Rafting
4 hours
Free cancellation
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Recommended by 100% of travellers
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₹9,550
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Tributary Whitewater Incredible River Experiences
Tributary Whitewater Incredible River Experiences
Tributary Whitewater Incredible River Experiences
5
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About
The American River is the most popular California whitewater rafting river in the West. It is exciting and lots of fun, with many memorable class 2-3+ rapids. The river flows for 21 miles through the green and gold foothills of California's Gold Rush Country and it has served as an introduction to California rafting for countless beginners. The South Fork American River is suitable for nearly everyone, including families (kids from 8 yrs), corporate and youth groups. We offer ½ day, 1 day, and 2 day trips, all meeting at our camp in the Coloma/Lotus area and will start with an orientation & safety talk. Life jackets will be fitted and paddling instruction is given. Each raft will be manned by a professional, skilled river guide. Located 1 hr east of Sacramento the South Fork American is ideal for a multi-day combo trip with the Middle Fork American, North Fork American, or North Fork Yuba Rivers.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
5.0
66 reviews
Excellent
61
Very good
3
Average
0
Poor
1
Terrible
1
PCoh
Los Angeles, CA269 contributions
Sept 2023 • Couples
Had such a great day of rafting the Middle Fork American River. Our guide, Nacho, was so good that as a first timer I managed the class IV rapids with no trouble. He provided great instructions and kept it light and fun the entire day. Delish lunch spread too. Will be rafting with Tributary again for sure.
Written 25 September 2023
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.
Jacque K
5 contributions
Sept 2023 • Friends
My friend Kris and I went on a half day raft trip last Friday, Sept 15 down the South Fork of the American River. The trip started out with Class 2 rapids and rapidly accelerated to Class 3 rapids and had lots of surprises along the way. The water was clear, cold and there were several places to swim along the route.
We wanted to give a shout out for our wonderful and skillful guide to Valdo. He was very humorous and played some wonderful music. We would request him again and have plans for next year. After the trip, there were clean showers to clean up for the car ride home.
Also Jessica in the front office was very helpful.
We wanted to give a shout out for our wonderful and skillful guide to Valdo. He was very humorous and played some wonderful music. We would request him again and have plans for next year. After the trip, there were clean showers to clean up for the car ride home.
Also Jessica in the front office was very helpful.
Written 18 September 2023
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.
Lyf G
Portland, OR15 contributions
Jun 2023 • Business
These guys do a great job! I took my team on a Deschutes day trip in Oregon and we had a blast. Professional, educational, friendly and respectful. Thanks guys! lyf- flying fish company Portland
Written 23 June 2023
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.
Chuck C
New Jersey, near the beach351 contributions
Aug 2013 • Friends
Four of us did the half day morning run at the South Fork of the American River. What a great experience for all of us, our ages are 66, 55, 33 & 29. There was another family of 4 on the raft their ages were between mid 40's to 14. The Class III rapids were awesome. Andrew was our guide from Tributary Whitewater Tours; he was very professional and knowledgeable. He pointed out Sutter's Mill where the Gold Rush first started in 1849. The trip from Sacramento to base camp was about 45 minutes. We will try the class 4 rapids on out next visit to Sacramento; Andrew said we would love it. My son & I went whitewater rafting about 18 years ago in Maine, at 66 I wasn't sure I could do it again but no problem and we will be back out whitewater rafting on our next trip to visit him. Enjoy your trip, Chuck
Written 26 August 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.
bell0722
Midlothian, TX18 contributions
Jun 2020 • Family
Great experience! Our guide (Jeremy) was fantastic! He knew everything about the raft experience. I would definitely recommend Raft California for your raft experience. They had everything together. On time in every way, from the start to the end. They has a jet ski waiting on us at the end of the raft ride to pull us in and a bus waiting on us to bus us back to camp. No waiting around like I saw other companies doing. Again great experience! Thanks Raft California!
Written 23 June 2020
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.
Jeff E
Lake Mary, FL1 contribution
Jun 2015 • Family
We experienced Tributary Whitewater Tours South Fork on Monday. My family (wife and I with twin 14 year old daughters) as well as a fun couple from the U.K. absolutely loved everything about it. One of my daughters was super nervous about going. Our wonderful guide, Anna, reassured her every step of the way. The great thing about Anna is that she likes to challenge the experienced or risk-taking members of the party while keeping any nervous members as comfortable as possible. Right near the beginning, Anna had us "surf" one of the class 2 rapids a couple of times. The first time was uneventful. The second time resulted in me and my nervous daughter falling out of the boat. I feared the worst (that my daughter would be done with the whole experience and I would never hear the end of it). Instead, Anna was able to use this experience to calm my daughter. She could tell that she was still a little on edge so Anna suggested where my daughter is safest in each of the remaining Class 2 and Class 3 rapids without having to paddle (she sat in the front most of the time and got soaked but loved every minute of it). Anna and the rest of the guides made a wonderful lunch for us after the first couple of hours. The fruit was delicious! The Class 3 rapids were a lot of fun in the afternoon. Anna continued to challenge us by having us "surf" a couple more times and she would often ask how much fun we wanted to have on each rapid. We always opted for the biggest challenge. One of my daughters and I also were able to float/swim alongside the raft on multiple occasions. This was a lot of fun as well. I would absolutely do this trip again. In fact, one daughter was begging me to go again on Thursday. If it wasn't an hour and a half drive from Tahoe, I think we would have done it again. My other daughter wasn't ready to go back so soon, but she did say the rafting was her favorite part of her week long trip to Lake Tahoe.
Written 21 June 2015
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.
JulesRSF
San Diego, CA52 contributions
Aug 2014 • Family
My husband and two teenage boys shared a 14 foot raft with another family of four. It took me a few miles of river before I really got into the experience. I was a little worried because I've had some close calls with rushing water in my past. But this was fun and I would call it 'adventurous' rather than dangerous. Just perfect for us four city folk. It's also beautiful! We stayed two days doing three trips. Two on the first day: a short pre-lunch paddle followed by a longer post-lunch paddle. We stayed the night and enjoyed the hospitality and great food and drink of our river guides. I was bounced from the raft twice. And I elected to jump in the water and swim rapids a few times too. Great fun for an active family trip! (Jim is the man! And Keegan is on his way too!)
Written 10 August 2014
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.
hinkgen
De Pere, WI101 contributions
Jul 2013 • Family
We did the SouthFork whole day 10:30-5:30 trip on a gorgeous Sunday in late July. If you read nothing else...read this: follow their map to get to the meeting place-do NOT plug it into your GPS (just as Tributary says on their website). We got hideously lost and were TOTALLY late and missed our 8:45 a.m. meeting time and the early trip. However, Lorraine and company were gems to deal with and put us on the 10:30 all day trip. We had a blast. My husband and I (pushing 50) and our kids 13 and 16 thoroughly enjoyed the entire day on the river with our guide, Kayla. We felt totally safe at all times. The morning portion prior to lunch back at the camp was pretty tame, and quite honestly a tad dull (certainly nobody's fault) as there were no class III rapids. However, the afternoon more than made up for it with lots of whitewater to navigate. Our guide gave numerous opportunities for swimming and even a bit of rock jumping and swimming the rapids! I did not get in the river at all after my family reported that the water was super cold!!! Lunch at camp was nicely done with yummy sandwich fixings and REAL food like veggies/fruit. There was a slight wait as the guides prepared lunch for us (cutting fruit, laying out cold cuts, etc.) Simple, simple (no plates, no napkins but who cares???). The people who guide the trips are very nice and super chill about everything; they make you feel very comfortable. At the end of the trip the river gets very flat and has little current; but they had some jet skis pull us out so we didn't have to paddle through that long, slow portion of the river! Sweet. Not a cheap day; but well worth the $$ spent. I wish I had a waterproof camera along though because we didn't get any pictures of our fun day (we didn't stop at the 2 places that took our photo as we were in a pretty big hurry to get to our next destination).
Written 3 August 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.
TeamTree
London, UK3 contributions
Apr 2013 • Couples
Went rafting on the South Fork American with my husband. Our guide John was fantastic, we had an immensely fun and thrilling, yet relaxed day out on the river. I thought I would be quite scared, but just ended up thoroughly enjoying myself. The lunch provided was very tasty too.
If we had stayed in the area for longer, we would have definitely tried to squeeze in another day of rafting.
Thank you Tributary for a great, memorable day!
If we had stayed in the area for longer, we would have definitely tried to squeeze in another day of rafting.
Thank you Tributary for a great, memorable day!
Written 12 May 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.
MJOBailey
Southport, UK46 contributions
Aug 2012 • Family
Decided at the last minute to book the trip. Travelled 2.5hrs up from San Fransisco. Got there slightly late but the guys were really good and waited until we had parked and got ready. Our guide 'Patrick' had been called in last minute to accomodate us and was superb. We are a family of five with three children (15, 13 and 8). We did the half day trip which went through some level three rapids which was a great thrill and left us all believing we had gone through a real white water rapid experience. They are really safety concious however I feel maybe a little too much in the literature. The guides are really professional yet laid back with it and put you at your ease straight away. My wife used to hate pedalos in the sea but she loved this. It was about $400 for half a day but well worth it and certainly a 'do before you die' event. Definately stop off in Columa and get the photos. They are superb!!!
Written 25 August 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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