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Key West Mangrove Ecosystem Paddleboard Tour
Overview
Paddleboarding is fun and suitable for people of all ages and abilities! Along with your experienced guide you will paddle at a relaxing pace and explore the shallow, calm, blue-green waters of the back country of Key West.
Highlights
- Hotel pickup included
- Close encounter with wildlife
- Excellent value for money
- Family friendly
- Choice of morning or afternoon departure
Description
Schedule
What's Included
What To Bring
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
Reviews
Average 4.67 out of 5 stars based on 6 verified reviews from Tours of Key West and TripAdvisor
Was a great time, place and weather to go out and try paddle boarding for the first time. Lazy Dog is the vendor and the staff was great. We were out longer than anticipated and that was fun. touched some sponges and star jelly fish and had a great time. Would definitely go back. They also offer kayaks for those not ready to go on the paddeleboards.
A great experience. Exhausting I have to admit but lots of fun and excellent instructor.
We booked the stand up paddle board tour of the Mangrove area. Neither my wife or myself had done Paddle board before so thought this would be fun and would give good views of the area and the wild life. The promo says no experience is necessary. We were given a courtesy pick up from our hotel, along with 5 other people along the way and taken to the marina. There are no changing facilities offered at the dock so just as well we wore our swim suits. We were given about 5 or 6 minutes 'training' on how to paddle the board and that was it. It quickly became clear this wasn't a paddle board tour but infact the paddle board tour was combined with a kayak tour. The guide was also in a Kayak and my wife and myself were quickly left trailing behind as the others moved ahead easily against the tide seated in the kayaks. As beginners its hard to get started paddle boarding and much more difficult to match speed of kayaers. Also the guide was giving information we couldn't hear because we were so far behind.
Also the first stretch of water is not a no wake zone for boats so it gets a bit choppy, it would possibly be a good idea to warn paddle boarders about this and what to do drop to your knees before getting on the water.
The area itself is lovely, we saw a good bit of wildlife, from star fish to nurse sharks. Once we got the hang of paddling things improved and once we turned home and had the tide with us we could easily keep up with the kayaks, we heard and enjoyed so much more of the commentary rather than paddling hard to keep up. The tour did pass through some areas really just suited to kayaks, so stand up paddle boarding became lie flat on your boarding paddling, so get through the mangrove trees.
One other thing was that we both brought wet shoes, but were told not to use them. Although we layered on the SPF50 cream kneeling and standing up removed the cream and we both needed up with slightly sun burnt feet. We still see no reason why we couldn't have worn wet shoes.
This was definitely worth doing, but maybe better if you've tried SUP boarding before. I personally don't think the combining of boards and kayaks is good and but a separate tour would have been better, I felt we held back the kayaks and we missed out because we were slower.
Another issue the guide and other staff made a very good job of emphasising we needed to take water and they had water available to buy if needed. However, once we hit the water, it wasn't mentioned and there were no 'water break' stops. Fortunately we were used to keeping hydrated, but it was clear the others in the group were not drinking and a number of them said they had headaches, or were sleepy or dizzy all dehydration symptoms. It wouldn't take much to just pause at the turn around point and ensure all guests remember to take a drink.
The lack of changing room, the combination of boards and kayaks, and the lack of on water care dehydration, and leaving the slow boarders behind are the reasons for the low score. Value for money was great, the experience of the tour in general was also great.
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Product code: C-18235P2
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