If you want to see manatees near Naples without joining a crowded boat tour, this small-group kayak trip through the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge is a good fit. You paddle through salt marshes, mangrove tunnels and a deep canal where manatees gather when the weather turns cool.
The tour starts at the Adventure Paddle Tours shop inside the Port of the Islands Resort. You meet your guide, sign the waiver and get fitted with your gear. A passenger van then takes you about one mile to the launch site, a ride of under 5 minutes. Individual shuttles per household are offered, so arrive early if you'd like one. Before you get on the water, your guide covers paddling technique and safety, so no kayaking experience is needed.
Because of that short shuttle, the route runs one way. This is a "downwinder" paddle of about 4 miles back to the marina, so you keep moving through new habitat instead of retracing your path. More ecosystems mean more variety in the wildlife you can spot.
You begin in shallow salt marshes and protected backwaters. When the water is clear, you can look beneath your kayak for juvenile bull sharks, rays, tarpon, gar, crabs and schools of fish. In winter, cooler weather and north winds can push food into the shallows and draw hundreds of feeding birds, including wood storks, white ibis, tricolored herons and roseate spoonbills.
Next comes the part most guests remember: the mangroves. You spend roughly 2 to 2.5 hours in the marsh and mangrove habitat, winding through an extensive network of tunnels, creeks and hidden ponds. Protected land surrounds you the whole way, so instead of high-rises and boat traffic you see mangroves and open wilderness. Alligators and river otters also turn up along the route.
The last stretch enters the Faka-Union Canal and its manatee protection zone, where you spend about 30 minutes searching the deeper water. In colder months the Gulf cools down, but the canal stays above 68°F, so manatees gather here in large numbers. You then paddle straight back to Port of the Islands and your vehicle.
Manatees are wild, and no operator can guarantee a sighting. Your best chance is during the colder winter months, and numbers shift with weather, water temperature and season. The tour is designed around the whole ecosystem, so there is plenty to see whatever the day brings. Every tide and cold front makes each trip a little different.
Adventure Paddle Tours is a small, owner-operated company. Capping groups at 8 guests lets everyone move quietly through the habitat and gives your guide time to point out wildlife and explain the ecology.
Airboat Tour
