bert's boats

Canoeing has been something our family has wanted to do for a while and on our recent trip to Vermont (July 2014), with the help of Bert's Boats, we were able to make it happen. We called originally for some basic information. Bert's Boats was friendly, helpful and accommodating. They had different options to choose from. They worked with us so that we were able to get just a taste of canoeing... which was exactly what we wanted! Having a 7 year old son and being a family of inexperienced boaters, safety was a must. The boating/rowing lesson before we went out on the water was great! And they do provide various sizes of life jackets. We actually had to cancel and reschedule due to lightning. Bert's Boats was flexible and willing to work around our schedule. When we finally got a chance to get out on the water, we realized it was a lot harder than we thought! It was a quick trip for us, but a perfect small taste and a great experience for our son. I would definitely recommend canoeing with Bert's Boats!

Coworkers have been recommending kayaking the Lamoille for years and we finally did it! On 7/3 I emailed Bert's Boats to ask for pricing and availability for 7/5. "Bert" (aka Ken) responded within a few hours with some nicely flexible options. I was very nervous as we had only kayaked a few times on vacation and I had not ever managed my own boat (we used a tandem on other tours on vacations). I was also concerned about our lack of experience in general. There had been a lot of rain and I wanted to make sure that an inexperienced boater could handle the boats in the higher than normal water level. I shared my concerns with Ken who answered all of my questions quickly and professionally. We made our reservation on 7/4 and had a wonderful day on 7/5. Bert's Boats outpost was easy to find and offers off-road parking. The "outhouse" was a quite rudimentary but it did the trick. Ken outfitted us with personal flotation devices and provided transportation (van) to the launch site. At the launch site he provided a very short on-land demonstration of how to paddle, matched us to our boats and paddles, and helped us to get everything adjusted and ready to go. With a wave and an instruction to "stay in the middle", he plunked us in the river and we were good to go. As I mentioned, there had been some recent rain and the river was higher than normal on the day we went, but the current was still quite lazy and we got the hang of managing our boats very quickly. The 1.5 hour journey back to the outpost was a great introductory experience to kayaking and overall I was pleased with our choice to go with Bert's Boats. In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much we decided to buy kayaks and we have been kayaking the rivers and ponds of Vermont for the last half of the summer!