We love Dons! It's a great place to camp, fish or hangout for the day. The owners are super nice and always helpful. read more

Don's Fish Camp - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

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What an awesome place for a float!! We had a great time and the service was fantastic. Thank you Cody, Nicole, Cheyenne, Valance and Pete-we'll be back for another float. Thank you for your hospitality! -Louise, aka big Lou :) read more

Close enough to Austin to make it an easy day trip. But also there are plenty of places to stay nearby if you wanna make it a weekend! Don's offers shuttle service (for an extra fee) that will even pick you up at your hotel or air bnb. If you drive yourself, parking is free and they shuttle you to the drop in and the exit of the float. When we were there the river was pretty full and moving pretty quick so the float was taking about 2 hours. You can bring your own tubes (they have an inflation station) or rent from them. They are in a part of the river that isn't impacted by the can rules, so it's business as usual! Feel free to bring your usual food and drink in a cooler, just don't leave your trash behind. Keep it clean! And they rent cooler tubes and coolers if you don't have one. Hoping to get back again before summer ends! Affordable and fun read more

Don's Fish Camp - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

My best tips: -Come as soon as they open to beat the crowds. Like 10am latest if possible -BYO snacks and drinks and lots of water! -sunscreen a must and multiple times. You will get burnt. Maybe consider a water shirt to keep cool. -the float will be 3hrs + and can get packed in the river -water shoes such a plus Overall, love coming tubing here and always have a good time with friends! read more

Don's Fish Camp - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

We were forced to drive an hour from Canyon Lake to their front door to get our $400 refund. When we called to inquire about the refund they simply said " it is barely sprinkling here". Drive through at least 3 flash flood warning messages to finally pull into their road to get yet another flash flood warning. I walked in ANGRY but level headed. I understand that they are on a different river system and have their own flood dam......blah blah blah. We got our refund,We shall see. The drive back to our AirBnb was terrifying and will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth for this business. read more

All staff was super nice, helped my group and I out tremendously. N

if i could give 0 stars i would. horrible service, made me buy another ticket and told me that i could get a refund. Never got that refund and i reached out by email multiple times about my situation and no response obviously a management issue read more

Have gone to Don's for years, and during these active, deadly, and catastrophic floods in Central Texas this company is encouraging people to come float, being rude, and blocking individuals. I will never give them a cent again, and will be going to a more compassionate business. read more

Id recommend this place to anyone! The owner is the sweetest person I've ever met and you can tell they really care about the people. If you're looking for a nice place to float in San Marcos come here for sure read more

Great time, quick service, river has lots of current and water was high. Only thing was that a guy in a kayak kept following us. Warning: dirt road like most tubing rental parking lot places. Drive slow. You can take your own tubes but don't fill them up until the bus drops you off by the river. They have like 10 air pumping stations. read more

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Ive been to a few of these tubing rental places and so far this is my favorite one probably because they have a system to get you through to the next step and into the water quicker. When you arrive a person will let you know what lane to go in once you let him know what you're renting. If you have a tube already, you pay $15. If you need one its $22. Cooler tube rental $10. Their tubes have the headrest on them which is nice resting your head on while chilaxing on the river. You will get a wristband for each thing your rent with different colors. Keep those because you will need to show this when you are getting your tubes. Once you park you car, walk up to where the buses are and a bus will drive you to the starting point of where the fun begins. It stops when you see the Don's fish camp sign. *You will be on the river for at least 2 hours. read more

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The website designer did a great job; I was convinced this place was more upscale than it is. When we arrived, we discovered quite the opposite. Rough dirt road, out buildings that are falling apart, dirt parking lot, no bathrooms anywhere to be found, confusing layout, old half-dilapidated buses, and not the most savory seeming employees (the check-in lady was blasting rap music). I mean, it was fine overall, but do not expect a glamorous experience in the slightest. That said, I picked these folks for the cheap price and length of float. $24 per rented tube, no parking fee, free shuttle, and over three hours of float time. Plus, if you reserve online, you only need to select the day and can show up whenever between 10am-430pm rather than selecting a specific hour time slot and risk your rental being forfeit. So the lack of amenities balances out with cost and convenience there, at least for me. The three hour float was actually a bit too long for my partner and I, who enjoyed the rapids the most which were few and far between, and grew bored along the way. Though we might've had an easier time relaxing if we hadn't constantly found ourselves sandwiched between other groups blasting music or smoking weed. We didn't encounter any groups with children, but plenty of drunk people (some consuming on the bus ride). So I wouldn't call this a family-friendly float. At the end there was a big noisy party on shore along with booths/food trucks. If that's your thing, you'll be pleased. If it's not, you'll hastily leave like us, LOL. read more

amazing service! great place for the river! 10/10 would recommend, will be coming back!

Great day floating the River w friends! All went smoothly; will be back again! That being said, $30 pp is a little much but had fun anyway. read more

This is my favorite place to float!! it's so easy and accessible! I live 40 mins from dons and pass so many other floats spots just to come to this one! I only come here to float, and I always have fun but do minimal work and dons provides that for me. I love that they have the air pumps and floats all in one place. I love that they do simple wristbands and have multiple buses in rotation (at least in the summer) and I love that it's kinda of a bring your own stuff to have the best experience considering I take floating very seriously, So it gives me a chance to check everything off my list and control that I have the best float day! read more

This weekend was my second visit at Don's Fish Camp and we will definitely be back! Long float on this beautiful river. I love how the float takes you back to the parking lot. You can rent or bring your own tubes , coolers , etc . One thing I would say is staff should greet guest as if it's their first visit. My first visit I went with friends who had been there before. Today I went and the girl just kinda waited for me to say what I needed / wanted but I didn't know exactly myself haha. I also wanted to buy rope but didn't know which building to buy it from (also my fault for not asking) other than that we will only visit Don's Fish Camp for tubing fun!! read more

I have visited this place with friends a couple of times and both times have been great. I like that they have different tube sizes and the shuttle buses that they provide to take you to the beginning of the river float, definitely beats walking! read more

Don's does it in the exact order that veteran toobers want: parking at the point of debarkation, shuttle to the launch site. Done in the reverse order, as with some other nearby rental places, you end up out of the water ready to go home, only to find yourself at the mercy of someone else's shuttle schedule, riding back to the parking lot in wet clothes. At Don's there's lots of parking available. Of course the earlier you arrive, the better, i.e. closer, spot you'll get. When the shuttle drops you at the river, there's plenty of air hoses to inflate your ride if you brought your own, and a virtual mountain of toobs to chose from if you didn't. Pick up a free mesh bag for the trash you'll accumulate along the way (cans, plastic bottles, wrappers, etc.), Don's wants to help keep the river clean. Proceed down the wide, rocked path to the river but watch your step once there. You'll think it looks shallow and easy but them there underwater rock ledges are slick! read more

Don's Fish Camp - You'll get bracelets to show you are a paying customer. - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

Great place to have lots of fun! Rent a tube and one for your ice chest! Bring the family! Shuttle drops you off at another side of the river and as you go tubing, you'll end up back where you got on the shuttle. Gets really busy so get there early! Bring some rope if you want to tie multiple tubes together otherwise you'll get lost in the sea of tubes. Music speakers allowed. read more

Don's Fish Camp - Tubing on the river with family and friends - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

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We had a great time! We didn't mind the dirt road or the school bus. The tubs were nice and if you brought your own, there was air to fill them up. It was so relaxing. There was security floating around just keeping the river clean and making sure all was well. Everyone was really nice and there was even free crawfish at the end of the float. Great time and we will go again! read more

Don's Fish Camp - Chillin, drinking, floating! - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

Let me start by saying I can't swim and I was scared to go float the river with only one other person lol we chose this one because it was long (3 hours or so) you ended up back at your parking spot (you don't have to worry about how to get back to your truck) and you can rent everything here! Ride to the river was included! Had a blast it was a chill ride. Did not have to worry about flipping over. Don't have to worry about the current being to rough. It's exactly we were looking for! If you're looking for more of a thrill this is not it lol read more

Don's Fish Camp - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

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I'm a Californian - [enter SNL skit here]. I've never gone on a float and I made fun of my best friend for going on floats all the time in Oklahoma when she was in college because there was nothing else to do but OMG I loved every bit of this experience. LOCATION: We spent a good 3 hours on the river. Some people like to stop on random little islands to drink, pee or take a break. SERVICE: A ton of students work here and they're surprisingly very organized. As soon as you get in, they divide the cars into three different lines, you have to fill out a waiver, pay and you're in the parking lot! I would recommend this place to anyone! We loved it so much. read more

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Fantastic parking, clean bathrooms, great quality tubes, staff is awesome and helpful. Float was so fun. Entire group had a blast and staff at drop off and pick up were so great. Helped with tubes, super efficient. Highly recommend!! Will only use this company when floating. They are by far the best. read more

Don's Fish Camp - Drop off site. Dons Fish Camp is the BEST! - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

All the girls who charge at the entrance need a reality check. Super disrespectful staff at the entrance for no reason. Over charged our group twice on two separate occasions. No given receipt no refunding or correction. NEVER floating with them again. Loved the float for YEARS but this current staff needs to remember not everyone is a student and can really get checked for the odd / random disrespectful commentary. Never had issues until this float season and it's super disappointing. read more

I have floated the river twice now with Don's and I refuse to go anywhere else. He employees the younger crowd for the summer which is amazing. There are soooo many tubes, tons of places to stop along the way. read more

Just don't understand how they charge $28 for each float rental but don't have doors at each restroom!!! Like you have to pee with out doors wtf And you have to walk up the hill to get to the restroom. read more

Wish I could choose 0 stars. I went to Don's last Saturday to float the river with friends. One of their parking attendants led me into a rock. He was motioning me forward and gave me 0 warning that there was a huge rock next to my car. After I hit the rock he ran away to the other side of the parking lot. There is enough damage that I need a new door. Management left me waiting 20 minutes outside after I asked to speak to someone. The managers "assistant" came out and let me know that "He (the manager) is trying to run a business and if I wanted to talk to somebody, I could call the police." Have called twice in the past week to speak with someone to no avail. Disappointed at their lack of responsibility. read more

Don's Fish Camp - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

Love dons soooo much!!! Been coming here for years!! Cody and Nicole are awesome!!! We just moved to Martindale and we always know we will have a wonderful time floating or just swimming around!! read more

Love this place! Great atmosphere and owners. Really is best float around. Get back as often as possible

Tubing the San Marcos river couldn't be any easier or more fun. Don's Fish Camp makes it super easy to bring your tubes and get on the river quickly. Prices are $15 per person if you bring your own float or $22 to rent theirs. The price includes parking and transportation to your drop off point. Once you get to the drop off point they have several air pumps if you need to inflate your tubes from home. Best part is it's a long and beautiful float. Our driver told us people were finishing in 3 1/2 hours but it was a little more than 4 hours for us. Can't beat tubing on a hot Texas summer day! read more

Most fun i've ever had in my life. So cute. Literally the most fun place. Let's have Float Fest again! okay bye

Very disappointing experience. We took a group there on a fly rides bus and then when we got there the staff and dons made us jump through hoops to even pay. We were told by 'Craig' when coordinating this trip that we would get a $5 discount person and after paying we realized we did not get that discount. The dons fish camp staff also told us they didn't know we were coming which was surprising after taking to craig for a week. Craig told us to ask for Brianna when we arrived and she would take care of us..yet Brianna was not working that day. I will definitely be avoiding dons in the future read more

A really chill worry free float on the San Marcos River. Private land keeps the River lower traffic. Rapids are fairly calm and you may need to paddle in deeper pools. One time the wind was blowing us up river. Always a good time! read more

We've floated w/ Don's for 5 years now and give it 5 stars. This is our first time camping with them so this review is solely for the camping part and I hope you find it helpful, as these where some of my questions I wasn't able to find answers to prior to our trip. 1) It's primitive camping site. There are restrooms (stalls no doors) at the top of the hill, they were clean and plenty of toilet paper. Showers were still being built as of 7/12/19. 2) I would say this isn't super family friendly but has potential. 3) Get their EARLY for a good spot. Gates open at 8am 4) spots down by the river were rocky, so bring an air mattress or sleep in your car. I slept in the tent one night and another in the car with doors open and it was comfortable. 5)if this is your first time, drive all the way down the dirt road until your reach the river bank (pass the red building) and just set yourself up where there is a free space. 6) we really enjoyed the camping floating deal of $32 a day per person. 7) there is only one wooden table & park like grill, so I recommend to bring your own canopy, grill & table, etc. 8)lots of trees to hang your hammock! 9) they provided plenty of fire wood for bon fires! 10) The landowners came down at night to check on all the campers to see how we were doing, if we needing anything and introduce themselves. They will also check for wristbands. - we did have an unfortunate incident our first night with a neighboring camping group of young college kiddos, the next morning we talked to the landowners about the situation; they did a very good job of handling the situation and ended up moving this rowdy group to another part of the property and let us know if anything else happened they'd be removed at our discretion. Moving them locations solved the problem in this case. Everyone else around us was friendly & respectful - the owner did mention, they are doing their best to weed out the overly rowdy disrespectful & disruptive crowd. They want their campers to feel comfortable. Feel free to get a contact number for them in case a need arises when they do their night rounds. 11) my only complaint is the lack of knowledge by the workers about the camping prices, spots & bathroom situation when I called to ask questions Camping I'd rate it a 4 because of how rocky it is & the lack on knowledge by staff. read more

My first time tubing and it was an experience I will never forget! When you arrive on site you must drive through a lot full of dirt and rocks. It was crowded today so it took some time getting parked. While waiting to park an attendant will come to your car and ask you to sign a waiver. Another worker collected payment and it was $12 with a tube and $19 without a tube. After parking you must walk with your items in the gravel/rocks and get in line for a shuttle. The shuttle is an old yellow school bus that has no air, but the windows were down. I must say the shuttle line moved quickly and they had several buses ready for pick up. The bus driver was nice and entertaining. The ride to the actual river took about 10 minutes because of the traffic lights. Before you can actually enjoy the river if your tube needs air you must wait in a crowd of people that also need to inflate their tube. It was several air machines, but only a few worked! There was no attendant that worked the air station. Everyone had to work together and wait. Once your ready to tube you must walk down a hill of hard and big rocks. At the edge you can get in your tube and float away. The river is nice, but has a lot of rapids and big rocks that can hurt you if you don't lift your body up! It can take about 3 hours to tube around the river. Once your at the end attendants will assist you off the tube and back to land. read more

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Best float- by far! Plus the cheapest! :) This float is easy breezy- very chill, about 3 hours read more

Epic tubing experiences!!!..Went 4 times to Don's for Summer2023 and it was always an amazing time from start to finish. I do recommend the owners bring back T-Shirts and more souvenirs to rep Don's Fish Camp. read more

We went yesterday. Had a good time. Woke up real early to leave austin just to get down there. Floated around the first time with some friends that had never been before. We started to cook out. Got ready to get back on the bus and float again We saw a bus come through at 4:30. Barely there for a second, picked up a group and just left. Didn't have time to even tell him we were interested as well. We said okay, will just sit up here until he returns, he's gotta do like a closing bus trip right? One website says they close at 5 the other says 530. Anyways the bus driver returns around 4:55. Looks like he's just chatting on the phone giving us awkward eye contact. Finally, asks us if we need anything. (As we're holding our cooler and tubes and have been waiting for 30mins). We told him we needed to buy more string. He says okay. Doesn't go to get us more string. Gets back in his bus, and starts too look as if he's driving off, Pulls the bus around the back of his office/shed. Comes around the corner and goes Unfortunately guys we're now closed. Wow seriously dude? Are you just having that bad of day... Everyone around us was amazed he just did that. It felt extremely rude. I remember the guy was an African American with dreads. Guessing he was the closer yesterday. And he could care less about the guests. Never seen a place that closes and doesn't offer a final ride for the people who've been waiting. Unacceptable. I'm giving 2-Stars only because the first person we ran into, and that has helped us before, was cool and nice and helped us out a lot. Blonde kid, nice teeth, nice persona. He gets a thumbs up read more

Don's Fish Camp - It shows right here, they close at 5:30 on google just so I don't look like I'm lying - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - Martindale, Texas

I always had an amazing time when I went to DONS. It's used to be less crowded than the other floats in San Marcos. Now a days, it's disgusting!! Where the heck is Don? Is he still alive? They sure aren't running things the way they used to! They allow way too many people in at one time. You're surrounded by floats. Everyone is blasting their favorite music. The water is not what it used to be. Used to be semi clear and now it's filthy pee water. Think about this... 4 hour float .. all those people peeing in that water.. you can smell it. We saw several dead fish just floating away. I used to love Dons. I really hope they get it together and put a capacity on each float. read more

Don's Fish Camp is a cheap and easy way to get wet real fast. Pass a curvy road, a few cows and some ponies, a creepy trailer park and you're there. The 2+ hour float is a relaxing one - you don't pass by too many houses or any noisy resorts, you won't spot many popos regulating on the life of the party (at least we didn't see any on Labor Day weekend) ... it's just a nice ride down a sun-kissed San Marcos rio with non-freezing temps. Take note, kiddos: -It's a shitaous drive down that long gravel road. And I like old dirt roads; but this is more like driving on razor blades. Ouch. -$5 per vehicle to park. -$12 tube rental which includes a dangerous shuttle ride (driven by Otto) to and from the rio. -Unlike most tube rental places, they won't hold your keys; so pick the most responsible - or in some cases, the "least irresponsible" - person to hold the goods. -They sell ice, rope, koozies, and those nerdy floating bobbers for your sunglasses (I actually own a pair.). And you can rent a cooler and the radio coolers ($60) that connect to your iPod. -They accept credit cards, but the attendant moves at a snail's pace. read more