Esprit — Local services in Mansfield-et-Pontefract

The Esprit Mexico week of rivers trip was fantastic! We paddled six different runs with options for more advanced and less advanced paddlers. The rivers all had incredible scenery as well as challenging white water as much as one could want. The guides were excellent and safety was always a priority. Food and lodging were great with opportunities to experience the "real" Mexico. We were involved with the non-touristy side of Mexico. Jim Coffey, a world renowned white water safety instructor and owner of Esprit, speaks fluent Spanish and is a great example of someone emersed in the Mexican culture. He has been leading trips to Latin America for decades and clearly loves the local people as he supports them in many ways and is loved and respected by them as well. Our headquarters in Mexico was Jalcomulco, a small town in the state of Veracruz. It is off the beaten path and in an idyllic setting on the rio Antigua surrounded by beautiful mountains and in the middle of mango and lime orchards. This river in itself could be enough as there are several beautiful sections with more and less challenging white water. But we also paddled the Alseseca roadside section, Alto filos, filo bobos, Actopan and the crown jewel: the rio de oro. Cristal clear spring fed rapids with options to run class 4+ water including two 30' waterfalls or a class 2 section only that feeds into the Gulf of Mexico where you can surf waves in salt water. Anyway I recommend them highly and if you're looking for a culture enriching warm weather trip at an affordable price they...

A group of 20 of us spent the weekend at Esprit doing the adventure package: We rafted Saturday and bungee jumped Sunday (w/ Great Canadian Bungee). Both activities were fantastic. The rafting guides were very professional and fun. The rapids were a perfect level of difficulty for our group. The trip was very well organized with meals and transportation included. The lodges were very cozy, with two bunk beds in each. There is no air conditioning, so the units do tend to get warm in the summer, and the mattresses are quite thin. Unfortunate the social hall was burnt down last year, so the communal space is a couple of large tents by the water. But I was told they are building a new social at the end of the 2017 season. Despite this our evenings were a lot of fun, with campfires, volleyball, kayaking and even tow wakeboarding to keep everyone busy.

Esprit made a slight booking error with the bungee jumping, but everything worked out. Also note that the office manager (Michele) can be difficult to get a hold of (She seldom responded to my emails until about a week before the trip).

We are planning on going again next year, although some of our group will be staying in an offsite hotel instead of on the Esprit grounds as they found themselves having pack-pain and stiffness due to the bunk beds.

All-in-all this is a great facility, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in rafting in the...

(Went during COVID- August 2020)

PROS: SUPER fun rafting experience, delicious food, great scenery at the camp site, and we got a nice drink at the end of our rafting trip which was very refreshing! The photography was great too! They get really good shots while you’re on the river!

CONS: Everything is pretty expensive. For example, 1 small bag of firewood was $23 which felt like a complete rip off. I really disliked that. On top of that, their souvenirs are overpriced ($25 for a short sleeve shirt and $35 for long sleeve).

Also, our guide was pretty quiet and boring. I had to strain my ears to hear him at the front of the raft, especially when we were going through the rapids. However, he was really good at controlling the raft and making sure we were all safe. The other guides seemed enthusiastic and fun though.

Although the staff was friendly, they were drinking, playing music, laughing and talking really loud until about 1am on the night before our trip. It was hard to sleep considering we had to be up at 7:30am for breakfast.

On the evening after the rafting trip, our food took an hour and a half to come out when they told us 20-30mins.

Overall, it was a pretty good trip! They seemed to take COVID seriously and had many precautions in place. I would recommend this...