Lake Mead Cruises

Lake Mead Cruises is a relaxed sightseeing boat trip aboard the Desert Princess, an authentic three-level, Mississippi-style paddle-wheeler built in 1991 and certified by the US Coast Guard. Sailings leave from the company's own landing on Horsepower Cove near Boulder City, roughly a 40-minute drive southeast of the Strip. Two formats are running: a narrated 90-minute sightseeing cruise Wednesday through Sunday, and a two-hour dinner cruise on Saturday evenings from late March into late November. The champagne-brunch sailing is suspended until further notice.

Once on the water you glide across the reservoir past red-and-gold canyon walls while onboard narration covers the lake, the surrounding desert and the dam. The route heads down-lake toward the Hoover Dam for distant views before turning back. The vessel has two enclosed, climate-controlled decks plus an open promenade for photos. Daytime sailings keep a snack bar and grill open; the dinner cruise adds a plated meal, with a separate kids' menu.

It is a mellow outing rather than a thrill ride, and the honest catches matter. Boats have to stay roughly a mile off the dam on the lake side, so you see it from a distance. Years of drought have dropped the water and left pale bathtub-ring shorelines, and in August 2026 the park service was still moving buoys and flagging new hazards as the reservoir edged toward record lows. Summer afternoons are brutally hot, though the enclosed decks stay cool. Verdict: a genuinely pleasant half-day escape from the Strip, best booked as the Saturday dinner sailing or paired with a Hoover Dam stop.