Lochaber Locals Scheme
You set the price. Yes that’s right, YOU set the price!
At River to Sea Scotland, we are committed to supporting our local community where we can. That’s why, since opening in 2020, we have ran our extremely popular not-for-profit, “you set the price” scheme.
The scheme is designed to help bring the Outdoor Capital of the UK to life for Lochaber locals. We live in such an amazing part of Scotland and we want to make sure locals who live here are experiencing the full benefits of it, regardless of financial background. This is a chance to leave any stresses of every day life behind and spend some quality time with those most important to you, in some incredible locations.
The theme of these trips: FUN FUN FUN!
Do you recognise any of these faces?
“Perfect day with Reece on Loch Oich. Great communication before so he really knew what we were looking for. Firstly the gear was in amazing condition, Reece made us all feel confident and taught us how to use the canoes, we are all beginners only been out a few times before. The games we played were so much fun and it kept the kids going and the adults. Reece knew what our abilities were we all felt at ease. This was one of the rare days that as a family of 5 everyone was happy for the whole day and this was all down to Reece knowing the area and his sense of fun. Really could not recommend enough and we will be back soon for our next adventure” – Wendy Lev (TripAdvisor)
What trips can you book onto?
For those looking for a self guided experience, you can hire canoes or kayaks from us. More information on our kit hire service can be found here. For those that wish to join us on a guided trip, you can find our most popular trips here . If you have a specific request of a particular location you’d like to explore by boat, we can design an experience tailored to you! So feel free to give us a call or email to tell us the ‘dream’ and we will do what we can to plan a trip to fulfil this.
How far in advance do you need to book?
The earlier you book, the more likely you are to secure a slot. However, if looking for a last minute adventure, please feel free to get in touch as we may still have some availability. Hire slots are more likely to be available last minute than guided trips.
When are these experiences available?
These are available throughout our season (April – October).
During the school summer holidays, we are unable to offer ‘guided trips’ through this scheme as this is our main business trading period. As you live here, there is plenty of time during our season for a guided trip outside of the school holiday period, and after all, we are a business which needs to make money to survive so we can continue this fantastic scheme. However, we are still committed to working with locals during the school holidays and will keep the hire services available under this scheme throughout.
How much do these experiences cost?
You tell us! There is no set fee. This is so the trips are inclusive for everyone to take part in, regardless of financial background. The scheme is designed to get Lochaber residents out experiencing the beauty of what is on our doorstep, in a form which isn’t usually available to everyone. We do ask for a contribution after the event to help cover some of our costs, so we can continue to put these on for others. We ask that a small donation is made of whatever you can comfortably afford and the experience was worth to you. Payment can be put in a sealed envelope and wont be opened until back in the office later that day.
Some local customers choose to use this scheme even though they can afford to (and often do) pay the full fees. Others who have used this scheme have been in a financially challenging situation at home and their payment has reflected this. And the majority are somewhere in between. That’s the beauty of this initiative… if everyone is honest with what they can afford, it all balances out and enables the running costs of the business to be covered and the scheme to continue. As everyone so far has been very honest with their payments, it has meant this scheme has been a huge success and will be continuing into it’s 4th year (2023).
Who is eligible for this?
Anyone who lives locally to us / our operating venues in Lochaber and can present a form of ID which has their Lochaber address on it.
The scheme is not designed for you to bring your friends / family along who are holidaying in the area, visiting you. If we feel the scheme is getting taken advantage of, it will be stopped, which will be a huge shame.
The not so great part to the scheme…
For those who aren’t aware, River to Sea Scotland is owned and run by Max + Laura. When offering these trips, the payments customers make usually end up covering that days running costs of the business and we happily volunteer our time. In the past, we have had a lot of last minute cancellations by customers, usually because the weather wasn’t forecast to be great. This is a real shame as the opportunity could have either gone to a different local group, as we are still able to deliver incredible trips in the wind and rain, or to full fee paying customers. Therefore, if you only want to go out in sunny weather, please wait until a couple of days before (when you have seen an up to date forecast) and hope that we have some last minute availability.
How do you get booked in?
- Decide if you wish to book a ‘guided trip’ or boat ‘hire’
- Find a group of other locals you wish to share the experience with
- For ‘guided trips’, choose the day trip you wish to book. Then have a look at the calendar at the bottom of that page. If it is showing green, we currently have availability. If it’s showing red, choose a different date. For ‘hires’, skip this step
- Contact us with the subject heading “Locals Scheme”
- As part of the message, please provide us with as much information as you can. Ie, what experience you are looking for, how many people make up your group, what your preferred date of the experience would be, ages of any under 18 year olds in your group, any specific requests, etc.
- Simply wait for our reply
As explained in the “not so great part to the scheme” section, this initiative is at real risk of stopping due to the number of last minute cancellations we are getting, most of the time because of the weather. For bookings under this scheme, we will be requesting a “turn up deposit” of £50 for guided trips and £30 for hires. This will be refunded to you after the trip. If you cancel the trip within 14 days prior to the trip date, this deposit will not be returned, regardless of the reason of cancellation.
Click here for a wee blog to remind us of the mental wellbeing benefits of water sports.
If you know anyone that would benefit or enjoy taking part in one of our locals only, not-for profit community trips, please feel free to share this opportunity with them as we’d love to help get them on the water!
