Academy Rentals & Tours

I just saw the reply now… Wow, just take responsibility for your actions guys! We had no reservation he is now claiming! You guys messed up my birthday present. Yes, it was a long time ago, but a screw up like that I will truly never forget. We were looking forward to the trip for weeks…
Aww, just sad to see you not owning up to your mistakes. Really sad.

Chris is the man and this location + ride is just magical. We went to ride «last minute» (group of 5) on a weekday (!) and there were no issues — we just got on the buggy and ATVs and rolled out. Amazing to see the sunset at the desert! Everyone should experience at least once.

I try to come back every year to take a tour with Chris and his crew. Chris has the best energy. His main concern first is your safety and next, well, is having FUN! Get your butt out to the desert and play with his wide array of desert toys!

We had an awesome time! We were a group of six road tripping cross country from New York and Chris gave us a great deal. Greg was our tour guide and he was great. Very welcoming and friendly. We weren’t sure about it at first and there was a bit of a mishap with finding the address but it all turned out perfect in the end. It was well worth the money. You will not find a deal like this.

I do a lot of Moto and wanted to show my girl and family the desert experience. Chris rented us quads, mostly 250s but also some 400s for the boys that like a little more juice. We went out at his garage on the lake. It was an awesome experience for all. I would say the desert right behind the lake is some of the best desert riding for beginners in SoCal. The area is wide open, not a lot of traffic and not rocky. Perfect! Thanks Chris!

TERRIBLE business. DO NOT USE.
My family and I decided it would be fun to go ATVing for father’s day so we reserved a 2pm tour. After driving for 2hrs out to this place in the middle of nowhere we find yourself looking at a fenced in RV in a dirt lot and no one to be found.
After calling the number on the RV, the number on the website, AND the number given to us in the confirmation email we received days earlier we got no response from anyone. After waiting for a good 45mins we decided enough was enough and we left.
What kind of company does this to its clients? A joke of a company. AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS.

We hired Chris to help us scout locations for a photo shoot and thankful we did! He got us to all the spots we wouldn’t have been able to find on our own and made sure we all made it out! If you’ve ever been stuck in sand in the middle of no where then you will understand why you need a Chris on your team!

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TALKING WITH THIS GUY OR BUSINESS!!!
So after 2 hours drive, we arrive at the address listed Living Social coupon. He tells us that it’s at another address 14 more miles away. We needed up at someone’s house by a lake. Random place. We get there and there’s two guys washing quads and say they don’t know what’s going on but their «friend» told them to be there to have them ready. But they at first didn’t know his name or the deal or arrangement we had with Chris. It wasn’t until we said we were going to leave is when one of the guys said he would call him. After it all he said he would make a deal for $ 250, this was on top of the living social deal we had! They had no insurance the quads were run down broken lights and all. They said if we even rolled it it would be a $ 100 charge automatically. When we finally decided to leave, Chris called my fiancée and cussed him out over the phone! He said to «take his little friends and get the f*** out of there then». The next few hours we were bombarded by his ridiculous texting and insults!!! I could not believe it! I will definately be reporting him to BBB.

My 3 kids and I had a blast! It was my 11 and 12 year old’s first time riding quads and they really loved it and can’t wait to go again. My little guy (4-​yr old) rode with me in a dune buggy and he loved it. Our guide Chris was very professional, courteous and a good with kids. Seeing the tank added an extra cool factor also.

If you’re looking for an adventure, you have to go on a ride with Chris. I don’t think anyone loves what they do more than this guy. It’s not the typical ATV place where you show up at a set time and have a set time block. Chris is a free spirit that takes you on a journey exploring all over the desert and providing you interesting stories along the way. This was definitely the best part of my buddies bachelor party and I’ll certainly be going back.

I went here with my boyfriend because we wanted to try something new. We rented out ATV’s, which were functioning and safe (important). We rode out for 4 hours into the desert with our tour guide/​host Chris. He seemed cool, he fits the stereotype of a extreme desert athlete… broken bones and everything so he is an expert. He took us out to a military bombing zones, but at the time there was no target practice. We came out of it alive. We got to see the gems of the ocotilio desert and the sad history that at one point it use to be a ocean. I was more interested in exploring the depths of the desert with the ATV and that is exactly what we did. If you are more intermediate or advanced you will probably be lead to a more challenging path. I enjoyed the little baby bumps we went over as a starter :)

We booked a tour with Chris and it was awesome. I guess everything changed since he got his new stuff.
We got all the equipment, helmets, gloves, goggles, and backpacks for water. He explained everything to us and then we hit the desert.
You have to follow his rules about safety because that’s very important out there.
And he always has a story to tell. There were five of us together for the whole day .
We will be back because it was just fun and relaxing .
Bring enough water, and of course breakfast Burritos ;)
Next time we do the wake-​boarding as well .
Thanks again Chris for that day.

This dude is shady scam artist, stay away…

I have never written a Unilocal review before, but i needed to warn others about this company. BEWARE!
Myself and three of my friends bought Living Social deals for 4-​hour ATV rentals from this company. I contacted the company to make a reservation and spoke with Chris who had me fill out a reservation form online. The form required my credit card information, and Chris was insistent that I couldn’t reserve without providing my credit card number.
A week later he had charged over $ 300 to my credit card. When i asked him about it he said he was confused and accidentally charged it. He promised me a refund.
On the day of our ATV reservation, we drove two hours to the desert and found the storefront to be closed. I use the term «storefront» very loosely… they operate out of a trailer in a dusty lot. When i called Chris he said he was sleeping and had confused our reservation day.
After this was sorted out and the four of us were out on our ATVs one of the vehicles died and the other had problems turning. Our experience with the vehicles was awful and our four hour rental was cut short by two hours. We did not get the full time we paid for.
Before we left i confirmed with Chris that he would REFUND my credit card asap.
He did not.
It took 3 MONTHS and dozens of phone calls/​emails before he provided me with a refund. It was only after i threatened to file a dispute of charges with my bank that he refunded my card — however, he only refunded 85% of the charge. When i asked why he hadnt refunded the full amount he said that I had to pay for the refund fees. I ended up spending nearly $ 50 in fees for i charge that shouldnt have been put through in the first place.
This experience was the most awful experience i’ve ever had dealing with any company. EVER. I have complained to Living Social and am hoping they will not provide deals for this company anymore to unknowing consumers.
DO NOT USE ACADEMY RENTALS. You will regret it.

Two friends and I purchased Groupons for a 4-​hr ATV rental from Academy Rentals & Tours in October for $ 49, and we have had nothing but troubles in dealing with this company. They were very evasive about confirming a reservation, unless we upgraded to a tour package at a cost of an additional $ 75 per person. We did make a reservation without the tour, and then we were told that another party later booked a tour at that day/​time, so they were no longer able to hold our reservation. Essentially, if someone booked a tour they would bump our reservation off. What kind of crap is that?! I did have a lengthy conversation with them about this policy, and it seems that they only have one staff member working at a time — so if someone books a tour, then there’s nobody available to just rent ATVs out to customers.
They were also very unresponsive to emails and voicemails. I contacted Groupon and requested a refund after this business’s shoddy practices and bait-​and-​switch upselling antics. I never did actually rent from this company, but given my experience I do not recommend renting from them.

Bait & switch. Our group of 8 bought vouchers on LivingSocial and made the 1.5 hr. drive to Ocotillo from San Diego. In advance of the trip, Chris told us by phone he recommended a guided tour for $ 61. He gave no indication that this would be a per-​person fee, even though the number of tour guides (one) was the same. Upon informing us of this, and seeing our apparent surprise, Chris was inflexible, aggressive and rude about the matter. He asked us incredulously how he’d be able to make money if he didn’t price his tours that way. In response to our request to negotiate the tour guide fee (a simple economy of scale argument), he sarcastically asked us, «what do you think this is, Mexico?» Our only option was to put down $ 500 security deposits per person ($ 4000 for the group) for a self-​guided tour, during which Chris suggested we’d be hopelessly lost, and likely to incur damages that would eat into our security deposit. Disappointed and frustrated, we left, resolved to get a refund from LivingSocial if at all possible.
On the bright side, the guy that helped us with the paperwork (JJ) was friendly and helpful.
In summary, if you’re thinking about renting ATVs with this company, especially if you plan to use a group deal, you might want to think twice.

We showed up a half hour early, and Chris was already there; he got us set up and going ahead of schedule for our all-​day guided tour.
We rode all day and had a great, though exhausting, time. I’m not sure if I’d recommend it for absolute beginners (as I was), and you run some risks whenever you do anything like this anyway, but all in all we had a lot of fun.

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical when I first looked up Academy Rentals (based on previous Unilocal reviews). However, I was shopping around for ATV rentals and decided to get a quote anyway. Chris sounded pretty straight up on the phone and offered our group a serious deal for day of rentals and a tour, way cheaper than any other place I found. I decided to book the tour despite the reviews. I pestered him with about a hundred emails trying to confirm our reservations and make sure we were all prepared for an 8 hour desert ride and he always responded in a timely manner.
We showed up at the designated time (9:00) and everything was ready to go.
This was my first time ATVing, so I can’t really attest to the quality of the vehicles, but I can tell you they go pretty damn fast. Chris was cruising on his bike and we were racing behind him trying to keep up. I thought this was the fun part of ATVing. Seriously, I thought that was the whole point of off-​roading in the desert. This guy is an ex-​Baja racer and likes to go fast (and so did we), but he stops when he gets ahead to let us catch up so we would go at our own pace.
We had an awesome barbecue lunch at Chris’s private ranch and a leisure ride back. Our thumbs were killing us from pressing the throttle all day, but overall it was a great time. I would highly recommend Chris if you are organizing a bachelor party or just want to do something different for the weekend. If you are the adventurous sort, Academy Rentals is the way to go. I would definitely go again when I move back to SD.
The only small hiccup was that I was not told we needed to pay in cash and I came bearing a credit card. Luckily, between us we scrounged enough money so no biggie.

We drove to Ocotillo from San Diego to meet Chris, the owner at a predetermined time. He was and hour late! Although, ill give him 30 min slack since we agreed to a time range. So i guess he was only 30 min late. Not much safety training for beginners, not much safety gear, gloves/​goggles very old & dirty. Bikes, ATVs, and dune buggies were all very old and not maintained at all. My bike’s clutch broke and the engine/​frame bolt broke. Although it was a guided tour, chris was full throttle all the way. He rarely slowed up to check on us. Suggest Chris have a partner to stay behind a group tour in case anyone got hurt. Good trails & scenery though.
These were just the facts (except for my suggestion). Hope this helps someone.

After multiple confirmations, Chris no-​showed on us and wouldn’t pick up his phone or return our calls. After talking with various locals, apparently this is the norm… not showing or not having equipment for confirmed reservations, equipment that breaks down, and various related issues. Since he has no real storefront apparently he’s near impossible to track down much of the time. Avoid avoid avoid, there are other similar shops in the area that provide a quality service.
While Chris states below I had no reservation, I did indeed fill out and email his reservation paperwork in full the day prior, and we confirmed this reservation with him over the phone, including confirming the exact time of arrival while we were en-​route.
Stop in at a bar/​restaurant in the area and ask about Chris… you’ll hear more then enough stories from the locals to keep you away.