A summer float on a moving river that finishes in a small town: long pools, a few riffles, a shuttle back to the car. The Phoenicia rental people remember is not operating. The matches below posted a 2026 season. Vang Vieng's old river-bar crawl is not on this row. Traveler accounts still describe a Nam Song float, and they do not agree on the shop, the fare, or whether a bar remains. No operator there is named until one official page does.
Who is coming
A missing tag is not a ban. Untagged places were not checked for children or a large party.
Crowd level: Easy. Busy only at the obvious hourEasy
Best season There is no rental season to plan until an operator posts one. Summer weekends still bring people to town. That is not a tube ticket.
The creek is still there, under the bridge and past Main Street. The tubing rental people remember is not. Do not book a float from a page that still talks as if the shuttle is running.
Insider tips
Do not treat it as open
Town Tinker's site still shows a 2021 closure and the old Memorial Day through September hours. Those hours are the old business. Roundups that name the rental as a current Phoenicia outfitter are behind the owner's own account. If a sale closes, wait for a season announcement before you drive up for a tube.
Water
The creek is cold mountain water, and the level moves with reservoir releases. Nobody is posting a daily go or no-go for a rental shuttle anymore. Do not pick a number off an old blog and call it today's flow.
Do not improvise the old run
After the rental closed, paddlers wrote that the creek was no longer being cleared. An older American Whitewater note warned of a river-wide strainer below the Bridge Street bridge. That note is not a current survey. It is a reason to leave the tube in the car.
With kids. The family day people remember depended on a rental, helmets, and a shuttle. None of that is operating. This is not a current outing with children.
With a group. There is no shuttle and no group booking. A party standing on Bridge Street is not a float.
Desk note. Written by Quiet Coordinates for this launch. Not a traveler review, and not a paid mention.
Local history
Town Tinker Tube Rental, at 10 Bridge Street, was the Phoenicia outfitter. Owner Harry Jameson last ran it in 2019 and then retired. Its own site still says closed for the 2021 season. The Overlook reported on April 10, 2026 that the business was for sale and that Jameson had been talking to a buyer who hoped to reopen. That is a conversation, not a season. This desk did not find a second Phoenicia rental with a 2026 operating page.
Food nearby
Main Street, if a kitchen is open
The hamlet is small, and longtime rooms have closed. This page is not naming a restaurant.
Sports, kept small
No second-tier match is worth the detour. The outing is the walk, the swim, or the town.
Farms and stands nearby
Meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy for a kitchen you are cooking in, at a rental or a campsite. A family farm, a farm stand, or a producer market.
Phoenicia Farmers Market
A producer market for groceries in town. The site updates the vendor list each week. This page does not name a farm that might not be there on your Sunday.
Season. Sundays, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., rain or shine, at Parish Field, past the post office and near the Tanbark Trail. The homepage names the outdoor season as May 17 through October 25. The outdoor-market page states the rule as the third Sunday in May through the last Sunday in October. In 2026 those are the same dates. This desk did not find a winter indoor market on their site.
SNAP and the Fresh Connect match are redeemed at the market table, then spent with vendors who show the sign. Leave the spots by the field entrance for handicap parking. They suggest Main Street or the St. Francis Church lot, and they ask you not to block driveways or the supermarket. A rental kitchen can cook from this market. It does not reopen the tube rental.
Last checked: 2026-10-16. We recommend; you book directly. Prices are nightly, low–high by season, with a source. “From” prices depend on your dates. Items we couldn't verify are marked †.
The quiet base: Phoenicia. The lodge has hammocks on the creek. Peekamoose Blue Hole is the swim nearby, not a place with its own inn on this list.
† From $365, average $385 over the next 90 days, +$275 cleaning (manager calendar, search copy) unverified
Sleeps 6, trampoline
Red Cottage (direct)
Sleeps 6, trampoline
Know before you book: The lodge price is a Booking search copy and is unverified. The farmhouse price is a manager-calendar search copy and is unverified.
Some links may earn us a commission.
Classical nearby
No verified concert hall on file for this listing.
A church nearby
No lesser-known church checked for this listing.
A bath nearby
No nearby bathhouse checked for this listing.
Go there
These open a public search for stays and small-group tours. No affiliate ID is attached in this build. The desk note is not an ad.
Crowd level: Mixed. Go early, or pick a weekdayMixed
Good with kids
Best season The posted 2026 river trips ran May 16 through September 27. Camping dates on the same site ran longer, into late October, and camping is not a tube. In mid-October the float season they printed is over. Read the page before you drive next year.
The nearest checked version of a Phoenicia day: a rented tube, a short shuttle, and a float that ends in a small river hamlet. Kittatinny has been putting people on the Delaware for decades. The 2026 river-trip season they posted ran May 16 through September 27.
Insider tips
Which trip
Ask for Minisink to Barryville if you want the novice tube. They describe it for adults and children who fit their open-bottom tubes and can float on their own. They do not print a numeric age. Westfall to River Beach is the other short novice tube, on the Pennsylvania side. The Lackawaxen dam-release trip is rafts on release days, not this float.
What to bring
Footwear is required for tubing. The company says to wear a life jacket, and the Minisink notes call jackets strongly encouraged. Open-bottom tubes put your feet in the river. Pack the picnic. Leave the day if the water is high enough that the Class 1 and 2 sections stop looking mild.
A second desk on the same river
Indian Head, also on Route 97, posts its own tubing, including a mild Pond Eddy to Knights Eddy run, and its page requires riders over 65 pounds. That is a different company and a different rule. Read the site you are actually booking.
With kids. The novice tubes are open to children who fit the tube and can float independently. A child who cannot do that stays off the river. There is no printed age on the trip page.
With a group. The shuttle is how a party does the day. This page did not find a private-river booking. Weekends fill. A dam-release day is a harder river than the three-mile tube.
Desk note. Written by Quiet Coordinates for this launch. Not a traveler review, and not a paid mention.
Local history
Kittatinny's own site calls the company a pioneer on the Delaware, with bases in Barryville, New York, and Milford, Pennsylvania, about two to three hours from New York City. The tube trip that fits this row is Minisink to Barryville: three miles, about two to three hours, long calm pools, the mouth of the Lackawaxen, the Zane Grey house, the Roebling Aqueduct, then a series of small rapids into Barryville.
Food nearby
A picnic they invite you to pack
Their river page says to bring lunch and stop on the bank. Barryville is a hamlet, not a restaurant row. This page is not naming a dining room.
Sports, kept small
No second-tier match is worth the detour. The outing is the walk, the swim, or the town.
Farms and stands nearby
Meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy for a kitchen you are cooking in, at a rental or a campsite. A family farm, a farm stand, or a producer market.
Barryville Farmers' Market
You buy from the person who grew or made it. On the market's 2026 vendor list: Beaver Dam Brook Farms for vegetables, herbs, strawberries, and flowers; Fresh Meadow Farm for organic produce; Hilly Acres Farm for pasture-raised pork, beef, chicken, lamb, and turkey, USDA processed; Twin Brook Farms for beef, pork, lamb, goat, veal, pasture-raised chicken, and eggs; Tonjes Farm Dairy for milk, cream, butter, cheeses, and maple; OHF Orchards for fruit. The full list is longer. This page does not copy every stall.
Season. The market site says Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., May 16 through October 31, 2026, on the grounds of Barryville United Methodist Church, 3405 NY-97. That is the line they printed for 2026. Next year, read the site again.
Useful if you are camping and cooking. Parking they name: the Harrison-Rasmussen Funeral Home, the River Road circle by the bridge, and along 97 where a business welcomes market cars. The site does not print a cash-only rule or a meat pre-order. Ask the farmer at the stall.
A producer-only market. Goods must be grown or made within 75 miles. Pure Catskills, a watershed farm directory, lists Tonjes Farm Dairy here on Sundays: creamline milk and cheese from Mary and Tim Tonjes in Callicoon. The market homepage did not print this week's stalls. The directory is not the vendor board.
Season. The market site says Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., year-round. It says the current location is outdoors at A. Dorrer Drive, and it also lists an indoor address at 8 Creamery Road. Check which door is open.
Sunday, so it does not overlap the Barryville Saturday. This desk did not find farm-store hours on a site of Tonjes's own. Buy the dairy at the market.
Crowd level: Mixed. Go early, or pick a weekdayMixed
Good with kids
Best season Their 2026 pass ran through September. By mid-October that float season is over. Book next year only after they post it. Weekends and holidays inside the season are the crowded days. They say an early start is the calmer river.
A rented tube and a shuttle on the Guadalupe, from a company that has worked this river since 1979 and keeps a base in the hamlet of Gruene. The water is a hill-country float with small rapids, and on a hot weekend it is crowded. It is not a secret creek.
Insider tips
Who can go
Rockin' R says every guest must be at least 6 and able to swim, with no exceptions. Their pages do not agree on life jackets: one says children under 13 must wear one, another recommends them for weak swimmers and children under 8. Put a jacket on a child, and read the page for the location you booked.
What to bring
Their list is sunscreen, a towel, water shoes, a waterproof bag, and an ID. They rent the tube, a life jacket, and the shuttle. No glass and no foam. Inside New Braunfels city limits, including the Gruene floats, a city rule bans disposable containers. Their upriver bases, Riverbank and Huaco Springs, are outside that ban. Know which float you bought.
Water
They do not print a single flow number that means go. Shallow days mean walking. Flood days mean staying off the river. Check the outfitter the morning you leave, not a gauge screenshot from last month. The 2026 access pass was listed at $25 a person before taxes, and the season pass at $99. Next year's prices are next year's page.
With kids. Six and able to swim is their line, not a toddler float. They suggest walking young children around the tube chute. Life jackets are free with a rental. Read the jacket rule again the week you go, because their own pages do not match.
With a group. They will shuttle a party, and weekends crowd the river. No private stretch was listed. Book ahead if you need the tubes on a holiday.
Desk note. Written by Quiet Coordinates for this launch. Not a traveler review, and not a paid mention.
Local history
Rockin' R's site says it has five locations on the Guadalupe and the Comal, and that it is the outfitter with a Historic Gruene address: 1405 Gruene Road. A 2026 season pass on their site was valid from mid-March through September 2026. That window is the season they printed. It is not a promise about next spring.
Food nearby
Gruene, after you are out
The hamlet is the end of the social float. This page is not picking a restaurant or a dance hall show.
Sports, kept small
No second-tier match is worth the detour. The outing is the walk, the swim, or the town.
Farms and stands nearby
Meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy for a kitchen you are cooking in, at a rental or a campsite. A family farm, a farm stand, or a producer market.
No farm stand checked for this listing.
Classical nearby
No verified concert hall on file for this listing.
A church nearby
No lesser-known church checked for this listing.
A bath nearby
No nearby bathhouse checked for this listing.
Go there
These open a public search for stays and small-group tours. No affiliate ID is attached in this build. The desk note is not an ad.
Crowd level: Mixed. Go early, or pick a weekdayMixed
Best season The authority's 2026 gorge season ended September 7. In October there is no tube to rent on that notice. High water closes it even in season. Read both the authority and Elora Rapids before you treat a date as current.
A small-town float on the Grand River, under limestone walls about 22 meters high. The conservation authority runs the gorge tubing. A second, local company posts a lazier valley float. Both published a 2026 season. Neither is a walk-up on the day.
Insider tips
Water
The authority says tubing may close without notice, including when the river is over eight cubic meters per second, and that the level can rise fast after rain. Their graph is the Elora (West Montrose) trace on the Grand River Conservation Authority river-flows page. Eight cubic meters per second is their posted line, not a guess.
What to bring
An approved tube, a helmet with a chin strap, and a personal flotation device. You may bring them or rent the package. Footwear for the walk. A waiver online before you arrive. Hours on the 2026 notice were 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., last rental at 4 p.m., authority gear back by 7 p.m. The walk along the road is about 1.3 km each way.
The 2026 bill
The authority's 2026 fees page listed registration at $21.50 and a full rental package at $55.50, plus a separate gate fee and a $75 deposit. Elora Rapids listed its own equipment prices, including a lazy-float rental. Use the page for the company you booked. Next summer can change the numbers.
With kids. The gorge notice requires a helmet and a life jacket and a walk of about 1.3 km each way. It does not print a minimum age. This is rapids in a cliff, not a lazy pool. The valley lazy float is a different product from Elora Rapids. Read that page before you take a child.
With a group. Tickets are per person, online, and only up to three days ahead. Walk-up sales are not sold. A large party needs those tickets before it drives out.
Desk note. Written by Quiet Coordinates for this launch. Not a traveler review, and not a paid mention.
Local history
The Grand River Conservation Authority says tubing at Elora Gorge Conservation Area opened June 26 and ran through September 7, 2026. Tickets are online only, up to three days ahead. Elora Rapids, a family company in town, posted gorge tubing from June 26, 2026, and a Grand River Valley lazy float from July 1, 2026. The lazy float is the closer match to a Phoenicia drift. The gorge itself is rapids between cliffs.
Food nearby
Elora, before or after
The rental is not a lunch counter. Eat in town. This page is not naming a café.
Sports, kept small
No second-tier match is worth the detour. The outing is the walk, the swim, or the town.
Farms and stands nearby
Meat, eggs, vegetables, and dairy for a kitchen you are cooking in, at a rental or a campsite. A family farm, a farm stand, or a producer market.
No farm stand checked for this listing.
Classical nearby
No verified concert hall on file for this listing.
A church nearby
No lesser-known church checked for this listing.
A bath nearby
No nearby bathhouse checked for this listing.
Go there
These open a public search for stays and small-group tours. No affiliate ID is attached in this build. The desk note is not an ad.
