We took our four boys rafting for the first time today and Drano was our guide. He was the absolute best! It was their first time.He was engaged with the kids and made sure that we all had a good time! I highly recommend rafting at Whitewater Express in Columbus and asking for Drano to be your guide. He was amazing and you won’t be disappointed! The kids are already asking if we can go back and have him as our guide again!
Didnt even know ziplining / whitewater rafting was a thing in Columbus until halfway through our visit this past weekend. Glad one of group discovered it! Rates are reasonable. The W.E. team is professional and helpful. A definite MUST DO if youre in the area. Well be heading back for rafting later this year.And on top of all that... not only does the dude named Dan know whitewater, hes a pretty fair dang carpenter to boot! :-)
We took the Challenge trip and it was an adventure of a lifetime. Our guide was “small fry”(aka) and she was awesome. She was a fun guide with full of courage and strength. Our raft trip over at cut bait rapids and she was quick to respond, rescued us one by one safely back to the raft. She never runs out of conversation…shares knowledge about rafting, the river and tips on how to manage in times of emergency situations. The whole experience was beyond my expectations but it was so worth it. I will definitely do it again…only this time it will be the Carnage trip!!!
Our guide, Harris, was absolutely amazing, very knowledgeable, and had a great sense of humor. He kept us safe and instructed us exactly what to do and when to do it! My youngest son, age 7, went with us and he had a blast. We would go again and specifically ask for Harris, but observing all the guides, they were nice and knew what they were doing.
Ive been white water rafting and this is more like floating down a river with a couple waves in it. We had a great guide and we enjoyed ourselves but some woman just came around tugging on everyone and almost knocked me off my feet when she did. She should really say something before just checking vests instead of just walking up unannounced and pulling on people. They charged us for our pictures we bought and didnt even give us the pictures. Said they didnt upload and almost refused to give us a refund for them until we spoke with a manager. Said the pictures didnt upload but they were dated for the week before our trip. I understand theyre busy I saw that first hand, but they were rude about it and lazy. Refuse to even look for the pictures. We took this trip for the rafting but were looking forward to having a memory to look back on forever. The guides are great. The office and the course not so much. Definitely not work 55$ per person.
It was awesome! and the staff were super friendly and safety focused. We did the blue heron zip line and challenge rafting. The ziplining was super fun. Spaz and the other guides made the whole experience very comfortable, relaxing and fun. The rafting was wild and exhilarating. JR from Texas and the crew gave us an insane adrenaline pumping experience that we will never forget. Cant wait to go back and do it all over again!!!!!!!!!! Thank you to all the crew at Whitewater Express
My 6 friends and I did the “challenger” white water raft. Our guide, Kat, was awesome! Be ready for the challenge if you’re choosing the challenger option!! There are big rapids and we did flip over once. I’ve whitewater rafted up near Blue Ridge, GA before but these rapids in Columbus were by far bigger! Really enjoyed it!! We paid online and showed up ready to go about 30 minutes early to get all our gear and have a safety briefing. Lots of fun!
Had a blast with my wife, but if youre doing the Groupon it is not unlimited. But you will need 2 to 3 hours to finish the course anyway.
What an absolutely fantastic trip. My family and I ( 4 of us in total ) drove 8 hours from South Florida for this little excursion. Our guide Tommy Boy made our trip such a blast. He was very professional and yet relaxed and funny the entire time. He explained a lot about the areas and the rapids themselves. He took great care in making sure we got plenty of time in the rapids, even swinging the raft around to hit some of them twice. Excellent value for the experience. Very clean store with lots of expertise from various different guides. Loved the place and will certainly come again! A+++++
Mango deserves a raise! Mango as our guide made the experience very fun and full of adventures. She guided us down the rapids very informatively and took us through the lazy River and into some extra rapid experiences. I really enjoyed our white water rafting adventure!
Today we experienced rafting and it was totally worth it. Our tour guide Toad (yes like the frog) was awesome. He was very knowledgeable, funny and a joy to raft with. He most definitely kept us intrigued with his sense of humor. If youre looking for something fun to do and a way to cool off in the GA/Bama heat rafting is most definitely the way to go. We did the 3:30 classic trip but next time well take it up a notch and try the 5:30 trip.
If you want a great whitewater day trip between Montgomery and Atlanta Whitewater Express in Columbus is for you. GREAT EXPERIENCE with professional, helpful and friendly staff. We did the 2 hour classic float which was tons of fun. Enough excitement without beating you up. Our guide (Monday as in day of week) really made the trip fun. He first made everyone comfortable and provided lots of stories on local history, the river, Indian lore, etc.. Highly recommend Whitewater Express for fun day on the river and strongly suggest you ask for Monday as your guide. Really great guy. As FYI, Whitewater Express is open all year and provides wet suits if you want in cool weather. They also provide dressing rooms with lockers and clean showers. HIGHLY RECOMMEND !!! FUN !!
The Flavo-Rite Vegan Team wants to make it known that we really appreciate the love that was shown to us, we enjoyed serving the Columbus and Phenix City Community, Lets Eat ‼#Butter-Me-Up 🍽
Elijah was our guide, we had a great time, he was very nice, calm, funny and from all the boats that we saw that day, we were the only ones that didn’t flip on the level 5 rapids. It was such a blast!
This was a great adventure!!! I was fully confident in the safety measures and enjoyed the experience. Our guide was Cold Feet and he was great with his direction and his Dad jokes. I recommend doing the adventure when you are in Columbus.
Jackson and Rin took us zip lining one day, and Toad took us white water rafting the next. Both experiences were courageous and very enjoyable, even for a novice like me. Amazing experience.
This was our second trip with Whitewater Express. Both experiences were fantastic. Friendly, helpful staff, and clean facility. We even had two employees break into our car after the second trip! Also, thank you for that and saving us the headache of waiting for a locksmith.
Before each event, especially the white water rapids, I felt we were well prepped to do what was needed to have a great enjoyable and successful adventure. The guide we had on the rapids… “Toad “…did an excellent job. I had a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience at Chattahoochee Whitewater Express.
Crazy fun. Maybe the safest place to run a cat 5 rapid for people that dont raft much. Lots of flat water after the big waves so if you get tossed, the swim is easy and the guides have lots of time to pick you back up. The guides are young but well trained and customer focused. Our guide Cat was really good at driving a raft.
I just finished the course. Our guide was knowledgeable, but on every rapid he turned us around and did 2 more turns in the rapid. By the last one ( class4) the third turn in the rapid dumped all but 2 people— NOT fun for my husband and I (60s). I suspect the guide was trying to show off for his wife and good buddy who were in our boat. One should respect all passengers- generally 60 somethings prefer not to be dumped
We had a blast on this excursion! Our guide Heron was awesome! He was really energetic, funny, and navigated the water like a pro. He was also really kind and patient with the kids. We would definitely do this again!
Amazing experience! Our guide was Toad and he was fun, experienced, made us feel safe and we had a great time. Would definitely recommend this place and Im looking forward to going back for Zipline and obstacle course!
Was a chaperone on a trip with 22 kids (8-18) and the team at whitewater express was wonderful! A helpful crew at the desk and a team of young, but VERY experienced river guides made for a great day. They kept us safe and we all had fun. All we had to do was show up with water clothes and shoes and they got us outfitted before a safety brief and a short bus ride to the top. We went on a day when the fiver was HIGH and it was the perfect concoction of scary and fun. The pictures their team takes are high quality (unless your boat flips in front of their camera and they catch your embarrassing moment) I recommend getting together with some people on your times lot and purchasing these memories!
💥 Blast… everyone was very professional.. we flipped and was an amazing experience.. felt very safe.. they had multiple teams there to save each of us & keep us safe.. our guide Private was amazing 🤩 he keep us safe and was very kind. Thanks 😊
Only downside was this place was PACKED! This made the ticketing process insane. Even if you buy online you still have to pick it up with a rep (in a long line) for some reason.My only recommendation would be to better streaming this process and this place would be top notch. The water water rafting was fun and our coach was great. Wish I lived in the area, I would visit several times a year, but we were just visiting friends.
I highly recommend Whitewater Express and rafting guide Guru. I went zip lining and white water rafting for the first time and had a wonderful experience. Guru my rafting guide made the trip awesome!! He is a phenomenal teacher and provided an exceptional experience.
We had a great time on the beginner one! They explained everything so well and did such a good job with the rafts. Its a great price too and they took amazing pictures! Spangler was our guide and he made sure we had a blast!
We highly enjoyed our experience! We’ve never been rafting before and the 9AM rafting was perfect for beginners, exciting & adrenaline pumping but not terrifying. We had a guide named Caleb -Bulldog and he was really cool and did a great job. Unfortunately the shop is unorganized and we were unable to leave him a tip due to this so we want to make sure we give a big shoutout to BULLDOG here. Thanks again !
This was an awesome experience! We took the kids for a pre back to school fun day and we all had a blast. The rapids were exciting but honestly the guides were so sweet and so much fun, they really were the ones who made it extra special. Our personal guide, Toad, was hilarious but also very good at his job. The lazy River swim part was an unexpected bonus. I highly recommend this adventure to any family/friend group 😃
Absolutely an awesome trip. We took the blue heron ziplining adventure and the challenge rafting trip with our youth group and had an absolute blast. All of our rafting guides were entertaining and knew what they were doing. And the zipline instructors were excellent and encouraging. We will definitely be going back.
What a blast! As a group of 4 we started our day with zip lining at 9:30am then the classic rafting trip at 1pm. I would highly recommend the guide named Waffles for the rafting. He is very funny and has good knowledge of the history of the river/town. We enjoyed the rafting so much we booked the 5pm carnage trip the same day. Awesome experience and well worth the money.
This place was so much fun. First we did the Blue Heron Aerial Course then we went for the classic rafting trip with our guide, Private. He was very fun and informative and made the trip really memorable for us. Even when our boat accidentally flipped on the last rapid (which they informed us could happen because the water levels were so high)we all felt safe and had a blast!! Definitely would go out again with Private as our guide!
We did the Ziplining had an amazing exhilarating experience. I wanted to give an adventurous Christmas present to remember to end 2020 on positive vibes. The Boys were hesitant about it at first but were Champs and making plans to come back and share the experience with friends. I was concerned about the weather at first but when it wasour time the Sun came out made it even better such a beautiful place with the fall colors and leaves. The Boys enjoyed the challenge of the obstacle courses through the trees. We had an amazing time with the best instructors Emily, Reece and Katherine were extremely patient supportive and thoroughly great with instructions. The Boys said they definitely want to request them for our next visit. Also when weather gets warmer we are going to kayak and rafting too. Thanks to Daniel and Dan for their thoroughness explaining thebins and out and answering all my questions.
Wilson was great! Experience was good from start to finish. Professional staff, clean environment and beautiful scenery. Glad we gave them a try and will definitely be back!
We were supposed to have a relaxing and uneventful cruiser down the Hooch, but the power company had released a ton of water in anticipation for upcoming storms, so the water was extremely high and for the summer. The rapids were at category 4+, and we were expecting 1/2 rapids. Instead of going down the expected route or cancelling altogether, they found a spot at the man-made rapids area and decided to do loops of the same rapid. You push in, go the rapid, paddle back to the landing, walk back up to push in, and repeat.We had a large party so they split us into 2 boats.The other boat in my party flipped and the guide had a shoulder injury and the young kids were traumatized. Two of the boys lost their prescription glasses in the flip; Im surprised they werent instructed to remove them like our guide did for us. There was another guide who jumped in to help the boat, which we were thankful for, but a couple phones were lost in the process. Needles to say they were done for the day and the company refunded the trip, but the cost to replace the glasses from our party and phones on their side will probably exceed the cost of the trip, unfortunately.My boat was able to run the short rapid 4 times without flipping. It was a great time, and our guide Private was really good and patient with us, as we were very inexperienced. He even took us around a calmer area to help us get used to paddling around and used to the boat.I think the river level was at flood level, and normally would have been very shallow and boring (what we signed up for) Based on our other boats harrowing experience with the flip and losing valuables, I think they should have called off the trip entirely, at least for our party with the children. If our boat would have flipped, this review would probably have a very different rating. A whole boat of adults probably would have had a grand ole time, though.2-3 stars for my other boats experience, but 5 stars for my boat and our expert guide.
Loved both the Zip line and Rafting trip! The employees/ guides are very entertaining and well mannered. They make a strong effort to make your visit entertaining and enjoyable. JR was our Raft guide and owner of Its Tamale Time. He gave us a thrilling ride and History tour or the Columbus area.We will be back again to enjoy all that Columbus GA has to offer.
Great experience! It was a very good introduction to rafting for my 12 year old daughters. Our guide, Jackson, was excellent! The only negative is we have no pictures to show how much fun it was!!! Apparently the photographer didnt work during our time!! Thats one of the things they advertise, professional photographs of your adventure!We will come back and do it again, but have our own family memever on the side with a camera!!!
My team loved this experience! We got the classic trip package and everyone had a great time.
We had a great time!!! Did I say great, I ment awesome. Our guide was Mr. PRIVATE highly recommend him... We had a wet and wild time and he made sure we had the best time!!!! Once again ask for Private you wont be disappointed... A+ service
The trip was good. Our guide Toad was great. Less than impressed with the overall staff. Lack of communication, lack of customer service. Also the lockers in the restroom are NOT anchored at all and fell over today on top of my small son. Thankfully he didnt get hurt too bad. Lack of concern by any staff that this had happened.
Amazing workers! The workers were a big part of the experience. They made it 10x more fun! White water rafting and zip lining, both are amazing! Not one bad thing to say about this place.
We had so much fun zip-lining with whitewater express! The price is reasonable and the view was amazing. The instructors were super nice and competent. The only thing we were not happy with was that there was no social distancing going on and no masks required. We should’ve called beforehand to clarify, I just assumed that there would be some sort of measurements in place to keep everyone safe. Other than that everything was great and I highly recommend this place. I also read that this is the only place in the US that offers zip-lining between two states, so it’s definitely a one of a kind experience.
This was SO FUN! I took my daughter (10 years old) and we had the best time! Were still talking about it! Its a memory maker, for sure. The guides were just awesome. So funny and very professional. I trusted them and enjoyed their company. The quality of the trip was amazing and I thought it was a good value, too. We will definitely be back!
Had Jackson as a guide and he did an exceptional job explaining the instructions and guiding us through the rapids. Also had good information on how the dam creates the rapids and the science behind it.
We had an amazing time! JR was professional, super fun, great at storytelling, and making you feel calm- hes the best! We will definitely be back!!
Great trip. We shared a boat with a group of Girl Scouts and we all had a blast. Ours was an early trip (0900) and the water flow was light, but still exciting. Guru was a great guide and kept it fun throughout. We thought about going back for another run with more water, but have others sights to see.
Great experience with Whitewater Express! We had the pleasure of having “Private” as our guide during our trip. Fun experience for the whole family. Make sure to check them out and ask for Private!! Highly recommend. We will definitely be coming back again soon!
We were a family of 4 looking for a whitewater rafting adventure. Three of us previously and 1 first timer rafting. Our tour guide, Mader was great. Kept us safe at all times. Was knowledgeable of area. We plan to bring other family/friends to raft again when in the area.
My family had a blast! All four of us went rafting in the morning and 2 went Ziplining in the afternoon. All the staff from guides to clerks in the shop were friendly and helpful. It was nice to be around people who clearly enjoy their job. That really says a lot about this company! We thought the experience was well worth the cost. My only complaint - the stairs up the zipline towers are killer and a cooler with some little paper cups for a sip of water would have been much appreciated!
Had a great time! Staff was pleasant and knowledgeable, also great fun! First time rafting and had a blast. The Zipline and rope coarse was a great time. If in Columbus a must try!
We had a great time! Our guide, Waffles, was the best. He was very helpful and gave us the best time. We will definitely be back 🙂
I needed help buying a kayak spray skirt, they were really helpful letting my try them on and fitment on my kayak
Signed up for the zip-lining, we were told after we zip-lined across the river into Alabama, the zip line to return back to Georgia is down . And to make sure we get our money’s worth they put us on the baby zip-line TWICE that you could basically walk across, nothing in comparison to the zip line that goes over the river . There was no accommodations and no discount applied for the missing zip line. Afterwards we waited on our pictures to be uploaded for about 20 minutes just for them to tell us they literally forgot to bring the camera on the trip and we won’t be having any photos of our trip. I would recommend going somewhere else . Wasn’t worth the money .
It was an adventure Im glad I didnt miss out on. The employees are very supportive and knowledgeable. Willing to go again sooner than later.
Great place. We absolutely loved it. Our guide Tommy was outstanding and made it so much fun. Ask for Tommy he will make the experience awesome.
The guides are super fun and helpful, special thank you to private 🙏. The river has a few pretty solid rapids, nothing too crazy. If you wanna flip your bot definitely do the carnage trip otherwise it probably won’t happen.
Made some new friends in Columbus, GA and went on a rafting excursion. It was so fun, and our guide, Harris, was really funny. It seems like the staff enjoy their work and do their best to make the experience memorable. If I am ever in Columbus again, I will definitely go rafting again.
Whitewater Express offers a variety of activities in the downtown Columbus area from zip lining to white water rafting at a very reasonable price. They also have a nice store front with an abundance of outdoor gear/apparel. I have done the whitewater rafting “challenge trip” 3 times and it is awesome! Perfect for thrill seekers as the Chattahoochee River is very large and contains up to Class 5 rapids. The guides are well versed and professional and I’ve had a blast on each trip. They are great at keeping it exciting for return customers and also make it a welcoming experience for newcomers. The trip is a short van ride 2.5 miles up stream and ends back in the downtown area. Definitely worth checking out if you are near the Columbus/Phoenix City area!
Chipper was awesome! Super friendly and had all kinds of jokes to keep us laughing! Communication was key and she nailed it! We had two teenagers and she made sure they were included and were safe! We will definitely be back soon to try out the carnage trip! Even with a large group we all stayed together for the most part and the lazy river was a sweet spot! Thanks Chipper!
We did the classical tour.The staff was friendly. The rapids were very nice. We had Mayo as a guide and she was amazing! I would bring my own gear next time. They probably dont get a chance to clean or sanitize the gear. Just FYI, I am a little OCD, so take that last comment with a grain of salt. Overall, my experience was great! Our boat did not flip! Lol. I am not a swimmer and was very comfortable. Again, the guide is everything and Mayo was great! We are definitely coming back soon!
So much fun! Great for our first time. Definitely could have handled more rapids!! Will definitely upgrade next time!!!! Joe aka Kratos was AWESOME!!!
This place was fun! Most of the staff was great, e the ladies in the surf shop when we went to.submit the waivers to zip line. The young ladies at the desk very rude and short with my husband and I. On the plus size, the zip line crew and staff were VERY nice and accomodating
Pros: My family and I did the Challenge trip. It was our first time whitewater rafting. We had a great time. Hudson was our guide he was fun, informative, and experienced. Directed us well. The trip was exciting and a great adventure for us. The level 5 rapid was a blast. We flipped out of the boat because another boat (empty) was stuck in the Rapids at that point. Wish they had a way to remove stuck boats so that others parties arent encumbered by them.Cons: No mask worn in the store or packed van they could have at least opened a window.
It was amazing!!! My family had a great time.. the guides are extremely professional and knowledgeable... Stu was super cool... 6% of what he tells you is 90% is true!!!..😄😅.. guy knows how to read the boat (room).Watch out for the snipper...We will be back....Thank you guys...Look for the silver helmet!!!
We had the best guide! B MAC was outstanding! He did a awesome job catering to my daughters and their friends who joined us. We had four young girls with us (two were 12 years old and two were 14 years old). At first the girls were very worried that they would be hurt. After seeing others in the boat fall out and also experience “surfing”, they were ok. The last set of rapids caused our boat to flip! The girls thought it was the funnest thing they had ever done! We could not have been happier with our guide, B Mac! If we had to do it again, we would request that he guided us again. He was the best! You will enjoy this trip if you do it!
We had a wonderful time rafting! Horseshoe really made the experience even better. If you have the opportunity to go ask for horseshoe and Big Bertha!
Do yourself a favor and drive a few extra hours to go rafting in Tennessee. This place disappointed before, during, and after the trip. A day before our trip, they called and asked to move us back an hour and to a different location- we understood and agreed. The next day, less than an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave, they called to push it back an hour again. We already had made plans for the whole day and told them that this wouldn’t work for us and eventually they agreed to leave it the same. When we got there we were going to take our own phones (knowing the risk) because we wanted family pictures. They assured us photos would be taken. The trip before and after us had photos taken but ours didn’t because the “camera’s battery died”. On top of it all, the Classic Trip was advertised as a 2 hour experience and took less than an hour to complete. Only positive of our trip was that our guide was great.
I really enjoyed my experience today. The staff made the trip even more memorable. They were funny, patient, and very knowledgeable. Brandon was our captain and I totally recommend him for sure.
I was very torn in writing this review. We participated in the whitewater express classic trip today 6/26/20. There were 12 people in our group which were split between two rafts. This is our annual adventure to celebrate my deceased mother’s birthday. Our rafting guide was “Joker”. First “bump in the road” for us was getting stuck on rocks during a rapid. The water levels were low today. We had to get out of the raft mid stream and hop back in after several pulls and pushes of the raft to get back on track. When we were finally back on the raft and moving, we were of course not with the rest of our group. Second “bump in the road” is the fact that there are no pictures of our rafting experience. NONE! 106 pictures and not one is of our raft or our other party’s raft. Very disappointing! I was looking forward to adding those pictures to a memory book of my deceased mother’s birthday celebrations. I called and inquired about the pictures and was told that all of the pictures had been uploaded and it was “strange” that ours weren’t in the album. That they don’t know what happened. Overall the experience was not horrible, but due to the low water level, getting stuck, not being with the rest of our party, and no pictures upset me. If you plan on choosing Whitewater Express, plan to take your phone in a waterproof zipper case and take your own pictures. I read a previous review of the same situation and ignored it.
Our guide TOAD was awesome I went with recovery adventures and we all had a blast!!! Look at Recovery Adventures on Facebook for pictures I highly recommend it
We did the challenge trip in Columbus and had a blast. Hudson was a great guide. He was great with my 12 year old son, cutting up with him and having a good time. The rapids were awesome. We highly recommend this trip!
First time white water rafting and it was great... our guide Caleb was very knowledgeable and shared great stories.. great way to spend my husband and is first anniversary
The staff was super friendly and helpful especially Caleb and our guide Mango. We participated in the Classic Family Experience which was great for first timers. We were pleasantly surprised when we were provided with wet suits that kept us warm despite the chilly weather. Parking in the area is very easy to find and very convenient. In these crazy times, this place is tolerant to all views.
They were great we will be going back for the more challenging water rafting!
Zip line tour was a fun experience. Tree top and ropes course were good too but to a lesser extent. Overall the price was great the guides were fun, even though one was barely awake, and it was a fun time. Speaking of time it says 4 hours to do everything but if you are like us and the only people there then expect 45 minutes to an hour.