Nantahala Outdoor Center Review

Loved the white water rafting trip. These guys at Nantahala Outdoor are awesome....!

Fun family adventure on the river and not a single banjo sound heard.

This a part of a huge restaurant that is just ok, friendly

My group really enjoyed the white water rafting! The duckies are a great way to go for a beginner. Be sure to check out the restaurant across the river!

Great family friendly place. Great views and atmosphere.

Beautiful place! Stop in on our lay over from the train ride.

Great service, great trip!! I didn't shop around but I feel like I got a great deal for the price. I felt the guides made us feel comfortable and looked to make the trip as much fun as possible. We'll be back for sure. Their shop is a little pricey but we were there for the rafting.

The little brother and I liked just being here. We bought an icecream and just hung out by the riverside.

Been numerous times over the years... always a good experience! Highly recommend doing the Nantahala with a NOC guide, they're the best!

Tourists only. Serious outdoorspeople need not apply. Gonna miss this place.

Neat stop on train ride. They do competitive and Olympic kayak training here.

Stopping place on a train ride. Beautiful river setting.

So much to do from dining and watching to participating in Hiking, ziplining, whitewater rafting and camping. Perfect for families, couples & singles. Food was simple but delicious and reasonably priced.

Beautiful place to experience North Carolina through white water rafting and kayaking

This is a beautiful area with things for kids to do, as well as a river front bar and shopping for the ladies. Lots of crafts and hand made items. Again, absolutely beautiful landscape. There are many camping spots as well at cabins. I love the atmosphere.

Love the area, River and Appalachian Trail running through it.

Excellent adventures and an all around cool place to stop by. Outdoorsy people rejoice!

This place rocks! Everything you need for backpacking and paddling necessities. Great deals on gear, boats, and lodging. Most people probably know them for their rafting trips and kayak rentals. The Nantahala River is a gorgeous natural resource and the folks at the NOC are great hosts for all hikers and paddlers.

This place rocks! We are a family of six and did white water rafting, kayaking, and paddle boarding and it was a blast! Of all the places we have ever been white water rafting, the best guide we have ever had was Joe Big Joe at NOC last year. So knowledgeable about the local environment, river ecology, and rafting...and he is as nice and funny as they come. So we decided to do NOC again this year just to run the river with Joe. Morgan at the registration desk area was so helpful in ensuring our requests were accommodated. If you love outdoor recreation then you will love this place. Very family friendly setup. Highly recommend the NOC and Big Joe in particular!

Awesome Trips down the river
Staff is alwsys awesome

Short stop, but pleasant, interesting. Would definitely want to return when I have more time.

Great place to ride the rapids. Great price. Fun atmosphere. Great atmosphere.

Great service, attentive and knowledgeable staff very informative. Great place for an awesome adventure.

Great facility and staff. We had a great time at the adventure park obstacle course and zip line. We also white water rafted and had a blast!

Stayed at NOC in Elm Cabin and did the adventure pass with guided rafting trip. All was great. The cabin is secluded (as advertised!) and up several hills from the adventure center. Was great for us with two older kids, but folks with younger kids might find both the walk and the cabin layout (two beds upstairs in a loft) a little less than ideal.

Rafting was a lot of fun and awesome doing while staying at NOC. You end up right back on the campus, nice to not have a wet bus or car ride. Also enjoyed mountain biking and the zipline course.

They did the best they can with COVID. Masks were required for everything but the water activities, and they were enforcing the requirement.

Great overall, highly recommend.

I've been coming here for over twenty years, always a great time. Great guides and everyone is very friendly!

All around cool place to visit! Restaurants are great, shopping is everything you need for hiking or rafting etc. All ages will genuinely have a good time here! Many hikers coming off the Appalachian Trail so go ahead and buy them a drink, they've earned it and will be very grateful!

This was a great first time experience rafting, we had the best knowledgeable guide named Joe , will definitely do this again.

Great experience. NOC is the place to go if u want to learn the rivers. Their quality trained staff offer an experience that will make u confident enough to venture our on your own one day.

I spent the weekend here recently with a group of girlfriends and we all left with the same sentiment- WOW! What a fabulous time we had! We stayed in one of the deluxe cabins (the Elm) and it was impeccable. Complete privacy, clean and comfy beds and living area (complete with stocked kitchen wares, HDTV and cable) and even a charcoal grill on the balcony! Perfect size for my group and we could've even invited a couple others, plenty of room. Pro tip- grab some ice when you check in at the office! They also have fire wood, charcoal, and other small food items. Across the street is an outfitter store with any and all items that a hiker or outdoorsman may need backpacks, paddles, boots, MRE s, souvenirs, other supplies, etc. Very helpful!

We decided to go rafting on the first day and the experience was the perfect balance of thrill and chill. We had a couple of first-timers (read: scaredy cats) and our guide Jason was so patient and knowledgeable that they were immediately at ease. He kept us entertained with stories about the river and surrounding foliage and happily answered all of our random questions.

After we worked up an appetite on the river we decided to have an early dinner at the River s End restaurant. It did not disappoint! We sat next to a window and enjoyed watching kayakers practicing in the shallow water while we dined. The food was AH-MAZ-ING and our server Abbie was so sweet and friendly! In fact, we couldn t stop talking about the blackberry cobbler all night. We even had to have it again before we left the next day! It s a must!

Second day was time for zip-lining and it was equally as exciting! Our guides were Jacob and Hannah, and they were professional, funny, and all about safety-- as they should be! After a brief lesson on the ground (use the restroom while you can!) we took the bus up to the tree line and practiced some technique on the "bunny zip." Then we were off! Absolutely incredible views all around and this adrenaline junkie ate up every minute! Again, use the bathroom while you can, because you're in the trees for several hours. That harness is QUITE unforgiving if you have to go...

Overall I wish I could give this place 10 stars. It was such a quick drive from Atlanta that we are already planning a return trip. Thanks again, NOC!

This place is really cool. Very professionally run outfitter for rafting or kayaking the Nantahala

Me and my buddy, who have rented kayaks a couple easy places but don't have tons of experience, rented a 2-person "ducky" and went out on the Nantahala with NOC yesterday (March 22).I highly recommend renting with them. We met Lee Knight, one of the guides there, and he helped get us equipped and gave us great advice. He and the other employees were friendly, welcoming, and knowledgeable. We paid 39 a person to rent and we were out on the river for about 2.25 hours, with most of the time spent on some fast moving whitewater. It was very exhilarating being out there when the temperature in Bryson City was around 57 degrees. We loved it. Will be back with more people soon.

Great rafting adventure, family friendly. Carter was excellent

Terrific and knowledgeable staff. Truly concerned with your well being and experience.

Always fun to watch the rafters go down the river at the NOC.

Water is perfect. This place is very organized and they have a solid facility and staff. Will be back again soon.

We had a great time on the half day guided rafting adventure! Although we were unable to do the Nantahala due to the rock slides, our guide, Eva, was wonderful and made the trip a better experience!

Good food great river view. They get busy during the outdoor season.

Store is nice and friendly, but do NOT stay in the cabins. Trashy, smelly, and dirty. Not even worth $20. They should pay you $20 to sleep in those rooms.

So beautiful! They have a lot of activities to choose from. Definitely a great place to go for some whitewater rafting/kayaking that's not too hard. Can get a bit pricey with groups, though, so it's definitely something to save up for.

Love it here. Staff were helpful and cool. Beautiful place cool times rafting was great. Water was ....frigid.
Frigid in the best way

This is an incredible place for outdoor fun. Highly recommend the adventure pass. You can do so much. Our grandkids had a great time.

What beautiful oasis! Rapids, cabins and restaurants...could you ask for more?

Great Staff, Wonderful Atmosphere, Beautiful Everything

They are always professional and provide a fun trip.

Nice place, nice people just dont rent the $40 a night cabin. It was horrible. No pillows, no bathroom or sink. Just two bunk beds with what resembled mattresses. I rented one and could not stay the night. Had to find a motel room in Bryson city. If you like roughing it i guess it would be ok just bring your own pillows and blankets.

There's something for everyone here. If you have a lot of money, you can shop at the outdoor center, if you're hungry, you can eat at one of multiple restaurants, if you want, go rafting or even ride their private bike trails.

Wonderful place! We started in the bunk houses...minus one star because those steps are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Someone fell on them while we were there. Seriously, get a handy person in there to repair them!

This place is Amazing!! We had so much fun white water rafting and ziplining. The staff was extremely nice ( well majority of them). I loved my cabin, it was Beautiful. I also loved that it only had one TV so we played card games, charades, and board games. The food was really good at the dine in restaurant and the manager was Amazing as well! I highly recommend this place for a vacation. I must add, the mountains are really dark at night so we made sure we were back on campus before 8PM.

Great experience! Very knowledgeable, fun, friendly staff and equipped to send you on an awesome rafting trip. Easy to sign up and begin rafting.

This place is simply awesome! Prices are fair, guides are well trained and professional. We did the class 1-3 river rafting. It was about 2.0 hours long and about 8 miles thru some beautiful country and river water. Loved it. Outfitter store is well stocked. They have two restaurants. We had the tacos at the "Big Wesser Bar". Tacos were very good and fresh ! Good selections of beers. All around a great place for the family and adventurer. Get out there!

Couldn't ask for a better trip! Our guide, Garrett was great! He was very knowledgeable about the area, the different rivers to raft, and was just a fun guide all around. We brought our 11 yr old daughter for the first time, she loved it. Everyone at the NOC was really personable and friendly, it was a great experience. We come back every other year and it never disappoints!

Friendly,quaint atmosphere in beautiful natural setting

Beautiful area! Love to watch the kayakers while we eat.

Excellent experience with the zip line and ropes course. Kudos to employee Kat on the ropes course that kept us safe, is very friendly and remembers everyone s name! Covid mask wearing was a great way to keep us safe. Thanks for a great time!

My 35-year old son and I had a fabulous experience at the Nantahala Outdoor Center taking a two-day kayaking course with instructors Jonny Ortiz and Tara Blair. Jonny and Tara are highly skilled kayakers and are very friendly, approachable, patient, and fun. Our instructors quickly assessed where we were in our abilities as paddlers and structured a series of entertaining games and paddling opportunities that challenged us without being overwhelming. Over the course of our two days, we got our feet wet (literally) in Fontana Lake on the morning of Day #1 and progressed to running skill level-appropriate sections of two nearby rivers. We felt safe at all times. Our instructors were always close by whenever we attempted a skill or maneuver. Jonny would at times say, "Come try this. It's OK; I've got you." And he always did.

We ran a Class 3 section of the Tuckasegee River on the second day that made me a bit nervous, but I had faith that Jonny and Tara would not place us in a situation that was beyond our capabilities. We scouted the section ahead of time, and Jonny asked, "So, what do you think?" My son and I replied, "Yeah! Let's do it!" We paddled through it getting soaking wet, but without a hitch. It was an awesome experience!

My son and I plan to come back for more. We're shopping for kayaks to practice now.

The staff who prepared our lunches each day did a marvelous job, too! I've never eaten such delicious trail lunches in my life.

The folks in the business office with whom I had contact before our arrival (Jae Jackson, Rachel Dean, and Amy Ortiz) were very professional, courteous, helpful, and friendly.

Nantahala outdoor center (NOC) sits at the end of the most popular section to kayak and raft on the Nantahala river. It's a great kayak store that sells all kinds of whitewater kayaks, accessories, and equipment that you can't find in your average outdoor rec store. Prices are a little high, but you will find a great selection and the best brands. Service is awesome with tons of knowledgeable staff. They will even let you demo used boats (often times just last year's mpdel) and there is a very good selection. Surrounding the NOC you have a sit down restaurant, a bar, a general store, a ropes course, and other huts for signing up for rafting, classes, etc. There's also a great, man made play hole for surfing6. NOC is a great place to hang out after a day of paddling and is truly family/kid friendly as well!

One of my favorite outdoor vacation destinations; a great hiking, biking, paddling, fishing, camping area. Bring a camera with extra batteries! It's beautiful!

Avid river lovers we are...took the kids (10 + 12) for their first whitewater experience. Absolutely gorgeous river! Pretty complex river trip. Wouldn't want my kids any younger though they allow 7 years up . Outdoor center was the envy of all outfitters. River guide was perfect . But they must be the only outfitters in the Southeast without complimentary showers! Only changing rooms! What? We found a bathhouse with showers but the quarters change machine didn't work? Charge $.25 minute to shower . We were miserable and drove back to our camp 45 minutes perfectly dirty. Missed the opportunity for dinner there at the restaurants. Also the PFDs were beyond smelly. So basically after you take off the body odor of MANY others you can't shower! Icky! Left that beautiful experience disappointed!

Stopped here on the train and only stayed for an hour. This is a stop for the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. The river runs right through here and it is nice. They have a bar where you can grab a drink and a bite to eat and sit by the river watching the kayaks go by. Across the walk bridge is the general store. There is a lot to do here; from rafting to relaxing in a chair & watching. Includes 2 restaurants & a store. Takeout BBQ & brew.

Awesome place. Well run. Hunter and Jansen were awesome on the zip line course and Joe was a great white water rafting guide. All were super friendly, knowledgeable, and made the entire experience fun and meaningful! We will definitely come back!

The family in Georgia white water rafting tubing and ziplining. Also enjoy the outdoors Great Smoky Mountains it was a good time and a great family adventure!

A place dear to me. Worked here in rafting, ziplines, night security, and pizza cook at rivers end. Keep on flowin like the river! Toast to the river gods!!

Lots of stuff to do here. Ropes course, kids ropes area, zip lines, rafting, kayaking, outdoor store, general store, two restaurants and more. Best value is the $90 package deal. If you are just rafting then you may want to price check cause NOC is pretty high.