The place has gone downhill while the prices have gone up! After a week of waiting for them to confirm our reservation, we called. Someone actually answered the phone. He sounded young, and like he just woke up from an all night party. He had no idea about our reservation request, and started telling us stuff that wasn't on their price list, and said he wouldn't have a driver show up until 11am, even though their trips start at 9. It was obvious he would rather sleep in than run a business. We'd been going there for years and always had a fun time. The owners were very professional. But something's happened, and not in a good way. We won't be going back. read more

We were told to arrive by a certain time, yet nothing happened until 40" later. Personnel were great, but just to let you know, you will be rafting down a river that looks like rush hour traffic in Gatlinburg read more

I always have a good time on mad river ! The people who run it are super cool ! The river is clean and I recommend this place

I wasn't involved as much with group scheduling. But at the end of our 8 mile trip the staff got really nasty with us. They would not remove canoes to make room for us to land and made it extremely difficult considering the current strength. But instead of assisting and being understanding of the novice and beginners they were yelling and being rude. Then acted like we trying to make their jobs difficult. I will not return and I will definitely make sure to spread the word... heard Urbana has a better canoe kayak business. read more

Pretty weird experience. We got there 20 mins after the van left to take kayakers out and would take about 45 mins for the van to come back to take us. Very little instruction on what to look for near the end of the ride and we did the 3 mile trip and it was weird they put the kayaks in the water and left. read more

It was a great day! Great adventure at a great price! 14 people, 1 canoe overturned (twice), lots of laughs and stories to tell. read more

Mad River Adventures - Fun day with family and friends! - Boating Near Me - Springfield, Ohio

First of all the river was low so a lot of spots to ground your kayak. Also a lot of trees down and some hazard areas that could be life threatening. Now the kayaks. Very poor and old. Went with four. Two kayaks had leaks and if you ever kayaked with water in you boat you know it makes it more unstable. Would not recommend. Try someplace else. read more

I have been going to this location since I was a kid & it used to be Aaron's. We've always done the 16mile trip, and made a day of it. This is not luxury service. This is for experienced canoers/kayakers only. There will be some risky spots. There will some still spots. Come prepared, and use common sense. They provide a good reliable service, and have always been my first choice. We've even camped there for super cheap! The owner is a super nice guy. I always recommend Mad River Adventures to everyone I know. read more

You get 2 stars only because the people helping with take outs were super nice and helpful. Outside of that, we will never step foot there again. Your website lists the ability to, and price for, parking at the take out if you have your own boats. Yet, I was given a ration of shit for not calling and speaking to someone days ahead of time. Well, I tried calling.. I left messages.. I sent FB messages.. you read the messages.. But you still treated me like I was some idiot for even thinking it was ok to do it. I was literally trying to throw money at you even though I could have said F it and just did it without you knowing. So I try to do the right thing and you treat me like shit. Your driving staff are rude, your desk staff are rude, your business model sucks guys.. get your crap together or sell.. read more

3 mile trip was pretty cool. Drop off point was a little rough but the trip itself was great

We went as a group of 10 to go tubing on 7/14. We called a couple weeks in advance to reserve us a spot. We were going as part of a bachelorette party. We asked if we could go in the double tubes and were quoted somewhere in the $15-$20 range- I can't remember exactly what we each paid. They were VERY adamant over the phone about us arriving early because if we were even a minute late that we would not get to go. So we were told to be there at 12:30 for 1:00 tubing. About 1:15 rolls around and we are still waiting. We asked about it and was told we would be heading out soon. 2:00 comes and we are STILL waiting. We went up to the front to ask again where we were told they were loading up to take us. They only had 4 double tubes after telling us on the phone that it wasn't an issue for all 10 of us to go. So 8 of us all go to be in doubles while 2 had to be in singles. The guy driving us had to stop 3 times to re-secure the tubes down because they kept coming loose. There was NO air on in the van that was completely packed with 10 of us in there plus the driver. We were literally dropped off on the side of the road, cars zooming by us and given NO directions at all. We had to carry all of our stuff and the tubes down under a bridge to get into the water. Now, maybe this is normal but none of us had ever imagined it would be like that. Once we finally all got into our tubes on the river, it was after 2:30. The river smelled horrible, had tons of big rocks and branches everywhere and very little current. One of the single tubes hit a branch and popped so we had to put her in a double tube with 2 others. With probably less than a mile to go, one of the double tubes got stuck between a huge rock and log and the rest of the tubes kept going. After getting unstuck we met back up with the rest of the group on this little sand bar. We got out for maybe 2 minutes to re-tie our tubes together and a young guy came down and told us we were on private property. We didn't think we were on someones property as it was a little sandbar with our feet literally still in the water. We apologized and hurried onto our tubes and started to float away. The same guy started shooting a gun off into the air as we started floating away. We were all scared and just so upset because there were lots of little kids on the river that day. Shortly after, we started coming up on the place we were supposed to get out. There was one young guy there waiting to help us. He may have been the same guy that drove us. Well, out of the entire almost 3 hours it took to float down the river, right where we were getting off was the strongest current we had seen the entire day. The guy stood in front of our tubes, knocked one over, two of us lost shoes because of it. We complained to the owner about the gun issue and he told us to call the sheriff. We were already pressed for time as this whole ordeal took SO much longer than it should've so we hurried and called but left after and the sheriff actually called us himself to get our story. So I'm not exactly sure what all came about it. The owner acted like he had never heard of such a thing happening but when we were on the phone with the sheriff he knew exactly who we were talking about because this wasn't the first time its happened. Myself nor the other 9 people I went with will EVER go here again. read more

Let me start this off by saying that I have been kayaking many times on many different waterways & have never had such an awful experience. The workers failed to tell us that there was a tree blocking the entire river about 2 miles into our trip. There were multiple people wrecking at this spot & when I wrecked the string of my life jacket got caught underwater & I could not make it up. Thankfully there were many people near by to save me because the majority of them had wrecked there too. I lost my kayak under the tree when this happened as well as my phone. I know this was no fault of Mad River Adventures because this is a risk you take when getting in the water, I was also willing to pay for the kayak since it was lost. But this left me stranded on turtle beach with no way back & no way to inform them I was stranded. But what Mad River Adventures could have done was come to see if we were okay, we were told to return by 6pm. At around 6:30 we were still left stranded out on the beach. my friend still had her kayak so we both decided to try to make it back to Mad River Adventures, because people passing told us we were less than a mile out. When we finally made it back to the exit ramp we were screaming for help & every single one of the workers watched us float by, some of them were even laughing. They made no attempt to come help us when we were directly by the beach. We ended up having to pull off in the bank of the river & were stranded out there for approximately an hour before the fire department came to our rescue. Half of our group made it back after we had called 911 & the workers never once asked if we were still out there or anything. The behavior of the employees at Mad River Adventures was unethical & unacceptable. read more

My family and I went to Mad River on July 14th. We had reserved a 1:00 time and we arrived 30 minutes early to be checked in - the lady (40-50 years in age) that took our information was very rude. We had my niece traveling from South Carolina to Mad River (she was on leave before their family moves to Alaska) and the lady checking us in said if they did not arrive 15 minutes prior to 1:00 - they could not go on the river...... They did get there about 20 minutes till 1 and everyone was checked in and ready to go - Mad River Adventures took a bus full and a van full of people however my group of 12 had to sit and wait in the hot sun for 2 hours before getting taken to the river. There was no explanation - no drinking water was offered. The only kindness that was shown was from a man in a truck that drove by us to say he was sorry for the long wait. When we finally got to the river - we had a blast and we will definitely go kayaking again in the future - but we will find another place to visit. Also - My son is very experienced in kayaking and canoeing and he got tipped, there were 2 inexperienced people in canoes and they were sideways blocking the river - My son ran into one canoe and he flipped his Kayak over, losing a $125.00 pair of sun glasses and one of his crock swim shoes. I suggest even if you are experienced - never take anything expensive because accidents do happen and items can be lost. Also - wear swim shoes..... My feet still hurt 3 days later. :-) read more

Typically we have had a great experience with mad river adventures. We reserved for a group of 9 to go at 9am on the 4th of July. We arrived before 9 and were told that the 9am already left, then told that the paperwork takes too long, then told us that there would be too many people on the river. Previous times I've gone, there's 2 gentleman who were always nice. The lady was rude. We watched them load both vans and leave at 9:10/9:15. We were there with plenty of time to spare. Both vans were completely full! So they must of given away our reserved spots and gave us silly excuses. read more

Sometimes the wait can be sort of long but it is at every canoe place. Here they just want you to get there extremely early for some reason. Other than that there is no reason that this place should have 1 Star. All these other ppl are complaining about stuff that the company themselves can't help. read more

I love kayaking and have been here once before. Always try to avoid this place when I can. The river itself was nice ish. But the people are the reason we don't like it here. Always rude about being there early and angry when there are crowds of people. Usually a delay of about an hour till you're on the water and then they almost always forget or miscount a boat or two. The biggest problem is the fear of the private property locations on your way back to the rental. A few years ago and, from what I hear, has been common since there is someone with a gun that will threaten you if you "beach" your boat on the side of the river to take a break. Not super exciting to hear when you're about to set out. read more

I called a month in advance to reserve 6 kayaks and 2 transports for our own kayaks at 10am. I explained we were coming from over an hour away. I was told "try to be here around 9:30 so we can get your kayaks loaded up." Well, on that day the two kayaks decided not to go. Since we didn't have to load our own we went on our way. Got there around 9:45 and got up to pay around 9:50. We were told we would have to wait until 11 because if you're not there at least 15 mins. in advance you have to wait for the next departure. I respect that rule but wish I had been told before we left or we would've got there sooner. The real trouble was when we were waiting to board at 10:50. Another group came and the guy yelled that they would have to wait an hour. Just like us they were too late... until 5 mins. later he announced "never mind, they're letting us on this one, everyone on a bus!" So my group of 7 had to wait over an hour for a rule that you broke right in front of me for another late group!? If you're going to make a rule and enforce it, it should be enforced across the board. We will find another place to kayak. read more

Made reservation 2 days in advance, Mad River took my phone number for confirmation purposes. When we got there (35 minute drive) the place was closed due to high water. I think a call letting us know they were closed would have been nice. WILL NOT GO BACK. read more