Key West: Island Eco Tour with Sandbars, Kayaks & Lunch

4.67

(592 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We were already gliding out from Key West when I realized how salty the air tasted—like it stuck to my lips. The catamaran moved faster than I expected, but nobody seemed in a rush. Our guide, Jamie, pointed at the water every few minutes—there’s a nurse shark, there’s a pelican diving—and I kept missing them because I was distracted by the way the sun hit the mangroves. It’s quieter out here than I thought it would be. Someone started laughing about sunscreen (reef safe only, Jamie reminded us), and that’s when I noticed how far we’d left the city behind.

The first stop was this pale sandbar that barely peeked above the water. It felt like standing on powdered sugar—soft but gritty under my toes. We had maybe an hour? Hard to tell. Some people grabbed paddleboards right away; I just stood there for a while with my feet in the shallows, holding a cold soda and listening to nothing except wind and little splashes. Later, Jamie led us into the mangroves by kayak. She talked about how these roots hold everything together during storms—I didn’t expect to care about plants so much, but she made it sound important. There was this smell too, kind of earthy and sharp at once.

Lunch happened back on board—simple stuff like wraps and fruit—but after paddling around it tasted like something special. Beer and wine came out after all the swimming was done (rules are rules). A couple from Miami tried to teach me how to say “Key lime pie” in Spanish—still can’t do it right. On the way back toward Key West, everyone got quieter for a bit. Maybe tired or just thinking about what we’d seen out there where you can’t hear cars or bars or anything except your own thoughts drifting around.