Shenandoah River Outfitters — Hotel in Luray

I took my family of 6 out here this past weekend and it was….ok. I was expecting a much more laid back family friendly environment. It was much more of a “party” environment, people were smoking weed ( I personally don’t like smelling that and having it around my kids ) people were blasting music until midnight but that’s not the worst bit

There is an unmaintained 1/3 mile trail from the campsite to the river. My family and I went down this washed out path with trees fallen blocking the path, and finally got to the river. Found the only viable spot for my family and I to play at and were in the water for about 10 minutes before two very drunk men from the campsite came and stumbled over and came to our spot.

My wife is a dainty 115 pounds, and I was in the water paying attention to my kids water safety, and my wife was very uncomfortable. Two very large, very drunk men from the site decided to sit right next to her, and I realized how dangerous of a situation that was.

I had to cut my time short and leave just to avoid a potentially dangerous situation - and that really sucked.

The showers are also appalling. We opted not to shower for 3 days because they were so bad.

Steak dinner sounded cool over the phone, but the steaks, for the price, weren’t very good at all.

The staff also drives buses around the campsite blaring their horns at 8 AM on Sunday mornings

So if you like partying hard, smoking weed, stumbling drunk over to isolated women on river banks and scaring families off, this is the place for you. As for my family and I, we now know Shenandoah River outfitters is not the place to be for a quiet and relaxing trip.

The wood I bought at the camp store was so wet that I used an entire bottle of lighter fluid to get it going, and it never did. Just lots of thick smoke and frustration.

Our family left with 7 ticks on us collectively as well but that’s whatever, it’s nature.

All in all I would have spent north of 380$ for two nights of camping, a raft rental, and the “steak dinner” without a discount I was grateful for. I drove in total, 10 hours round trip for this experience.

Suggestions for improvement: enforce quiet hours! Reduce quiet hours to a reasonable time, not 11. Perhaps 930.

Renovate bathroom facilities- this is desperately needed

Create rules against public intoxication. Pretty lame to have my kids awakened Saturday morning by people throwing their guts up from being so hung over

And most importantly do something about the river access! That’s what people are paying good money for. There’s a broken wooden bridge you have to cross and it’s one chubby person away from breaking it and impaling their legs on wood shards.

Our grill was also installed out of level, and had a pool of water filled with mosquito larva as well. Unusable.

And here’s a really good suggestion: put in 2-3 level 2 NACs EV chargers!! We drive a Tesla and it would have made our trip much more enjoyable if we could charge onsite. Also, folks who drive EVs typically have higher amounts of disposable income, and attracting that clientele could drive revenue for SRO. Charging for the charging could also drive revenue. Even without having actual chargers, having 2-3 220v outlets for people to use mobile chargers on would be huge.

Long story short, this place has massive potential, but currently falls far short of a place I will return to. Primary issues are public intoxication and the awful party atmosphere. This place would do well with stronger management and policies.

Staff at the store were very friendly though - kudos to those ladies

I’m sure I provided enough identifying information for management to contact me, and I’m willing to share details of my experience and suggestions for improvement beyond this...

The Summary:

Pros: beautiful scenery, staff friendly but rushed when busy, nice river with good balance of having to paddle and just floating, great package including lunch/dinner make it easy to just drive there and then enjoy the day

Cons: Visibly and audibly drunk patrons, live music way too loud at dinner preventing easy dinner table conversation

Our family of four decided to go on this trip the day before Father's Day. I did a lot of river canoeing with my father when I was a kid, but my wife and two daughters (12, 10) were new to it. They only allow 3 people per canoe (probably b/c of the shallow water) so my wife and I had to split up. I gave them some coaching on the drive out there (2 hours from DC) and expected some coaching, tips, or basic training when we told them the three of them had not experience. There is no training. They will tell you tips about the river (stay left here, stay right there) and you watch a safety video, but that is it for training. If you really do not know how to canoe at all, I would advise starting elsewhere first. I had to walk my kids through basic river canoeing on how to approach rapids, how to read the river, what to do in case of tipping, etc. That being said, the river is pretty tame except for some decent class 2 rapids between mile marker 17 and 18. They warned us the river was running pretty fast that day and about 1/2 the boats were flipping over through that point. However, the bus driver's recommendation to stay way right through that point was spot on and we had no problems navigating that part.

We started at mile marker 8 and stopped at mile marker 13 for the lunch they prepared us with the Lunch/Dinner package. It was one of the best burger ever (likely helped by canoeing for a couple hours already). The burger with grilled onions was awesome, the potato salad, chips, cookies, and grape aid all very nicely done.

Then we continued on to mile marker 17, where we got out and hiked around to the bottom of the rapids to look at the "big rapid section" we had been warned about. It appeared to be decent class 2, moving quickly, fine for a kayak but easy to take on water in a canoe. We decided to stay way to the right next to the shore like they recommended. It was more flat there and only about a foot deep. This kept the water much smoother through this quick moving section and we went through without incident.

We were picked up at mile marker 20 having had a great day. The only down side, especially traveling with children, if the numerous heavily drunk younger adults. This outfit also sells or allows them a ride with their customers so you are faced with dealing with the unexpected rudeness of some visibly and audibly drunk patrons. According to Shenandoah River Outfitters printed materials, they allow no alcohol but the reality was that it was not enforced at all. However, the public drunkenness and behavior was not bad enough that we would not return, but was the only negative of the whole trip.

The steak dinner at the pavilion that night was good but not great. The steak was well cooked, but very fatty. The live music was a nice touch but the amplifier was so loud you could not have a nice conversation about the day with the people sitting next to you. The availability of hot showers to rinse off an change after a day on the river before dinner was a great touch.

Overall: we may make this an annual event and bring more friends next year. I would recommend checking the water level before you reserve though based on a lot of other reviews about low water levels that we did...

We have used this outfitter for kayak rentals previously so when looking for a cabin vacation, I searched & settled on the Paddler Cabin. I will say the cabin itself is nice. That is the only reason I gave 2 stars. Otherwise I was extremely disappointed to find that the cabin is down a 6+ mile long gravel road (mentioned Nowhere in the directions or cabin description). Maybe not an issue for some, but with my low to the ground car, it was a big issue. Prepare to take 30 minutes to go those 6 miles if you dont have a truck. In addition, the outfitters transport vans/buses go flying up/down the road so tourists watch out! Also disappointed to find that the river front cabin is not, the river can not even be seen from the cabin at all, you must walk a quarter mile to get to the river. Once there it is pretty, just wish it was not called a river frontage cabin when you cant SEE the water at all as I felt misled. There is no Verizon cell signal at the cabin (IDK about other providers) This normally would not be an issue for me as I like to "disconnect". But this is where my own personal situation comes into this review: My 10 year old son was supposed to come with my daughter & I to the cabin. However, overnight was struck by his kidney stone again. Fortunately, his dad agreed to take him to the ER so I could still take our daughter to the cabin for the 2 nights I had rented it for & although we would shorten our trip, at least we were not spoiling the entire trip for our daughter while still getting my son the care he needed. Once at the cabin & finding it down that god awful 6 mile gravel road & realizing that I would have no phone service to check on my son in the hospital & everything else that had went wrong I broke down & called the outfitter office to explain my situation & ask if there was another cabin I could move to with a signal or if I could get a refund on at least 1 night or any other options. I know there is policy & so I understand, which is why I am not angry but I am very disappointed that there was no compassion & when I called back again to let them know I was indeed checking out early, the lady (Sherry) was very rude. So in conclusion I would say I will never go back to these cabins for a couple reasons but I will also never rent kayaks from them again due to the way my situation was handled...