Lake Cowichan River Tubing — Attraction in Lake Cowichan

Positives: Easy to book online. Reasonable price. Owners respond lightning fast to any questions you email them. You’ll get an arm workout. Or a leg workout. Or both. The “rapids” are fun. The damselflies are very friendly. It’s interesting to snoop at all the cabins/ houses/ yards dotted along the shore. Tubes are all great. I’d say either pick the open bottom one so you can dangle and kick your way through the water (and have a cup holder), or pay the extra for a speed one so you can have kayak paddles to keep you moving. If you don’t opt for one of those two “tubes,” make sure that you grab a small paddle (or two). DO NOT get a cooler float unless you intend to take 4+ hours to complete the float. It just gets in the way and weighs you down. The return shuttle runs regularly. Staff seem to have the routine of their jobs figured out. Things on their end run smoothly.

Negatives: TOO LONG. It took us 3 hours to get to Little Beach (the end) and we had to paddle A LOT. If we hadn’t paddled it would have easily taken another hour, or perhaps all eternity... The first half of the float takes at least 3/4 of the travel time and begins to feel hot and torturous (it was about 30C the day we floated) as you hit doldrum after doldrum (we were actually being pushed backward by the wind at one point). The second half of the float has “rapids” sprinkled throughout it, as well as some shade from overhanging trees, and is MUCH more enjoyable. Unfortunately, by the time you get to this section you may already be wishing the whole experience was over… If the launch site could be further down the river (Central Park or the pickle ball courts) it would maybe be a more tolerable length. Did I mention that cooler tube? Let’s just say I had cooler-cidal thoughts many times throughout our journey. If I’d had a sharp knife with me, ours may not have made it back to the return bus… Just get a dry bag and strap your stuff to your own tube. You really don’t need that much stuff anyway, unless you’re making a whole day of this experience. Which you could. There are MANY places to pull over and stretch your legs or splash around for a while. No change rooms and very few washrooms. On their website the TubeShack does tell you that they only have a few porta potties at their launch site. However, they also mention being able to use washrooms (and maybe change rooms) at the visitor centre a block away. Well, those facilities are there, but they are mostly unusable. The change room was locked (July 5, 2023), and the gross, stinky women’s washroom only had one functioning toilet (the second, non-functioning one was taped shut, so it couldn’t even be used for changing in). This was a BIG DEAL for us as we are tourists and had to wait to get into the one bathroom stall to change out of sopping bathing suits so that we could sit in our rental car and get “home” after our painfully long river float experience. It made for a frustrating end to an exhausting day. The parking lot beside the Tube Shack is 2hr limit, so you can’t use it for your float, and it’s an absolute gong show to try to find parking in even to drop people and float supplies off. Actual parking is a good hike away, so if you forget things in your car, well…

Other: If you don’t want to use their sunscreen you need to use your own mineral sunscreen. (No oxybenzone) There’s a guy selling ice cream from his private dock around the midpoint of the float (distance-wise, not time-wise). $2.50 I’m not sure what methods of payment he takes, as we didn’t stop, but he has signs up. It’s currently (July 2023) really hot and dry on the island. Maybe the water levels in the river are low and causing it to flow extra slowly? (This is just speculation. It may be naturally this slow. I don’t know.)

Would I do it again? Probably??? I’d definitely do it differently now that I’m aware of annoyances and...

Tubing down the Cowichan River was fun. Definitely recommend buying their dry bag as it is very handy and a nice and useful souvenir to have for after. Also highly recommend doing their add-on of the ice cream - it was a delicious treat for after the float and very unique since it is a New Zealand style ice cream.

It was our first time and a few things would have made it better for us, and the next time we come, we will do the following: Read through the FAQs more closely. I watched the videos and read through other parts of the website but have since gone back and read the FAQs, which provides more information on how to best prepare and enjoy the float.

Choose a different regular tube. We picked out one that had a back and net on the bottom. One with out the net would have been better for slipping into and out of to swim more or paddle with our legs to go faster or steer ourselves better than the small paddle.

Two other things to know: Better to reserve earlier and arrive earlier if possible. We had actually reserved two swift tubes for 11 am but after we checked in, they did not have enough swift tubes for us. One of the workers inflated one she found in the back for us but then told us we'd have to wait for another shuttle (up to 20 min) to return to get another swift tube.

Their website states "If arriving after 12 noon, we cannot guarantee a tube with a backrest." for a regular tube but they don't state that for the upgraded reservations, which I think they should. They should also move the time up to 11 am for busier days. We asked the shuttle driver if it was a busy day for them and he said it was not, so even on a less busy day, there weren't enough swift tubes.

We didn't want to wait so we asked if we could get a refund if we downgraded to a regular tube. The young lady said yes or we could get a cooler carrier plus the regular tube for the same cost of the swift tube. We agreed to that.

Bring your own river-safe sunscreen. The Tube Shack says they provide free sun screen but when I asked about it they said...

I would have given it 3 stars, if the pandemic wasn’t going on. I thought the ride was a little long - or took too long for your tube to really get moving. I was pruned by the time we hit the rapids. It was fun and I’m glad I did it once but wouldn’t do it again.

During times of the pandemic we’re still being crammed on busses no masks handed out or required. Granted the first wave has passed shut the cases are steadily growing once again. Also the amount of people going down the river at a time. Their website said five people every half hour, but it was a free for all at the dock and rental. I was talking with one guy down the river and he joked not 5 people every half hour but one every 30 seconds for how packed it was. Not everyone was renting from the tube shack so it’s not totally under their control, but the river was absolutely packed with people.

*In response to the owner who wrote back: I apologize for having my facts wrong about the ratio of people going down the river and people with bus tickets. When my brother and I had rented, the dock had already a number of people on it, when we got into the water there were people everywhere and more people lining up on the dock behind us after we got in. It was a steady stream of people. Though there may only be 5 tickets sold every half an hour, the short bus was completely crammed with people. There was zero social distancing whatsoever, every seat on the bus was taken, both aisles. As for being offered face masks, I had and the person I was with had brought one and left it in a ziplock pouch and floated with them for the bus ride, maybe I wasn’t offered because of it. I was definitely not made aware of any hand sanitizer. It just worries me that it’s during this time that complacency with social distancing and safety is what makes the pandemic worse and I do visit with people who have compromised immune systems, so after a bus ride like that I worry. I watch my symptoms and I give them some space for a while. I’m sure...