Sand Dunes Frontier

Could this be more fun??? Didn’t expect much but my hubby & I were excitedly surprised ! Thrills & chills for a ½ which was plenty. Crazy fun! Beware: u will have sand in places u never knew u had! Go & do at least once! Bucket list check off! Mike was our driver & he was great!!! Was a 2 ½ wait but worth it!

This was our first time as a family to visit the Oregon sand dunes so we decided to do the sand rails tour. Wow — amazing! Mike, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and made the tour exciting, adventurous and full of fun for our whole family. Our 11yo and 9yo thought it was the best thing ever. The guys there are all so nice and helpful. We will definitely be coming back for more!

The ATV rental is a separate business located in the upper level of the complex (follow the signs). They are actually TOREX ATV RENTALS. They rent quads and 4 passenger ATV vdhicles by ½ hour, 1 hour and 2 hours. Pay attention to the safety and map briefing and you will be fine. They lead you out to the dunes and give you landmarks then you are on your own. FUN!!!

We came from Salem to this place for my son’s birthday. It was in his birthday bucket list so we were all excited and looking forward to this fun atv ride. But it was all ruined by a rude and racial discriminating girl in the front desk named «Jolly.» She was snotty, rude, and was cussing in front of customers (my son was there with us and even reminded her that there’s a kid present who could hear her cussing). She was explaining the rules to us so fast that we couldn’t even follow anymore whatever she’s talking about and my husband had to ask her to slow down. When you discuss safety rules to your customers, you make sure that they understand. How can the customer understand when this idiot (either she’s bipolar in her manic mode and hasn’t taken her xanax or she’s had some meth just before we came???) talks so fast? Furthermore, in the middle of her rapidfire explanation of the rules, she told another group (they were white people) that she will explain the rules to them slowly after she finishes with us so we could leave. This clearly shows that this racist bitch wants to get rid of us fast and how discriminating she is by how she explained to us the rules versus how she said she will do it with the other group of white people. She further accused us that we were French and that we didn’t speak very good English. The owners of this business should know that whatever the kind of customer service that their employees apply reflects the company’s treatment/​attitude toward customers or concept of what true customer service is and this Jolly truly exemplifies that and is thereby chasing off their business. I will definitely never come back to this place.

We came from Salem to this place for my son’s

This is a true redneck run business. The sandrail tours here are good once you get out on the dunes. It’s the long waits and unprofessional manner in which this place is run that nearly ruined a fun experience. Next time I’ll try Spinreel or Sandland for my dune buggy ride.

Very fun yet gut wrenching ride. We enjoyed the thrill but it did cause my wife to puke after. We would do it again, however there are a few things to be aware of (besides being wary if you get motion sickness): It is important to get there early when they open since it is first come first serve. We ended up losing almost a day of our vacation waiting for this relatively short path that they take everyone on. We registered around 11:00 AM and they said that we would need to be back in two hours for our ride or they would skip us and take the next person. We came back and we were still about 12 groups from being able to ride. We waited it out hoping our turn would come soon. Seeing their routine it soon became extremely annoying as the drivers would come back with a group then drive up to the shed to fuel the sand rails and not return for a good half hour. The three rails would go out together so during this time no rides were being given. To make matters worse, one time when they returned the third driver told the others «I am going to sit the next one out; I felt like my rail was going to fall apart that run so I am going to go tighten some bolts.» I knew exactly what that meant: he was going to go sit in the shade and smoke with no concern to the paying customers who had already been waiting for 4 hours. I just about flipped out at this point and was about to get a refund, but this was difficult as we had already wasted the majority of the day of our road trip and didn’t want to let that be for nothing. After about an hour and a half the third driver returned from their unwarranted sabbatical. We ended up waiting until 5:00 PM to go on our ride, which was a blast, but our trip was thrown completely out of schedule.
This is why you want to be one of the first on the list, otherwise you run in to all sorts of trouble with machines breaking down etc. If you’re towards the bottom of the list then plan on being there the whole day.

Make sure to tell the driver up front you want a safe ride because if you don’t you will be putting yourself and children at risk. I’m amazed I did not have to sign a release form because this roller-​coaster ride through the dunes genuinely felt dangerous. If you plan to take your children, don’t put them up front or on the sides but place them in the safest parts of the buggy and let your driver know you are more interested in a safe ride than a thrill ride. Did not feel safe at all. The dunes are beautiful and it is worth the trip.

Excellent place to rent ATV, quad’s or dune buggies for a fun time on the vast Oregon Coast sand dunes without a guide.
Staff was friendly, signup/​registration simple and the customer service was the most ‘laid back’ approach to rentals I’ve experienced. Equipment was well used and from what I could tell had been ridden hard for several seasons.
As a beginner rider I was disappointed at the ATV size recommended for my 10 year old son (way too big). The staff basically allowed us to choose which ride we wanted. Also being a novice rider, I didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be for him to handle his ATV until we were escorted out to the dunes and literally ‘set free’. In their defense we were repeated told this was a
’ self guided rental’, (BUT we should have been told our son should be riding a mini!)
Unfortunately our day at the dunes ended abruptly with him rolling his ATV on top of himself after only ½ of our paid session. Luckily shop guys were right there to help us get quad back in and our son back to ‘un-​sandy’ ground.
Since we paid for 2+ hours and used less than ½ of our time we weren’t charged ‘roll over fee’ or ‘broken flag fee’. Shop guy made a point to show us the poor design of quad after we got back to shop that he will need to clean out and add oil to since it was rolled while we were trying to leave, gee thanks, just kinda want to get my kid back to camp for some ice/​damage inspection.
Would totally rent from this location again — I just need to be better self educated to know what rides would be best suited for my kids.
Tips:
Wear or bring along long sleeves!
Bring a backpack with water;
Have cell phone (if u get lost, break down, stuck).
Ride out to the oceans edge, it’s gorgeous.

Other dune tour place was totally booked for the day, so we tried this one instead. This place must have a lot more vehicles that the other one, because we only had to wait about 30 min. before we were off. Our dune buggy driver was awesome! We had a great time speeding up and down the vast dunes (even my wife enjoyed it despite her constant death grip on the frame bars). It would have been nice to take the dune buggy near the beach, but maybe they don’t/can’t do that? Something well worth the cost. Town of Florence has some good antique shops to kill time if your wait time is long.

We went here for memorial day weekend and as expected it was incredibly crowded. There were long waits (many hours) for everything but the large buggy (1 hour wait) so we decided to go for that. This option is just not as thrilling as the quad bikes or the sand rails. It’s designed more for people with small kids or those who don’t really want the adrenaline pumping but still want to see the dunes.
The dunes themselves are beautiful. Our driver Bob was very knowledgable and explained the history and geography of the region to us nicely. I had a great time bombarding him with questions about the area, it’s wildlife and also some stories from the dunes.
Overall it was a very enjoyable experience. I can’t wait to go back on a non-​crowded weekend and try the sand rails and quad bikes. A little on the pricey side but then again, it’s not something you do everyday.
p. s. Carry jackets when you go out onto the dunes. The winds can be pretty cold even on a warm sunny day.

We had a great time here! We’d never been quading before and the guy who helped us was great. Bring a brochure from another place and they’ll match it — at least he did for us. We had 5 people and went out for an hour. It was awesome. Once in a lifetime kinda thing. Spend the money and do it!

I got burned with my plan to take a dune buggy tour through Spinreel (see my review for that, if you dare), but thanks to seeing the brochure for Sand Dunes Frontier at my hotel I gave them a call. They told me they could fit me and my daughters on a tour, provided they met the minimum regulations of 4 years, 42″ height, 40 lbs. I drove up to see them, only to have the driver tell me my daughter couldn’t ride because she was too small. I told them she met the stats given to me, and they skipped over this and told me I would be endangering my kid to take her out. I told them I had no desire to endanger my kid so point taken, but the bigger issue was that they gave very clear-​cut definitions on who could ride that were apparently not valid. Inside the office, they pointed out that a kid whose chin couldn’t clear their countertop was not big enough to ride — a slightly odd way to measure, but whatever, then measure your countertop and figure something out because it’s more than 42″!
The only reason I am giving 2 stars is for 2 reasons: (1) they honestly don’t appear to be in it for the money over safety, since the driver was sincere in turning us away (and I had already paid, so they refunded me), and (2) the driver recommended I check out Sandland 4 miles away to see if they could accommodate us, and indeed they could — and we had one of the best times on our trip there. So gotta give credit for that.

30minutes of pure fun! We took the small buggy ride & it was amazing. The staff was friendly & informative. The price was very reasonable. I encourage everyone to do this tour & experience a part of Oregon most never get to see. We will definitely do it again!

I was actually looking for some icon that represents –ve ranking, but ended up giving 1 out of 5.
If you ever plan your vacation in Oregon, don’t try to waste your time going to this place.
When I went there during last Summer few weeks back, I saw the guys who were working there creating some issues with some visitors and charging some extra money for some xyz reasons. I did not give it much attention to it until it happened to me.
I took a quad on rent for 1 hr and after driving on the dunes for almost 1 hr, it got stuck in the sand and I was unable to bring it out. I was expecting somebody from the guard will come and help me out. Nobody came after I waited for 20 minutes. So I had to walk back to the entrance through the dunes and I was lost in the middle. Fortunately there was a Mexican couple who were driving there saw me and gave me a ride back to the entrance. After reaching the entrance, the rental guys refused to return me the advance and said they will refund after 2 – 3 hrs once they find the quad and asked me I can leave and check back with them later.
I checked with them the other day and they confirmed they found the quad. I was however checking my credit card statement after 10 days for some other reasons and suddenly found they have deducted 500 $ from my account. I did not give much attention as I thought they will refund it in some days. After may be 20 – 25 days when I called them and asked why I still see 500 $ not refunded, those guys gave me some 5 – 6 stupid reasons and one of them was: they searched for whole night with 10 – 12 guys, but could not find it and found it only in the morning. Now the place where I left my quad was not so far that 10 – 12 expert guys who work there all the time took whole night to find it.
Anyways after some talk, they refunded me 250 $ and kept other half. Btw I could never have found even that much money if I had not called them.
Terrible experience. Oregon is an awesome place, don’t screw ur fun by going to this place.

First time going, we had about 20 people so we took the big buggy. The staff at the front counter was a bit stand offish (hence the 4 stars) but once we actually got going things definitely improved.
We started out going through some forest areas and I sat there thinking to myself… oh man, I think we’re being scammed here. Finally after about 2 minutes of getting out to the dunes it got a bit better. It wasn’t until we drove over the first mound that it really got interesting. It was like a roller coaster ride which is surprising given the large size of the vehicle.
Our driver was also a bit of a surprise! He reminded me of Mater from the movie Cars with an NRA hat. Being Canadian and Asian I had some reservations. Don’t let appearances fool you. He was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable about the sand dunes!
All in all it was an amazing experience and would definitely do it again!

Was fun for a first timer on a sand rail tour. Had a grin on my face. For a 2^nd timer id say the machine would be underpowered and too slow. couldnt quite make it up the dunes all the way, but still fun at $ 30 each cash
Gift shop has nothing in it really, mostly just stuffed animals/​toys. That are not related at all to sand dunes… almost like a child stocked the shelves. a little odd.

Very poor service. The wait was 3 times what we were told. The person at the service desk was not helpful. would recommend either renting a ATV or going to another place

Do not Rent ATV’s from here. Our mis adventure started with 2 broken ATV’s. First one the steering was out of alignment, second lost a drive gear and I got stuck. IT was replaced with one that the brake lock was broken. When we finished we were charged a tip over and repair fee in which they claimed a front tie rod was bent when a rider in our party tipped the ATV. They claiming it rolled over and gave the «sand on the handle bars» as evidence of a roll over on a ATV that was literally held together by zip ties. We were not credited for lost riding time for the broken ATV’s and then charged a damage/​repair fee for an already damaged vehicle. There were enough warning signs from the beginning we should have heeded the warning. Take this warning ATV’s are old and broken and this establishment will charge repair fees for already damaged vehicles.

I was visiting from NY and had a great time here. Staff was very friendly and informative. They got us set up quickly and ready to ride. Pricing was reasonable and the dunes were very big. The 4 wheeler we rented worked great and was easy to drive. We got stuck twice and both times they were out to help us quickly and efficiently. I would return here and recommend this to anyone looking to have a fun day on the dunes.

Sand Dunes Frontier is in a good location, and due to that I have done business with them many times over the last four years. This summer I actually went with a different company due to all the issues I had here. I cannot speak to the sand rail or atv rentals, so this review is for the business overall and for the large dune buggy tours.
The tours take place in a large 25 person buggy, which moves at slow to moderate speeds over the dunes while a moderator tells you about the history of the dunes for about 20 mins. The most fun part of this activity is going down steep inclines on the dunes, but don’t expect a lot of that. The moderator is in general not well informed, and frequently gives misinformation. Luckily most people don’t realize that.
When checking in my groups for their tours, the front desk never had any record of my reservation. Not once. The first time this happened, I thought it might be my issue, so for the three subsequent visits last summer both I and members of my staff made follow up calls to confirm dates and times numerous times. It didn’t matter. No matter what, when I came in to pay and find out if there would be a wait, the staff was surprised to see me.
Speaking of paying, I was not charged the same price every time I visited Sand Dunes Frontier. There is a discount for large groups, but apparently it depends who the large group is. I was quoted one price over the phone, charged a different price, and when I questioned it, was told the phone quote had been a mistake.
On my last visit to Sand Dunes Frontier, another group was sent out at my group’s reserved time because the employees mixed up the reservations. My group got to watch the other group leave on their ride, sit for 20 – 30 mins waiting for another buggy, and then to top it all off the buggy they ended up in broke down out on the dunes and they were forced to wait over 30 mins for help to come and bring them back to the parking lot. Not an enjoyable activity and not an experience I would ever want to repeat. I use Sandland Adventures now and find them to be worth the higher price.