Would you let your 7 and 9 year old do (moderate) white water rafting and canyoning in Costa Rica

[hmc]

Dh has left me with some optional excursions for our Costa Rica trip to look through - they need to be booked before we travel.

Here are the descriptions:
*Balsa River Half Day Rafting (Grades II-III)
This rafting adventure takes you to the nearby Rio Balsa. Here you will have a comprehensive briefing and receive your rafting equipment. You will be rafting with experienced guides on category II and III rapids through the stunning scenery and lush forest for approximately 2 hours......

*Canyoning near Arenal Volcano
This involves abseiling and descending cliffs and waterfalls within the canyon. The tools used (carbiners, harnesses etc) are the same as for rock climbing. This course will guarantee a memorable, safe and thrilling day of canyoning as you abseil down waterfalls and through narrow gorges. You will have a compehensive briefing and practice abseil before descending over 5 waterfalls and through some parts narrower than 5 feet. End with the grand finale waterfall, abseiling down over 210 feet. No prior experience is necessary

Hmmm - concern is for safety; 7 year old is typical daft lairy boy....

What would you do?

Well it was designed with 7 and 9yr olds in mind I would let them go on the grounds they would have a fantastic time. By the sounds of it I doubt that it is though.

The question is more whether they'll let them or not, it's age-dependant. If they say it's fine, I'd let them.

Ours have done that sort of stuff all over the shop.

I would wonder if they have all that safety-kit it kids' sizes for a start,

A few more probing questions for the travel agent then - specifically about age suitability and equipment

My 7 year old isn't a particularly strong swimmer so I would say definitely not to the rafting for him.
Don't they give age limits? What kind of trip is it?
I think it depends how well regulated you think Costa Rica is likely to be...

I would say no, wasn't there something on tv/news last year about a child killed whilst doing it as they were too small and flung out of the boat when it hit a rock .

I really wouldn't. Rivers are unpredictable and dangerous. They are too young. Wait until they are teenagers.

Do not google. Too many horror stories.

[eby] i LOVE Costa Rica, what a fab place for two kids, i have promised DS (currently 20 moths) that as soon as he is big enough we will go

sorry no idea about the canyoning etc, but overall it is a very safe, well equiped country so i iamgien if they let kids do it, it woudl be safe for tehm

I think you have to think through what might happen and how your children would cope. With rafting, I'd say there is a not insignificant chance of being tipped out of the raft. Something an adult (or teenage) swimmer would probably cope with fine, but a 7 or 9 year old? Mine wouldn't have either the swimming capability or the level headedness to be able to cope.

The abseiling is probably less of an objective risk, although they will be more 'alone' on the descent.

Hmm - yes neither are great swimmers, also ds is small for his age (probably average 5-6 year old height). I am definitely disinclined towards the white water rafting

Am still pondering the canyoning though since dd (9) did do rock climbing as a hobby for a year until recently (she likes it but gave up because too much waiting around - too many in class and two few instructors)

There are tonnes of other options for excursions which look fascinating / fun but less white knuckle!

That's sad Marne! - but thanks for telling me, had missed that news report. How tragic

Would your travel insurance actually cover these types of activities?. It may not.

We did the British equivalent of canyoning last year in the Lakes (ghyll scrambling) when DD2 was just 8, but she looks like 6. She managed it brilliantly, even better than some of the adults in our group. Canyoning is often graded (easy to difficult) - is there no easy option available instead of moderate?

We're thinking of doing an 'easy' rafting trip (not very much white water) this summer as well in Austria - the minimum age is 6 and it really promises to be for absolute beginners.There are several more higher up on the scale that claim to be moderate or difficult, so I think we'll be OK with the easy one. The kids are also good swimmers.

Mmm, I've just looked at your description of the canyoning, and that definitely sounds a lot more adventurous than what we did in the Lakes last year - our big adventure was a 3-metre jump into cold water and a 5-metre slide.

And for the rafting I think you'd need to be looking at grade 1 rather than 2 to 3.

OK - thanks guys. Good point about the travel insurance btw. I tend to be a bit of a 'helicopter' over protective parent so when I baulked at these two options I wondered if I was being a bit cotton woolish - good to get opinions and check that my first instincts were perhaps right (i.e. wanting to leave that sort of thing until they are a bit older)

Still have lots of other things to do like zip wiring through the rainforest tree tops etc!