Top Five Reasons to Take a Multi-Day River Rafting Trip

March 8, 2014

by Julie Trevelyan

Reasons to Take a Multi-Day River Rafting Trip. If the thought of multiple days on a river raft vacation sends shivers down your spine—camping outside! Days away from the modern comforts you take for granted!—take a deep breath and imagine all the reasons why a multi-day trip can be a fantastic adventure. You’ll get into the flow, relax, and discover why a multi-day adventure on one of the West’s best rivers is such an awesome experience.

1) Go with the flow.

On a longer trip, you’ll slowly relax into the rhythms of life on the river. As you become more comfortable with the daily routine, you’ll be more able to enjoy your beautiful surroundings, listen for warbling or cawing birdcalls, and get back to that part of yourself that just says “aahhh” as it lets the stresses of your usual life slip away into the ceaseless currents of the river.

2) Get pampered by your guides.

Who’s making the meals? Setting up camp? Singing to you and playing guitar around a campfire at night? Your wonderful Holiday guides. You’re on vacation, and a multi-day river trip provides a very nice reminder that nope, those dishes are not waiting for you to do them! You can just sit back and peacefully enjoy your evenings while leaving the clean-up details up to your cheerful guides.

3) Get in touch with your wild side.

Humans lived in close contact with nature far longer than they lived in cities. Your body and soul will remember this pretty quickly as you paddle under the day’s sunlight, sleep under the night’s canopy of stars, and feel the warm river sand tickle your bare toes as you race your kids or friends from your tent to the river. A multi-day river float allows you to let your natural instincts take hold, which can let you laugh more, relax more, and even feel more peaceful than you have in a while.

4) Do some serious family bonding.

If you’re doing a multi-day trip as a family vacation, this is a prime opportunity to share more in-depth, focused time with your family than perhaps you usually get to. Without the usual daily distractions of cell phones, carpool, appointments, after-school activities, the morning rush to get everyone to school and work on time, a river trip of several days offers chances to have really honest conversations and just more quality time together with the people most important in your life.

Enjoy your vacation more. Sure, a one-day trip can be really enjoyable. But a multi-day trip lets you play on the river longer—and aren’t you on a river rafting trip because you want to, well, spend time rafting a river?—see things like ancient ruins that you might miss on a shorter trip, and spend less time in your head and more time in your heart. More days equal more fun, more adventures, and more relaxation. You connect more with your guides and your fellow rafters—we’ve even known lifelong friendships to spring up between strangers while on a multi-day trip.

Written by Julie Trevelyan.

Julie is a freelance writer and wilderness guide in southern Utah. She especially enjoys books, coffee, yoga, wild country, horses, and dark chocolate.

See more of her work at www.wildgirlwriting.com