Just back from a 2 week holiday at Villa Failte. Decided to go for a days rafting and chose to book with Oxygen Aventure (www.oxygen-aventure.com) since they had good reviews on Trip Advisor and spoke English ! They have a few videos on the site as well.
Would highly recommend. We (5 of us) chose the "Rafting Integral" which combines both their other rafting trips "Rafting Famille" and "Rafting Sportif" ... in other words partly relatively calm river conditions and partly exciting rapids. The cost for 2.5 hours in the water (with an additional hour for induction, etc) was 45 Euros per person. Booking can be done online ... e-mail Oxygen and they are pretty quick at responding with booking form etc. Minimum group size is 6 so if you have fewer (we had 5) you could be joined by others on arrival (we had a Frenchman and his young son with us). It is possible to book for morning or afternoon ... a godsend if you have teenagers that you need to get out of bed !!!
The start point is Belvianes Cavirac, just before St Quillan, which is about 1 hr 40 mins drive from Villa Failte. The drive is absolutely stunning ! After Perpignan the route takes you through fabulous mountain scenery, including rivers, gorges and beautiful French villages such as Maury and St Paul de Fenouilledes. The route follows the route of the Little Red Train, crossing the line on several occasions.
The rafting itself was fantastic ... the wetsuits, booties, helmets and lifejackets were all in excellent condition as was the raft itself. Our instructor spoke both French and English. After a comprehensive induction we were quickly on the river and very quickly on light rapids !!! A few of us did fall out a few times but it was very clear what was to be done and was very much part of the fun. Before doing the "hairy" section we all had to demonstrate that we could swim across fast flowing water ... at this point we were given the choice of missing the section to join the raft at a later stage. But to be honest the "hairy section" wasn't too bad ... if anything we felt that passed too quickly but we all had to row quite hard and follow the instructor's instructions !!!!
A few of us chose to float down the light rapids on the final stage.
The trip was primarily on the River Aude and through the Gorge St George and the Gorge Pierre Lys. Definitely recommended.
The company also does canyoning, hydrospeed (down rapids holding onto floats), caving and climbing ... full information is on their website (see link above). There are other companies doing very similar in the area and we saw a few ... they looked good as well.
Would highly recommend. We (5 of us) chose the "Rafting Integral" which combines both their other rafting trips "Rafting Famille" and "Rafting Sportif" ... in other words partly relatively calm river conditions and partly exciting rapids. The cost for 2.5 hours in the water (with an additional hour for induction, etc) was 45 Euros per person. Booking can be done online ... e-mail Oxygen and they are pretty quick at responding with booking form etc. Minimum group size is 6 so if you have fewer (we had 5) you could be joined by others on arrival (we had a Frenchman and his young son with us). It is possible to book for morning or afternoon ... a godsend if you have teenagers that you need to get out of bed !!!
The start point is Belvianes Cavirac, just before St Quillan, which is about 1 hr 40 mins drive from Villa Failte. The drive is absolutely stunning ! After Perpignan the route takes you through fabulous mountain scenery, including rivers, gorges and beautiful French villages such as Maury and St Paul de Fenouilledes. The route follows the route of the Little Red Train, crossing the line on several occasions.
The rafting itself was fantastic ... the wetsuits, booties, helmets and lifejackets were all in excellent condition as was the raft itself. Our instructor spoke both French and English. After a comprehensive induction we were quickly on the river and very quickly on light rapids !!! A few of us did fall out a few times but it was very clear what was to be done and was very much part of the fun. Before doing the "hairy" section we all had to demonstrate that we could swim across fast flowing water ... at this point we were given the choice of missing the section to join the raft at a later stage. But to be honest the "hairy section" wasn't too bad ... if anything we felt that passed too quickly but we all had to row quite hard and follow the instructor's instructions !!!!
A few of us chose to float down the light rapids on the final stage.
The trip was primarily on the River Aude and through the Gorge St George and the Gorge Pierre Lys. Definitely recommended.
The company also does canyoning, hydrospeed (down rapids holding onto floats), caving and climbing ... full information is on their website (see link above). There are other companies doing very similar in the area and we saw a few ... they looked good as well.