Lithia Springs Marina Review

Best boat rental place for me so far. Great gas prices and our boat was fun. We rented a pontoon boat for my family of 4 and it was perfect with room to spare.

a very DIY Hands-On environment for single people and families and basically anyone he wants to spend a day in the woodsy lake area of Lake Clinton! I have visited several times over the years on my own watercraft and on rented watercrafts. Always a fine time to be had regardless of the time of year!

A very well-kept public works environment

Awesome place to rent boats, pontoon will set you back around $200 for half a day.

I am a slip renter at Lithia Springs Marina. Our dock and rest rooms are kept up well. It is so convenient to have a restaurant and store at the gas dock. The staff is organized and friendly. Our boat loves living there. -Renee Tucker

I will share the specifics of how bad after I try once again to speak to management about how bad my experience was. A few photos included on how bad the boat was. Boat orientation was even worse and zero management was avaivalabe when returning the equipment.

I would NOT recommend Lithia Springs Marina.

So nice ,,, The workers are so helpful they even came to our truck and gave us a ride to the docks!! And a ride back ! I.

Rentals at an affordable price! Perfect getaway location from Chicagoland!

This was the only place in a 100 mile radius that rents bass boats. The boat ran pretty rough and they are governed really low speed but at least I could rent a boat for an affordable price.

Great access, clean, helpful. Slip rental was great.

Best time ever! It is so relaxing and so much fun. Everyone is so friendly! Best Marina in Illinois.

My family and friends spent a beautiful day on the lake. We had 11 people on the boat and including gas for 5 hours spent around $140 (on a work day, but very well priced!) parking is right by the marina and on/off boarding is quick, easy, and painless. I recommend this place and will likely be back!

Great views, reasonable boat rentals, and good food at their dock restaurant.

Beautiful Marina, well kept and has everything you need for a day on the lake, from essential items needed inside the sport shop to boat rentals. The boat rentals are reasonably priced from a half day to a full day rental and they have flat bottom boats up to house boats (though the house boats I believe are a minimum of a three day rental).

Love the atmosphere..
And Nessie's!

rented a fishing boat, then couldn't get it started out on the lake. they came and finally got it going which happens I guess but then the women in the shop berated me saying there was nothing wrong with that boat even though they had a hard time getting it going.

We rented a boat from here for fishing. It was a fun experience. There boats are a little short on horse power.

Pontoon rental was great. Clean, good conditions with acceptable wear. Staff is wonderful. Nice marina. Will return.

Great Marina, has everything you need. Nice ship store, has a sandwich shop, and they usually have 1or 2 food trucks. Prices are reasonable to rent a slip. They also do boat rentals though ive never done that.

Awesome place to rent a boat! Great service.... Nice boats! Definitely gonna do this again!

Wonderful view. Feeding the fish was really cool. Enjoyed watching them eat and swim around.

I've never been on a boat. Rented out 2 party boats for the family. Tied them together when it was lunch time. Untied them afterwards, one boat was the swimming boat, the other was a fishing boat. Had a blast!

Our family's first outing on a rental pontoon boat was great. The staff was friendly and very helpful. They were very patient with new folks that didn't know the area or the ropes. Will be our go to place for water fun. Keep up the good work!

These guys got me out of a lot of trouble! My trailer broke down a few miles away from them on a Sunday. They came out and helped me get my boat off the road. I unhooked it and came back the next weekend to pick it up from their shop. Great service!

Very nice facility, with nice staff, a Subway on the water and a protected harbor area. Boat ramp drive is a bit tight to get turned around in.

Took my girlfriend out today for her first boat ride and turns out it was a nightmare. We check in and rented a bass boat and later board all our belongings onto the boat and took off. While we were on the boat ride and I had the boat in full gear going forward the handle was jam and I couldn't put it into neutral, so I had to turn off the bait while we were heading straight into the trees. Not a pleasant feeling and we were scared for our life. Once I shut off the engine for the bass boat, I tried to radio the staff on channel 16 multiple times and nobody replied back so I had to use my cellphone to call for help. They finally send a staff to our rescue and towed the boat back. I wouldn't recommend anyone to ride these boats if this place is not going to keep up with Preventive Maintenance to ensure that all boats and equipments are working properly. Other than that the staff on the boat dock was awesome.

Nice docking facilities, good food, adult beverages and entertainment.

Great non-steep boat ramp! Wish the concrete steps didn't go all the way down into the water, but otherwise nice no wake dock!

Very nice marina. The kids that pump the gas are great conversationalists.

Nice place nice people but the boats are very very slow. We thought ours was broken. It was a 40 hp on a bass boat. They don't tell you that but it is a common complaint.

Nice marina. Polite, helpful staff. Very reasonable transient slip rates.

Best marina in Central IL! They are so helpful at gas docks and very accommodating. Keep up the good work, Bob Taggart & crew

We have our family reunion here it is amazing and the people running it are the nicest people ever

The marina is very nice and Lake Shelbyville is beautiful.

I absolutely love living here for six months out of the year. It's got everything you could ask for in a marina. They've got a great coffee bar, subway restaurant at the fuel dock, restrooms are clean along with boat rentals if you prefer. The service department has two qualified mechanics as well.

Very good service, but rental boats have to be back by 4:30???? Really???? With hours of daylight for fishing left.... and you can't even pay for extra hours...what's up with that???

The philly pizza is my favorite lake food. the kids love feeding the fish. they think the ice cream is magic.

Rented a Pontoon for 5 hours. Boat was in great condition, the lake was just gorgeous and employees were really pleasant.

The new bar "Nessie's" is nice, they did a nice job renovating the old Subway into it. The shade sails are a really nice touch over the new outdoor patio where they also feature live music.

Staff was, kinda helpful. They did have everything I needed for the water, but they didn't know where anything was.

Terrible experience and to make matters worse terrible customer service. Rented new 2019 pontoon. The lake was pretty calm and not too many boats out since it was partly cloudy.7 adults and one cooler weight evenly distributed. There were 2 other boats in the area. We were slowing down and came to a stop when a wake came over the front. But to everyone's surprise the whole front end was submerged completely under water..almost half of the boat. We honestly thought we were sinking. We all ran to the back and it finally came out of the water. It was pretty scary. Then we noticed the speedometer did not work. At this point we were wondering if something was wrong with this boat. Either that or this new design was not very good. We decided to return early not knowing if this vessel was safe. We shared our concerns with the gal at the counter who was very nice. I asked for the half day price. She said a manager would call me and she could take care of that. The manager never called so I called her. When I explained what happened she said the boat is fine. It was "normal" and that they disengage the spedoneter on purpose and no discount. She was very patronizing and made me feel stupid. I told her my concern was for others and that they need to educate other boaters that this is normal. I asked for a general manager to call me back. They never did. We love lake shelbyville. We've rented from Findlay Marina several times and never had problems. I would have never posted this if they would have taken my concerns seriously and practiced good customer service.

Let me first start this review saying I had loved Lithia Springs for years, this was the first time my family and I had rented pontoons from them and left feeling disappointed, disrespected, and taken advantage of.

We rented pontoon boat C for a half of a day. When I went to pick up the boat I was told I had to wait while their crew was towing in a house boat. No big deal except we ended up waiting on their dock for 45 minutes because they forgot about us... when I went back in to ask the girls how much longer it would be their response was No one helped you yet? Anyway, the boat ran fine but this was the first year that we received the boat in such poor condition. Garbage was left under the seats from previous patrons, the steering wheel had been all taped up as well as all the cushions on the seats. Whenever you d sit down your bottom would be soaked because they were no longer water proof. But at the end of the day who cares about all of that if you re having a good time out on the lake.

My biggest issue came on the full day that we had the boat reserved. After we picked up the boat and we were driving it back to our campsite to pick up the rest of our people and our stuff, the boat kept beeping whenever you would increase the speed. We were concerned so after we got everyone we headed back to the marina to ask what we should do. Their mechanic came to check it out. Most cold and disrespectful man I have dealt with in quite some time. Barely spoke a word to us or even made eye contact. Wouldn t tell us what was wrong. Even after running diagnostics for thirty minutes. They sent us on our way and told us to just turn it on and off when the beeping occurred. A lot of good that did us cause the boat broke down a couple hours later. After we called in asking for a tow the same mechanic came out to examine the boat again. Once again not speaking a word to any of us and only his crew. They towed us back to the marina where was sat for a couple hours, uninformed, and waiting for them to repair the boat. By this time so much of our day was spent docked and not on the lake that we were very disgruntled. The staff did nothing to compensate us, all of the senior staff members were rude to us. The only two people who showed us any kindness were the girl who filled up our gas and the young man who checked in our boat on the last day we had it.

I have pictures but I m not sure how to post them yet...

Sorry for the long post but I was obviously frustrated. Hopefully other people receive better service but we won t be camping at lake Shelbyville next summer...

Love this place. Great boats that are well taken care of. Staff very helpful. We have been coming here annually since about 2002.

Professional service. Very nice pontoon and party barge. Lake is pretty busy but marina folks are friendly and had tips for fishing and swimming

I am giving this rating based on the following:. 1) upon check in at 7:45, we were met at the desk by being told they didn't open til 8:00....our rental was to begin at 8:00...2) the front seats on our pontoon rental were totally soaked through the covering due to splitting of the seams, causing all of us to have wet pants for the entire ride.....3) upon return to the gas dock, we were met by a young man with an attitude problem. He didn't look or speak to us, just tied up our boat, started filling up the tank, where he 3 times overflowed it, letting the gas go into the lake, and then informed us we couldn't leave until we paid for the gas and he checked the boat, while still never looking at us. The ONLY person we dealt with who was kind, was the gal at the front desk who filled out our form named Joya....she was very pleasant, kind and explained everything....she definitely knows how to treat people correctly.

Very good selection of bait, food and merchandise, management was ok.

Absolutely love this place. Definitely a gem in Illinois

The pontoon boat we rented from this marina broke down while we were out on the lake and we had to be towed back to the dock for repairs.

The seats on the boat were discolored, smelly, cracked, duct taped and filled with garbage. The steering wheel was torn up and the speedometer didn t work.

After leaving the marina we had some concerns with how the engine was running so we returned and waited for a Lithia Spring s Marina mechanic to evaluate.
We were told if the problem persists to just keep turning the engine on and off all day. We were told another one of their rentals was having the same problem.

Afterwards we took the boat back out for a few hours and suddenly the engine sputtered and died. We could not restart the engine so we called the marina for assistance and a boat arrived to our location within 30 minutes.
They evaluated the engine again while we sat and eventually towed us back to the dock for repair. We sat in the dock on their broken rental boat while they repaired it.

The entire delay wasted no more than two hours.

The best Lithia Springs Marina could do to accommodate us was to not charge us for the anchor that was lost when we had to put it down so we didn t drift too far in our broken rental boat while waiting for rescue.

Our experience was frustrating, unfriendly and about as unsafe and non-customer oriented as possible.

Great launch area, easy to dock for gas, store is convenient.

Awesome stop if you need something while boating...including subway!

Great day on the lake with a pontoon rental from lithia marina

Lithia Springs is an ARMY Corps of Engineers recreation area with camping, some full hookups, a Marina with store and boat rentals. Very quiet camping and we'll maintained sites with asphalt and gravel pads. Ample area to hike and wander around. Kid friendly and plenty of fishing. Swimming area here is safe and sectioned off. No lifeguard. Great biking.

Terrible Marina, unethical business practices! My family and friends rented a Pontoon for half a day to enjoy some time on the lake. As part of the rental agreement they required a $300 deposit in case we damaged the boat. I was not very comfortable with that, but the lady working at the Marina reassured me that it is really just a formality, and the money will not be deducted from my credit card. We spent a nice few hours at the lake, but as this was our first time at Lake Shelbyville, we underestimated the amount of time it would take us to get back and arrived an hour late at the marina. When I returned the Pontoon I was informed that they have put through the $300 on my credit card, and would not be refunding it. The boat was undamaged and clean. This was for being an hour late! On top of the $300, we were still charged the $150 for the 1/2 day. This left such a bitter taste in my mouth that it completely ruined my vacation (came from Virginia). My recommendation is to NOT rent anything from the Shelbyville Marina, but instead try the Findley Marina, which is nearby.

Wonderful day of fishing! Bass boat was the bomb! This is the first time we were there but not the last!

Beautiful lake, has great scenery with sandbars, plenty of coves to fish, great prices for boat rental. Can't wait to go back many more times!

Ice cream and big fish and "Lilly..do you want to sit outside...is that what u want"

We keep our boat here. The staff that helps pump gas is always friendly. I'm excited to try the food trucks and listen to music on the patio this year.

Great marina with nice staff. Very dirty though...watch out for spiders...

Customer service is the best. Clean and welcoming. 10 times better than Findlay Marina. Great to do busness with someone who appreciates your busness

Loved this place. If you ever need boat repair see Derek Hinton he knows boats