Kayaking/manatee viewing?

[JennCa]

I would like to rent kayaks and go on a river where we are likely to see manatees. What is the closest place to Orlando to do this? We would be going end of Nov so they should be in the rivers by then usually.

Any leads?

Jenn

 

[ParkHopperFan]

We booked a Manatee kayaking tour with Central Florida Kayak Tours for the last week in November. We have not done one yet, however they come highly recommended.

You can Google Central Florida Kayak Tours for their website.

 

[Detailor]

I'd recommend Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. You can rent kayaks from St. Johns River Cruises at the Park but I'm not sure how close they'll let you get to the Manatees as they close the Spring Run and the Spring to water traffic at mid-November. But the manatees will come out into the river from time to time.

Blue Spring State Park is roughly an hour north of the Disney area via I-4.

Dick Taylor

 

[JennCa]

Thanks!

Jenn

 

[donaldduck352]

http://www.crystalriverkayaking.com/

 

[Colleen27]

We went to Weeki Watchie state park. That's probably not the closest place to Disney but it isn't terribly far, about 2 hours' drive, well within day-trip distance, and it was a fabulous place to see them. The launch is in the state park but outside the gates (shares a parking lot) and the river winds through both state park and residential areas. The manatee viewing is near the end of the 3ish mile route where there's a deep spring where they congregate and they come right up to "play" with the kayaks. It was about 40° the day we went so my girls were a bit nervous about the warning we got from the woman at the launch that sometimes they'll get playful enough to tip a kayak, but they didn't seem to want to spend enough time near the cold air to do that while we were there. At the end of the route, there's a park where you could swim too, assuming better weather than we had of course.

I absolutely plan to go back there again on our next driving trip down. It was an incredible experience that would have been even better in nicer weather!