Sourced Adventures
Overview
Expert Summary
Detailed Insights
Sourced Adventures offers expertly organized, stress-free outdoor day trips from the city, handling all transportation and logistics. It's ideal for families seeking curated nature adventures like river tubing, rafting, or snow tubing, without the hassle of planning or car rental. Despite minor organizational hiccups reported by some, the overall experience is highly rated for its fun activities, excellent guides, and value proposition.
Key Highlights
- ✓Expertly curated day trips that eliminate the need for personal car rental or complex planning for out-of-state excursions.
- ✓Guides (Kaya, Michael, Sunny, Daniel, Amber, Joe, Mike) and bus drivers (Andre) are consistently praised for being excellent, helpful, friendly, and prioritizing safety.
- ✓Activities like tubing and white-water rafting are described as fun and even 'magical' in challenging conditions like heavy rain.
- ✓Trips are generally well-organized, with a smooth start once on the activity (e.g., 'jumped right in' to tubing).
- ✓Post-activity food options, like 'farm-to-table' dinner or food from visited breweries (e.g., Drowned Lands), can be a delightful highlight.
- ✓Trips are often well-timed, ensuring participants don't feel rushed.
Standout Features
- ⭐Seamless round-trip transportation from the city to out-of-state destinations (e.g., NYC to PA) is a major convenience.
- ⭐All trip logistics, including transportation and often some meals, are handled by Sourced Adventures, reducing parental planning burden.
- ⭐Presence of multiple, highly-rated guides on trips, ensuring supervision and assistance.
- ⭐Camps where activities are stationed often have good facilities with 'lots of food and snack options'.
- ⭐Post-activity brewery visits can offer 'pretty fantastic food' options (e.g., Drowned Lands).
Perfect For
Ideal For
💡Pro Tips from Reviews
- →**Secure your gear:** For water activities, bring several carabiners to clip all personal belongings onto tubes/rafts, as ropes for binding groups are generally not allowed. Dry bag shoulder straps with carabiners can be used to connect tubes.
- →**Stay alert on the river:** If rain is expected, be prepared for potentially fast currents and poor visibility. Heed guide instructions, such as 'Stay to the RIGHT of the island!'
- →**Arrive punctually for bus departures:** While the bus may sometimes be late, arriving 15 minutes early as instructed is crucial to avoid being the cause of significant delays for the entire group.
- →**Sit near the front of the bus:** To ensure you hear all vital information, try to secure seats closer to the guides.
- →**Prepare for potential disorganization at camp:** Be proactive in asking questions about group assignments, bus passes, and equipment if initial instructions are unclear.
- →**Consider bringing your own snacks:** If you or your children are picky eaters, or if the included lunch quality is a concern, pack some preferred snacks.
Things to Consider
- ⚠Lunch offerings are generally considered 'not the most exciting part of the day' or require 'upping the game'.
- ⚠Heavy rain can cause challenges on the river, including quickly picking up current speed and poor visibility.
- ⚠Risk of losing unsecured gear on water activities; items can easily fall off tubes if not clipped down.
- ⚠Bus departures can be significantly delayed (e.g., 30+ minutes) due to waiting for a single late passenger, impacting the day's schedule for others.
- ⚠Guides sometimes fail to use the bus intercom, leading to missed vital information for passengers not in the front rows.
- ⚠Check-in processes at the camp can be disorganized and confusing (e.g., conflicting instructions on obtaining life vests and bus passes, lack of clear group information).
- ⚠Some guides may be perceived as 'too nice' and lack assertiveness in controlling large groups, potentially leading to disorganization.
Price & Value
The service is recommended as 'getting what you paid for' and offering great value by removing the need for car rental and dealing with all trip logistics. It includes transportation, the activity itself, and typically a basic lunch (which is often not a highlight) with options for better food at post-trip locations or camp facilities.
♿Accessibility & Special Needs
- •No specific accommodations for special needs are mentioned in the reviews. The nature of the activities (bus travel, river activities, camp settings) suggests general mobility is required.
🍎Food & Drink Policy
- •Lunch is typically included in the trip, but its quality is often described as 'not exciting'.
- •Dinner (e.g., 'farm-to-table') is mentioned as a positive aspect for some trips.
- •Camps often have 'lots of food and snack options' available for purchase.
- •Post-trip visits to breweries can offer 'pretty fantastic food' (e.g., Drowned Lands brewery).
🚗Parking Info
- •Not applicable, as a primary value proposition of Sourced Adventures is providing round-trip transportation from the city, eliminating the need for personal parking.
👥Crowd Levels
- •Trips can involve large groups, with one review mentioning '60+ people' on a bus, suggesting that group management can sometimes be challenging.
🛡️Safety Features
- •Guides are praised for doing their 'best to keep everyone safe and on-track' (e.g., ensuring everyone made it back to the bus after a challenging river experience).
- •Guides provide instructions on river safety (e.g., 'Stay to the RIGHT of the island!').
- •Emphasis on securing personal gear to prevent loss during water activities, implicitly as a safety measure for belongings and to avoid distractions.
⏰When to Avoid
- • Parents with very tight schedules, as bus departures can be significantly delayed by late passengers.
- • If you have very young children requiring specific facilities or care not typically found on adventure trips (no infant/toddler facilities mentioned).
- • Families who expect gourmet lunch options as part of the package (lunch is generally basic).
- • Individuals who get easily frustrated by disorganization during check-in or group management.
Pricing/Package/Events
Events & Schedule
Special Events(Last 2 months - Next 6 months)
Sourced Adventures Winter Launch Party
December 7
An event for NYC outdoor adventure seekers, held at the Patagonia Bowery Store.
🍎Food Policy
- • Meal options are included for all private trips, eliminating the need for groups to prepare their own meals.
🛡️Safety Policy
- • Adheres to the highest standards of safety.
- • Implemented new protocols as of December 9th, 2022, with passenger safety as the highest priority (specifics of protocols not detailed).
📅Booking Policy
- • For private trips: Obtain a quote within 24 hours, customize trip details (such as pick-up information and attendee list), and finalize the trip.
- • Private trips can be organized in less than 48 hours.
🚗Parking Information
- • Transportation is provided, removing the hassle of renting a car or finding parking for participants.
What People Say
What's Great
- Friendly and helpful staff (mentioned in 8 reviews)
- Safe environment for children (mentioned in 2 reviews)
- Fun and entertaining activities (mentioned in 4 reviews)
Recent Reviews
Christine A
3 weeks agoWell organized and great vibes . We got to the tubing slopes and jumped right in. The dinner afterwards was also very nice and good farm-to-table food. Kaya and Michael were great and so helpful. Can’t wait to go again!
Cristine Bowman
6 months agoOur group of 5 had a blast on this trip! Our guides, Sunny, Daniel and Amber, were excellent! Our bus driver was great too. There was a bit of (ok, a LOT of) rain toward the tail end of the trip, including on the river. It was honestly super fun and magical to experience but it did create some challenges for other folks on our tour, as the current quickly picked up speed and visibility was poor at times. (PSA: Stay to the RIGHT of the island!) HIGHLY recommend bringing a few carabiners to make sure all your gear is clipped onto your tubes. I think a few people on the tour lost something if it wasn't secured (we almost did!). Ropes are technically not allowed to bind your group together. We found success with using our dry bag shoulder straps with carabiners to connect the 5 of us. This way it was an easy disconnect at the end of the float (no loops or knots to undo)! Shoutout to the guides for doing their best to keep everyone safe and on-track. Everyone made it back onto the bus! Lunch was not the most exciting part of the day but the brewery we visited afterward (Drowned Lands) had pretty fantastic food so we got some to snack on. I plan on doing this trip next year and highly recommend to anyone who wants to spend some time in nature without needing to rent a car and deal with logistics. My only recommendation for Sourced Adventure: Up the game a bit on the lunch offering. ;)
cemera b
5 months agoI loved my experience the tour guides Joe and Mike were incredible. Even the bus driver Andre was nice. I would love to have the same crew again when I try to book for the snowboarding in the winter
Michael Dimitroulakos
7 months agoAs someone who doesn't drive, having round trip transportation to out of state excursions is really awesome and Sourced Adventures is no different. We did NYC to PA for river rafting. The bus ride was good, we had fun white water rafting, and the bus ride back was fine. Just note you're on the river for a LOOOOONG time, lol. There were some cons/annoyances that I feel should be noted and corrected for future reference. Our email said pickup was at 7am and to arrive 15 minutes early. We did that. The bus was a little late(not an issue) but what was an issue was 95% of us were on the bus and we ended up waiting 30+ minutes for ONE person running behind. It ended up setting the day back and made us late. If that person wasn't gonna make 7am, that's not the burden of 60+ people who did arrive on time. I understand waiting 10 min, but 30? The bus had a speaker/intercom for our guides to speak through but rarely used it. We missed a lot of vital info because they often spoke loud enough for the first few rows and that's it. If you have the option, use it. Once we got to the camp, it was very disorganized and by the time we got everything settled, my patience was no where to be found. We likely missed information because of the whole not hearing it thing, but we didn't even know what to ask for to fix anything. For example, we were told we needed to pick up a life vest and a bus pass to get to the river. We go get our life vest, they tell us we need the bus pass first. OK. We go to a station to get the pass, the people were asking us for info we did not have(what group team/color, names etc) we later find out we get the bus pass from our guides, as a group, then get our vests, as a group. The guides were fine and nice(maybe too nice) but felt they couldn't keep control of the group at times and could be more assertive. Overall, I do recommend them. It was still fun and we got what we paid for. The camp it's stationed at was awesome and had lots of food and snack options.
Annie S
a week agoWe had a nice time! We previously went river tubing and this time we went snow tubing. It’s a great resource for taking a day trip outside the city without all the planning, car rental, etc. The timing is perfect, doesn’t feel rushed, it’s a lot of fun, comfortable ride, friendly staff! I do recommend.