Devon Wanderon

Review of Kauai backcountry adventures

Mixed feelings on this one... Tour guides were abs...

Mixed feelings on this one... Tour guides were absolutely amazing, but honestly I have no idea how anyone could say they enjoyed the actual tubing. They should offer an option where you can pay half the tubing cost to just sit back in the van they use to transport guests and listen to the guides talk about the island.

The problem is that the tubing isn't really adventurous, and on the other hand it's not relaxing either. Speeds hover around walking/crawling for most of the trip, but due to the narrow width of the waterway you're floating down and the rocks/concrete wall(s) on either side, most of the trip was dedicated to spinning off one side to the other and making sure your hands/feet/ankles are positioned in a way where they're not going to awkwardly jam against either embankment. Tunnels with minimal lighting just made the above task more awkward/arduous.

For the portions of the tubing where rocks/concrete walls were not a concern, the next thing that came up for just about everyone on the trip, was naturally getting stuck against a mudbank, or slow moving embankment. So much fun!

Add on the fact that if you plan on "enjoying" the trip with a friend/group of friends, and that naturally the group will be just about immediately split up from each other due to the physics of moving water and narrow spaces..., and I'd say save your $125 per person for some other activity.