Montenegro White-Water Rafting Day Trip from Dubrovnik

Our day started out by being picked up by our wonderful tour guide, Ivan, at 6am. When leaving from Dubrovnik, it is about a 4 hour drive to and from the rafting camp in Montenegro. However, Ivan was very informative and was happy to answer any questions we had. About an hour into the drive the scenery became spectacular. Ivan even stopped at a couple of places so we could take pictures. It was a mountainous drive with curves and bumps, so be prepared if you have motion sickness. Once at the camp, it was actually much cooler than we expected aka you may want to bring a light jacket because you are high up in the mountains compared to the 90F in Dubrovnik. You are given breakfast before getting set with your wetsuit and helmet. You are then taken is smaller off-road vehicles down to the river upstream. There was very little instruction given, other than to paddle when he said paddle. My group consisted of 60yrs x2 and 30yrs x2. We had only had 1 prior experience rafting in Colorado and had down an intermediate there. This route had no sharp turns or drop-offs but there were definitely rapids that required you to hold on for. The two in front definitely got mouthfuls of water at points. You stop off twice for breaks, and to see waterfalls. However, be aware that the drinks they offer you are extra. Overall it was a great experience for me 30yrs but for my mother of 60yrs it was maybe a little much.

This was my first time rafting and this day trip was fun! If you're used to long drives, love filling up your passport with stamps and like experiencing new activities in new places, this trip is for you. Montenegro is stunning and our driver was very friendly. Take euros on the raft for a drink!

Here's the low down: Summary: Over-priced and Under-thrilling. Perhaps better for families with small children and money to burn...? Pros: 1. The scenery in Montenegro is beautiful, which makes for an interesting drive in that section. Bosnia and Herzegovina less so. 2. You get two good sized meals as part of the trip. 3. Watching our driver get held up at the Bosnian boarder and having to bribe boarder control with 10 EUR to pay for their drinks was pretty amusing. 4. Once getting to the rafting, watching what looked like Bosnia's Girls Gone Wild was extremely amusing. Many meatheads and their ladies getting into rafts with beer and liquor. At least 5 girls mid-way through the trip we're hunched over with their boyfriends holding their hair back and I now have an image of a girl throwing up on herself in the raft burnt to memory. Both ridiculous and unexpected at the same time. Cons: 1. Ensure you pack EUR. There's no mention of this on the site, which meant no one in our group had money that they could spend whilst on the trip and out of Croatia for the day. 2. Don't expect free drinks, even though meals are included. I felt somewhat cheated having to pay for a coffee with my breakfast even though I didn't have EUR, which they didn't tell us to bring and soft drinks with lunch after paying 125 on a day tour. Water from the river is freeYes, we were actually quoted this! 3. The rapids in mid summer ARE NOT the advertised class III or IV rapids. The whole river is slow and at most you may get class I-II. The river swells in Spring, so if you're after exhilaration, book then. 4. Expect your day to be split 80:20 to time in the car and time spent rafting. 5. It's not particularly well organised. Getting in the rafts was total chaos and we wasted a lot of time stood on a very small bank with about 100 other people having no idea what was happening alongside some very excited eastern Europeans throwing rafts around and drinking liquor. 6. If you are on a tight schedule, I would not recommend booking this. We returned 2 hours later than scheduled, missed our dinner reservation and almost missed our flight home. It would have been far more tolerable had I not paid so much money for a pretty second rate experience. I've paid significantly less for excellent rafting in Canada, so I didn't think that this was worth it.

The views were stunning along the drive and we did have a couple of photo-stops. The problem was that from Dubrovnik, we drove from 5 hours to get to the breakfast area started at 6am, breakfast at 10.45 when we booked on the information that drive would be around 3.5 hours total. Then we had another 30min drive to the rafting location. Once at the rafting start site, it was organised chaos. Our group were left with no leader for around 40 mins. The rafts were being carried down by staff and as there were so many rafters, people were being shoved out of the way and even hit with the rafts. One lady in my group was knocked over! The rafting was pleasant enough. We didn't have an English-speaking guide which was unfortunate. The scenery was beautiful. The main pit stop for the rafting at the waterfalls was far too busy with lots of people drinking and tossing their cans into the surrounding areas. Not very pleasant. Very long day even longer due to border stops but OK.

Overall this tour was very good. We me and two friends were on vacation in Dubrovnik and we liked getting the chance to visit the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. We enjoyed the rafting and the landscape around the Tara River was absolutely stunning. We also liked the food served after the rafting. There were a few things that I and/or my friends did not like about this trip: - The drive from Dubrovnik to the Tara river is very, very long about four hours one way and I can't remember that being stated in the information about the tour. This means that you will spend way more time sitting in a car than rafting. - We felt that our driver drove pretty recklessly. The roads in the region are narrow and often with steep cliffs on one side and we would have liked a calmer driving style. - The actual rafting was a bit too easy, even for someone like myself with no previous rafting experience.

brilliant tour with friendly people and great food very long day but i loved it