WhiteWaterExpress

we had great time rafting, we did the challenge course and had a great guide. they let you get out and swim down a «lazy river» if you want as well as giving you options to doing the «surfing» or harder Rapids. we had Jodi as or guide and he was awesome! very funny and definitely knew what he was doing. kept us laughing the whole time and didn’t make us paddle till our arms fell off, a couple of us fell out of the boat and he stayed calm got us back in, very fun would recommend to anyone even beginners

On April 9^th, 2015 I took my daughter on the White Water Express (11AM «Classic Trip»). The rafting was fun, our guide was good and my daughter enjoyed it. HOWEVER, my 9 year old couldn’t detect the poor level of service at the preceding safety brief and equipment distribution. Collectively, the staff of guides could’ve best been described as hung over and entitled frat boys. But again, on the river, our guide delivered — so whatever.
What upsets me is the way I’ve been treated since completing the trip. You see, I purchased from them a CD that supposedly contained pictures of our trip. Afterwards, we went back to our campground (one hour away), put the CD in the laptop and discovered it was blank. I called the Out Post immediately. The man who answered owned up to the mistake and told me he’d make another for us. We were too far to drive back so we agreed to have it mailed «that day» to our home in Michigan.
Well, 5 months later, it’s now September. No CD, no refund, no nothing. The emails and phone calls I’ve traded with them cannot be counted. So I wanted to warn folks who want to engage in business with White Water Express: You’ll probably get a good ride on the river — but once you’ve paid your hard earned money — they pretty much could care less about you.

Even watching is fun! Worth a shot if you’re in the city they also have zip lining near by if you care to test your luck even more. Overall downtown Columbus is just a cool place to visit

Went here for the zip line course and honestly it wasn’t even worth the money spent on Groupon. I was disappointed to see that there were only two lines to zip. The best line is the first taking you across the river into Alabama. The obstacle course is fun for younger kids but I’m not sure how many adults would find it fun. For the price paid you would expect to have more zip line courses available.
This is probably a good starter course for beginners. I do recommend that the company look into issuing participants gloves. Although you can’t control the zip line on this particular course, you do come in contact with the wires frequently as your negotiating the course. There is potential for one of the lines to have damage and cause injury to someone.
I don’t recommend this course if you’ve ever zip lined anywhere else with more than two lines. Even with the pass they offer it isn’t worth it.

Fantastic crew at white water express: Fun, caring, and professional. Did the 9am low flow and 5pm high flow. Both were incredibly fun! Go do this, you will not regret it!

Purchased a groupon for ziplining. Upon making reservations per protocol, staff member answered and incompetently cursed twice after dropping the phone twice and eventually completed reservation. A lot of waiting around and not starting on time. Only 3 zip lines total which was a disappointment. The aerial/​obstacle was great as well as the staff member driving boat back to store. Personally I would prefer other locations even if it means driving elsewhere. Management should better communicate with staff for better efficiency, also.

Go to their Face Book page to get the real reviews about this less than professional company

What a fabulous, well staffed, well trained, well informed and all around awesome place!
My family did the Classic Whitewater and Full Adventure (zip lines and obstacle course). We had THE BEST time! Lots of laughter and smiles.
They take pictures for you, they have shower facilities, locker rentals, they have GoPro rentals, a lovely gift shop for all your needs! Just so much to offer!!!
The one person who stood out for us was Elise! So helpful and really went out of her way to make sure my family of 5 had the best experience! Other staff members that made this experience was Winston, Toad, Allen, Dakota, Red and Laurie! Thank you guys.
Wish we were staying longer so we could participate in all the other things they have to offer.
Top notch facility and I only give them high fives for all of their over and above attitudes and them wanting you to legitimately make sure you have a great time. Tipping them is a good thing!!!
Thank you!

My bff and I went. Have whitewatered before in TN and this was ok. Perfect for 1^st timers. The water quiality was a bit concerning e coli warning north of us and 14 yr old boys who drown yesterday (unrelated to whitewater) body recovered right before we went. Half w ay you are forced to get in the river and float which was fun but water was iffy and smelled. Then back in boat to finish. Only about 1 ½hour trip with ½ hour taken up by getting out to float in vests on natural lazy river.
Enjoyed our guide Tater!

Just got back from our very first ever whitewater experience. We chose Whitewater Express Columbus because of the great reviews, safety record, and outstanding guides. We were not disappointed! Easy to get to from Atlanta, easy to find once there. Simple check in process and on you go to orientation. Short and to the point. You then load onto the vans and, a short ride later, you get to the launching site and are assigned a guide. There are several great reviews about individual guides in here, so take your pick. We lucked out when Zigg was assigner to our four-​person party. Excellent attitude, lots of energy, very professional, made the experience fun and entertaining, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. We chose the Classic Trip for this first time and may do the Challenge Trip later on this summer, as well as zip lining. Clean facilities, locker room and showers to get cleaned up afterward and very close to Downtown Columbus for lots of nice restaurants, pizzerias, sandwich shops, etc. Definitely will come back. Thanks Zigg and Whitewater Express!

My husband and I did the Full Adventure Zip Line package (zip line, ranger jump, aerial course) and we had so much fun. It was the best date we’ve had in a long time! All of the staff members were very nice and a few of them were so funny. The aerial course was a lot of fun and a pretty good workout, too!

We took a group here for zip lining and the staff was begin amazing. Very supportive amd patient, friendly and made us feel like we were hanging out with friends rather than at a business. The zip lining, ranger jump and obstacle course were what we did and it was a good time. Not a single person in our large group had a complaint-​we would absolutely come back if in town!

The rafting was average for the Southeast, I have no complaints to make about that. My problem is with the organization and our guide. First of all, we arrived and there was no direction, just a large crowd milling with no employees providing information. Anyone could have walked into the alley, grabbed gear, and gotten on the bus without even signing a waiver.
As for our guide, «Coconut» was a real problem. He greeted us by telling us that he had gotten 30 minutes of sleep the night before, then tried to nap on top of the raft before we took off. He gave no safety instructions and minimal instructions on how to even paddle. Also, he invited a girl (who we assume was his girlfriend) onto our raft, but didn’t make her paddle, which unbalanced the raft. To top this off, the trip ended with him yelling across to a guide in another boat to discuss how he had hit a median the night before while drunk driving.
I called to complain about «Coconut» and the manager didn’t seem overly concerned about his unprofessional guide, offering only to not make him my guide if I ever returned.

While in Columbus revisited whitewater Express to do some white water rafting. Our guide Andrew was amazing he made the tour a lot of fun it was two hours it could have had more rapid but I don’t think the other people in my raft could have handled it. No one fell out of the boat fortunately however there were a lot of people shaking up when we went through the class 4 rapid backwards. Overall I would highly recommend white water Express

We had a great time on the Classic Trip, 11am on a Saturday. It was low key with about 4 «rapids»…the rest of time was just paddling down river, which was okay because we were tired. However if you’ve ever been on the Ocoee in TN you will fall asleep on the Classic Trip LOL. Great for first timers and for when you only want a 20% chance of falling in the water lol. Added bonus was checking out Columbus, GA on a first Friday when they had concerts going on down the middle of Broadway the night before.

This was my first time whitewater rafting so I had no idea what to expect. Because we had my 7yo son with us we opted for the Classic trip which is a little milder and includes class I-​III rapids only. The cool thing about this trip was that it is right through the heart of Columbus, GA and is MAN MADE. Yes, they actually engineered these rapids and control rock placement and water flow. They even removed some of the rocks and replaced them with sandbags to make this a safer experience. Now you would think this being man-​made it would be lame but that is not the case.
We met at the Phenix City shop at 9:30am to get geared up for our 10am trip. It was nice that it was just our group of three and another family of three so we all fit in one raft with a guide. We were each given a paddle, helmet and lift jacket. Ladies– I would suggest wearing athletic shorts over a bathing suit bottom and a swim type shirt over a bathing suit top. Also, you are going to want secure closed toed shoes– I wore old sneakers and they worked out just fine. They will not let you ride barefoot or in flip flops. Don’t bring anything with you that is not secure or can’t get wet. One lady in our boat lost her sunglasses when she fell out. You cannot leave things in the van.
We rode in a 16 passenger van to a spot upriver where we put in. The riverwalk is new and is designed to accommodate rafting so putting in was a breeze. We started off with some quick, easy instruction. Our guide, Cassey, was laid back and easy going. We hit some light class II rapids to warm up. Then we got to jump out and float through the lazy river portion for a few minutes. Once back in we headed for some of the class III rapids. Because we were the only raft we had time to do the Wave Shaper rapid four times! We’d hit the rapid then paddle to the side where we could carry our raft up and over some rocks to put in above Wave Shaper and hit it again. The last two times the ladies on the boat took turns «Bull riding» through the rapid– sitting on the front of the raft while holding onto the rope. I got to do this last and it was a blast! Nothing like a wall of water as a little intimidation! Our last trip though we lost two riders and our guide briefly. Throughout it all I never felt unsafe and everyone was whooping and hollering. This was a great experience and a MUST DO while in Columbus.
I am taking one star away for a couple of reasons– first the retail shop. While at the Phenix store we saw some items we wanted to buy but were told they were not set up for selling things from that location. We were told to go to the Columbus store, which (we were told) had more of a selection anyway. The Columbus store is right across the river but was super busy. Well, when we got there we saw that they did not have nearly as many women’s shirts here as at the other location. They also have an awful selection in youth sizes. So we had to go back to the Phenix City shop and buy our items over the phone. Another thing– they rent GoPro cameras to riders for $ 35. What they SHOULD do is have every guide wear a camera. Because they sit in the back they would catch all the action. They could then sell passengers DVD copies for $ 10 apiece. I would have loved some photos or videos of our trip but their professional photographer did not take pictures on our trip. They are missing out on ways to make more money and on making customers even happier!
(Plus think of the marketing they would get from people posting pictures and videos of their experiences!)
**Also, search online for coupons when booking. I saved 20% with a back to school coupon I found.

We thought the experience was great for families and «first timers». Our guide was very good, the trip was safety oriented, we would participate again. However, we thought they were very poorly organized-​we spent 3 hrs. with the group for 1 ½ hr. trip down the river. Lots of waiting and standing around (requested to be there 30 min. ahead and didn’t leave for at least 1 hr.). It was mostly a slow float with a few good, safe rapids.

If you are looking for an intense, extended whitewater experience, this may not be the thing. But if you are looking for a great activity with friends or family, this is an awesome choice. They put you on a bus and drive you to a drop-​off point where you get on a raft with a guide and 4 – 6 people. The first time they take you down on the Georgia side, where the final stretch is a level 4. Then once you have gotten down they let you see what the short level 5 stretch looks like on the Alabama side of the river, and you go back up and do it again — choosing which way you go down.
We did it in the evening when the dam releases a lot of water. The flow was at its peak for the first run (13,000 cfs), then had dropped to 9,000 cpf for the second run, which actually makes the final «hole» most pronounced. Most of the rafts that tried to go through the level 5 flipped or lost most of their passengers. But that happens just before the final collecting pool so there is virtually no danger.
Our guide, Casey, was very knowledgeable and we had a great time. At one point in a relatively calm stretch we all jumped in and floated along. Also after the second run we were allowed to jump off a rock into the fastest part of the rapids right at the bottom — quite a fun experience.

Good trip to bring family or do something exciting for the weekend. But if you are expecting a thrill seeking adventure to get the adrenaline pumping, I would find another place.
Friendly service, great guides, and they do offer military discount. I would give three stars but I have not experienced the high water trip yet