Acquired Tastes Rafting

Phone Numbers:

Toll Free: 1-800-888-8582

Buena Vista (May-August): 719-395-2992

Denver Metro (Sept.-April): 303-443-4120

Addresses:

Buena Vista (May-August):
12918 Highway 285/24
Buena Vista, CO 81211

Boulder/Denver (Sept.-April):
2053 Yarmouth Ave.
Boulder, CO 80301

Email:

info@atraft.com

Experience The Acquired Tastes Difference

Let our friendly, well-trained guides and staff make your Arkansas River rafting trip a special experience. Many of our customers not only come back to raft with us year after year, but they also recommend us to their friends, relatives and co-workers. Our satisfied customers are our best source of advertising and we take pride in making each rafting trip a quality experience. We are big enough to accommodate large groups but small enough to tailor our rafting trips to meet your needs.

Acquired Tastes has been rafting the best Colorado whitewater under the same ownership since 1986. We offer

SAFETY, FUN, EXCITEMENT, ADVENTURE!

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Get the Real Deal

High Quality:

Acquired Tastes has provided safe, fun, exciting whitewater adventures on the Arkansas River under the same ownership since 1986. All of our boats are state-of-the-art self-bailing rafts with foot cones glued to the floor for added safety and security. We are a licensed outfitter with one of the best safety records on the river and our guides are certified by the State of Colorado.

Low Prices:

Our prices for whitewater rafting are some of the lowest in Colorado. We are the “Best Rafting Value in Colorado” because we provide high quality rafting trips at everyday low prices. We give you more rapids for your money!

Group Discounts:

We give your group an additional 10% off our everyday low prices for a group of 12 to 23 people or an additional 15% off for a group of 24 or more people.

Free Trip for Group Organizer:

If you organize a rafting trip of 18 or more people, one person will raft for free. If you organize a rafting trip of 36 or more people, two people will raft for free.

Early Booking Special:

If you pay for your Arkansas River rafting trip in full by March 31st, we will deduct 10% off our everyday low prices. If you have a rafting group of 12 to 23 people, you will receive the 10% group discount plus the 10% early booking discount off of your group rate. If you have a rafting group of 24 or more people, you will receive the 15% group discount plus the 10% early booking discount off of your group rate.

Guide Rotation and Days Off

Once you have passed your check-out run and are hired, you will be placed in our guide rotation with the other first year guides. Full-time guides check the trip board each evening to see if they are guiding or have hourly work assignments the next day. Weekend guides call in on Thursdays to see if they are guiding on Saturday and/or Sunday.

If you are not scheduled to guide or do hourly work, you are free to go hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, or whatever else you want to do that day. If you are not scheduled to guide or do hourly work but you still want to get on the river, you are welcome to go on a scheduled trip if you help out with the trip and the shuttle. You may be asked to paddle on a customer boat or you may go on a boat with other guides who are not scheduled to work.

Colorado State Parks requires guides to have a minimum of 500 river miles after training in order to trip lead or to do a single boat trip. This means that you will always be assigned to a trip with at least one other boat until you have met your 500 river mile requirement. Senior guides get more trips than first year guides because senior guides can be trip leaders and run single boat trips plus they receive preference in the guide rotation.

Guides can increase the number of trips they guide by getting their friends to come rafting. Guides receive one extra trip in the guide rotation for every four customers they refer to our company. For example, if you get eight of your friends to come rafting with us as paying customers, you will guide two more days than a first year guide who does not refer customers to us. If you are guiding a boat with at least two paying customers, you can have a friend raft for free if you guide for 1/2 pay and you can have two friends raft for free if you guide for no pay. You do not get extra trips in the guide rotation for bringing friends who raft for free.

Many rafting companies cater to walk-in business. They require their guides to hang out at their office without being paid in case customers who are driving by stop and want to go rafting. Acquired Tastes does not cater to walk-in business but we do occasionally get customers who book a trip in the evening after the guide board has been posted or who book a trip the same day they want to go rafting. When this happens, we call guides to see if they are available. If we call you and ask you to guide after the guide board has been posted, you are not obligated to accept the trip. However, if you do accept the trip, this trip will count as an extra trip for you and will not count in the guide rotation.

Full-time guides receive six days off and weekend guides receive two days off during the season. In order to receive the days off that you want, you must request the days off and have them approved by the owner of the company. If you are a full-time guide and need to take more than six days off during the season, each day in excess of the six days counts as a day in the guide rotation. For example, if you take ten days off during the season, six of these days would not count in the guide rotation and four days would count. Therefore, you would guide four less days in the season than a first-year guide who did not take extra days off. Senior guides who have done an exceptional job for us in the past may be given extra days off without these days counting in the guide rotation.

We will be scheduling trips from Saturday, May 16th through Sunday, August 16th. Monday, August 17th, is clean-up day. You will be expected to work through August 17th. If you need to leave earlier than August 17th, you should request that some or all of your six off days be at the end of the season.

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