Arrival and the meeting point
The transfer brings you from your hotel through the national park to the rafting base on the Köprüçay. You do not walk straight to a raft; you go first to the meeting point — the briefing area where your group comes together. This is where you find out who your guide is, and where the part of the day you booked rafting from Side for begins.
Use the first minutes for the things that cannot happen on the water: the toilets, sunscreen, valuables into the secure storage, the top layer off over your swimwear. Anyone still without shoes that can get wet rents or buys water shoes at the base now.
Equipment: helmet, life jacket, paddle
Before the briefing every guest is fitted with three things: helmet, life jacket and paddle. Fitted means fitted — the jacket sits snug, the helmet does not wobble, the paddle matches your height. Children aged 4 to 11 get their equipment in a child's size. The equipment meets international standards and is included in the €18 price.
The life jacket is why non-swimmers can take part: it keeps you afloat, and a guide sits in the raft. Tell the guide before you get in if you cannot swim or are uneasy in water — then they know before it matters.
The safety briefing
Before anyone touches a raft there is the briefing. It covers four things: how to hold and use the paddle, which commands the guide calls and what they mean, how to sit in the raft, and what to do if you go into the water. None of it is complicated, but all of it has to have been heard before the first rapid.
Listen even if you have rafted before. The guide in your raft is the person whose commands you follow on the water, and the briefing is where you learn their language. This is also where anyone who has been drinking is turned away — nobody under the influence of alcohol goes on the river.
Practice on calm water, then 12 kilometres
After the briefing you get into the raft — but not yet into the current. On calm water you practise the strokes and the commands with your guide until the raft answers on call. Only then does the run begin: 12 kilometres of the Köprüçay through the canyon, with swimming stops where the guide judges it safe.
A guide sits in every raft, not just the first of the group. They steer, they call the commands, and they decide where you swim and where you do not. How long the run takes depends on the water level and the group — the guide how long does rafting take explains why we give no number of minutes.
Back at the base: showers, changing area, lunch
After the run you are back at the base, and this is where the bag pays off: showers, changing area and toilets are there, and your dry things come out of the secure storage. Once changed, you go to the restaurant on the riverbank, where the lunch is served — included in the price, like the transfer, the guide and the equipment.
The drinks with lunch are not included, nor at any other point in the day. They are sold at the base at prices the operator sets there. That is why we do not quote them — but we would rather say so here than at the till.
What the base sells separately — and the combo tours
Five things cost extra at the base, and none of them is compulsory: drinks, water shoes to rent or buy, a wetsuit to hire if you want one, professional photos and video of your run, and on the combo tours a bandana for the dusty quad or buggy track. The prices are set by the operator on site.
If you have booked a package with a zipline, quad or buggy stage, the second part runs at the same base, in the order the base is working that day. There may be waiting time in between — by the river, at the restaurant or in the shade. The packages are on the Side rafting packages page; if you only want the river, stay with rafting from Side.