Jocassee Outdoor Center

Such a great experience! The check in was easy and the team made sure we had what we needed to have an exceptional time on the water. We will definitely be back!

We had a fantastic experience with Jocassee Outdoor Center! Reserving the boat online was quick and easy, and the staff made both pickup and drop-off a breeze. Everyone we interacted with was super friendly and helpful, which made the whole day stress-free. The boat was in great condition, and we couldn’t have asked for a smoother process. We’ll definitely be back!

Best experience and best service on Lake Jocassee; hands down. The JOC staff have worked hard to ensure that every guest is treated as family. The store has top-notch Lake Jocassee merchandise, and the staff is so helpful. We decided on a last minute rental and they made every accommodation possible to make our day perfect. We will definitely be back. Even our dog was jumping for joy!

It doesn't get any better than working with the JOC team! They are so professional and friendly. It is very convenient to have our boat stored near the lake and get the professional service it requires. All the new additions to the store are great as well!

Jessica and the staff were incredibly helpful! We needed a boat on short notice, and they took care of everything quickly and efficiently. They also shared a bunch of great fishing tips and tricks for the area. Excellent service all around!

We had a great day on the lake thanks to JOC! My family rented a pontoon boat and the service was exceptional. We arrived, got a tutorial and had a shuttle waiting to take us to our boat which was ready to go. Had a great day, shuttle waiting for us after boating and quick trip back to rental shop. Smooth, prepared, efficient and friendly. 10/10

Great people! Always the best experience. They have everything you need plus great hospitality. Chris makes a good chili dog. Kodis hospitality and service is always top notch Cheers to a great team. Keep up the great work, thanks for all you do to make for a great experience!

10 out of 10 would recommend. From start to finish a great experience. We were welcomed like family at the store before getting to the boat ramp. At the ramp the young man who helped us get start was very nice and professional. Renting a boat from the Jocassee Outdoor Center is the best way to experience the Lake and it’s waterfalls.

The positive: Jocassee Outdoor Center is the only major rental outfitter for Lake Jocassee, the clearest and most pristine mountain lake in South Carolina. Our pontoon boat was in good working condition and we had a great day on the lake. It was sunny and 69 degrees the weekend after Thanksgiving! The negative: The staff did not adhere to basic COVID-19 precautions. In the store, only the cashier had on a mask. At the dock, neither staff member had on a mask and they didn't appear to have any available even after we pointed it out. We were assured that the boats were "thoroughly cleaned" in between use but we saw no cleaning supplies and the staff member touched all over the boat without wiping it or cleaning his hands. We will definitely be back, but probably after the pandemic is over.

Rented our half day pontoon boat on a Monday. You stop and sign paperwork and pay for your boat at the rental office (about a mile away from where they drop the boats). With waterfalls the reason why we selected this lake, we purchased a map for $4 that was worthless in directions and locations of the waterfall. After leaving the rental office, confusion sets in. Only vehicles with trailers are permitted to park in either of the two lots closest to the water. For cars without trailers, you need to park about a 1/2 mile away. There is a small area to load in and out - but that is within the movement of all the boats and trailers going in and out of the water. There is no set area to be met and greeted by a Staff member. Our Boat was at the dock and thankfully one of the staff members was interviewing someone, or there would have been no one to tell us what to do. When we brought the boat back, there was no one to tell us what to do, so we called the office. There was a lot of people on the dock, boats going in and out of the water. You are on your own - there is no assistance from their staff. They bring the boats out of the water, up to the Center to gas up. Now, you are signing paperwork at the office about the conditions of the pontoon boat, but not seeing the pontoon boat to note any damage. You are not seeing how much gas they really are putting into the boat before or after the rental. Beautiful lake.

THESE PEOPLE WIN THE HOSPITALITY AWARD! On the day of the solar eclipse, Kelly and company hooked it the hell up. Like a witch of good vibes, she somehow conjured a boat, on a day when everything had been booked for months in advance, then on that same day when you could probably charge anything, due to the volume, SHE GAVE US A DEAL. Incredible. The facility itself is also top notch. I've rented boats on many lakes in the past, but never have I rented from a place that sells So much outdoor gear, including hammocks, flip flops, a surprising amount of fishing gear, paddle boards, etc. They also had a surprising amount of groceries and camping supplies like charcoal, spatulas, ropes and whatnot. They also sell hot food, which I have never encountered at a rental facility. They also sell beer and cigarettes if you need to party. These are the kind of people that make me proud to be from the south, 10/10 on hospitality. Thank you and we will see you again soon.

This is my first review but with this unprofessional behavior something needs to be said. My daughter and I were in the store a few days ago and the lady behind the counter starts talking about sexual things her and the owner do. So I take my daughter to the other side of the store as she does not need to hear those things. Then I believe the owner came in as the same lady was feeling him up behind the counter. Then I overheard this individual, I believe she said his name was Charlie make a comment on how the locals are stupid and how easy it is to rip them off. At this point I grabbed my daughters hand and walked out. Originally being from this area i was astonished by this behavior. Knowing many of the locals in this area if they were to hear that same comment I am assured they wouldn't be upset to see this business closed.

I took my 4-year old daughter to Lake Jocassee for her first camping trip. On the boat ramp I was accosted by an employee of Jocassee Outdoor Center. He hurled racial comments at me and was incredibly vulgar in front of my child. All because I took me 3-5 minutes to load everything on my boat at the ramp. He threatened to turn me into DNR for blocking the ramp and said he would F me up in front of my child. He also stated "Where we come from we don't take kindly to your type." I emailed the manager and didn't hear back many days. After finally tracking the manager down she said the employee had another story of the encounter (imagine that). I can assure you a dad with their 4-year old daughter isn't the instigator. I simply wanted to take my kid camping. My daughter is now scarred from the encounter. I would not use this company. There are many other options in the area to consider.

6 years of courteous service. Boats serve their purpose - ignore the poor reviews that expect refunds when taking a boat into a rainforest and not expecting rain. Parking is easily marked and there is an employee on the dock to direct you to your boat and examine it with you. If you are somehow missing the signs that say "jocassee outdoor boat parking" when you return, you certainly should be paying better attentions to your surroundings. You probably also missed the beautiful views.

Best customer service, staff is friendly and professional. LOVE the country atmosphere in the store, especially the retro kitchen and the food. Offered a Bear Poop shake, (kids loved them), I got a Lake Shake. Picked up a few Christmas gifts, too, local jams, sauces and a t-shirt. Rental boat was ready when we were, we arrived early as requested for paperwork and instructions. The lake is SO beautiful. We will definitely be back. Thank you for a wonderful weekend!

Rented a pontoon boat for the family. The service was great and the boat was everything they promised. Cool little shop inside as well.

Same scenario as Caitlins review. Confusing and unprofessional check. I am in the area looking to rent. This popped up and I noticed my review is gone. They did the same thing to me and I am an experienced boater. Came home and several days later 400 on my charge card. Said I bent a new prop. Liars. After arguing they said they will lower it to $250. What a new prop should cost. They are not reparable. This happened about 3 years ago. If it's under new management then they borrowed old tricks. Stay away. Very unethical people

I give them a three only for customer service. I called for a boat rental and was told they do not give refunds even if a storm comes through. I waited to do my reservation the day before I needed it and it worked out. I wasn't told originally there were only two time slots so I was put off by that. 9-1 and 2-6? I don't want to go out that early or do I want to be out that late. My mother-in-law had never been to Lake Jocassee and wanted to see it, I thought no better way than a boat rental. Mother-in-laws aren't generally people that care to be out until 6PM with an hour drive and then some. That's usually dinner time. Anyhow, I paid a deposit and then paid the remaining amount upon arrival. I was told to arrive 30 minutes early to go over everything. The cashier wasn't the friendliest nor did she offer any info unless asked. Thankfully, I overheard her tell the people in front of me what to do, so I got my info that way. She didn't tell me how to get the boat, who to ask, what to do upon returning, when the gas will be filled and what to expect, anything really until I asked and reaffirmed what I heard. I felt like she didn't really want to deal with me at all. Upon arriving at the boat dock we were not greeted and there were several boats as well as several families waiting around. The boat guys were still loading up the boats to the dock and one guy was going around talking to people. We were the last to leave when another guy came around (there were at least 3) to give us safety info and some tips as we requested. We didn't get out of there until 2:25, 25 minutes of the reservation just gone. So basically we had been there almost an hour when we finally went out. Thankfully the weather was incredible and the lake wasn't jam packed. It was a great time and we returned the boat, all is well. But they could do a better job with communication, friendliness and time management.

In between lunch and dinner stopped at this little nifty spot outside of Devils Fork. Craving something, I figured I would have to settle for Gas Station food. The two dogs, a Great Dane and a Pomeranian, were greeted politely by the owner and we were seated on the patio. After a wonderful cheeseburger, made to order, we were able to stock up on firewood. Super friendly, accommodating staff and great locals to chat with.

Awesome service! We got just what we expected & the staff was so friendly & helpful. Even picked us up 1/2 way through the day so we could tend to our pets. Boat was great. This is thee only company on Jocassee we will rent from from now on.

Great service, friendly staff. Our pontoon rental was a blast! The store is well stocked for campers and boaters, plus lot's of good fishing gear. We will definitely be back :)

Do not even stop by here and waste your time. Rude and unprofessional owners. We went through the rental agreement and they charged the card. Then for no reason they decided they wouldn't rent the boat to us. Really disappointed in this place, I recommend you visit another boat rental shop

Months in advance, we booked a pontoon boat and driver to drop our group and SUP boards across the lake at a camp site, and pick us up in 3 days. We confirmed the week before (& had done this trip the previous year) but they showed up at the landing with a boat too small for us. I spoke with three staff that morning when we realized we would not fit in their smaller boat. The three staff said the Pontoon boat was in the shop but maintained we would definitely fit in smaller boat. We had to contact a local family member to shuttle 1 person and 2 boards, and a load of gear (that would not fit the small JOC boat). We do these types of trips frequently and were surprised to be in this predicament. The next week we called the owner who offered a small, partial refund. The refund was never provided.

Bad service, do not recommend. Very disrespectful people working there. They don't really care about customers since they are pretty much the only boat rental place near the lake. I'd much rather take the time and book with a different company even if it takes alittle extra time.

One of the worst places I have ever dealt with. Their staff were extremely unfriendly and unknowledgeable. It was obvious that the people working the desk had no idea how to boat at all and kept insisting that we would be fine to go out despite thunderstorms and unsafe equipment. We had our skiing line snap on us during our first person's ski and they refused to refund us because of issues with their faulty equipment. I have been boating all of my life and have never seen such a lousy excuse for a place. They have permanently lost my business and the business of all of my friends who frequent Jocassee.

Not friendly Not helpful ... whatever kind of attitude. So whatevers w them. Maybe we were not of correct race or look. Lame.

Had our boat stored here. Called them last fall and told them to winterize our boat. They didn't. Owner would not take responsibility for the oversight. Needless to say we are in the process of replacing a motor, power steering unit and other items due to their negligence. We didn't have any records other than the phone bill so we're screwed. Jocassee Outdoors was hard to deal with from the get go, they left our boat filthy and basically blew us off.

Do NOT, do NOT, do NOT rent from this place! My family of 5 and one guest rented a boat from them, our first time being to Lake Jocassee. We heard nothing but wonderful things about this lake. We arrived to the Outdoor Center to check in and get our paperwork filled out. It took about 30 minutes just for this, which is absolutely ridiculous when you only have one person in front of you and two people behind the counter but the other one doesn't even offer help. We finally get through the check-in process. We drive down and park the car, unload our things and go to the dock to meet our boat and the employee. First impression was the boat was filthy, in very poor shape, the carpet was green and molded/mildewed. It was one of the most horrific sights ever. The employee did not go over operating instructions, nor did he do an inspection of the boat (like most rental places do), to detect for damage before you rent and any damage after you rent. Keep in mind, this is a family of 5 (children ages 4,6, & 20), not a wild group of teenagers looking to party. Just a final farewell before school starts again. Thinking that the employee didn't do any inspection was kind of weird and he really didn't act like he cared to be there. We left the dock, and quickly realized the boat was even crappier than we thought. The motor on the boat wouldn't even let you go past half throttle (what a joke). We finally get to the first waterfall, which is beautiful. And we realize that the Outdoor center did not provide us with enough life jackets! What if their crappy boat had capsized? And they didn't even provide us life jackets!!! Like they previously stated the rental included (minus children's life jackets), which we had prepared for and brought with us. So the tube we also payed for to rent went to waste because we had no life jackets to wear. I know this is getting lengthy, BUT DONT STOP READING**** this may be a lot of problems so far, but I haven't got to the worst of it. At about 6:30, we take the boat back to the dock, after being out since 10 a.m. And we leave the boat tied up to the dock, with keys in it, as they instructed us to. There were no employees at the dock when we returned. Kind of fishy to just leave your "nice" rental boats unattended at the dock, right? Well they had my mom's debit card number on file, for the remaining rental fees and to pay for gas after we had left. A couple days later, my mother looks at her banking statement and they have deducted $550 from her account without telling her why or informing her first. My mom calls them, and they rudely inform us that we damaged and "wrecked" the boat, that the prop was damaged and the toon was smashed in. Remember THERE IS A 4 year old and a 6 year OLD ON THE BOAT!!!! And none of the sorts happened while we rented the boat. No one wrecked, or hit anything with the boat but now my family is being penalized for something we did not do, due to their negligence for upkeep of their boats. If you rent a pontoon or anything for that matter from this company, you will REGRET IT. The owner is a con artist looking to fix his crappy boats with innocent people's credit card numbers.

Convenience store that also sells things you might need for fishing, camping, boating, and pure gasoline. Over priced tho. If you have a boat you may not be able to stop because there is little to no parking. Very rude workers. I only went in there 3 times. All 3 times I was ignored by the people behind the counter when checking out. To the point I had to say "hey I'm ready to check out now!" They were either to busy socializing with each other or on one occasion doing the books or something. One of them would look up at me then go right back doing what they were doing. No acknowledgement or "we'll be with you in a second" or anything. They also have a place where you can store your boat for a reasonable price. But, I would not recommend storing there. The entrance to the boat yard is a steep hill. You can only enter or exit on the lake side because of the high crest at the road. So, if you wanted to take your boat to lake Keowe you would have to go down to the store and hope it wasn't busy and turn around there. If they were busy then you had to go on up to the park and turn around where the boat parking for Jocassee is. Same turn around deal when returning from Keowe. Now the boat yard. They cater to boat owners who have money burning holes in their pockets or are just lazy. They for an exorbitant fee will valet your boat to and from the lake. Which is 1 mile away! These valet customers seem to hold precedents over other boats being stored. I was told we can park our boat anywhere we could find that was uncovered and not blocking other boats. Well there are very few places to be found. The yard is set up with rows of wooden boat garages. So, trying to find a corner or small patch of anything other than mud is near impossible. They obviously only cared about collecting out money. We thought we found a good spot. On our second trip up to Jocassee we went to retrieve our boat only to find it missing. I had a trailer lock on it! Of course we were shocked and thinking somebody had busted the lock off and stole our boat. Because the yard is not secured in any way. We drove around the yard towards where they have a small building that does boat repairs. On our way there we see our boat backed way up in a grassy area. They apparently didn't like were we parked and hooked a chain to our trailer and drug our boat to a different spot. Scratching up the trailer tongue and our trailer lock! We talked to a couple workers there and they had no good explanation. Everyone who works at this place from the store to the boat yard act holier than tho and have their heads up their arses! Another warning. Jocassee is a busy lake in the summer. If you want to take your boat up on a Saturday go early! The park will close when full. Sometimes as early as 9am! If you do get in early plan on limited space on the boat dock. It will be filled with the valet boats! Just sitting there empty waiting for their owners! We love lake Jocassee and spend a lot of time boating there. But, if we can help it will not spend another dime at this establishment!

Worst boat rental place ever! We paid for 4 hours of rental from 2pm till 6pm. Paid upfront. When the boat was not delivered as promised at 2:30pm we called the store and turns out they had forgotten about us. Took them another 30 minutes to deliver the boat, so we ended up using it for only 3 hours instead the 4 hours (and it is $70 per hour) we had paid for. The owner (Charley) said he would refund $100 for the hour we hadn't used and he wouldn't charge for the gas. The next day I saw another charge of $40 on my credit card. I have been calling the store for 2 weeks and the owner was never there. The employees kept promising he would call back within an hour which he never did. 2 weeks later I finally got to talk to him just to hear his refusal to refund the difference. He said he had plenty of charge backs and he was very proficient in handling them so that I would not stand a chance if I do a chargeback. I do not recommend that place unless you want to lose your money and deal with a total a%%%ole.

We have rented a boat every year for the last 6 years from JOC and will never, ever do business with them again. They were late getting our oat with the requested equipment to the dock. The boat failed on the lake and we had to wait 90 minutes for someone to come and jump start the boat. When we got back in and told the clerk at about that, she said "not again". Evidently she was sick and tired of hearing about malfunctions in their fleet. The pontoon we rented (#3) had a 115 hp motor but could barely give us a good tubing experience even at full throttle. We asked for some kind of consideration for the time we missed on the lake and had to fight with them for 2 days to get a small deduction in charges. THIS BUSINESS IS A RIP-OFF AND THE STAFF IS RUDE!

What a mess! The boats are awful and the management could care less about customer service. Stay away from this place. I rented a pontoon from these guys...it broke down in the middle of the lake...no refund, no "I'm sorry". I've rented from them before and it's gotten progressively worse. Burn me once "shame on you", burn me twice "shame on me." Done with this place.

I was encouraged by the company to make a reservation in advance, so I scheduled a trip a month early and was required to pay half the cost upfront. The night before my scheduled rental (Sunday around 7 p.m.) I was contacted by the company telling me that my rental was going to be canceled due to the boats needing to be serviced. (Several people in the group had taken vacation time from work for this trip) I was given the name of a competitor and was told to call them. Since it was a last minute ordeal it took half the day to get a boat ready but I was given a fair rate. I was assured by lake Jocassee outdoor center that I would be refunded ASAP but it took at least 5 different phone calls and 2 weeks for them to finally agree to refunding me. Each time I called asking about my refund they were rude and I was told a 'manager' would call me back (they never called back). I understand that problems happen from time to time but I believe that PAYING customers should be treated with respect. I would definitely recommend using another company. Based off of their actions they tried to keep my money without even providing any type of service.

We have had the most terrible experience with Jocassee Outdoor Center. We have rented from them twice. The first time, we showed up and they told us our boat was ready and waiting with the keys in it. We got down to the boat ramp and there was no boat. Apparently someone else hopped in and took off. The employees were in no particular hurry to help us with the situation, but they did eventually show up with another boat for us. Our second time, shame on us, was this past weekend for Labor Day. We brought our children and parents to enjoy a day on the lake. About mid-afternoon, we heard a loud thump and water splashed everywhere. We were in the middle of the lake, with no trees, etc, around. The motor was turned on its side. We waited for someone to come help us. When Jonathan arrived, he said, "You must have hit something, but we have insurance so don't worry about it". He then towed us in. I received a call from them the next day letting me know we were going to have to pay for the damage. We discussed this with the owner and we were told that he would see what the damages would cost. We are reasonable people, and although we feel like we did not do anything wrong, were willing to work something out with him. I woke up this morning and over $850 of unauthorized charges have been put on my debit card. No contact from anyone at Jocassee, no one calling to discuss it with us, no one calling to get permission to charge our debit card. Needless to say, we have contacted our attorney. DO NO RENT FROM THIS PLACE.