Best camp ever!! I was so relieved to be leaving my kids with actual adults and not teen counselors. The two staff members were energetic, upbeat, great with the kids, and able to quickly adapt to unexpected circumstances. It was too windy to sail on our sailing day, so George took the kids around the bay in a pontoon boat, and a fantastic time was had by all. On hiking day, an especially high tide had covered the planned hiking course, but George took the campers to Annie's Canyon for a really cool slot canyon hike. George somehow convinced both my kids that they love and excel at kayaking, surfing and rock climbing, and they have been so excited to do all of these things again soon. read more

Positive Adventures has thrown several events for my company over the years and I am continuously impressed by their level of detail and dedication to their craft. I didn't expect our virtual Halloween event to be as fun as it was and it was AMAZING. It was the only thing that could actually distract me from the election (and that's saying A LOT). Definitely recommend Positive Adventures for any company looking to increase their employee engagement and fun, especially during COVID. They rock! read more

My school used Positive Adventures to host an 8th grade camping trip in Santa Barbara and I definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND them. ZERO STARS if I could! Every student paid good money (few hundred) and were promised with three nutritious, filling meals, along with "plenty of snacks." We were there for four nights and the food options (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) were ridiculously portioned that my students were constantly hungry. Food was bought from Costco (I know since I saw the brand and am a fellow Costco shopper myself). There was no sustenance in the food. Here is an example of what one of our daily meals consisted of: Breakfast: half a bagel with cream cheese (some students didn't even get a bagel because many went moldy and had to be tossed out), half of a banana, and a fourth of a grapefruit. Lunch: simple ham and cheese sandwich OR peanut butter & jelly sandwich Snack: one granola bar Dinner: one hotdog with or without chili How is this sufficient in nutrients when you're going on strenuous hikes around beautiful Santa Barbara?! The camp leaders NEED TRAINING AND COACHING on how to talk to students. I overheard camp leaders (Lucas & Katie) telling my students that it was "their fault" (the students) for missing breakfast and to "stop twisting words around" when I requested that they get an additional sandwich. They said this right when I had my back turned and proceeded to walk away. I addressed this unprofessional attitude immediately with their site director, Kate. My kiddos tried their best to make the best out of the trip and I am really sad that their 8th grade trip may not be filled with happy memories. We were not allowed to have pool time or play at the beach, except for only 2 hours on a specific day. We were given a hard time when we asked for some down time to relax and chat with each other, but were told by Kate that we needed to "fill the time slot." We were not allowed to have a camp fire with our students and roast marshmallows and make s'mores except on the last night. Isn't that what makes it a camping trip? S'mores and sitting together around a campfire? There were plenty of chaperones, including myself for safety reasons if that was the case. On the last night when we were able to have s'mores, each student were only allowed to have one! Only one s'more! It was the last night there, and there were plenty of chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows for seconds and perhaps thirds... but instead they quickly packed it up and put it away even though our students paid for it. When our staff tried to communicate our concerns to Kate, we got a lot of pushback and animosity from camp leaders Lucas and Katie. They (Katie & Lucas) were not supportive of our kids' needs. This company sounds like a cool concept, but only for company retreats and adults. Definitely not student or kid-friendly and I definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND! read more

I can see that this company gets positive reviews when they deal with adults, but what my 8th-grader tells me of her recent experience with Positive Adventures suggests that this organization views kids as problems to be solved rather than customers to relate to. Our school emphasizes some important guiding principles that our kids really take on board. Our teachers model those principles, on the understanding that kids become what they see modeled. They are good kids, we didn't send them on this trip to be whipped into shape. We sent them to have fun while bonding, and to experience some "positive adventures." My daughter did have a lot of great moments . . . most of them related to the beautiful Santa Barbara setting, our school's dedicated teachers and chaperones, and the great group of kids--who, for the most part, have been together since Kinder. However, her report to me of counselor behavior corroborates what some of her fellow students have posted here. The Positive Adventures counselors seemed to be under the impression they had been hired to put the kids on a strict, very low-calorie diet while simultaneously enforcing a level of physical activity that required at least twice as much energy as they were consuming. A hint as to a possible reason for the counselors' attitudes was dropped by the leader of my daughter's group: He told the kids "I usually get paid more than this, so the fact that I'm out here doing this for this low rate should tell you how much I care about helping the next generation." There's so much wrong with that comment, I don't even know where to start. Besides its passive-aggressive nature, it assumes kids will believe what you say over what you do--a very short-sighted assumption. Kids can tell when you're engaged with them, when you care about the experience they're having . . . and they can tell when you don't. They can tell when they're on a "positive adventure" or when they're in a weight-loss boot camp. I'm so thankful for the group of teachers who went on this trip with them and stood in the gap for them. And I hope Positive Adventures spends some time educating their counselors on the nutritional needs of kids and how to relate to them as fellow human beings. Oh: one last thing related to the counselor's comment: As a parent, I didn't consider the fee for this company to be "low" but I was happy to pay it on the expectation that my child was going to be having a truly positive adventure. However, if its counselors believe they were receiving a particularly low wage on this trip, there is clearly something amiss in the relationship between the company and its employees. In any case, it might explain the shortfall in the food supplies. read more

They did a great hop organizing for out company! Super fun event and would do it again!

Super fun! Our company did the game show style event over zoom (due to shelter in place policy currently) and it was a great alternative to getting together in person. read more

I feel horrified, my son was very excited to go on his 8th grade ROP trip. After weeks and weeks of hearing about this trip and how fun it was going to be, to pick my son up and hear how he was not feed properly, and how he was worked extremely hard on the hikes. I am so out of my mind as a parent that sent your 13 yr old to a place they would treat them the same way I would, but I see not. This company doesn't need to work with children until they understand that you treat them totally different then adults. Shame on you Positive Adventures, I will be calling your corp. office. read more

Ryan and his team did a great job with our corporate event. We had a blast. They definitely know to make boring people have fun!

Ryan and his team love what thy he do and it shows in every interaction. You will not be disappointed if you hire Positive Adventures.

It's a honor to work for a company who values challenge, growth and genuine human connection. Not only do they value it - they champion it! It is very fulfilling to organize programs for groups that WANT to connect and grow together, but might not know how. That's where Positive Adventures comes in. Whether it's learning your management style, participating in a team scavenger hunt, or giving back to the community - they will make it happen. read more

Fabulous organiztion. They are well run and care about their customers. I highly recommend!!

I am the Founder and Executive Director of The Laurel Foundation - which provides year round camp programs for HIV+ youth. We are an accredited camp of the American Camp Association and have been since our founding in 1993 - 25 year. I write this review of Positive Adventures with that expertise in working 25 years with youth programming. Ryan and his team are the BEST OF THE BEST! There is no question about that. Safety is paramount and that includes emotional safety. He and his team are so good at working with kids and how they present to kids. The positively frame all of their activities working with kids and have great activities that build teamwork and leadership. We have worked with them since their founding and have watched them grow and develop as a company. We have worked with many adventure companies but NONE compare to POSITIVE ADVENTURES. I will repeat that... NONE. I trust ONLY THE BEST to work with our kids and there is no one I will work with OTHER THAN POSITIVE ADVENTURES. As I mentioned, we have worked with a lot of adventure companies and none have compared. I work closely with their team to be sure we have everything we need for the kids and that the program we want is the program we get. I feel sorry for the school that did not get what they wanted. Seems like it was more of an administrative glitch on the schools end because Positive Adventures... is truly the BEST of the BEST. YOU WILL BE TRULY LUCKY IF YOU WORK WITH THEM! - Margot Anderson Founder The Laurel Foundation Laurel-Foundation.org read more

How are you still in business!????????? Ugh! DO NOT HIRE!!!My son attended their camp in Santa Barbara, El Capitan Beach..he returned home horrified, disgusted, hungry and tired!! My son said he was not given nutritious food "hardly any protein" and "high carb diet"for amount of activity they were doing. As the kids returned from camp, many of the kids said it was a "fat camp!" How is it that the kids camp at the beach and went to the beach one time. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! !OVER-PRICED!!! read more

I don't know what was better...getting to glimpse bits of our universe in optimally darkened skies with an uberly rad astronomer or surviving the twists and turns of a one of kind spelunking adventure! Our 4 day/ 3 night trip was THEEE highlight of our 7th grade outdoor ed. program! Of particular importance was the connections that were made between the parent chaperones, PA staff and of course the students themselves. We hiked mountainous boulders, explored high desert flora and fauna and rock climbed some totally amazing rock face! We really appreciated the diverse levels of difficulty to accommodate all levels of our fledgling climbers. Another program element that resonated with all members of the group was the powerful nighttime fire circle meeting where everyone was allowed a safe space to share a little or lot about themselves. There were many tears of joy shed that night and it was in this moment that the true power, professionalism and passion that is Positive Adventures really shone through. It is a memory that I and many of our families will remember forever. read more

I was tasked to organize an offsite meeting for our Generation group, which is scattered throughout North America. The decision was to do it at the EDF RE corporate office city of San Diego. There were 24 of us who needed to reconnect, share lessons learned, learn from each other, get to know each other better and improve our communication skills. Positive Adventures were recommended to me by one of my colleagues in another department and all I thought I needed them to help us with was a some sort of FUN team building activity. I initially discussed the plan with Jered who was great but ended up experiencing the "magic" of Ryan. Positive Adventures does way more than fun corporate activities, they provide a full package of variety organizational development support and I took advantage of it. Ryan, the CEO was "running" the show. We hired them for 4 hours of "team connections" and 2 hrs of fun "Iron Chef" cook off appetizer competition. The Team Connection session was fantastic. We had multiple interactive team exercises that provided analysis a conclusions (allowing for wise take aways) that helped to improve our teamwork, our productivity and communications. We also had a "leadership quadrant" exercise, which was short and interesting allowing us to understand how others prefer to be communicated and how we can positively influence their response. Everyone loved these sessions and Ryan's facilitation was exceptional. Simply excellent!!! The appetizer challenge was GREAT!!! And so much FUN! And there was so much food left that we just kept eating and ended up canceling our group dinner and changed it for an evening of drinks. THANK YOU RYAN!!! I Will definitely recommend you to others. read more

Our company worked with Positive Adventures for our all-company workshop in San Diego. We were in need of some team building activities and Positive Adventures provided their services. Upon receiving feedback, everyone really enjoyed all the team building games. We were told San Diego always had great weather but on that morning it was sprinkling. But the enthusiasm from the staff really made it easier for us to go out there and just have fun and work together. I really want to thank Meg for all her support from the very beginning to the very end. I really appreciate how easy it was to work with her to arrange this event. I recommend Positive Adventures and if we ever have another workshop in San Diego, I will be calling them! read more

We partnered with Positive Adventures on a team building for our product development team. Sometimes, this team can be a little quiet but Positive Adventures really got them out of their shell. They organized an amazing Beach Olympics with sandcastle competition, wacky tourist race and more. They bring their own speakers, play music and really get the crowd pumped up. Highly recommend Positive Adventures for your next corporate team building activity. read more

Positive Adventures puts together an intriguing and enlightening program that allows for companies to have an exceptional team-building experience. My company has had three sessions with the program, and each one was engaging and informative. I highly recommend their program. read more

The team here is the best. We booked a retreat. Positive Adventures was not only the best price, but they really delivered. Great team. Would highly recommend to anyone else. read more

Absolutely terrible. If I could give 0 stars I would. Our 8th grade trip to Joshua tree partnered with them and they seemed to be paranoid about everything. One of their rules was that you always had to have one foot on the ground, excluding rock scrambling which you weren't allowed to do without a supervisor. Keep in mind; not all of the rocks were very big, and we're perfectly safe for us to climb without supervision. Another rule they had was no adventuring. We couldn't look around at the gorgeous scenery outside of the activities because we weren't allowed to. Overall a 0/10 experience. read more

Positive Adventures gave our school great outdoors experiences. Jared and his team gave us all we expected and more. The meals , hikes, rock climbing , meditation and lots of positive vibes. We went with a group of teens and came back with a team. We have been using them for years. Thanks to Jared and his crew until next time. read more

I used Positive Adventures on a 8th grade trip around Santa Barbara. My classmates and I were originally exited for this trip because we had heard from other classes how fun previous 8th grade trips were. When we arrived, we were given spaghetti that had the texture of prison mush and tasted like dirty water. Although dinner was bad, our group was still in a good mood. We were then separated into groups. My group leader was interesting and taught us lessons through the team building games we played, however he had little patience with kids and would often yell at my classmates that were "walking too slow." I later learned that my leader was definitely not the worst. At dinner the next night, I saw another leader spill hot soup on a student and laugh. My classmates do not mind the camping or even strict leaders, but we all could clearly see that the counselors were bullying us. When we asked the leaders about the area around us, they had little knowledge and sometimes seemed uninterested in talking to us. There were several of my classmates that left because of the food. You could tell that Positive Adventures were for profit because of the food and how low cost it was. On two separate occasions, they ran out of food and I was given a rice cake that was supposed to keep me full for the next 4 hours of hiking. In addition, all of our meals lacked protein and I was always hungry. Our sleeping arrangements were even worse. They gave everyone matts that felt even harder then the ground. These uncomfortable sleeping situations kept my classmates up for hours. The activities were not fun either. There were too many games and all of them seemed to lead up to something like "practice makes perfect" and "treat others how you wanted to be treated." On one day all we did was hike. My group was obviously tired, but instead of encouraging us, my leader yelled at me again for being a couple steps behind. Finally, our teachers stepped in and changed the activities because they knew how ridiculous the schedule was. I am really disappointed because I was looking forward to this and was a disaster. This may be fine for a business trip, but this completely let me down. read more

To give you some context for my review, I'm a former camp counselor and director with over 10+ years experience. I was a member of the American Camping Association. I am very familiar with children's camping programs and all that goes into them. As such, I was very excited to go camping with my students and Positive Adventures for our end of year culmative bonding trip. The cost per student was high, but not out of range for an all-inclusive multi-day camping trip. However, those programs usually include activities you can't experience without them, such as high ropes, kayaking, or archery. Our original activity list was the following: hiking to the beach, a "Great Race" organized game, hiking the local mountains, night hikes, stargazing, visiting a llama farm, tide pooling, swimming in the pool, and fort building on the beach. Of all these activities, the only one that required the company to arrange it was the llama farm (which really was super cool, and next time I go to SB I will go back). They did arrange for us to have a lifeguard for the two hours we were allowed to use the pool as well. The next big issue was the food. When you're exercising as much as we were (my step meter was recording us going 5-7 miles a day, often on pretty hardcore hikes), you should be eating a lot of protein and complex carbs to give you lots of energy and rebuild muscle. You should also eat small meals pretty frequently. Here's a sample day of what we ate. Breakfast was 1/2 a bagel, two tablespoons cream cheese, 1/2 a banana, 1/4 a orange. Lunch was a sandwich with one slice of lunch meat, one slice of cheese, two slices of tomato, and a piece of lettuce. Snack was a Nature Valley granola bar or fruit snacks (not both). Dinner was a burrito bar with one flour tortilla, cheese, black beans, corn, peppers, and white rice. Estimated caloric content: 1200 calories. Probably around 7 grams of protein, and the only complex carb was the banana. Five students ended up throwing up during the trip, and I blame it on the lack of nutrition and extreme exercise. The funny thing is that us chaperones had a fantastic additional spread of food. We snuck most of it to our students. The counselors didn't seem to like that very much. The students spent so much of their own money (and ours) on Cup O Noodles and ice cream at the shop just because they were starving! I brought a lot of my own snacks, and passed them all out so they didn't pass out. I've done a ton of trips like this- you overfeed the kids. Snacks should be things like cheese cubes and jerky. Meals should be bacon in the morning and chicken for dinner. For God's sake, at least use brown rice so the kids keep full a little bit longer! Throw some tofu or chicken in the burrito- you can bring the chicken precooked even. Snacks should be bountiful and filling. A single fun size fruit snack is mind-bogglingly useless on a long hike. On the Day of Endless Hiking (eat half a bagel if you're lucky- a rice cake if you're not, hike up a ~1000 foot mountain, hike to the beach, eat a single hot dog, go on a night hike, then stargaze) us teachers rebelled. We stopped at dinner, and told the staff our kids had hiked too much, and were no longer enjoying themselves. I jumped in and planned some games at the park. The kids were having a great time until we were stopped due to liability. Now, I get liability. I know what can happen to a camp if the wrong kid twists their ankle. But my "unsafe" game seemed a much safer choice than a night hike on 1000 empty calories after that many miles had already been done. In short, don't use this program for your students. They just plain don't get kids. If I'm going to haul my butt into the wilderness with a bunch of adolescents, I want it to be worth it. With CELP on Catalina or Tom Sawyer Camps in Death Valley, it is. Positive Adventures, in the end, was neither positive nor an adventure. read more

I am very disappointed to read some of the earlier feedback where groups experienced giant telescopes, nightly campfires, rope course, beach days, excellent staff counselors and fresh coffee with scrambled eggs for breakfast. Our poor eight graders who just returned got none of that. This is a great group of kids who have been together since kinder, so when they had an incredible fifth grade trip, all they talked about since then was how awesome the eight grade trip would be. Especially since past eight grade trip have been so great (using other companies). While my son raved about some of the experiences this past week, unfortunately they all had to do with his peers and the schools staff. Overall it seems as though the counselors where not happy to have to deal with kids and were more concerned with their own needs instead of remembering these kids will only get one 8th grade trip. My son's counselor (Kate?) seemed to be the exception as he had a good experience with her but he witnessed other counselors being unreasonable. He described an instance where a peer dropped her hat and did not want to to put it on her head due to her concern it had touched the poison oak they had just seen. The counselor threatened to not allow her to participate the rest of the day if she didn't wear the hat. Seems to me there was many other ways to handle this situation. My son's group also came upon a trash can full of moldy bagels the positive adventures staff had to throw away. While i'm certainly in line with the decision not to serve them, it calls to mind why the staff was not brought up more supplies or why an adequate fresh amount was not packed to begin with. As a parent and past teen camp director, I am surprised by the lack of planning and adequate food storage there seemed to be on this trip. A simple cooler could have made way for hard boiled eggs, cheese, fruit and certainly dry snacks like trail mix, fruit bars, power bars etc could have been easily stored and are a much better option to the fruit gummies given to little kids. There are many options for sustainable meals, especially since the camp itself has some pretty lush amenities near by. Its unfortunate that the activities were not engaging and were carried out more as task the staff just needed to get through. For our teachers to have to step in and demand they not be drug up a steep trails when several kids had already vomited and there nutrition was not good is beyond ridiculous. At that point as the "adventures" staff you make a judgement call and say they are hot, tired and clearly not enjoying this. Let's hit the pool or beach. Although they made the best of it, I would hope the staff realizes the type of memory they have created for this group. While I understand the price we paid has to cover a lot and was not astronomical, it was not minimal either. The logistics could have been much better planned and budgeted for. Even a little kindness from the staff could have made a slim situation much more enjoyable. read more

Amazing service and wonderful people to work with. Would recommend to anyone. Don't settle for second rate options, this is who you're looking for. read more

Fun and educated staff! Can't wait for our next Positive Adventure! Highly recommended!

Just wanted to post a quick comment about my experience with Ryan and his group at positive adventures. What a great group of people to work with. We're so lucky to have such a wonderful influence in San Diego. Highly recommended! read more

Awesome! John and his team were wonderful to work with. Our group really enjoyed the day.

Great job done. Our facilitator Anacron was fantastic and engaging. My company definitely gained a new perspective after this entertaining and thoughtful meeting. Def recommend ! read more

We did a ropes course with Ryan and his crew and it was an awesome experience! My entire sales and admin team came out and really learned a lot about working together as a team and trust. I highly recommend and will be working with positive adventures every year. Truly a great experience. read more

We had a great team building experience for our company with Positive Adventures. It was amazing to be in nature, take a break from the four walls of our business and help the culture of our company all the while. Thank you the experience and job well done. read more

I hired Positive Adventures for a corporate team building event. Ryan and his team spent time on the front end to clearly understand our team's dynamics so they could gear their program to meet our needs, customize their approach and make sure everyone had fun. They are a team of experts with heart - a rare combination. I'd call them again for our next program! - Shannon read more

Everyone at Positive Adventures was more than a pleasure to work with! Extremely polite, fun and professional. They went above and beyond to make sure that our group had an awesome time during our scavenger hunt! I can't wait to use them again in the future. Extra special thanks to Meg, Halsey and Sasha! read more

Positive Adventures was a great vendor for my school's outdoor education trip in Joshua Tree. Amy and Jered each called me to explain and plan the week-long rock climbing trip before we left. They provided a detailed packing list, asked about our preferences, and answered any questions I had. Our actual naturalists and rock climbing instructors, Becky and Bucky, were wonderful teachers and chaperones. They carefully taught and led our students through the basics of rock climbing, encouraged them to take safe risks, helped us monitor students' behavior, and sought to instill a love of nature and adventure in the students. I would definitely use them again and highly recommend them. read more

Ryan and his team were amazing in how they coordinated our rock climbing event. They engaged the guests and empowered them to make breakthroughs in the activity and in their life. I would definitely recommend them. read more

Not my thing, but pretty similar to other groups. I wouldn't do it again. If you are looking for a motivational group that puts you into one of four communications styles this will work for you. If you are in sales or consulting you will likely enjoy this. read more

John was outstanding! Tremendous energy, and knew how to cater to all members of the group, from 2-year-olds to grandparents. Highly recommend! read more

I had a wonderful day working with Anacon and my co-workers! He was an AMAZINGLY personable, funny, and engaging instructor and I can't wait until he returns later on in the year! read more

Had a chance to be on a retreat planned by positive adventures. The food was amazing the staff on point and it was seriously one of the best trips of my life. What a cool concept and delivery. read more

Positive Adventures was great! They brought with them an interesting team building experience, which was a lot of fun as well... It is a good and often underrated endeavor, to get a company's employees to work together in a fun exercise, building new found camaraderie and good will among the staff. These types of activities should be done often, as most employees actually spend more of their waking hours at work, than with their families, and it's nice to have a company like Positive Adventures, that specializes in bringing a change of pace to companies like ours. Nice job! read more