6 Reasons to Book Your Family Rafting Trip Right Now

You have a lot of choices about where to go and what to do for your next family vacation. Adventures around the world beckon. But we have the perfect trip already planned for you. If you want a family adventure with all the details taken care of and a host of enticing options for every member of the family, then a river trip with Hells Canyon Raft is what you need to experience this year.

We could easily write a blog entitled, 1001 Reasons to Plan a Family Rafting Trip, but we’ll keep it short and sweet for you instead. Here’s our top 6:

1) No Decision Fatigue

A family rafting trip offers you a truly unique vacation where all the details are taken care of. From the first stages of planning at home to the last meal served to you on a white sandy beach, we take the decision fatigue out of your experience.

On many family vacations, you spend far too much time and energy trying to decide which activity to book, where to eat, how to accommodate what everyone wants to do. But on our trips there’s no need to figure out what you’re going to do each day; the raft trip is what you do, and there’s fun to be had from sunup to sundown.

2) Unplug and Reconnect

To us, this may be the most important thing you do on our trips. This is true and lasting connection with family, with your kids, with nature. This is where the fluff falls away, bringing back the essence of your relationships. This is focused family time, rediscovering who your spouse and your children are outside of the hustle of daily life and busy schedules.

In most other family vacation destinations, everyone is still glued to their devices, from mapping destinations to travel time in the car and lounging in the hotel. On a family rafting trip you’ll leave the screens behind and instead find yourselves plugged into each other and into nature. Your vacation time is precious and hard earned – and we can’t think of a better way to make the most of it. Instagram will still be there when you get home. Guess what won’t be there? This moment – right now – with your family, watching your kids experience a whitewater rapid for the first time, see a bald eagle fly overhead, or learn to paddle an inflatable kayak.

3) A Catered Affair

We cook and provide all your meals. Our mission is to serve you and make sure you have the time of your lives. The menu is planned, the food is packed, and we wear the aprons while you lounge, hike, swim, and laugh. And we’re not talking peanut butter and jelly slapped together roadside. Your taste buds will be tickled with fresh brewed coffee upon awakening, sizzling bacon and eggs, hearty lunch spreads, gourmet appetizers, steaks on the fire, and delectable desserts in the Dutch oven every night.

Let’s just be straight here: does your favorite fantasy consist of nothing more than the idea of someone else cooking for you day and night? We’re here to make that fantasy come true.

4) No One Says the B-Word

We can almost guarantee you won’t hear that whiny utterance, “Mom, Dad, I’m boooored.”  A 4- or 5-day family rafting trip on the Lower Salmon River or on the Snake River through Hells Canyon offers something to make everyone happy. These trips are perfect multi-generation vacations. Everyone is entertained – and you’re not responsible for making it happen. Each person can choose different levels of participation on the river, from riding along in an oar boat to actively paddling a raft through splashy whitewater to manning your own inflatable kayak. You can catch dozens of fish in a day. Choose camp games like horseshoes and frisbee on the enormous, white sand beaches. Lounge and read, take a hike, or engage in that extended conversation you’re been meaning to have. Lie on your back and stargaze at the brightest night sky you’ve ever seen. All day, every day.

5) Make Lifelong Memories

Your family will rehash the details of this trip for years to come. When the kids are grown, they’ll share with their own children the memories they made rafting down the great, wild Salmon River in Idaho. When you’re out of your comfort zone all together, it’s a powerful bonding experience. Since there are dozens of family-size whitewater rapids on the Lower Salmon River, you’ll have plenty of chances for the thrills to bring you all a little closer. You’ll be the hero for years to come as the “one who took us rafting.”  And the kids will definitely brag to their friends when they get home. After all, not everyone gets to write about an Idaho multi-day whitewater rafting trip in their “What I Did Over the Summer” essay.

6) Improve Your Health.

Take a deep breath and feel your stress melt away. Research shows that time in nature can reduce blood pressure, increase creativity, improve concentration and boost the immune system. Natural sunlight even helps mitigate pain. But most important is the innate happiness that comes from being in the natural elements. Even the simple feeling of being “in awe” of beauty is shown to improve your health.

***

At Hells Canyon Raft, our Lower Salmon River Rafting trip is our #1 family trip. With a minimum age of 5 years old (depending on water levels), the 4- or 5-day Lower Salmon river trip is truly perfect for all families: miles of family-size whitewater, warmer water for playing, big beaches for camping and astounding scenery.

As a family-run company for 31 years, we know a thing or two about bringing our children down the river. Kurt and Heidi Armacost, and Kurt’s parents before them, have had their children on river trips since before they could walk.

Life is short; don’t let another summer go by without experiencing an overnight family rafting trip with Hells Canyon Raft.