holiday river expeditions - utah rafting day tours

We had a great family adventure with Holiday River Expeditions floating down the Green River through Dinosaur National Monument. The scenery was impressive, the rapids invigorating, the food was delicious, and the guides stupendous and fun. We raveled with our then 10 &11 year old adventure loving girls and shared some unforgettable family memories last summer. It was such a great vacation, the girls are asking to go on another rafting trip this summer. We are definitely considering it with Holiday River Expeditions, but just need to decide which one of the many adventures offered.

Pierre,Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review of your experience on our 4 day wilderness river trip. Your concerns regarding how your children were treated have been taken seriously. Rest assured upon receiving your feedback directly 2 and a half months ago we addressed each of them with your guides. Further, all guest feedback is shared with all of our guides so we can all learn how certain actions impact our guest’s vacation. I will not take the time here to parse through ‘both sides of the story’ because what is important is we did not succeed in delivering a vacation that met your full expectations. So, we will learn from that and move forward as we have for 48 years and work even harder to make our wilderness river vacations family-friendly. Again, thank you for your feedback; It is how we grow.John WoodPresident and Owner

Our group of nine friends went on the 4 day/3 night mountain bike trip on the White Rim Trail and we had the best time ever. I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend this first class organization to a friend and I am trying to figure out when I can come back for another trip.Karen who helped us through the booking process was extremely helpful, patient, and friendly. She took the time to answer our questions and did her best to accommodate any special requests and issues we had as we planned this trip with nine different people coming from all corners of the country.Our guides, Julien and Brin, went above and beyond to make sure that we had a good time. Combine a comedian, naturalist, bike mechanic, and backcountry chef and you have these two. And I do mean chef. The food was incredible! Who bakes lasagna and a chocolate peanut butter cake in the middle of nowhere? These guys!Again, don’t think twice about booking a trip with this outfitter.

Part of our group, roughly a dozen, had signed up for a rafting trip. We met at the office behind the Comfort Inn- down a gravel road. After signing umpteen pages of waiver – sadly the norm in these days – we boarded the van – towing the inflatable raft, to take us to our launching point, up the Green River: Nefertiti. While the guides maneuvered the raft into the water and inflated the duckies, we fitted life vests. Thus began our little adventure eight miles down the river to Swayze Point. The landscape, between soaring cliffs on the placid river rolling along ponderously was gorgeous, with terrific and highly photogenic scenery. We stopped at a spot where a short climb took us to a site where a large black panel of rock had broken out of the cliff face. The erstwhile panel was covered in petroglyphs with the glyphs now sideways. From there we proceeded to a sandy beach where we had lunch – delicious tuna salad, with trappings –prepared by our guides. I chose to get in a duckie as well from there. It had looked like plain sailing to me – pardon the pun; so even though I’d never been in a canoe or kayak before - and hadn’t even known what a duckie was before this trip. My previous experience was limited to the rubber dinghy I’d had as a kid – and that had never been on a river … so off we went and it was great fun, apart from the fact that you were sitting in two inches of river water, as the floor of the duckies have holes – holes which are deliberate. Then, of course, there were rapids. Oh, nothing like on the Snake River in Hell’s Canyon or what you see in Indiana Jones, but, like, when you ride a horse for the first time, would you jump a cross country course? … Exactly, so there … I’m always up for a challenge, and it was too late anyway. I remembered the guide’s ‘keep the duckie pointing downriver … trying, man, trying … The currents from two arms of the river going around a small island - should have made for that! – smashed into each other and made waves, and then some. My husband got a picture of me … or rather, not of me, as it were, just the nose – or bill – of my duckie pointing to the skies, more or less, the rest of me and duckie down in the trough, invisible … I got inundated even more and was now sitting in considerably more inches of river water than before, and a sideways wave smacked by face, and drenched the rest of me … I was like, don’t lose your glasses, don’t lose your glasses .. and then suddenly the guides were pointing to the left and gesticulating … what? WHAT? There was no obstacle, so why veer left? Oh, a look behind me showed me that two of our group were now in the water; their duckies had turned turtle – now there’s an interesting metamorphosis. One of the guides demonstrated why life vests have to be fitted real tight by hauling our kayaker-turned-duck unceremoniously up and into the raft by it. When paddlers and duckies were reunited we proceeded downriver through some more frothy fun … a wonderful experience … it was tremendous fun with a good touch of adventure! Highly recommendable; big time quality time at a very fair price.

We booked a day rafting trip on the Gray's canyon section of the Green River. Our guides were Justin and Colin. They showed us and great time and were so much fun to be with. They made sure we all got wet in the rapids. We had 12 people total plus the 2 guides. 9 people paddled the 6 "duckies" and they traded on and off. We did dump 2 people in the rapids and they enjoyed that! The sun was shinning bright and the water was comfortable temperate. Our guides took us on a short hike to see rock art. They put on a good lunch and we all rested a bit. All in all it was a very good trip and would recommedn Holiday River Expeditions to all.

A lot of the best southern Utah sights are really crowded. With Holiday River Expeditions, you get to see the mind-blowing sights without the crowds. Great guides, really excellent experience. This is a well-run company. I had such fun doing stand up paddleboard (SUP), in addition to the rafting.

Guides are so AMAZING!!! Their knowledge is SUPREME!! The experience was UNBELIEVABLE!!! From the "float", to the food, to the campsite! TOP NOTCH!!! Will return!!! Watch out for Suprise rapid!!

Holiday River Expeditions do trips amazingly well and fun! I am a repeat client - did my first trip about 15 yrs. ago - and I will do more trips upcoming! A fantastic balance of adventure, relaxation, physical output if you choose, incredible scenery - those nightly camp sites are envious for any wealthy land owner - fantastic food, very well organized and conducted. The guides truly make the trip with their knowledge and incredible help each day in taking care of clients. From cleaning bikes, cooking, unpacking & packing our gear and campsites, talking about the area with high local knowledge, and so much more. They are very attuned to clients' desires and anticipate keenly. I will be on more trips and I love how Holiday takes care of everything so awesomely. Thank you!

I just returned from a two day Westwater trip with my 12-year old son and we truly had an incredible experience. Everything was well planned out by the Holiday Expeditions crew - booking experience was simple and easy but the real difference on this trip was the guides - Zach, Dustin and Larkin, they worked their butts off to make sure we had a great time and did it all with an upbeat attitude. The scenery was fantastic, food was unbelievable...steaks with mashed potatoes for dinner, made to order omelets and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, fresh pasta salad for lunch...are you kidding me!, my son remarked that we ate better food on the river than we do at home! We will definitely be back next year for a longer trip with Holiday.

This is one of those trips you will always remember! I planned this trip for my husband and I am so glad I did! The guides are super helpful and pleasant. They cook your meals, transport gear, have great stories, etc. We met great people we are still in contact with! Definitely pack light and re-wear your clothes, if possible. Would love to return every year!

I had such an incredible time on my Holiday trip down Cataract Canyon. The trip was well planned, the food was great and the guides were amazing. They were experts in geology, geography, botany, river running, rapids and cooking. We spent our days floating through beautiful scenery and going through huge and exciting whitewater. Our nights were spent looking at millions of stars while drinking beer and eating great food. I can't recommend this trip highly enough,

This trip exceeded our expectations. The camping was great. The food was awesome. The rapids were a blast. We're looking to make this an annual thing,A couple notes for a first-timer:1. Pack light. It just makes everything easier.2. Mosquitos weren't a big problem, except for the first night. Bring insect repellant.3. Bring a good sunblock and high spf lip balm

Easily one of the most beautiful sceneries on this 5 day rafting trip with extremely competent and knowledgable guides who thought about everything including providing games and entertainment for young and older (we are seniors), set up shade umbrellas on boats, cooked fantastic meals and so on. I have rarely been so well taken care of on a trip. Enjoyed everyone's company.I can't wait to go again!

Our trip down Cataract Canyon was outstanding. It goes with out saying that the scenery, wildlife, river were amazing, but what really made the trip was the seem-less logistics and fabulous guides who outdid themselves in making sure the trip went off without a hitch - including a safe run down the rapids. Everything from the food, equipment, and great humor were appreciated and made the trip really special. Can't wait to do another Holiday Expeditions trip!

We traveled with seven family members - teen grand kids (15, 17 and 19) parents and us (grandparents). We do a trip each year for 10 years and this was voted the best so far. It beat out cruises, a dude ranch, the Bahamas etc. Scenery was spectacular, guides so helpful and fun with the kids, whitewater rafting very exciting, and food above all expectations.Camping is not my preferred style but they made it quite comfortable with the mats, tents and even a pillow! We took way too much clothes (only needed 2 changes of clothes and a bathing suit.Most important we spent 5 days with no cell phones, playing games in the evening, enjoying each other's company. We got box wine from Total Wine (Maipe Malbec $29 3 liters) and somehow box wine is excellent chilled in the river after a long day cruising the canyon. Hikes were great and guides are well informed so always educating the group.We did the 4 nights cataract canyon trip and despite the great time, we were ready to get out of the sun and to a real shower but it was worth every minute. June was a hot month and the river cold and refreshing so we were grateful for wide brim hats. It cooled down nicely at night for sleeping thank goodness.