rent on the holidays you are probably better off just renting from a day rental place

We have our boat on a slip on Travis and we won't take it out on holiday weekends. The exception may be late Monday afternoon when most of the weekenders are heading home. Lake is super busy which makes the water too choppy for any water sports. We'd hang out at the marina and swim but not take it out.

Friends of ours are in Freedom at Rough Hollow. Reservation periods are only 3 hrs long. Think you can only reserve once a month. With 4 kids, they have a hard time planning that far out or too often something comes up causing them to have to cancel, at which point it is another month before eligible again. They have been pretty disappointed.

Edit: Just found out more info from the wife. While some plans say "unlimited" use, you can only have so many reservations active at a time. Due to size of membership vs available boats, this is what results in truly being limited to how many times you can get on the water. Good question to inquire about.

More than fifteen years ago, we would only go out 7:00 am Saturday and weekday mornings and evenings. Travis has been too crowded for a long time. We were at Lake Travis Marina. The drought was great when all the public ramps and many marinas closed.

We did one 4th of July in ten years on the lake. It was awesome. All we did was cross the lake to Devils Hollow after fireworks at C&C and hang with an armada of friend's boats until the sun came up.

We've rented a few times, but the rentals are always garbage, no matter what they promise you over the phone. We had a Cobalt 220 and friends with Mastercrafts and one cushy living room barge. Good times. The Cobalt was the best for wakeboarding and second best for lounging. Can't beat the VP's plush living room barge.

I recently toured freedom at rough hollow and nautical at lakeway marina and know many more people who like both clubs than not. Heard many good things about Nautical and thought the management seemed more professional and the boats better. You have to be a planner and be willing to make your weekend reservations one or two weeks in advance for a 4 hour slot in the morning or evening. Weekdays - much easier, generally walk up is OK from my understanding. I have heard from many that both LT clubs are absolutely slammed these days as hitting the lake has been a quarantine safe activity.

For now we ultimately choose to pass on the clubs as I don't like the idea of paying thousands and not being able to decide on a Friday that I want to go out on a Saturday or Sunday and you have to be back in by 8 PM. Both clubs were pretty upfront that this wasn't a good fit.

PS - if you can wait until Nov/Dec you will get a significantly reduced entrance fee. Also - big deterrence for me was how limited the hours were in the offseason.

I wonder what their process is for sterilyzing boats between customers. If I golf these days, I bring an alcohol soaked rag to wipe the cart down. Would do the same if I rented a boat.

Yeah, I know... overcautious.