Biscayne National Park Institute — Attraction in Leisure City

We did the Sail, Paddle, Snorkel tour on a Sunday in late December 2025. Clayton was our skipper and he was amazing!

We had this excursion/tour planned out at least 6 months in advance. We had exactly 6 people so we got a whole sailboat to ourselves. We elected for the sailing because we were afraid our 9 year old would be too scared to snorkel in the open ocean and would prefer the more sheltered mangroves.

We checked in upstairs at the Dante Fascell Visitor Center. The check-in is in the NPS merch store. We then explored the visitor center until about 15 mins of our boarding time. At this point we still hadn't met our skipper (Clayton) and when we did finally head to our meeting spot right down stairs I think he was freaking out just a little bit based on time. But we already read all the rules and had everything already packed with backpacks and cooler ready to go. So we had a quick talk and carried everything down to the ship. Clayton was super chill and was happy to go with the flow whatever we wanted to do. I think because we had a private excursion just for our family it was much more relaxing for him to. We had 3 adults and 3 kids (15, 12 and 9). Everyone was a good swimmer.

We started off our adventure great. Clayton let my middle one drive us out. He offered to let us participate as much or as little as we wanted for the sailing portion. My kids took advantage and had a lot of fun steering and getting the sails up and down and tightening them to try and maximize our speed across the bay. We had the other ship behind us. I think the institute has 2 sailing vessels for this excursion/tour. We were trying to race them.

The ship itself was very spacious and easy for us all to spread out. Even if this was a private excursion you would easily be able to have your own private area of the boat. Nice that we weren't all squished together. There is a area under the boat but we never really spent much time in there except for using the bathroom. It was just too nice out on top deck.

Based on the weather and winds, we sailed North East, just a little bit south of Boca Chita Key. There was a nice little cove area and then a tunnel through the mangroves to a open cove area which at one point was planned to be developed. So it was man-made but I don't remember the history of why they didn't develop it in the end. We had eaten our snacks/lunch on our sail to the island so that when we arrived, we were ready for activities.

We started off with the kayak portion. When we arrived to our destination there was a dolphin swimming out and we got to see it pretty close. We had asked to also paddle board so we had a mix of the two. We felt back because Clayton's inflatable kayak had a small leak and he had to keep blowing it up while we were kayaking into the mangrove. Sadly we didn't see anything in the mangroves, we were hoping for a manatee. We saw a couple birds and some fish on the bottom (it was pretty shallow). We explored for a bit and then paddled back out to the boat to do the snorkeling.

We got lifejackets on (required) and all had our own masks. We went over to the shore and there were tons of fish hiding in the mangroves. We all had a blast. There were so many different types of fish. It was sad when we had to pack up and go. My younger kids stopped after about 15 mins because the water was too cold. The rest of us stayed as long as we could. The water was super clear and pristine. The only time we lost visibility was user error where one of us accidently pushed against something or touched the bottom and all the sand/silt vegetation got stirred up. But if was just us there so we would move to a different portion of the shoreline.

The sailing trip back everyone was tired so we opted to just rest on the deck and everyone was just laying out sunbathing while Clayton took over and sailed us back. It was an amazing experience that was definitely once in a lifetime for us. We certainly splurged for this trip and Clayton made it extra memorable. Only thing we could've asked for was warmer water...

Yesterday we went on the 9:30am Heritage of Biscayne Boat Tour. I want to start by saying this tour was way better than we expected and definitely exceeded our expectations. Our successful experience credit is 100% due to Captain Tony. To set the scene for you, he had never had to do a tour by himself before but with this being the slow season for their tours that's just how things worked out. He was very welcoming and funny right off the bat which really set a positive tone for the entire trip in my opinion. About 10 minutes in, an uncommon occurrence happened where we had to stop for a short time for him to fix part of the boat (nothing dangerous at all, he was very knowledgeable and it was a super quick fix). The entire time of doing so he was just continuously talking to those on the tour while we were stopped which in my opinion was great for if there would have been anyone on board who would have freaked out. Then, it looked like a storm was approaching right where we were supposed to go for the tour that day and Captain Tony somehow managed to get us around the storm and still take us to all the places we were promised to go without having us in the storm! He answered all of our questions, took time to get to know everyone, shared his personal experiences and tons of facts, and was an overall chill person who was a great tour guide & captain. We even got to walk around Boca Chita for an hour on this trip, it was great to see all it had to offer. I truly feel we lucked out having such a great tour, and I hope everyone gets to experience this. We saw dolphins, birds, fish, etc. Also you should definitely check out the visitor center, there are lots of cool things in there and the girls that were in there when we were told us all kinds of cool information...

I took the snorkeling tour out of Coconut Grove, and it was amazing! Booking was easy, and it was super easy to find the spot to meet at Pier 9. I brought my own gear, but most people on the tour (maybe 20 ppl tops?) rented their gear and were happy with it. When I got there (this is in March, so water was about 71 degrees), they subtly recommended a wet suit. It wasn’t life/death, but I’m REALLY glad I got the suit; water was a bit chilly. Kate was our Captain and Anna was our guide and together they made for an incredible experience. Kate made sure we were all safe and Anna, in the humblest of ways, literally knew the answer to every question that came her way. Learned a lot about the wildlife, the park, Stiltsville, the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse that we snorkeled by and about 500 other random things. It was refreshing how knowledgeable they both were, and how happy they were to share that with us. I felt safe the whole time; a possible concern to some, that you really don’t have to worry about. We “only” went to one site, the Fowey lighthouse but, frankly, while it would have been cool, I suppose, to see something else, I really appreciated the longer time in one spot. The coral opened up into the ocean and it was pure bliss. I was the last one on the boat. I would highly recommend this adventure. Thank you, Kate & Anna, for turning a business trip to Miami during spring freakin break into...