Croatian River Adventure - Family Holiday

Damir our guide was excellent, made our holiday run smoothly and without hitch

We did the Croatian River Adventure which overall we were very disappointed with - the level of excitement in the activities was very poor.  Didn't spoil our holiday as our kids made friends with the kids there but if they hadn't this would have been a disastrous holiday.  Put more exciting activities into this please

The last day was a free day, there is absolutely nothing to do in Trilj unless organised which thankfully our host Damir did, he didn't have his day off and took us all into Split, which it appears he does every week.  Worth scheduling in another activity as the kids would rather have done that than spend a day in a city

Hotel basic but clean and comfortable.  Staff very helpful - the only recommendation i could give would be to have some outside seating by the river as nowhere to sit outside in the sun in the late afternoon, early evening

Excellent

Mrs H - Travelled in August 2012

***** Comment from The Adventure Company ******

While customers have previously told us the activity level was right for this trip, this year the rating does seem to be dropping. We are reviewing customer feedback on this – if customers are looking for something more exhilarating, we can change the activities to provide this. The only consideration beyond this is the minimum age for the trip. It is currently 8 years old so we do need to make sure that what we offer accommodates all age ranges and abilities as best as we can. 

our guide Damir, was excellent. The pace was good for kids, lots of breaks to swim so the actual exercise/activity wasn't too difficult or tiring for the younger kids

[Least enjoyed] The coach travel to get to the locations - would have liked shorter journeys.  The hotel was quite basic, our bathroom was awful, the shower curtain didn't fit so the water went everywhere so had to use all the towels to mop up the water as bathroom flooded. I did ask for it to be fixed but it wasn't.  Also asked for extra towels so that we had towels for us rather than the floor, but didn't get any.  The staff were all lovely and helpful though, but the bathroom was just particularly awful!

One day less paddling (eg canoeing or kayaking) would be better. 3 days was a bit too much.

[Accommodation] see previous comments. The website said there was a pool table which would have kept the children occupied and out of the way of the other guests, but the hotel said that they took it away as it wasn't used.

He was very patient with the children, even when they were very annoying!!  Very helpful, knowledgeable, calm.  A really lovely guy.

Ms H - Travelled in August 2012

White water rafting was great fun.  The raft skipper made a real effort to keep the boat laughing.  Swimming in the rivers and sea. Brela was beautiful - could have stayed here longer...  The children loved jumping off rocks and small cliffs into the rivers and sea! River kayaking was lovely and it was great to have some shade from the river bank trees.  It was a great treat to have a super locally prepared roast veal lunch in a beautiful riverside setting - could have stayed here longer, lingering over a late lunch..... Our kids really enjoyed all the activities and meeting new people and making new friends.  We had a great family bunch who got along really well.  Our activity guide,was extremely friendly and helpful. his local knowledge and history was tremendous and he was very professional in the way he managed the group at all times. Hotel receptionist, Maria was also charming and very helpful.

[Least enjoyed] On the cycle ride day, there were some shortcomings in the mechanical standards of some of the bicycles. e.g. brakes not fully effective, gear mechanism issues.  We felt that all the bikes should have been maintained to a higher standard.  Very busy departure lounge and long checking in queues at Split airport on the way home.

[Comments on itinerary] It was a very hot week, with temperatures daily of 35 degrees celcius, which apparently is not typical even in August. The holiday would have been perfect in less hot conditions which may be around whitsun bank holiday week.  Our guide said this would be good also, as the water levels would be higher & better for the activities. I don't think the holiday was avialble at that time of year?

A fabulous holiday! We laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on all the activities. The Dalmatian countryside is very beautiful and we would love to go back to Croatia again. Without a doubt we were very fortunate to gel very well together as a group of families and were expertly orgainised,assisted and informed by our activity lead, Damir (probbly not spelt right!)

Friendly, happy and well mannered, very well presented, excellent historical knowledge and professional at all times.

Mrs C - Travelled in August 2012