Hilton Head Guided Kayak Tour

A truly memorable experience for our family. Our guide Nate was super chill, friendly and knowledgeable about the area. Would highly recommend.

Great trip! We had a great tour guide.

Lovely kayak trip. We had beginners and experienced kayakers in our party and it was enjoyable for everyone

We’ve booked excursions every year for 20 years on the island. The vast majority (seriously 98-99%) have been outstanding. Tonight we unfortunately had one that failed to deliver and frankly was setup to fail from the start. We decided to try Island Head’s sunset kayak tour from 7:00-8:30 pm because we had not kayaked in skull creek before. Our group of 6 and another group of 3 arrived ahead of time and Reilly kindly greeted us as she was exiting the 5:00 tour group she just retuned with. It was low tide so their normal dock slip could not be used. That meant hauling all the kayaks down a lengthy boat dock to the opposite end one by one. This cut into our scheduled time on the water. My son and I jumped in to help. Honestly this seemed very stressful, time consuming, and a high risk for injury if Reilly had to do this all on her own. We were shocked she would be put in a situation to fail like this. She tried her best despite the challenges. I honestly don’t think we would have made it out on the water until at least 30-40 minutes later if we didn’t help. After we left the dock, the tour started off fairly well. Fortunately everyone was an experienced kayaker. However, it seemed Reilly quickly started rushing and jumped far out ahead. There was little explanation of the area and seemingly no patience to enjoy the evening. We were fortunate to see some dolphins as we were returning to the marina but we had to keep moving quickly because it was getting dark and the boats had no lights. Exiting the water was almost as lengthy as entering — again due to limited help. The tour did not last a full 90 minutes on the water and just did a simple loop around making us feel ripped off. Other kayaking companies have gone above and beyond to ensure a fun, entertaining, educational, and relaxing experience. Although Reilly was nice and probably tried her best given the circumstances, I can’t support this company again. We will take our business elsewhere.

Booked for Tuesday July 22. Showed up and was told that the water was getting choppy and we should cancel. Perfectly understandable. The guide told us he would tell his boss to put us on the schedule for Thursday. Awesome! We show up today, weather is great and water is calm. We are excited! Until we ware told by an employee from another company that they were told the 7pm kayaking was cancelled. So I call Island Head and confirmed. Yep! Cancelled again. No reason given. No heads up. Just cancelled. I was issued a refund, but vacation is over and there is no time to reschedule with another company. 0/10 experience. Would not recommend.

We enjoyed it! The online description was correct. No surprises. No special clothing or shoes required.

We are a fairly fit family. Our guide brought us out in poor and windy conditions . 2 of us got stuck in a riptide trying to enter a cove. She would not have known we were stuck because she was ahead of the group with her back turned toward us. My husband had to shout for her to help. It was extremely exhausting to just paddle around. She told us she usually would cancel under these conditions but “forgot” to check the wind forecast . This felt like a test of physical and mental endurance versus a fun vacation paddle! Also she had no means of communicating with the shore . There was no back up plan . It felt unsafe. While giving a guided tour she spoke away from us into the wind and unless we were right next to her we could not hear a word she was saying .

It was peaceful exercise. The guide was very friendly and super accommodating. I had to change my time last minute, and they were happy to help. Definitely a beautiful trip, if you're up for the exercise.

Riley was a great guide! Fun to see three pods of Dolphins ! Peaceful area, wind & current provided some fun! 🎉 😃😃😃😃😃

My daughter and I had a great time on our trip. We saw sea turtles, dolphins and manatees. Carter was amazing and we really enjoyed our time with him. He was so knowledgeable and you can tell how much he loves his job.

Jackson was a great guide. He was so helpful and patient. It was fun to get to know him as we paddled along. This was a very enjoyable and layed back activity. If you have never tried kayaking or its been a while, you will enjoy this adventure.

We really enjoyed our kayaking trip with this company. We had never been kayaking before and our guide put us at ease and made it really easy and enjoyable!

Conner did a great job, striking a balance between letting the experienced kayakers go on their own, and hanging close by more inexperienced kayakers.

Anderson was a terrific guide, knew history and kept us entertained. We did get to see dolphins off in distance which was very cool! He explained the tides, wildlife, and made the trip fun and relaxing!

The tour guide was very nice. He was very knowledgeable of the nature and animals on our tour. Would recommend this tour.

We had a great time on the water and saw a few dolphins. The weather was perfect and the tour guide was great.

Our group of 5 had a great time on our kayak trip. We had varying levels of kayaking experience, and our guide Joseph was great at making everyone feel comfortable and capable. Right after leaving the marina, we were lucky enough to encounter a couple of dolphins before continuing our trek across the creek towards Pinckney Island. We enjoyed the ease of booking, checkin, grabbing last minute supplies at the store (that had the most adorable shop dog ever!), and then enjoying a leisurely trip seeing the low country in a new way. Definitely recommend Joseph and the tour.

This was my second trip with this kayak company. I enjoyed my first trip out I scheduled a second one. Paddy, our tour guide was a wealth of information. Unfortunately, since it was high tide, we didn’t get to see the oyster beds but he still told us all about how they’re one of the four foundations of the eco system in HHI. The ramp they use for getting kayaks in and out of the water make this the easiest one for getting in and out of the water. I highly recommend.

We had the best time! We had quite the crew—-4 adults and 8 kids. We went out not expecting to see any wildlife, just a way to get our kids out on the water and doing something active. Our tour guide Will (we called him Will Turner) was so fun right off the bat, the kids loved him. He took us through a little marsh area, where we found shells and oysters. We rowed around an abandoned sailboat, which the kids thought was so cool. And best part—we saw dolphins up so close! Swimming right around us. Totally unexpected and SO COOL. We would’ve loved this tour even without the dolphins but it definitely made it a core memory for our family. Thanks for the best time Will! Highly recommend.

Our guide was pleasant but there was basically nothing to see. We went across the bay, did a turn, went to the shore but all we saw was a blue heron. There was an abandoned sailboat which a family of 5 explored but it left us bored and unengaged. Very different from the writeup.

We had a wonderful time kayaking. Our guide, Jospeh, was friendly and very knowledgeable on the area. Our experience was a little magical as a large pod of dolphins were swimming close to our group. Our kids really enjoyed seeing the dolphins.

We were a family of 8 adults. The tour started on time and ended up being just our family. It was leisurely and enjoyable but there wasn’t a lot to see. This tour provides a very laidback experience. Thanks William for a great time.

Joseph was a great guide - very chill, friendly and knowledgeable. The scenery was beautiful. Loved it.

5 stars!!! Best kayak and dolphin experience was a huge bonus!!! We saw lots of wildlife: pelican, sea gulls , even a sea turtle popped its head up! Nature cooperated!! Most amazing was the dolphin baby and mother!! Great tour guide and eye for pointing it all out!!!

We absolutely loved our kayaking tour. William, our guide, was fantastic. He was knowledgeable, friendly and fun. It was a great time!!

Big tour group with no guidance, explanations, or expectations. Literally paddled around a marsh and back to the dock. Took 25 minutes of the 90 minutes to get everyone in the water. The only good thing was the water was super smooth, but it was crazy hot.

I enjoyed learning how to kayak. This were my first experience. I had fun. I wish the time wasn't so long. I was only able to kayak for only 40 minutes, not 90 minutes.

This was a great tour! Our guide was laid back and very knowledgeable and personable. He even asked if it might be okay to stay out a bit longer than our 90 minute tour as he really enjoyed guiding these trips so much! His assistant Cody was great. When 2 8ish girls in one kayak had a little difficulty keeping up, he hitched them onto his and helped them out. We learned much about the local habitat, wildlife and history. We got tips on other natural places to visit. He emphasized safety above all else, encouraging hydration and sun block. And, we had a bit of luck both going out and coming back into dock with visits from the local dolphins! I would definitely recommend this tour! It was great!

First time kayaking. Went with my teenage daughter and we had so much fun. The guide was excellent, the scenery was amazing, and we had a dolphin jump out of the water 10 feet from our kayak. I highly recommend this tour.

The weather was very windy and the water was down so we couldn’t go into the places they wanted but the guides were very nice and it was a fun experience!

William was an excellent tour guide! We enjoyed our experience and highly recommend this kayak tour.

Had so much fun, William was an excellent leader for our slightly hungover bunch. 10/10 would recommend to a friend

We had an okay time. We spent most of our time crossing the creek and back - which was pretty much paddling fairly hard on open water. We were expecting more paddling through marshlands and less across open water. We didn't see much wildlife - and it didn't seem like we were really looking for any. Our guides were friendly enough, but they didn't provide a lot of commentary, unless we asked. there was another family on our tour, and it seemed like they were almost ignored. It was nice to be out on the water, but this wasn't what we had expected or had hoped for.

The guided kayak tour was great. We had two kids with us and got a couple of two person kayaks. We kayaked around the marshes and the tour guide provided some amazing insights about the island and the local ecosystem. The water was very calm with very few boats. If you are looking for a peaceful activity on the water then this is a great option.

So much fun, really great tour guide. Highly recommend for something fun to do while visiting Hilton Head and we saw dolphins!

Had the best afternoon with family out kayaking in Skull Creek. Weather was absolutely perfect for this as it was slightly overcast but we all came home with lots of color! We saw several pods of dolphins on our both going out and coming back close enough to kayaks that we could have touched them with our paddle. They are so amazing to watch. Went in and around Pinckney preserve and saw many different birds.This was such a relaxing afternoon and huge kudos to Michael and his team as they are ALWAYS happy, smiling and over the top helpful. Island Head is a top notch operation for all the adventures it offers!! This was my 3rd kayaking trip with Island Head and won’t be the last!! Thank you for a great afternoon!

We had a great time and this was the perfect beginning to our stay at Hilton Head. Will was a great guide. He shared lots of interesting facts about the marsh and has a great sense of humor. Wish we had a another day in our trip to try out the parasailing too. We will definitely be back and hope we get Will as a guide again too.

We were kayaking and a pod of dolphins came right up to us. Our guide, John, was great and let us take in the moment. It was amazing!

William was awesome! He explained where we were going and what to expect. Was patient with the different skill levels of the group and pointed out landmarks and gave great info. We didn’t see Dolphins but did see a deer. We had 3 generations and everyone had a great time. Would definitely go again. Thanks again William

Beautiful location. Great guide. Excellent weather. Would do this again. Our guide was knowledgeable and very personable.

William was a great guide with lots of info about the low country & plenty of laughs! Had a blast 10/10 will be back 😀

Seeing all of the animals was very fun! William was very helpful! Winds were a little tough at first but it made it easier on the way back!

Your guide was friendly and welcoming we had so much fun. Beautiful atmosphere and fun for all levels.

couldn't find the place, no directions given and no phone number to call; missed our tour and requesting a refund

Very relaxing day .. Parker was very informative with all questions we asked.Saw many birds and also a dolphin swam right by us. Great family adventure

Same thing Ed C said. Not 90 minutes. Guide just babysat us. Would like to learn about the area, dolphins we saw etc. Very disappointed in this tour.

We got to see dolphins up close and a sea turtle. Much more wildlife such as birds and jellyfishes too. Loved the tour guide. William was great at acknowledging the wildlife and its environment. We had great laughs and memories! Thank you!

Our family enjoyed this kayak trip a lot—it was the right length of time and right time of day. I definitely recommend a morning trip! Tour guide was super friendly and helpful.

As other reviewers said, this was a kayak trip and no more. We got no details of the wildlife or area. We simply kayaked. There was one bird but no other wildlife to see (I know that’s not the guide or company’s fault). The guide was kind but didn’t say hardly anything at all and most of the time was no where near us. He told us where to paddle to, and we sat there until he gave us the next direction. We can’t upload pictures bc none were taken. Other kayak tours we’ve taken in other places, the guides take pictures of you along the way…not this trip! It was relaxing, but if you are looking to expand your knowledge of the area, this is not the trip for you. This was an anniversary trip without our kids. We will not be doing it on our return trip with our kids in the future.