Great company and service. We rented two kayaks, wetsuits and snorkel gear to swim with the Manatees in Crystal River and it was great! Chris and his staff provided excellent Cresent kayaks as well as nice wetsuits and snorkel gear. They gave us maps and advice on were to kayak to to see and swim with the Manatees.
We went in early/mid Jan and it seemed the earlier in the day you go the more manatees you'll see, I'd suggest an 8am start. (We had Record warmth low 80's so perfect for being in the water). There we a bunch of manatees in the Hunters spring area where you drop in but the best area for us was kayaking over to the 3 sisters spring area where if the spring is open you can snorkel up into it and hopefully manatees will be in there. If not, they're usually right outside the opening/entrance to the spring in a roped off area where they know they are safe and you can get a great look at them. There was about 6 of them in there at about 10 am the day we went. Nice kayaking throughout the area but the best part is snorkeling and getting a good underwater look at them. We were told that later in the day, maybe about noon or so they head back out to the deeper open water, although some said if you're lucky enough you might be able to swim along with them as they head out.
You can take one of the snorkeling boats of which there are tons of, too many in my opinion, but do yourself a favor and kayak instead of sitting on one or these boats packed with people.
Paddles Outdoors will do tours if you're hesitant to go on your own.
A+ rating for all aspects of Paddles Outdoor Rentals, nice new building with changing, bathroom and shower facilities and all their equipment was good quality and excellent condition and they're all really good people!
Réponse de l'hôte
Jan 2020
Thank you so much for spending your day with us and are so glad you enjoyed it so much. We really love our shop and we are proud that all of our customers love it so much! We did a lot of research before opening our doors in October to make sure we had the best equipment possible for our guests. We want everyone to have the EXACT same experience that we expect when traveling. Thanks again for your super accurate review of our shop and we look forward to having you back again soon :)