We booked rock climbing and had a great time! The location was peaceful and they were thorough and…read morepatient with the kids. They had spots for all different skill levels. It was a great family experience.

We went here for our kids, 10, 10, and 12 to rock climb. We were met by Easton, the owner and his…read moresons. He took our kids up to climb and repel down 3 different rock formations. He was awesome with the kids! He was patient, a great teacher, and a great all around person. Had we known about this gem earlier we would have booked the kayaking trip with him as well to experience the Dells on a more up close and personal experience. If you come to visit the Dells book something with them, it is completely worth the money and time.

The staff are all so friendly! It was our first time kayaking with a group of people. They did a…read moregreat job explaining and answering all of our questions. They offer many different options to take. Would definitely recommend them and we will be coming back!

The family who runs this are really great. Excellent canoes, beautiful stretch of river and perfect…read morecustomer service. Our time on the water was seamless and we got to truly relax and enjoy the majesty of the Driftless

I'm soaked, my glasses are dripping, and I couldn't be happier! This jet tour was as exciting as it…read morewas informative! Our tour guide, Ben, was comical and cheesy in the best way. Between describing the Dells' breathtaking rock formations and history, he safely and splashily zoomed us around the Wisconsin river! What a blast! This tour was far more thrilling than expected!

had Captain Kenny! he did a awesome job and it is so much fun and we got soake! my favorite part is…read morewhen the boat gets spun around! I highly recommend it

Renting a pontoon with Schleef's was a great experience! We were looking for something to do and…read morelove boating but don't yet own our own - googled and found Schleef's - called them and the super friendly voice set us up with a half day pontoon rental later that same day! And best of all they have amazing prices, $135 for four hours which is like a hundred dollars or more less than the other options. Lake Delton was a great small lake to cruise around, throw the anchor out and swim and fish. We will definitely be back this summer to do it again with Schleef's! Very friendly, family owned service and was a great experience!! Also, their fish & bait shop across the street from the lake was great too! Excellent prices, super cheap hooks and lures, live bait, and easily walkable from the bait shop right into the pontoon to go fishing. 5 out 5 stars hands down!

Awesome boating experience!!!! We came up to go boating, and after another company "lost" our…read morereservation we thought it was going to be a bust. However, after we explained the situation that happened at the other place, they put an extra boat in just for us! They wanted to make sure we enjoyed our time in the Dells, so they went above and beyond for us! I'd highly recommend supporting this family owned and operated business! Great people, and we had an unforgettable time! Thank you so much for making our whole day much better!

Highly recommended from our family. We loved the boat and service provided for the boat. Kat and…read moreJeremy helped us with our reservation and with getting out on the boat. They were both awesome to deal with. Nice size pontoon boat for our family of four. More people could have fit on comfortably. 8 would probably be a comfortable amount at most, but you probably could fit more. Not sure more than 8 would be as comfortable. Plenty of room on the boat. We boated the entire day and even fished off the boat. The boat has a depth finder and fish finder as one unit on the boat. The boat seemed fairly new and in great shape. Plenty of comfortable seating cushions on the boat. It could have used more cup holders, though. Plenty of storage under the seats and cushions. We did several stops to swim while out on the lake. The lake is not very deep (Castle Rock Lake) so go more towards the center of the lake to swim. There it was around 15-20 feet deep. You could anchor there with no problems. Awesome ladder on the boat to get back in the boat from the water. With four in the boat, plenty of room to fish. Casting or bobber fishing. Fish finder on the boat was a nice touch. It helped find good areas to fish, but we had no luck catching any that day. Smooth ride while boating on Castle Rock Lake. Not many boats on the lake the day we were out on the lake. We didn't see many boats on the lake the whole time we were there. That's nice that the lake does not get too crowded with boat traffic. The boat has a Bluetooth radio to connect your phone for music and a nice music system for enjoying your boat ride. Overall smooth experience reserving the boat in advance and then getting out on the water. Kat showed us how to use the boat and then we were off on the lake boating. Seamless experience from reservation to turning the boat in at the end of the day. Highly recommend renting a boat from them on Castle Rock Lake. Just so you know, they operate out of a shack next door to the Shipwreck Bay Bar and Restaurant. The shack is located on the hill above their docks. There is a banner on the side of the shack that says Castle Rock Water Sports. That is where you start your day. For lunch while boating, the restaurant by the boat rental docks, Shipwreck Bay Bar and Grill, is great and so is the Dirty Turtle Bar and Grill just North of there via water. TIP: When filling your boat with gas at the end of your boating day before turning it in, go to the Dirty Turtle Restaurant/Bar down the way from the Castle Rock Water Sports docks. It's about half a mile or less North of their rental docks by water. The gas pump is by the Dirty Turtle Bar and Grill itself. You will have to pull the boat all the way into the marina by water and up to the dock right in front of the Dirty Turtle bar where the gas pump is at. Dock your boat there and go into the restaurant with your credit card. Tell the bartender that you want to fill-up your boat and they hold your card and turn on the pump for you. Go back out and fill your boat to full from the pump. The pump hose is pretty long and will stretch most of the way down the dock to fill your boat no matter where you dock it. After filling your boat with gas, go back into the bar and pay. They can put it on your card or you can pay cash instead. Knowing all this would have saved us some time, but we figured it out, finally. Enjoy!!!

The entire booking process went extremely smoothly and our pontoon boat was great. Jeremy was very…read morehelpful, and helped us realize that we were charged too much for gas. He was also very nice and gave us a quick tour of how to use the boat.

We went on the Lower Dells jet boat adventure. This was our favorite part of our trip to The Dells!…read more The price for tickets is $37 per adult. But if you purchase them online you can get $6 off each adult ticket. The price is the same for the lower and upper dells tours. The lower dells tour seems to depart more frequently. The upper dells tour is a little longer. Parking was plentiful for the Lower Dells. There's bench while waiting for the next tour. Be prepared to be soaked. They don't sell ponchos. You will be drenched from the power stops. The spin outs are fun but not as wet. Literally every seat will be wet. No life jackets for adults but children are seated towards the center of rows and do get life jackets. Our tour guide Nate was great. He was very knowledgeable about the scenery. The rock formations are very pretty. Your tour guide gets very close to the rocks. One guy in the front row reached out and was able to touch it. It's a great activity to get a break from the heat. But you should have a change of clothes ready, a towel, a swimsuit on, or be prepared to go back to your hotel for a shower afterwards. It was well worth the ~$30 for the tour. We liked it so much we considered going on the upper dells tour the next day but the timing didn't work out since those tours are more limited.

Our visit to the Wisconsin Dells area began with a journey along the River Walk. To our left was…read morethe scenic Wisconsin River and towering above to our right was the tourist-trap laden Broadway. In between, the River Walk features stories of the citizens of the Dells from the past and present. The stories displayed along the walk perfectly lay out what the Dells are - A narrative of 'loving and protecting' the nature while operating an area that exists solely on the exploitation of said nature. This is where we meet our Upper Dells Boat Tour. The Dells Boat Tours leave from a handful of flights of stairs down from the River Walk to a dock on the river. An elevator from street level is available to access the docks as well. I brought our youngest down the stairs in my arms while my wife brought our other children down in the elevator. Arriving at the front of the dock I was refused a seat as my whole party had not arrived yet. I explained my wife was on route in the elevator and would be joining momentarily, this was met by the greeter with a "We know what we are doing." My wife explained when she made her way down that voyage on a boat was first come first serve and apparently the ability to sit served as a queueing mechanism. Sure! The boat ride itself? Comfortable enough. Old boat, river tour. You know what you are getting. The boat had access to two stops (Witch's Gulch, Stand Rock) for some interaction and up close views of the natural wonders formed in the area. At face value there, the whole tour was pretty good. Nice sites. About two hours of activity. To me though, the tour, and all of the Dells collapses underneath the weight of its own hypocrisy. The guide and captain both carried forward the "We know what we are doing" and "Loving and protecting nature" attitudes introduced at the beginning of this experience, while also contradicting themselves throughout. The tour references George H. Crandall, speaking lightly to his idea that 'No man can own the Dells' and his quest to purchase and preserve as much of the land as possible to promote stewardship over private exploitation. You are then dropped off at a raised platform hammered over the Witch's Gulch area to walk to a concession stand and souvenir shop built onto a paved area. Early on in the tour the guide points out and celebrates a carving into the rocks by Leroy Gates, an early entrepreneur operating Dells Boat Tours, advertising himself and his tours. Later in the tour at Stand Rock, security cameras and warning signs surround some exposed sandstone where curious tourists have etched initials over time. Also carved into that sandstone? Another concession stand where you can purchase a beer or a $55 sweatshirt. Now, I'm not encouraging carving into the rock but these messages feel mixed. Stand Rock also presented a bizarre presentation of a dog jumping over a 5.5 foot chasm up 46 feet in the air, to recreate a famous photograph taken by local H. H. Bennett in 1886. Bennett is celebrated for his early photography work documenting the Dells area and discovering many of the natural wonders. This beauty is yours because others before you loved it - and we honor them by hanging signs everywhere, selling slushies, and installing this safety net between rocks in case something happens when the dog jumps? One of the more disappointing tid-bits passed on by our guide was of the local Ho-Chunk people being formerly known as the Winnebago, which was a name they did not choose for themselves and was ultimately viewed as a slur. The Ho-Chunk had to fight for many years to have their name Federally recognized. This story was told in sort of a jokey fashion, with the English translation of Winnebago landing like a punch line. It was also mentioned later in the tour that one of the Dells Boat Tour vessels includes Winnebago in the name. Near the end of the tour we are pointed toward the Kilbourn Dam which is presented as a historic and wonderful achievement. The Dam split the Wisconsin River and raised the water level of the new 'Upper Dells', which concealed many of the natural structures H. H. Bennett had previously documented. He was a fierce critic of the Dam, and died the year it was built. I am not saying we shouldn't encourage preservation and take the opportunity in our lifetimes to preserve nature for future generations to enjoy. I have loved every visit to a National and State Park and we are teaching our children to do the same. What I would prefer, is that we pick a lane here. You either rally against defacing nature, or you pump tourists up and down a river to your concession stands every 1/2 hour. You know when you meet someone who isn't genuinely presenting as themselves and it makes the whole encounter feel weird? That is essentially the feeling I left the Dells and the Dells Boat Tour with. We declined leaving with a souvenir photo.

Erik was an amazing fishing guide. My son had a blast and caught sooo many fish. He also learned…read moresome great tips and tricks. I highly recommend Erik @ Chasing Trophies He is great with adults & kids. We had a blast. He is the fishing whisperer !

My friends and I have been tubing with Sandy Shores for three years in a row on our annual vacation…read moreand we've always had a great time. Each year, we choose a different lake to stay on in central WI and we've all agreed that we need to make sure we stay close enough so we can schedule a float with Sandy Shores! This year, Mallory was the superstar who made sure we all had what we needed, including upgrading to a tube with back support (yes, please!), as well as our cooler float. She got us all loaded into the van and unloaded at the river, making sure we understood exactly where to find her for the pickup! Getting out was a breeze as well - just look for the orange markers, walk to the shore, pick up your tube and walk up to the van, where they'll take your tube from you, pack it up and load you into the van to return to your car. And a bonus - you leave your keys and ID with them when you float, so there's zero chance of losing your keys in the river! Sandy Shores is organized and streamlined to make the whole process very enjoyable - just log on to their site & reserve your time (highly recommend) and bring cash (for the float and to tip!!). The float itself takes about 2 hours, but there are a couple of sand bars that you can stop at to take a time out and chill, if you'd like. Thanks Sandy Shores for always giving us a great experience!

A group of 5 of us were in town last weekend and found Sandy Shores was recommended by our Airbnb…read more We checked the website and saw that making a reservation was an option but not a requirement so we did not as we didn't know our exact Saturday morning plan. When we arrived to Sandy Shores we were quickly and rudely turned away by the cashier because we didn't have a reservation?? If this was a requirement then it needs to be said on the website that it is. Not that it's an option. We quickly found a different company to tube through down the road and had a much better experience right off the bat.