The Ultimate Texas Tubing Guide

Name the river before you name the bus

This guide is for the group that still has to pick the water. A Comal hour, a San Marcos City Park afternoon, a Guadalupe stretch below Canyon Lake, and a Frio weekend are not the same day. Write the river, the city-limit container rule, and the outfitter street pin first. Then send Austin Party Ride the date, pickup, passenger count, and timing so the charter matches that shop. Use the form on this page, call (512) 900-8324, or email info@austinpartyride.com. If you already know the shop, use river float trip transportation. A motorized lake day belongs on the Lake Travis party bus guide. Site ranges: San Marcos 32 miles / about 35 minutes; New Braunfels 50 miles / about 50 minutes; Wimberley 40 miles / about 46 minutes. This site does not publish a measured Saturday I-35 split — treat the table as off-peak planning, not a traffic forecast.

City Park, Lions Club, and the Old Bastrop Highway pin

The San Marcos River starts in hundreds of springs in the city center. Parks copy calls it “always a refreshing 72 degrees”; treat that as the spring reach, not every riffle to Martindale. Public tubing sits at City Park. The Meadows Center at 201 San Marcos Springs Drive runs glass-bottom boats — not tube rental. Lions Club Tube Rental is at 170 Charles Austin Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666. Rate page (18 August 2026): tube + shuttle $25, 10 AM–7 PM, last new tubes 5 PM, last shuttle 6:30, shuttle-only $15, $5 life-jacket rental, group discounts at 10 tubes. Texas State Tubes walk-up is 2024 North Old Bastrop Highway (exit 101 River Park Drive), not 1001 Aquarena Springs Drive. Walk-up from $20; seven days 1 May–30 August; Friday–Sunday weather-permitting in March, April, and September; last shuttle about four hours after last launch. Shop rules: no glass, no styrofoam, no beer bongs, no music audible beyond 50 feet. Recheck texasstatetubes.com. Don’s Fish Camp is 105 Nelle Lane, Martindale, TX 78655 — not 107 River Lodge Lane. Pricing: $30 tube float pass with parking and shuttle, $25 BYO tube, $12 cooler add-ons; kids 6 and under free on that page. Do not stack City Park and Martindale without a written take-out.

Comal chute hours versus Guadalupe dam water

New Braunfels River Operations: the Comal is about 2.5 miles — shortest navigable river in Texas — from Comal Springs / the Edwards Aquifer. Do not enter near those springs in Landa Park. City copy cites about a quarter million river users each summer. The Comal is the short in-town float with the Tube Chute. The Guadalupe through town and Gruene is the longer dam-release river. Comal flotation devices cannot exceed 5 feet in any dimension, so most doubles fail there and remain legal on the Guadalupe. Rockin’ R River Rides, 1405 Gruene Road, New Braunfels, TX 78130, (830) 629-9999. FAQ (18 August 2026): tubes $25 including shuttle; BYO $20; rafts $40. Office hours Mon–Fri 9 AM–5 PM. Locations: Gruene, The Shore, Comal, Riverbank, Huaco — write the lot name; shuttle direction reverses. Texas Tubes, 250 Meusebach Street, (830) 626-9900 (625-6800 is stale). 2026: seven days weather permitting, 9 AM–4:30 PM last rental, last shuttle 7:30 PM, March–October, Comal including the Tube Chute. Comal Tubes, 1880 South Business IH 35, (830) 609-9024 (not 1836 S Union / 625-5337). From $25, ages 4+, about two to three hours. City Tube Chute at Prince Solms Park is separate: $15 plus deposit and a walk along S. Union with no outfitter shuttle.

Horseshoe Loop, Frio, Blanco, and Barton Creek run on different clocks

Canyon Lake’s Horseshoe Loop sits outside New Braunfels city limits. Tube Haus at 12454 FM 306, Canyon Lake, TX 78133 is one pin; confirm that shop’s can rules instead of importing Chapter 86.14. Longer Guadalupe segments often run two to four hours when Canyon Lake is releasing, and water temperature follows the dam, not a spring constant. The Frio near Concan and Garner State Park is a weekend-scale Austin day unless you have a written wait-and-return window. Keep Frio River Outfitters, 2885 Hwy 83, Concan, (830) 232-6462, and Happy Hollow Resort, (830) 232-5422. Confirm 2026 walk-up prices on the shop board. Garner has park rules. The Blanco through Wimberley is quieter and flow-dependent; pair Blue Hole only with a park reservation. Barton Creek (Sculpture Falls, Twin Falls) is a rain-event float with no outfitter — check USGS Barton Creek 08155240 and skip trickle or flood.

Container law is a city line, not a Texas slogan

San Marcos no longer “allows cans on the river.” The single-use beverage container ban took effect 1 May 2024. On the river, banks, and “No Zones,” only reusable bottles and cups you would wash at home. One cooler per person under 30 quarts in No Zones. Cans, disposable bottles, party cups, juice boxes, and Styrofoam stay in “Go Zones” (fixed picnic tables). Inside New Braunfels, Chapter 86.14 bans disposable food and drink containers on the Comal and in-city Guadalupe: one latched cooler ≤30 quarts per person; two tubes per person; no volume drinking devices; no containers under 5 fluid ounces; noise not audible beyond 50 feet; citations up to $500. Read What Can I Bring and nbtexas.org River Recreation. Open alcohol on the water is not a park picnic. Pack out trash; stay off private banks; no unmarked bridge jumps; no glass.

Read the gauge the morning you launch

Shops cluster spring through early fall. San Marcos and Comal water can be entered year-round; Guadalupe and Blanco fail on low water without rain or Canyon Lake releases. Bookmark USGS Texas Water Data: San Marcos 08170500, Comal 08169000, Guadalupe 08168500. New Braunfels Guadalupe bands: 500–750 cfs, jackets for children 8 and younger; 750–1,000 cfs, jackets for all ages; above that, no tubing. “100–300 cfs feels easy” is not an ordinance. Never launch on a flood hydrograph.

What fits a 30-quart cooler and what does not

Pack to the city cooler cap, not to a grocery-run fantasy. Hard-sided coolers 30 quarts or smaller with a latch belong on New Braunfels and San Marcos No-Zone floats. Fill them with ice, water, and beverages in reusable bottles. Waterproof sunscreen (reapply on a schedule you can keep), water shoes that stay on rocks, a clip-on dry bag for phone and keys, a chin-strap hat, a rash guard, and 10–15 feet of loose rope for cooler tubes are the useful kit. Leave glass, Styrofoam, disposable cups, jewelry you cannot replace, and pool toys that shred on limestone. Inflatable “party islands” fail the Comal five-foot rule and become trash when they pop.

Keep a group on the same exit

Tie tubes loosely so the string can bend around a chute. Put one person on the cooler. Put the strongest swimmer first to call strainers and the take-out landmark. Missing the outfitter exit means a walk or a private-property problem. Groups of 10+ should reserve with the shop (Lions Club and Rockin’ R both publish group discounts) and give the charter driver the same last-shuttle time the cashier gave you. The outfitter shuttle moves you between put-in and take-out. Austin Party Ride is the Austin hotel-to-shop-to-hotel clock, not that shuttle. Leave two to four seats for wet clothes and latched coolers. Party buses in the published fleet run 16–45 passengers; match cabin to headcount plus gear, then request a written quote.

Sun, water, and the ride that is not the outfitter shuttle

Drink water on a timer. Hill Country sun plus river reflection is a burn and a heat-illness setup. Eat before and during the float if anyone is drinking. Public-intoxication rules still apply on land. Texas Parks & Wildlife requires children under 13 to wear a USCG-approved life jacket on recreational vessels under 26 feet when underway; TPWD life-jacket rules are the statewide vessel standard. New Braunfels adds the Guadalupe flow bands above. Ask the shop for kid-size jackets; Lions Club rents them. The old “under 6 everywhere” sentence on this page was incomplete.

Austin Party Ride picks up at homes, hotels, and Airbnbs, drops at the pin you wrote, waits, and returns. Confirm BYOB cooler space for guests 21+ and a driver on the quote. We serve New Braunfels, San Marcos, Gruene, Wimberley, and the Frio pin when hours fit. See the pricing guide and fleet, then request a quote with river + shop + last shuttle. Recheck USGS, the city ordinance, and shop hours the morning you launch.