Did a 10 mile overnight trip through the Wisconsin Canoe Company over the fourth of July weekend and had a wonderful time! The pricing is fair for a ride up the river along with the canoe rental plus any extras you want to rent. Bonus in that you can just drop the canoe off at the landing when you finish and leave. No waiting around!
Very smooth experience overall, beautiful scenery on the Wisconsin River, would definitely recommend!
Wisconsin Canoe Company is the easiest company I've ever worked with to rent a canoe or kayak. They have great communication leading up to your trip and a easy to navigate website. They also are always organized and punctual at the launch site.
Last year our dog had an emergency situation (she ate a lot of sand, she isn't the brightest bulb) and the staff was fantastic about picking me up from Arena and driving me back to the parking lot so I could get her to an emergency vet. I really appreciated how helpful the staff was in a stressful situation.
This is the second time I have used Wisconsin Canoe Company and again, not disappointed. We had a group of 7 so we sent 2 people to drop cars off and grab the shuttle- everything went very smoothly. We did canoe the weekend after the huge storm so the water was very high, which meant a lot fewer sandbars to camp on. Besides getting a tad paranoid- we did find somewhere to camp and had a great experience. Overall a great organized company and I'd definitely recommend them.
-If you do have a weekend planned, book early! They get very busy! There were only 4 canoes left when we ended up booking (even though we knew we were going over a month in advance and just never booked anything ) so if you snooze, you lose! Thankfully we were okay!
We love using the Wisconsin River canoe company! We've been doing a trip once a summer with them for a few years now. We won't even think about using another company. The canoes are great quality, the reservation system is easy to use, and the website is full of good information with some fantastic humor. If you're thinking of canoeing on the Wisconsin River I'd highly recommend reserving canoes with Wisconsin River Canoe company.
My husband and I had a great time. This was a fantastic go at your own pace experience. They provided the essentials (kayaks, paddles, life vests, and shuttle) we did the rest. Even with a huge party that launched with us, we ended up being far enough away that it seemed we had the whole river to ourselves. Having only ever kayaked once before, there was little strain in navigating the water ways, or just feeling comfortable out by ourselves. Highly recommend, and will likely be making this an annual trip.
Great communication. Very professional service. We rented kayaks for a day trip and could not be happier with choosing Wisconsin Canoe Company. Despite inclement weather leading up to the weekend we rented, the company communicated by text and email daily to inform us about the conditions daily. We will certainly be looking forward to renting from them next year for a more ambitious overnight trip down the river and camp out on one of the many sand bars on the river.
A really slick company. The canoes were clean and in great condition, the life vest were also very clean. The paddles were new.What impressed me the most was the people running the show. We were late. Got caught behind every combine on the road, GPS became dysfunctional, so by the time we pulled up the shuttle bus was loaded and a guy was patiently waiting with a clipboard. We pulled up panicked and he asked if I was "Tom" this was really very nice considering we were uptight because of delays that we had experienced. He helped us with our things and we were off. The driver of the bus was very coolhe told us the ins and outs of the trip, how long, what to look forand warned us about NO GLASS (meaning beer bottles or wine bottles) on the river, or the DNR would fine without question $300.00.
The trip down the river was very serene. I would suggest camping for a night and breaking the trip into two daysyes, you can make it in about 3:30 to 4:00 hours but by the time you think you are close by seeing the first set of bridgesthere is about another 45 minutes of paddling.
A great time.you will enjoy the experience!
We did the 10 mile trip from Arena to Peck's Landing. Our shuttle driver Amy was very knowledgeable and gave us all the necessary information. We started off with two out of four adults being newcomers to canoeing. The Wisconsin River is the best trip to learn it. The water is never very deep and gives you a very safe feeling.
We did a trip during the week on a Friday and had the river and the sandbars (we stopped on two) to ourselves! We saw tons of turtles and geese and had the good fortune to see an eagle take off from a tree on a small island and pass over us in very close proximity. Coolest thing ever!
We highly recommend Ryan and Ama as outfitters and this trip for beginners and experienced paddlers. The river has offers fun and sights for everyone!
Did a quick day trip to see if we liked the river with an eye toward an overnight trip in the future. We loved it, and will definitely come back. The website was easy to use, and booking was a breeze. We got tons of information via email and I felt prepared and we had all the info we needed.
On the day of our trip the shuttle and equipment showed up early, the staff member was friendly and helpful, and the trip in the bus was quick and easy. The gear was definitely adequate for a short day on the river. We rented the solo 12' kayaks and had no troubles with them. They were stable and tracked well enough for the length of the trip, and we could fit our lunch and drinks in the bulkheads.
We will absolutely use WCC again when the time comes for our overnight adventure.
Disclaimer - my wife and I own this company but Google keeps asking me to review it. Take this review with a healthy dose of salt.
I started this place from scratch in 2010 with 10 canoes and it's been going well. Seems we get a lot of positive feedback and enough people come back that we're now up to around 150 canoes and kayaks. We've tried to make everything as easy as possible with automated reservations, water condition reports, and putting every single question we've gotten more than once in the FAQ.
That said, I will be the first to tell you that we aren't for everyone. Our happiest customers love that they can make their reservation completely online without talking to us. They love that we have written literally everything we know on the website. They love that we answer emails at all hours of the day and don't mind that we avoid phone calls. They like that we only offer a small handful of trips making the group decision process easier. If you're the type of person that really needs their hand held or wants to make special arrangements, we really aren't a good fit but would be happy to recommend other outfitters that are more accommodating.
At the end of the day our job is to make it easy to get a reservation, show up with exactly what you ordered, get you upriver quickly, and then leave you to enjoy the trip. We do things the way we do because it lets us be the best at this. So far, most people seem to agree.