It's been on my bucket list, to float down a lazy river in an inner tube, so when my 65th birthday…read morewas approaching (ouch!), and it was determined that my kid and I would take a birthday trip to Penticton, a few friends mentioned floating down the river channel there, and how much fun it was, so I started doing research on it.
The most prominent and established tube-renting company is Coyote Cruises, and they are located next door, essentially, to Float Penticton. Coyote got great reviews here on Yelp and elsewhere; Float Penticton has great reviews on Trip Advisor but none here on Yelp. I'm not sure why I chose Float Penticton; perhaps there was no availability for Coyote on the date I needed to book (on my birthday). The services and the prices between the two companies is comparable.
I booked our double tube rental and VIP shuttle service a few weeks in advance. With tax and everything, it came to about $50. This was for a full river channel float which, depending on the currents and winds, could take anywhere from 2-4 hours. I liked how the shuttle picks you up and drops off at your hotel (door to door service), and at the end of the float, it picks you up and brings you back. (As it turned out, our hotel was across the street from the business, so we just walked there. But we sure were glad the shuttle picked us up when we were miles down the river, at the end point of the channel!).
A few things to note:
-This business is literally right beside Coyote Cruises. The address for Float Penticton is 270 Riverside Drive. Not sure why a totally incorrect address is showing for this business here on Yelp. I suggested a correction.
-Whereas Coyote has a large building site and many large orange buses, Float Penticton is a small, family-run business. They are located in a blue tent beside Coyote. Float has a smaller white van as a shuttle.
-Both Coyote and Float offer single inner tubes and quad/"party" inner tubes. My kid and I rented a double inner tube from Float. I'm not sure if Coyote offers double tubes.
-I liked how we had the option to go down the entire length of the channel or get off halfway.
-I really liked our double inner tube. It was really well-made and stable, with backrests and a central compartment for our bags and food and drinks. It even had small sections in the front to accommodate cans! Bougie!
-our shuttle driver was incredibly friendly, and he gave us a lot of really great recommendations for restaurants and other things to do in Penticton. Super helpful!
One issue my kid and I had: they only gave us one paddle (they gave the quad tube people two paddles, which is WAY more helpful to actually steer and propel the tube! And the one paddle they gave us was so short, I liken it to a toddler's shovel that comes with a pail, to make sand castles on the beach. Super short. It wasn't helpful at all to push ourselves away from the channel banks- and there were huge beaver dams in areas on these banks! And big beavers! - and it sure wasn't helpful to steer or propel ourselves. A larger paddle, or ideally two, and perhaps a long stick to push away from the banks, would've been super helpful).
All in all, though, we had SO much fun! It was the BEST time ever, on such a beautiful day! If you go, remember your sunblock and water bottle, and a snack perhaps too, as you could be there 4 hours or so! (In retrospect, I would also bring my small waterproof speaker, so we could listen to tunes, too).
