Explorida, Crystal River

What an unforgettable experience! The staff is incredibly friendly and accommodating. We watched a short video and then got our wetsuits. The drive to the river was only a few minutes and our captain Chris found a couple of manatees in no time. Casey, our tour guide, was so much fun and made everyone feel at ease. Both Chris and Casey know so much about manatees and wildlife in general. We thoroughly enjoyed the time spent in the water, exploring the spring and watching the manatees. Can't wait to go back!

Excellent tour! Highly recommended. Did a New Year’s Day 2023 swim with manatees tour with me, and my two teenage kids. Steve and Carrie were excellent guides. Gave lots of natural history on the area and on Manatee recovery in general. They scouted out an excellent location. We saw a mother in calf up clothes, and a couple of males at a distance. Added bonus was we saw a large bald eagle on one of the islands on the way back.

Brody, Maddie, and the desk staff were all great! Very professional but also relaxed. We were out on a busy and particularly hot day (not ideal for Manatee viewing) yet we still saw several in very clear water. We were able to take our time and decide how we wanted our tour to go, and were not crammed with 20 other people (I think the max is 10 pax total per tour). Would recommend this to anyone visiting this side of FL

This is the 4th time I have done swimming with the manatees in Crystal River. This is the first time that we used Explorida. Of the 3 companies we have now used, I think Explorida was the best for a couple of reasons. The changing facilities were large and accomodated a lot of people. This made the whole process of putting on and taking off wet suits so much nicer. The boat was also very clean and nice. It was the largest we had been on. We were able to lock in the boat for 11 people then had the flexibility to add more. We ended up with 14 total. All of the equipment was top notch. Wet suits were very nice and so was the snorkel gear.

We were here during the off season (summer)....but still saw several manatees. Our crew consisted of: Alex the Boat Captain, Casey & Matti our Manatee Guides....all were awesome. They gave us great instructions, took wonderful photos, and gave us some history on the manatees in this area. As a National Park Service River Ranger this was a great experience for me. Everything was well organized. I would definitely recommend Explorida for your manatee experiece.