Pick the river first. Then pick the grade.
Which Ubud gorge run stops at the waterfall. What a Moab afternoon on the Colorado costs. Whether Köprülü is too tame in September, and where a seven-year-old still gets to sit at the front. Reviews of the rafting trips you can book, river by river.
Four rivers that settle the where-should-we-raft argument.
The runs travellers book more than any others, what a seat costs and what the water is actually doing when you turn up.
01The alpine oneWhitewater Rafting on Soca River, SloveniaThe Soca comes off the Julian Alps ice-cold and improbably turquoise. Bovec runs it from May; the wetsuit is not decoration.
02The desert oneMoab Afternoon Half Day Rafting Trip – Colorado RiverRed walls, warm water and an afternoon put-in on the Colorado outside Moab. The gentlest way onto a famous river.
03The cheap oneKöprülü Canyon Antalya: Whitewater Rafting TripKöprülü Canyon behind Antalya, lunch by the water included, and change from twenty dollars a head.
04The slow oneMargaritaville Hip-Strip and Great River Rafting Private TourA poler, a raised bench and split bamboo on the Great River in Jamaica. No paddling, no helmet, no rapids.
Four western rivers, four completely different rafting days.
Snowmelt peaks in June and falls all summer, so the same canyon is a shouting Grade IV in spring and a family float by late August. What each one costs, and who should be in the boat.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Moab Afternoon Half Day Rafting Trip – Colorado River
Moab, on the ColoradoRed-rock walls, warm brown water, half-days that start after lunch.
Buena Vista, Browns CanyonThe busiest white water in Colorado. Half-day for the rapids, full day for the granite.
Jackson, on the SnakeA scenic float under the Tetons, or the eight miles of white water below it.
Canon City, Royal GorgeA thousand feet of cliff overhead and Class IV underneath. Wetsuits come with it.
All 147 rafting trips in the USA →
The rafting trips more people book than any others.
Every rafting trip →Where the booking numbers actually point: a bamboo raft below Chiang Mai, a jungle gorge under Ubud, and the Turkish canyon everyone on that coast ends up in.
1
Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting
Meet rescued elephants at Pon Elephant Thailand, feed them bananas, walk through the forest, and bathe with them in the river. Guides such as Nop, Paul, Yaya, and Sunny add warmth and useful elephant knowledge. The day also includes Mae Wang Waterfalls, Thai lunch, and bamboo rafting.
From · $60
Read our review →
2
Ubud Gorilla Face ATV and Ayung Rafting Trip with Meal
from $19
3
Ziplining, Rafting, Jeep Tour & Quad Safari w/Lunch
from $26
4
Rafting, Elephant Bathing & Sea Turtle Center Tour
from $73
5
Ayung River Guided Rafting Adventure with Lunch
from $26
6
Rotorua Rafting: Kaituna River White Water Rafting & Free Sauna
from $83
7
Half Day Whitewater Rafting Trip
from $90
8
Cetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping Tour
from $53
Grade, minimum age, and whether you have to be able to swim.
Grades I and II are a float: if you can sit upright you can go. Grade III is the standard commercial trip and usually starts at twelve. Grade IV and above bring a minimum weight, a swim question and a guide who wants to know whether you have paddled before. Helmet, buoyancy aid and wetsuit come with the boat almost everywhere. You bring shoes that stay on when the river pulls at them, and nothing in your pockets.
The white water people cross an ocean for.
Grade III is where most paddlers start and most paddlers stay: big enough to throw the raft sideways, forgiving enough to swim out of. These three carry more people down a river than anything else on the site.
- 1Rotorua Rafting: Kaituna River White Water Rafting & Free Saunafrom $83
- 2Half Day Whitewater Rafting Tripfrom $90
- 3Barron Gorge White Water Rafting from Cairns or Port Douglasfrom $91
The rafting worth crossing a border for.
Alpine melt in Slovenia and Austria, tropical gorges in Bali and Costa Rica, desert canyons in Utah, a waterfall in New Zealand that rafts go over rather than round, and one Jamaican river where nobody paddles at all.
Six countries where the river is the reason to fly.
Cold alpine melt in Slovenia, warm limestone water in Turkey, red rock in Utah, jungle gorges in Bali and a Jamaican river you drift down sitting on bamboo. Six places, and the best day on the water in each.
The calm cousin: split bamboo, a poler and a river at walking pace.
Jamaica turned it into a booking on the Martha Brae, and Bali and northern Thailand run their own versions. Thirty feet of lashed cane, a raised bench for two and a man standing at the bow with a pole. No paddling, no helmet, no rapids, and often a foot massage on a limestone rock at the end of it.
Every bamboo raft trip →
What a seat in a raft actually costs.
Every trip on the site sorted by the price of one place in the boat. Turkey and Bali sit at the bottom of the ladder; guided full days in the Rockies, the Alps and New Zealand sit at the top.
Köprülü Canyon with lunch, the Ayung gorge run out of Ubud, an hour of bamboo below Falmouth.
The standard half-day nearly everywhere: the Cetina, Browns Canyon, the Kaituna, the Colorado at Moab.
Full days with a shuttle and a cooked lunch, drysuit rivers in Iceland and Alaska, and rafts you do not share.
Three river days that happen nowhere else.
White water looks much the same on every continent. A seven-metre waterfall that commercial rafts go over, a Jamaican poler on split cane, and a Turkish canyon where the whole day costs less than a sunbed do not.
Tutea Falls on the Kaituna
Below Rotorua the Kaituna drops over Tutea Falls, seven metres of it, and commercial rafts go over the lip rather than around it. The guide calls the line, everybody folds into the boat, and the raft comes up either upright or not. A safety kayaker is already sitting in the pool when it does not. It is the highest waterfall anyone runs commercially and the whole trip takes barely an hour, which is why half of Rotorua has done it twice.
- 1Rotorua Rafting: Kaituna River White Water Rafting & Free Sauna★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,952 reviews
- 2Rafting Rotorua: Kaituna River White Water Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,274 reviews
- 3White Water Rafting – Kaituna Cascades, The Originals★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,274 reviews
The Martha Brae
Thirty feet of lashed bamboo, a bench raised off the deck for two, and a poler standing at the bow who has worked this river since he was a teenager. Three miles of green water below Falmouth, an hour and a half of it, and a stop on the bank where somebody sells you a cold Red Stripe. It started as the way plantation bananas moved downriver and turned into the most-booked hour in Jamaica.
- 1Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 559 reviews
- 2Margaritaville Hip-Strip and Great River Rafting Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 245 reviews
- 3Private Montego Bay Bamboo Rafting with Limestone Foot Massage★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 200 reviews
Köprülü Canyon
Ninety minutes inland from Antalya the Kopru river runs cold and green between limestone walls, and fourteen kilometres of Grade II and III have become the cheapest guided rafting day anywhere. Lunch beside the water is in the price, so is the hotel pickup, and the whole thing still costs less than a day on the lounger you left behind. Go in June, when the water is high and the canyon is still cold.
- 1Family Rafting at Koprulu Canyon w/Lunch and Hotel Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 321 reviews
- 2City of Side/Alanya: Koprulu Canyon Rafting Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 297 reviews
- 3Alanya & Side: Whitewater Rafting in Koprulu Canyon★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 295 reviews
Four rafting days that run on the river's calendar, not yours.
Most rafting can be arranged the night before from a bar stool. These four cannot. Snowmelt, dam releases and a fixed number of seats decide when the boats go out, and the good slots are gone months ahead.
- 01Whitewater Rafting on Soca River, SloveniaThe Soca runs on Julian Alps snowmelt: big cold water through May and June, a much gentler river by late August. The hard sections stop running when the level drops.
- 02Royal Gorge Half Day Rafting in Cañon City (Free Wetsuit Use)Canon City rides the Arkansas peak flow. June is the big water; by the end of August the gorge trips depend on a scheduled dam release and the boats fill first.
- 03Rotorua Rafting: Kaituna River White Water Rafting & Free SaunaThe Rotorua waterfall rafts leave on a fixed timetable with a fixed number of seats. Weekend slots in the New Zealand summer go weeks ahead.
- 04Jamaica Martha Brae Bamboo Rafting with Bus TransportationThe Martha Brae rafts run on daylight and on the cruise-ship calendar. On a two-ship morning in Falmouth every poler is spoken for before you are off the pier.
By country - where the rafting is
By kind of day - grade, length, who is coming
Moab to Jackson: a fortnight of rafting across the Rockies.
Durango
Idaho SpringsThe newest rafting reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
“Side: Whitewater Rafting Fun at Koprulu Canyon”
Read our review →
Ayung River Rafting Adventure with Lunch and Transport
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Whitewater Rafting Adventure on the Zambezi River, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
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Horseback Riding and Bamboo Rafting from montego Bay and Falmouth
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White Water Rafting & ATV Adventure Private & All-Inclusive Tour
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ATV Bali (QuadBike) And White Water Rafting Adventure
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All Inclusive Quad Bike Ride and White water Rafting
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Phuket White Water Rafting 5 km, Flying Fox, and ATV
Read our review →
Phuket Adventure with White Water Rafting, Monkey cave and Zip Line+Optional ATV
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ATV Rafting + Zipline, Swing, Sky Bike in Bali Rice Terrace
Read our review →
ATV Quad Bike and White Water Rafting Adventure with Lunch
Read our review →
Gorilla Cave ATV & Ubud White Water Rafting With Lunch
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