I wasn't sure if I would be able to paddle. Grand Experiences allowed me to not only learn what I needed to know to feel confident on the water, but also gave me the opportunity to put into practice what I learned. All under the supervision of an expert. Adam was patient and encouraged us to keep going. This was a great way for my Husband and I to spend a relaxing day on the water and we now feel we can add kayaking to our list of regular camping activities. Highly recommend Grand Experiences to anyone just wanting to give it a try or the experienced paddler looking for a day on the water. Thanks Adam! read more

Had an amazing time. Will be back before summer is over. Everyone is super friendly and helpful. Would recommend bringing some friends or family and enjoy the outdoors floating or paddling down the grand. read more

We had such a great experience canoeing the Grand River from Paris to Brant Conservation. This outfitter knows what they're doing and makes the event easy and enjoyable. We received all the relevant pre-trip information we needed, including "paddling" basic instructions and tips, emails about conditions on and information about the river, and linked directions on where to park for shuttle pick-up with times and contact information. The shuttle was right on time, with owner Adam and employee Quincy there to get us going. Adam is very personable and happy to answer all questions - you can tell he takes pride in the company and the reputation he is building. The guys get you from the conservation area to Paris where you launch. They fit you with lifejackets and paddles, then walk you down to the canoe (which had the mandatory safety kit with flashlight, whistle, bailer, etc.). Adam gives a few tips on how to start off and have a safe and enjoyable trip (which side of river to head for, how to distinguish channels to follow, bridges to count, wildlife we might see, etc.) and finishes with instructions on how to end the journey back at the conservation area. The trip took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes and we went at a fairly leisurely pace. The river is beautiful to canoe - quite rocky, but nothing that we as novice canoers couldn't navigate. Upon arrival back at the conservation area, we just pulled our canoe up to the shore. Adam and Quincey were there to load the canoes and we went to our parked car and drove away. For the price (which includes parking at the conservation area), it was a terrific and thoroughly enjoyable value. Would highly recommend and would love to do it again. Great gift idea, too ... they do have gift certificates. read more

Great day on the Nith! Third trip with Grand Experience. All have been great We had a great river run with Jaime and his team in early May on the Nith River. Water was high and running fast, with a couple of challenges along. Chili was great and both the kayakers and canoeists had a lot of fun. Just a great day on the water. Thanks for everything. read more

We had a fantastic time! We did the Tuscarora trip, self-guided. Jack was the guide who shuttled us up to the entry point and gave us advice and tips for navigating the river, all of which was spot-on. If you are brand new to canoeing I would recommend that you take the guided tour because there isn't much instruction on how to canoe. I'd also recommend that you do a trip that ends in Paris, because trips that start in Paris have to go through rapids right at the beginning. Overall, great experience! A lovely way to spend the day! read more

I will try to remain calm as I write this review... TRY being the key word. We drove about an hour and a half to arrive in Paris, ON for a "guided" rafting tour. When I contacted Grand Experiences, they stated that the only rafting time they had for Groupon holders was 11AM. We arrived slightly after 11AM, and were then surprised with a "transportation" fee of $5 per person to the rafting site. That's a bit steep considering we were just transported on a minivan. That is probably one of the most expensive trips I've taken. You first meet up at their shop on Grand River Street which sells kayaks and other paddling gear. You then drive to what will end up as your END point when you finish your rafting tour, park there, and are driven to the START point of the rafting tour. 1) When we arrived at the END point, we waited a good 30-45 minutes before the "transportation" arrived to pick us up. 2) We were then dropped off at the START point, and the driver left us to go back and pick up more kayaks etcetera, and told us that other customers would be joining us and would be dropped off by a bus. 1 hour, yes, 1 hour later, the bus arrived with an array of kayakers and the remaining lot of rafters. The rafting tour that was supposed to start at 11AM, didn't take off until 1PM. We were provided with life jackets (wet suits will cost you extra to rent), and seeing as we weren't doing any extreme rafting we opted to go without. We were a group of 5 + another group of 4 to make up a 9-(wo)man raft. Our guide would kayak alongside us. We were given verbal instructions at the beginning of the tour. The tour itself was nothing exciting, and I got fatigued quite early because it was basically myself, William T, and another fellow rafter who paddled the whole time. Everyone else really took the notion of "scenic rafting" to heart and sat and chatted. Even though I went on a Groupon ($16), I felt that the experience was horrible. The waiting without explanation thinking "Maybe they left us and went to lunch" was really annoying. I woke up at 7:30AM just to make sure we had enough time to drive up only to find out that I could've slept in a few more hours. I think I'll probably go with the competition (Grand River Rafting) next time if I want to do some paddling. Stay away from these guys. read more

Thia ia Not for the totally inexperienced / expect a very independent tour with minimal assistance/ explanations. On the phone we were uncertain about which kayak tour we should select due to lack of information even when prompted, but decided that when we arrived perhaps we might get better information when we asked in person. The store appears to be manned by disinterested 16-year-olds must assume that you kayaked before (luckily we had) and that customers know everything you need to know about the trip without being provided with any information (we didnt). The river conditions were not accurately described. Do not expect kayaking tips, maps, proper lifejacket fitting, kayak pedal adjustment assistance (pedals were jammed or non adjustable), accurate river conditions, or information as to where the drop off point will be. We chose a self guided mellow, easy tour which was supposed to have a soft easy paddle with the current. For those who may not have much kayaking experience this mellow easy trip eneded up with hundreds of rocks, (many that were hidden) and at times that we actually got stuck and almost tipped our kayaks over. This was on the trip described as extremely calm mellow waters? The rest of the river was so slow and non moving that we ended up doing about 3 miles of hard paddling to make it to the pick up point in time for the van to pick us up. We were exhausted. The area we were to be picked up area was a bit confusing we are uncertain we had arrived at the right place as it was not the same sign they showed us at the store when we inquired about how to recognize the end of the trip. However the pick up van did show up on time. When we departed our kayaks were left on the riverbank with the assurance that they would be picked up separately in a couple of hours. This made me nervous since they have my credit card and no one was watching the kayaks. The pick up minivan was in poor shape and came with three unexpected passengers-three 10 yr old boys who took up the middle row. We (the paying customers) were required to ride in the van in the very very back row behind the row of summer camp kids. The van stunk of dead crawdads. The other company, Grandriver kayaks sure seems like the better choice! read more

We had a wonderful afternoon paddling with Grand Experiences down the Grand. We had a wonderful guide who showed my kids how to perform proper paddling strokes. He started a fire at our lunch spot and explained the history and natural environment of the river. The river is really quite breath taking. It feels like you are very far up North. It is a great way to spend the afternoon (it took us about 4.5 hours to finish). There are other Outfitters on the River, but they are very sketchy. Some of them do not even have their own vehicles to shuttle you up river, they use Taxis. We went with Grand Experiences because they are established, reputable, have proper insurance, equipment and trained staff. We will definitely go again. They have been advertising that if you join their Facebook page, they will give you 20% off your next trip. read more

Grand Experiences - Sporting Goods Near Me - Paris, Ontario

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We took the self guide drafting for group of 9 people. Booking was easy and they fitted us pretty well. It was unfortunate that there was no convenient parking because we could not park at the parking lot right at the outfitter. Their store is on the busy street but their starting point is out back. The people were friendly enough and fitted us with paddles, dirty and stinky life jackets. There were a couple of new life jackets but the guy in charge didn't let us use them because "it was too new."?! They were nice enough to give our 3 year old paddler a short paddle. That was very sweet. the river was extremely calm and it was very hard work. We thought there would be more of a current but it was only at certain sections. It was fun overall. The water wasn't as clean as we would have liked because we wanted to jump into the water to swim. There was a few spots with tiny waterfalls where people stopped to take pictures but you would need to know where they are to stop. It's nice to see other people also out on canoes and tubes paddling alongside us. People also had fishing rods out but we didn't. Their estimate time was pretty accurate as it took us 3.5 hrs to paddle this route. Pretty fun for our first run but next time we may take the cable to make the trip faster. read more

We have used this business three times and each time they manage to do something wrong. The first time the school bus that arrived at the pick up point was over loaded. Three adults cannot sit properly in one seat but were forced to many of the rows. The second time we arrived at the starting point and they were short two kayaks. The guide wanted to know if my husband and myself would lend our kayaks (which we own) to two other people in the group and use a canoe instead. We said no so the two guides were in one canoe with kayak paddles. The third time we were in a group of thirteen people. When we arrived at the pickup point the van was only able to transport 11 out of the 13 people in the group. They said that the numbers that were confirmed the day before were 11. This may be so but you had 13 in the morning and you should have had transportation for thirteen. The driver did not want to take the kayaks that my husband and myself own on the first trip so we were the two that had to wait. We were assured that there would be the proper equipment to transport our kayaks but the equipment was not there. The driver said he would be right back. He finally showed up an hour and a half later. The weather was turning bad by this time and thunder and lightning were starting soon. We were in a very open area with no shelter during our wait. When the driver finally showed up he had a different vehicle which already had a roof full of kayaks. The trailer he had left for the guides was full. They finally put our kayaks inside the van. So the driver, myself and my husband as well as the two guides were stuffed in the van with the two kayaks. The van we were in was very dirty, old and should not have been on the road. If there had been an accident on the way back the kayaks would have hit us in the heads. I really do not recommend this business to anyone. We have had problems every time. This time we tried to contact the owner but we received no reply. read more

This is an example of a company who should not be in business. Falsely advertised as providing all safety gear, the truth is that there were no bailers, no safety lines, not all PFD's were safe, the instruction was 60 seconds all about paddling and to hit the rocks face on, when asked we were given 2 pumps without legally required parts for 7 boats, they advertise to have marine safety kits, they don't have them, we didn't have enough boats, had to wait and wait and then two inexperienced people had to go in a kayak, there were not (as they advertise) 6 types of kayaks, we got beat up ones and only two were stable 14" kayaks, we were not warned about the rapids, that were described as "mild swifts" but were waves that came up and filled the kayaks. We had two out of seven boats capsize, one person lost all there belongings event though they were in watertight containers--incl. a cell phone. Those of us with the half workable pumps (missing hose and not shown how to use) were unable to go up river through the rapids to get to the capsized boats. They advertised that "before the trip we do safety and skills training" this is completely false, it was like pulling teeth to get any instruction and the person did not even notice or check everyone's life jackets and was reluctant to even give us the faulty pumps. Enough? OH this get's better! These people were rude, and as group members phoned in for directions to get to their store they claimed they didn't have a booking for our group! They held my credit card for ransom, tried to get everything paid way before the excursion, and had a really bad attitude and an attitude of distain.The owner laughed and rolled her eyes when we told her our concerns, and reluctantly gave us 50% of our cash back.To even get to the kayaks was a nightmare. They didn't have the bus they promised, instead they had some pickup trucks where we were supposed to squish in the back on a hot day with no air conditioning or circulation. They were so disorganized they had no idea who was in there vehicle and told us we would have to wait longer for a van to arrive. Some of our group had to leave because they took so long, leaving us to wait in a hot van while they argued amongst themselves, until finally I went out and told them to move it. These people should not be in business, they are defiant of the laws concerning marine safety, consumer protection, and health. They have falsely advertised and are putting people's life's at risk...and they laughed when I pointed this out. read more

Well, today(June 30th 2013) my partner and i went to grand river experiences. We have been going here for the past three years. We have always had a great time. There have been a few times when things did not run smooth, but today was a TOTAL right off. We showed up for our 11:30 time. Ended up waiting in the parking lot for a good 45 minutes for a bus or van to take us to our drop off point. Well upon arrival at the drop off point we found out that the 2 kayaks we had booked had some how turned into 1 kayak and 1 canoe. So after our Guide (Oliver) making several calls to the owner and the office, we did get the second kayak at 2:30 pm, 3 hours past our start time. I have to say the only good thing i can say about this place right now is about our guide. Oliver did his best to try and make this right. I think if it was not for him we would of said to heck with it and take us back to our car. But this young man made our trip. He came along as our guide, was a wealth of information and just all around a great guide. If we do decide to go back we will make sure that we ask for Oliver to be our guide(even tho we don't need one). And one last thing, i had called twice and left a message and never did get a return call. And after booking i was told i would get an email confirmation. Never did. read more