Adventures on the Gorge
Adventures on the Gorge
4.5

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Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

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4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles44 reviews
Excellent
31
Very good
9
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
4

Nicholas B
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2022 • Couples
My wife and I went Zip Lining for the first time. We did their gravity course, the larger and higher of their offerings. The course and staff did not disappoint. The guides were engaging and made us feel safe and welcome and provided an outstanding experience.

The course took about 3 hours to complete counting time taken to travel and gear up. The safety equipment was easy to manage and I appreciated the bus taking us between zip point. There was a very minor hike involved. The course starts with some small zips and works its way up in length and speed.

This is defiantly a place and activity I would recommend and do again.
Written October 10, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you so much!
Written October 10, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Aurelio C
7 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2022 • Solo
Customer Service reps were responsive and easy to communicate with. This was my 3rd time rafting with them on the Upper Gauley. The river didn't disappoint and Troy and Mike were great tour and raft guides, respectively. Only dissatisfaction was with the video recording footage. I would rate ours a 2 of 5 due to terrible location of filming Lost Paddle Rapids (Hawaii Five O drop) - could not tell from video that was the infamous drop. And, only caught 3 of 6 rafts going over said drop due to longer coverage of other rafts. On Sweets Falls, missed filming our raft going down the 12-14 foot drop, again, due to coverage of other rafts. Advice - stay the extra hour or two to watch the video before buying it. Overall experience, 4 stars.
Written October 7, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you, 561laurelioc. We're continuing to work with out video boaters to get this right!
Written October 10, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

jb
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN3 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2022 • Family
Gravity zipline adventure. Ziplines are long and beautiful scenery. Guides primary focus is providing a fun and safe experience. The last zipline was the longest and provided a 60 sec. hang time above the tree tops.
Written September 13, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you, Coastal!
Written September 16, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Chuckygii
Spartanburg, SC67 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2022 • Friends
We did the half-day whitewater rafting experience. I’ve probably been whitewater rafting ten times, but this is by far my best experience. Link negotiated some big Class IV’s with ease. So much fun. He also shared history of the area while we were in calm places. Excellent!
Written July 24, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you, Chuck!
Written July 28, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

RunnerGirl
Chesterland, OH88 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
A group of 6 of us just returned from West Virginia to do some whitewater rafting. This was our 5th trip down there to raft and we've always rafted with the Rivermen. I can't say enough good things about this outfit. Their facilities are excellent, they offer choices of accommodations-camping, cabins, rooms, even a B&B type option. Their meals are very good and the cooks seem to really enjoy their cooking and like to see you eat. Most importantly, are their guides and equipment. Since we've been there 5 times, we've had several different guides and they are always top notch. Fun and easy to talk to, but also very professional, well trained and focused on safety. They really know their stuff AND LOVE RAFTING and it shows!

We just got back today from running the Lower New on 6/19/05 and, as usual had a great time!

If you are looking to travel to West Virginia to do some rafting, I hightly recommend this outfit.
Written June 20, 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Dave C
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States34 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2013 • Family
Nutshell: our guide told us to shut up, called us sh?theads and smacked one of our group on the back with her wooden paddle. If you go with this group, watch out for Margaret, especially if you have inexperienced rafters.

We had a group of six on the Lower New River. We booked our trip with "Adventures on the Gorge" which is the same thing as "River Men". The people seemed very nice and knowledgeable. We just had a problem with our raft guide. Her name was Margaret. At first she was very nice, and told us about the history of the surrounding area, but halfway into the trip she started interrupting us, telling us to "shut up and listen." At one point she said, "I've told you guys about five times and you are not listening." She actually said it twice, not five times. To be fair, half of our group of six were first time rafters, excited but also inexperienced. It's not like they were chatting away and not listening to her.

Halfway into the trip, we had a member thrown out of the raft. Odd thing is, this was not even in a rapid. It was the only time in the whole trip that this happened. We were trying to help him back into the raft, and we made this mistake: more than one of us tried to help him back in, rather than just one of us. Others stopped paddling as we were surprised and unsure of what to do. Margaret yelled, and I quote exactly: "Paddle, you sh?theads!" And then she slapped our 13 year old on the back with her paddle.

After the trip, I called and asked for a manager and that phone call was a bizarre experience. I'm not sure how to describe. It was very unprofessional. He asked me if I'd like him to fire Margaret. I think this was said to put me on my guard; obviously they will not fire her because of something I said. I said that I realize that it's her word against ours, and that I can't prove what happened. To that he replied, are you going so far as to say that Margaret would lie? It was a very strange experience, very unprofessional.
Written August 17, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for your response. We are sorry to hear you had an unfavorable experience while visiting Adventures On the Gorge. In situations such as this, our management team likes to take the time to investigate what our guests report. Extensive conversations have taken place with both the guide in question as well as our River Managers. She is aware her actions were unprofessional, but was attempting to prevent a dire situation from happening. Though we want our guests to have fun, we also want them to be safe. There are risks involved with our activities and when these situations arise emotions can run high. The area where this incident occurred can have big consequences for swimmers and your guide was trying to get this point across in a bold manner. That being said, we do not condone the language used. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact our office directly. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and your group.
Written August 28, 2013
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Mediahound100
Washington, D.C.10 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Tripadvisor has few reviews of West Virginia rafting trips, so here's an attempt to add to the genre. Just returned from a two-day rafting trip on the New River with my 15-year-old and 18-year-old sons. Overall a great experience, and an enormous vacation value. We paid about $600 for the three of us for two days, including food (five meals, two lunches on the river) and two night cabin accomodation. That reflects a discount of going on a Monday-Tuesday, so expect to pay more on the weekend.

We went with Rivermen (www.rivermen.com) simply because of a website that looked informative, balanced and responsible, following a first-page organic result from a Google search of "West Virginia rafting" -- other organic results were Songer.com (whose boats we never saw on the river, but which our guide referred to as a reputable and comparable competitor.)

Rivermen is a fairly large outfit, with a capacity to handle 200-300 people a day. It seems to dominate the industry now, another example of the winner-take-all effects of the internet. Rivermen is based outside of Fayetteville, WV, on a 20-30-acre tract next to Route 19. They have a fleet of schoolbuses, an array of camping options, very good and simple food at a pavilion with picnic tables, a lot of recreational activities, and clean and well maintained campsites. The smelly outhouses are a problem, and they are building a new bath house in the middle of the camping area, but they are clearly taking their time building it. The camping cabins, pre-fabs that remind you of those storage sheds popular out west, were clean and comfortable. One of the bosses wheels around with a golf cart selling onion-bags of dry firewood for $4.

Overall Rivermen is very well run, handles large groups well, and preps people extremely well for the experience. (The orientation lasted about 45 minutes.)

The guides are well trained and generally very professional. They are young, too. I would recommend that, if you bring your family, you make it a point to tip the guides $20-$30 because they are not getting tipped by the huge church and Boy Scout groups, at least as far as I could tell. And the guides certainly deserve a tip. The organizer is good, by the way, at pairing up families for rafts; ours was a good fit.

If you are an experienced rafter, I would recommend you go in June or early July, before the water gets too low. The New River was slower and lazier this time of year (early August). We took duckies on the slower Upper New on the first day -- we highly recommend duckies (inflatable kayaks) for anyone fit and eager. You can't use them on the Lower New trip, where you must take the 10-12-person rafts, which we did the second day.

Anyone relatively fit and athletic will enjoy this experience. The environment is clean and well kept, and it is beautiful. It is, at this time of year, not terribly challenging, or even dangerous. The only it really can be dangerous is if you don't listen to your guides or deliberately be reckless.

We loved it. We'll be back to try the Gauley River year.

Written August 8, 2007
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Trevor C
Washington DC, DC2 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2011 • Friends
It seems that all the rafting outfits are now incorporated into one entity and the service is starting to go downhill. They have adopted a pack 'em in, rip 'em off attitude(kind of like the airlines/airport services). The rafting itself on the Gauley was once again a blast, but the overall experience is IMHO really not worth the price and the 6 hour drive(each way).

We camped and were assigned to the auxiliary camping sites. Try to get out of that one if you can. No soap already on Friday afternoon, no quiet hours enforcement, no picnic table(we found out later that there was a bunch of them in a pile at the end of the camp drive, I guess you're supposed to go get your own), upon arrival, we ran into camp employees collecting leftover wood from sites, most probably for resale. Then they sold us wood that was so wet in wouldn't burn.

It would be somewhat helpful if they could employ people with more than 2 brain cells at the front desk. Winter, the lovely woman at the check-in, undoubtedly is not one them. Apparently, you have to reserve everything at least one year in advance. Otherwise, if you'll try to do zip-lining or ask for another camp site, Winter is going to stare at the computer screen for 30 secs, click the mouse a couple of times and then announce that it would take her "hours" to fulfill your audacious wish. We tried to sign up for the zip-line again the next day, but this time the internet was down.

I've worked in the service industry for 20+ years, so I can empathize with employees when things get busy, but these guys just couldn't be bothered to do their job right.
Written October 14, 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Mykel919
Chicago, IL1 contribution
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2010
We stayed a weekend with the Rivermen almost 2 yrs ago and had an amazing weekend. Our tour guide, Chuck, was phenomenal and it was an experience I would recommend to anyone. Presently we were considering having a quick "destination" wedding coupled with rafting and naturally called on the Rivermen/Class VI organization to discuss our options. We were told that we would have to place a $500 deposit. We rcvd no paperwork, no contract, nothing in the mail at all as promised. We sent the check having confidence in the company since we had been there before and everyone was fantastic. We came to the conclusion that this destination would not work for our entire family and we canceled the booking almost 4 months ago, 7 months in advance of our date. We have not rcvd a refund nor will anyone from the organization return any of our twice weekly voice mails. If you need a last minute weekend idea, great company. You want to coordinate an event with a professional organization with ethical business practices.....Look elsewhere!!!
Written May 31, 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Our apologies for any inconvenience these events caused you or your family. I hope all issues highlighted in your post have been resolved. We hope you will still consider us in the future for your outdoor adventure vacations. Thanks and have a wonderful day!
Written June 27, 2011
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

1PickyPerson
Indianapolis, IN20 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Visited off of recommendations, and we had a great time. We did the family fun trip. The value was great, and the laughter and smiles on my daughters face proved it! The staff was great no matter where you were. Nice facilities. Great food. We're already planning for our return! I highly recommend this for the family.
Written July 29, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Adventures on the Gorge - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)