Salt River Tubing

Address:	9200 N Bush Hwy, Mesa, AZ 85215, USA
Phone:	+1 480-984-3305
Site:	saltrivertubing.com
Rating:	4.5
Working:	9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM 9AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

Jessica Martin

In the past, Ive had a decent experience renting tubes. Nothing special either way. And when some of our group didnt have tubes (myself included) this trip, we decided to just rent them. But the money grubbing inefficiency on display this past weekend was nothing short of disgusting. Some idiot decided that, since the river was slow, all rental tubes should start halfway down the river. On the surface, this is somewhat reasonable, as they want as many people as possible to enjoy the trip (and, not incidentally, give them $15), even if they have to cut all every customers day in half. Theres an argument for fairness there, though it is a flimsy one. However. Their gas guzzling shuttle buses have nowhere to turn around except the top of the river, so they had bus after empty bus wasting gas driving up the whole way. There were no signs ANYWHERE giving ANY indication of what was happening, with the result that my group got separated and were unable to contact each other with the information. To give the company the benefit of the doubt, they may have said something at the rental shack. But they definitely didnt at the top of the river or halfway up, with the result that if you were waiting on people renting, or if you rented and drove, you had no idea what was going on. One person with a sign would have done a great deal to fix this. Eventually, we realized that the rentals were starting halfway down the river (only because some police officers were wasting their time chasing renters down and taking their tubes - thanks for your noble commitment to stopping crime, Phx law enforcement!) and tried to get on an (empty) bus to rejoin our friends, only to be told that we had to pay $12 to board the bus, even when it was the rental companys lack of communication that had caused the mix up. This was, of course, after we had purchased a parking pass to park at the top of the river. Police officers straight up told us that they were not concerned with safety, communication, or public service as long as "somebody pays us," which is one of the more offensive things I have heard a public servant say. Bus drivers said the same. To recap: rental company wanted to charge as many people as possible full price, so they cut everyones trip in half. Local law enforcement was being used to chase down tube renters who didnt know this. Buses were driving around empty wasting gas, and wouldnt help splintered groups reunite. Wasted time, wasted money, wasted gas, wasted law enforcement. This company is awful and no one I know will be using them in the future.

Shawn Anomaly

So had my first tubing experience in life and it was here. The place itself is great for the goal of tubing down the river but I have a couple of gripes or cautionary tales. The first one is the somewhat rip off deal of paying full price only to be dropped off without warning at the halfway point. If youre not allowing renters and/or bus travellers the ability to partake of the WHOLE river then 1) There should only be a half price or at least discounted charge 2) There should be forewarning way ahead of abruptly being dropped off and told to get off. The next problem I had was with the bus driver (besides not telling us we were only get taking to the halfway point which I blame her and the staff back at the loading area). When it was time to be abruptly thrown off the lady began to rush us to get our gear (not easy when youre dealing with inflatables trying to get through a narrow bus door. Maybe they should allow folks to toss huge medium sized inflatables out the back door? Anyhow in her hurry she snatched our boat (what we were going to use to carry our gear) out of the door and tossed it out causing a gash to immediately deflate it and render it useless. Of course she didnt own up to the event whatsoever but instead feigned cluelessness to how a just previously inflated boat all of a sudden received a gash upon YOUR handling of it out the door! *Caution: Do handle your own stuff out of the door, do not let them put their hands on it. Be prepared to pay full price only to be surprised that you can only do half the river Do bring something to paddle with...lord knows the currents can take you at times Youd have a better time with inflatable rafts versus tubes IMHO! Prepare to have things thrown at you from other groups all in good fun!

jess. g

My husband and I along with our children, flew in from another country to spend our last week with our oldest son who will be leaving for boot camp with the US marines shortly. We rented a van (only my husband was registered to drive) and drove over an hour to the salt river recreation park on July 17 2014 at 12:50 pm. The plan was that he would drop off my 11 yr old daughter, 17 yr old son along with myself and pick us up at 7 pm. Upon arrival we were informed that because my husband and six yr old brought us and stepped foot on their property we would not be allowed to tube. We stated that my daughter and husband were only dropping us off as we rented the van that only he could drive, but the senior staff rudely informed us that this was their policy and they were not going to change it. They were completely heartless, rude and offered no apology for the fact that their website had no mention of this policy. We will never know what fun we could have had but were very disappointed with the staffs response. At no place on their web site does it state that tubers will be denied if they are dropped off or have someone under 8 yrs old in their car on their property. Yes we knew she could not tube and had no plans of even having her stay. The staff were completely unworkable and even admitted that this is not stated anywhere on their web site. As bad as this is I would have appreciated them saying," We are sorry you drove all this way but come back tomorrow and ask for me and I will give you a deal as this was not your fault." This would have been true customer service even in a hard situation.

Phoenix Hawaii

i think the river is a lot of fun, but if your going with young children as I did. A 15 and 9 year old, I would suggest purchasing a blow up canoe or large tub with a bottom. Our experience started out great. We were all excited until we got to the Rapids. The first 2 were ok but the 3rd one was terrifying to say the least. We got separated and my tube flipped over because of a large rock sticking out. We lost our cooler and basically everything we brought. There were tons of mosquitos and very large fish. Some areas were so shallow that we got hurt hitting them. I would suggest wearing some type of protective shoes and if your with a group of people to tie your tubs, rafts, etc to each other and dont bring anything valuable because chances are you will lose them. There are no life guards except occasional workers will come by in there canoe but other than that you on your own. Make sure to use lots of sun screen and you must make your child use a life vest. My two boys did pretty well considering and I knew there were times that they were really scared but we all made it. I dont think after this experience that we will do it again. But if your a young adult and up it looks like it would be enjoyable. Also bring some warm clothes if you go in May., waters always about 63 degrees and the sun is what warms the water but it did not do that this time and we all froze pretty much the entire time. And please be very careful and have fun.