Mangrove Tunnel & Manatee Kayak Eco-tour

Josiah was patient with us first timers. He was super knowledgeable and fun. We may not have seen manatee but we did see so many other cool wildlife species that we otherwise may never have known existed. He took our picture for us while out so we have proof we did this extremely enjoyable experience. Would do again! Thank you Josiah!

JJ was friendly and informative. Just my daughter and I. Very calming and peaceful. Love that Kyle and Kevin the cormorants hung out with us.

Such a great experience. Joe was knowledgeable and fun. What a nice way to start our day. Highly recommend the 9 a.m. tour. Thanks, Joe!

JJ was an amazing guide, told funny stories and pointed out lots of wildlife. Very relaxing and peaceful. Would absolutely recommend.

As a solo traveler, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience! The manatee kayaking tour was a highlight of my trip. The guide was fantastic—friendly, knowledgeable, and welcoming, which made it easy to feel comfortable and enjoy the experience on my own. The equipment was excellent and easy to use, and the route was beautiful, offering a peaceful way to explore Florida’s natural surroundings from the water. Everything was well organized, and I really appreciated being able to relax, enjoy the scenery, and take in the experience without worrying about a thing. This was such a fun and memorable adventure, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting the area, especially fellow solo travelers looking for a great outdoor activity. Five stars all around! I’m so glad I did this and would do it again in a heartbeat!

JJ was amazing! He was instructive, funny, and engaging. During the tour, we went into the mangroves and into the open water; we saw manatees and lots of birds including We went kayaking today - we saw a ton of birds including osprey, herons, egrets, ibis, and cormorants. We also saw crabs that live in the mangroves. JJ taught us about the water, the history of Sarasota, fishing/crabbing, and the mangroves. We would absolutely recommend this tour.

Guide did a nice job. Seats were comfortable

We saw 2 manatees!! The tour guide had a lot of knowledge and made the ride fun and interesting. This was one of the only companies that take small kids in tandem so we were grateful for that.

Drew was an amazing guide! Super cool Guy and great experience , would recommend going with surfit:)

Kayaking in the mangroves was a wonderful experience both for my husband and our children. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable very relaxed and friendly. We had a great time. He even spotted some manatees for us and other wildlife. It will definitely be back again. Highly recommend!

Matt was great. Chill adventure yet just beautiful.

Rob and I did the Mangrove Tunnel & Manatee Kayak Tour with friends, and it was truly a 5-star experience from start to finish! Our guide, Drew, was fantastic! He was incredibly knowledgeable, patient with all of us, and always happy to answer our questions. His great sense of humor made the entire experience even more fun and relaxed. Kayaking through the mangrove tunnels was such a unique adventure—navigating the narrow passages while taking in all the beautiful scenery, birds, wildlife, and nature around us. The absolute highlight was spotting a mama, papa, and baby manatee feeding together! They were massive, yet so peaceful and gentle. Seeing these beautiful “gentle giants” up close in their natural environment was something we’ll never forget. Such an incredible experience to share with Rob and our friends. Highly recommend this tour, and if you can, ask for Drew! He truly helped make the experience unforgettable!

We had a very knowledgeable guide and the group was small with only three kayaks. We did see four manatees in the open water. It was a great time and well worth the $60 per person we paid.

The mangroves were amazing and our guy drew very knowledgeable, professional and very courteous. It really was refreshing to go and to stop at the small little beach that they had. I recommend recommended to everyone. Drew is amazing.

Great experience in siesta 2nd time doing this. Highly recommend! Kayaked to a little island and found some shark teeth! Great experience and instructor

We went on a trip with Aaron for our daughter's birthday. It was both of our kids' first time on a kayak, and I think it went very well. The water was very calm, and Aaron was a terrific guide. Would recommend!

The experience was great. Location easy to find and the 2.5 hr paddle board rental was just the right amount of time. I would book with Surfit again if I am in the area.

We had a great time! Dolphins swam right next to us. Our guide, Joe, was so knowledgeable about the wildlife and the history. It truly was an amazing time. Anyone can do it.

It was an excellent tour. Our tour guide, Drew, was knowledgeable about the mangroves and wildlife, while also letting us enjoy the scenery in silence. I would most certainly recommend this tour to anyone asking me about what to do in the Sarasota area. In addition, the tour was reasonably priced and allowed us to see really cool birds from the water such as the osprey and the ibis.

The mangrove excursions is a great experience because of the beauty of the wildlife and the mangrove area. It's not very dependent on the 'tour guide' per se as long as he or she is reasonably knowledgeable you will have a fabulous time! On our particular Excursion by Surfit, the tour guide was very knowledgeable about the animals the wildlife Etc and to that I give him high marks. But I did not think it was professional nor appropriate to suggest and almost guilt trip you to giving a five-star review. Please, that's not appropriate! The people helping you on and off your Boats were very friendly and very polite. I would recommend wearing water shoes. And use 'Badger' or other water friendly sunscreens that use zinc oxide as the active ingredient (as some of these commercial spray-on sunscreens are so toxic they just kill water life not to mention do anything good for your health) Picture is one of the birds that would swim under your boat to catch fish that your oars scare away!

Joe was excellent at leading our group. He was funny, knowledgeable and loves to talk( in a good way). Saw lots of wildlife.

Seabiscuit was our guide who was amazing!! Great knowledge and fun facts plus lots of humor. Unfortunately we saw no manatees or dolphins. I do think the price was a little expensive.

Cody was amazing and super knowledgeable would go with him again for just him and his knowledge alone.

There is no way manatees could be present. The water level too shallow and the mangrove canals too narrow.

My family and I had a great experience. I have two teenager daughters and they really enjoyed it. Kayaking was new for all of us and it was very quick and easy to pick up. We went out with Sea Biscuit and he was fun and very knowledgeable! I would recommend this as a fun family activity and we would definitely do it again the next time we are vacationing here.

The original day we booked with Seabiscuit he was great! How ever the weather took a turn and we played it safe and went back to land. They were awesome about rebooking for the next morning. We then had JJ as our guide. He was also great. We would most deff do this again!!

Our guide was great! He was laid back and shared a lot of information. We got to see several Manatees. He made our trip fun and laid back at the same time.

I really enjoyed this experience! I had JJ as my tour guide he always kept the tour interesting. Make sure to bring sunscreen and water!

Beautiful experience. Our tour guide JJ was outstanding, friendly, knowledgeable and always lending a hand to us "newbies"...

It was my first time kayaking, so I was a little nervous, but our tour guide Drew made me feel comfortable and safe. The place is beautiful and we saw manatees, dolphins and some cool birds, I’d definitely do it again :)

Our guide was really informative and knowledgeable. He was able to find different animals for us. I would recommended an earlier time; 9-11am was hot.

Sea biscuit was my guide and he did a great job!!! He knows the area well and is very friendly and helpful. If you can get him to be your guide you’re almost guaranteed to have a good time.

this was so relaxing and fun. drew was a great guide, very chill and personable. highly recommend for solo travel or groups !

We had an amazing time! It was super easy to rebook due to a tropical storm. Our tour guide, Matt, clearly has a passion for what he does and the nature in the area. He was very knowledgeable and fun to listen to during the trip. We stopped off at a beach to swim, look for shells and shark teeth. It was a nice perk that they provide waterproof bags because I forgot to pack mine for the trip. Overall we had a great time and would highly recommend using them!

Drew was the best tour guide!!

Kayaking the Mangroves was a beautiful, relaxing, peaceful experience. Seabiscuit was fantastic. Very knowledgeable, personable & friendly. We had a wonderful time.

Recommend booking directly with company as change process with Viator was difficult. The customer service of the surfit operator left something to be desired as he was angry that we didn’t book directly with the company. Regardless, the experience was fantastic from the 5 year old to the 55 year old. Unfortunately we didn’t see manatees but dolphins were plentiful! My family had a fantastic time.

We were schedule for 9 AM on Friday morning, but the weather was bad. Your company had let me know early to reschedule to a different time. They were very helpful. We end up with Drew at 1pm ,he was so knowledgeable and helpful. The whole experience was wonderful me and my friend had a great time.

JJ was great and taught us so many things about Florida nature and wildlife. We had a great time!

It was wonderful in the sense of the guide was great and kind However I paid 500$ for my family for 2 hrs it lasted 1.5 hrs instead and we did no open water just mangrove and back. This is my 4th time doing this same experience same exact launching area and it didn’t really give us any opportunity for manatees as the mangrove is obviously too shallow for it and again it was there and back. For 500$ to loose over 30 mins of the time spent ( some was spent standing on the shore of a sandy area) cure for pics for also more time not doing the tour.

Laid back easy paddle with JJ! Super informative and experienced about the area and also great history lesson about the story of the “lady of the Mangrove” saw some manatee, beautiful mangroves, Osprey, and fish jumping everywhere. The Cormorants were also very entertaining around our boats. Easy to find. Easy to check in. Great morning on the water.

Seabiscuit was awesome! We had an awesome morning in the mangroves!

Overall the experience was unique and fun. Sea biscuit made it even better. Would definitely do again and recommend to anyone thinking about it!

We had a great time on this tour, used a tandem kayak and paddled through 3 mangrove tunnels and got to see manatees plus a variety of birds. Our tour guide Joe was extremely knowledgeable and made the tour fun/ informative. Bring plenty of water, a hat, apply sunscreen and wear a sun shirt.

Sea Biscuit was a great tour guide! He took my boyfriend and I when we had no reservation and made it an unforgettable experience. Very knowledgeable and personable, definitely made our evening!

Drew was an excellent and delightful guide for our kayak adventure. He was quite knowledgeable about all of the wildlife as well as the history of the area. Also, he was quite patient with the less experienced members of our group. I highly recommend Drew and surf fit. It sure was a lot of fun with him as our group leader!

We had a mangrove tour lead by Sea Biscuit. The mangrove tunnel was beautiful; we were also fortunate enough to see dolphins and urchins. Sea Biscuit has a huge depth of knowledge about the local ecosystem, and possesses a genuinely kind spirit that was clearly present in his interactions with our group. I highly recommend this tour if you find yourself need Lido Key.

Sea Biscuit was an excellent tour guide and had a great sense of humor and great interact with each individual. He share his great wealth of information. Ask for him. He loves his job, is fun and has a wealth of information.

Wear your bathing suit, bring water with you and sun screen! I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to keep up , but our guide was super in his instruction and presentation! Fun guy!