Orlando: LED Night Kayak & Paddleboard Tour Lake Ivanhoe

4.86

(155 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing I noticed wasn’t the lights — it was how quiet everything felt once we pushed off from the Lake Ivanhoe Boat Ramp. Downtown Orlando was right there, all neon and glass in the background, but out on the water it was just us and this weird soft hum of crickets and distant traffic. Our guide, Jamie, handed me a paddle and grinned like he knew something I didn’t. He told us to wait for a second before turning on the LEDs — “You’ll see why,” he said. And yeah, when those colors hit the water, it was like someone flipped a switch inside the lake itself.

I picked a clear kayak (my friend went for a paddleboard — she’s braver than me) and we drifted over these patches of underwater plants that looked almost fake under the lights. The tour is supposed to be beginner-friendly, but I still managed to splash myself right away. Jamie just laughed and said everyone does that their first time. He pointed out some fish darting around below us — honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed them without the glow. There were a couple of other locals out jogging by the shore; one waved at us like this was totally normal Tuesday night stuff.

We stopped for photos halfway through (included in the tour), which is good because my phone stayed dry in their little bag — I’m not risking it over open water again. The air smelled sort of green and humid, if that makes sense? You could hear people laughing from one of the bars across the lake but mostly it was just our group moving along quietly together. Afterward, we wandered into one of those restaurants in Lake Ivanhoe Village still wearing our damp shorts. Nobody seemed to mind. I keep thinking about how different Orlando looks from out there at night — softer somehow.