This is a review for Everyday California’s Sea Caves Tour, which I did Jan. 8.
The good: our guide was friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and overall a lovely person who was probably just following Everyday California‘s policies and not intentionally misleading us.
The bad: Do you like idling in a kayak in the open ocean while swallowing your own vomit and struggling to catch every other word from your guide who is shouting into the wind about kelp and goldfish? Because that’s what this tour was.
My husband and I originally booked the afternoon whale watching kayaking, then I got a voicemail the day before from Andrew saying they had canceled that time. However we could join the early morning whale watching tour (which didn’t work with our schedule) or do the sea caves tour. “The sea caves tour is our most popular,” he said.
Never did anyone mention that there was little to no chance that we would be able to go into the caves or even approach them. In fact, since my booking was over the phone, I was never told that there would be a chance we would be unable to enter the caves. JUST TELL ME THAT UPFRONT.
Had I known that we wouldn’t be able to even approach the caves, I would’ve gotten a refund for the whale watching thing, no big deal & no hard feelings.
They could have at least let us know before we put on our wetsuits. (The tour that had just returned didn’t go near the caves either, and conditions had not changed. I later learned that due to the weather in January, it’s highly unlikely for any group to safely approach the caves.) Instead we found out while idling in our kayaks. After 10 minutes of idling in choppy water, the nausea hit me. Hard. I knew I’d be in Barf Town soon if we didn’t start moving. Our “tour” consisted of sitting in our kayaks in the open ocean.
Our ever-positive guide shouted over the wind & waves about ecosystems and something about a diving board? I couldn’t hear much. A guy mentioned that if someone vomits, it makes him vomit. I really didn’t want to set off a vomit train, and getting sick in front of strangers is only slightly less embarrassing than peeing your pants in public. So I just swallowed my vomit and hoped we would start paddling.
Half an hour and two swallowed barfs later we headed back to shore. Home free... right? Nope. Our kayak flipped and hit me square in the head, trapping me underneath. After three seconds of sheer terror with my husband trying to pull it off and me inhaling a full mouthful of sea water, I realized that I could stand up as it was only 4’ of water.
Ordinarily I would laugh off something like this, but I was nauseated and freezing, and my head was pounding .
I walked the three blocks back to Everyday California with tears in my eyes, kicking myself for spending my savings on this.
Oh did I mention that wetsuits are required in the winter months unless you want to be extremely uncomfortable? So renting wetsuits and a locker ($35) plus buying a simple terry cloth towel to dry off with ($28) tacked on $63 to our two-person tour. We did not see any wildlife aside from one pelican.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Jan 2020
Hey JPW,
We are bummed that you didn't have a great experience on your kayak tour. As you are now aware, the pacific ocean is always changing, and its our responsibility to keep you and your husband safe. It sounds like the day you went out was on the rough side, but even in January La Jolla Shores can be a beautiful and peaceful bay. Please email me directly at
[email protected] because I'd like to make it up to you guys, and show you just how amazing it can be out there!