I am interested to rent a canoe in Dordogne river valley for our family. We are beginners, in fact, I am questioning if this will be possible for our young boys. We have 2 boys aged 7 and 3. My father from CA will join us and I might consider canoeing with Dad alone. Does anyone have a recommendation for a company they used? Have experience w/renting a canoe? How long would you recommend to rent a canoe? Whole day, 1/2 or few hrs? Again, we're beginners and although I read on RS guidebook that we could park canoe and visit a town could we realistically manage w/two young boys? :) Thank you for your time in a reply. Happy summer!
cheers,
Jessica
Posted by
Peterborough, ON, Canada
1631 posts
Hi Jessica,
I can't remember the company we used, but there are a few to choose from. We went with the company recommended by our B&B hosts. They are easy to find since they are well signed from the roads.
If you can get your three-year old to stay seated, then the two-hour paddle might work. We did the four-hour trip, also as recommended at our B&B. The canoe came with life jackets (that I wore but DH chose not to). When we did it we could have stood in the water at any point of the journey and been just over our knees, but of course that could vary with rainfall. You are going with the current so you barely need to paddle. It is pretty easy to pull it up on shore, but I found that the arranged pick up time didn't leave lots of time to see the villages. We also took a picnic and had that on the side of the river (not in a town, just in the countryside).
If you don't think your three-year old could stay seated, then you should definitely do it with your dad alone. It really was one of the highlights of our trip and DH still reminisces about it.
Posted by
Chicago
8551 posts
we chose a vendor just below Le Roque Gageac where you were hauled to a spot upriver and then floated back down to the vendor's station, so there was no issue of meeting a time deadline. We stopped at a restaurant along the river and had no trouble pulling the canoe ashore -- we carried our paddles and life jackets to the table with us.
I would not be concerned about doing it with a 3 year old who is reasonably socialized; they wear life jackets and the river is quite placid. Of course you need to make sure the agencies themselves don't have restrictions on young kids in the canoes.
Posted by
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
255 posts
We took the canoe trip with Perigord in June . They picked us up in a van in Beynac and took us upstream to Vitrac where we drifted and paddled back to Beynac. We made two stops to explore and for lunch in La Roque. Took us about 5 hours but you can take anywhere from 2 to 7 hours for the same fee, about 15 Euro each. Up to you how fast. You leave the canoe, life vests and oars on land in Beynac when finished. Better check though as a family was denied a rental due to the age of a child. I think the minimum age is 5 with the ability to swim. If you get a chance to do it with your Dad, do so. It was very cool.