If you love a good adventure, white water rafting may be right up your alley, but not all rafting destinations are created equal. Some are unforgettably thrilling. We asked experienced rafters to weigh in on what they think are the wildest rafting destinations out there. If you’re up for a stomach-dropping adventure, you can get some Bucket List ideas from their responses:
Yoann Bierling
Yoann Bierling is a 34-year-old Frenchman who is passionate about travel. With 4+ years on the road, 55+ countries visited, 650+ flights, 1000+ hotel nights, all self-organized, traveling is his way of life. He completed his first year-long world tour this year and is currently preparing the next one. You can find him here: wcifly.com/en/home
One of the craziest white water rafting destinations is the Mamoni River close to Panama City. You’ll start with a nearly two-hour trip in the local rainforest, driving half of that time on dirt roads in the middle of the jungle and feeling like nobody has been there for a while. When you reach your departure point, it will feel like no other rafting adventure: no base camp and only a little space between the trees to inflate the raft before going on the water.
And then, you’ll get that unique feeling that I never experienced before—even after having been on rafting trips in many countries. It is the feeling of being alone in the middle of the jungle, with no phone signal, miles away from any other living soul that could hear you in case of any issue. In my case, it was only the four of us: myself, another tourist, the guide on the inflatable raft, and another guide on an inflatable kayak.
Every turn felt surprising, as even the guides didn’t know how it would go, not having being there for several days, and the river rapids shifted depending on rocks and water level. We stopped halfway for a lunch right in the heart of the jungle. We ate a few sandwiches on the spot in a place where we could turn our raft upside down on the river banks to use as an improvised table. It was probably my favorite lunch ever, nearly alone in the middle of the jungle, far from civilization, all while having an awesome rafting day.
Hamish Broughton
Hamish Broughton is an independent travel writer and photographer from the United Kingdom. A self-confessed travel addict, Hamish is the creator behind the popular travel blog mytravelfix.com, where he writes passionately about his mis-adventures from around the world.
The Kicking Horse is a 22 km stretch of river that offers some of the wildest white water in the Canadian Rockies. Surrounded by jagged mountains and pine forests, the river is achingly beautiful. However, as the name suggests, rafting down its crystal turquoise waters isn’t always a tranquil experience. While there are plenty of calm sections, Kicking Horse offers some of the wildest and craziest white water that I have ever experienced – the kind that tosses you around like a rag doll on a bucking bronco until your bones feel like silly putty.
Still, though, as I kitted up at the basecamp of the Wild Water Adventures, I was blissfully unaware of the surprise that was in store…
The weather had been fair. It hadn’t rained in a few days, but the water was running strong, spurred on by the glacial meltwater coming down from the mountains. It was cold. Very cold. As I stepped into the raft, I remember seeing the excited, smiling faces of the other adventurers, and I was eager to experience the adrenaline that would soon wash over us. We set off, and after completing some of the fairer sections, we were all in high spirits.
Just as I was beginning to get into the swing of things, our guide pulled us into the bank and asked us to disembark. We clambered up the muddy bank using wet, knotted rope to keep us steady. A path led us up and above the river and out into a clearing. As we neared the bank, the noise began to build. As we approached the cliff edge, the water was deafening. What had once been a calm pool now gave way to a raging torrent of seething white
And there it was: The Terminator, a gigantic breaking wave of water, rising up from the river’s seething surface six feet in the air before crashing back in on itself and repeating the process.
“We’re going over that thing?” I remember asking. The slow nod from the guide was clear – yes. Now, I’ve been white water rafting in rivers all over the world from Slovenia to Laos, but I’d never seen a single obstacle look more menacing and impassable than The Terminator. Gingerly, though, we clambered back into our rubber rafts and shakily pushed off back into the eddy.
As we floated around the meander, the familiar rushing sound of broken water began once more. It must have been a class 5 at least. We started to tear through the rapids, being tossed this way and that. There, right in the center, was The Terminator. We were heading straight for it. It seemed even more gargantuan than it did from the bank. We would flip the raft for sure! “Surely, there’s no way over that,” I remember thinking.
As we came close, everyone in the raft braced for impact, as if they were waiting for a heavy stone to be dropped on them from a great height. Then, right at the last second, our guide flicked his ores and steered us into a hidden current that swept us blissfully past Terminator and onwards down the rapids, unharmed. He’d known it was there all along! An audible sigh emanated from the raft. We all genuinely thought we were goners.
Kicking Horse River is the spiritual home of many white water adrenaline junkies, and it’s easy to see why. I never came so close to the watery disaster as I thought I did when faced with The Terminator (despite the obvious wind-up from our guide). It was truly a crazy experience. Should you go to Kicking Horse yourself, watch out. The Terminator will still be there waiting for you! I think I’ll stick to my paddleboard from now on.
Melanie Musson
Melanie Musson is a writer for Insurantly.com. She lives in Montana and has rafted several great stretches of white water.
Bear Trap Canyon Madison River. There are a couple of distinctive features about this stretch of white water that makes it crazy and awesome. The river flows out of Ennis Lake and funnels through a deep-walled canyon. The “kitchen sink,” a class IV (or higher, depending on flow) rapid, is the highlight of the run and will get your adrenaline running.
Another feature that makes this stretch of white water crazy is that it’s so secluded. You may not even see another raft, and there aren’t any paralleling roads. Cliffs rise on both sides of the river and wildlife abounds. Big horn sheep and mountain goats frequent the area, as do bears.
Mikael Uusitalo
Mikael Uusitalo is the founder of Swedish outdoor marketplace Thrillism.com
Spring in the Swedish Laplands offers some of the best conditions there are for white water rafting. The snow is melting, and the rivers are filled with wild water travelling down the barren alpine fells.
Some of the best ‘forsränning’ can be experienced in the Kukkola white water. Kukkola is part of the Torneå River located in Haparanda in the very northeast of Sweden.
The Kukkola white water is the crown jewel of the area called Torneå. It offers 3.4 kilometers of white water in cultural surroundings where fishermen have worked for thousands of years and the reindeer roam free.
Landia Davies
Landia Davies was born and raised in South Africa. Landia is a nature-loving African travel writer with a lively sense of adventure. Her passion for the wild places and animals of Africa inspires her to keep exploring, learning and giving back. Find her at africanbudgetsafaris.com
The wildest one-day white water rafting adventure in the world—that’s what they call a day of running rapids on the mighty Zambezi River downstream of Victoria Falls. Prepare to run more than 20 rapids in a single adrenalin-pumping trip down Batoka Gorge, where you’ll take on high-volume Grade 5 rapids with spine-chilling names like Boiling Pot, Oblivion and Stairway to Heaven.
This is one of the craziest white water rafting destinations in the world because it is powered by about 1,000 to 5,000 cubic metres of water per second pumping over the 108-metre drop at the 1,700 metre-wide Victoria Falls!
The real cherry-on-top is that you’ll be able to combine white water rafting at Vic Falls with bungee jumping or a micro-light flight or helicopter ride or skydiving and plenty of other epic adventure activities around the largest sheet of falling water on earth.
Richard Jeng
Richard Jeng is an adventure traveler, expat and digital nomad from Taiwan. He documents his journey exploring the beautiful country with his blog, biglittleisland.com
For me, it has to be Xiuguluan River in Eastern Taiwan. Though the rapids are manageable, what makes it crazy are the stunning views through the mountainous jungle. The route cuts right through the coastal mountains of the country, and the scenery is mouth-dropping. Definitely one of the most memorable moments of my life.
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