Rusty Anchor Mount Dora — Attraction in Mount Dora

We went on the lunch tour today, the lake is nice, and the boats seem to be in good condition.

The tour consisted of running out to the Dora Canal from the dock heading thru and then heading for lunch at one of the local restaurants. Before return to the dock located in Mt. Dora.

The lake is nice, and the ride was smooth on the pontoon, I guess that's where the good for us stopped though. There wasn't much history or narrative given throughout the trip, so maybe there isn't much to be said.

The canal portion was not great, possibly since it is the weekend and beginning of summer, but it was like being on I4 with the boat traffic and blaring music. You head one way thru the canal then turn around and then back thru. The other boats aren't the tours fault, but it's part of the tour nonetheless.

Lunch was at a local restaurant in Tavares called O'Keefe. The restaurant isn't waterfront, but a short walk from a public dock, and the food left a lot to be desired. Again, the food is not the tour company's fault, but I would have thought maybe a reservation would have been made for the boat ahead of time. The whole thing felt rushed as we were only given 40 minutes to walk to the restaurant, eat, and walk back. None of us were able to do this, and all came back to the boat well over an hour from drop off. The captain was understanding and didn't leave or seem upset in any way. I recommend calling ahead and seeing where they will be stopping for lunch if you decide to do the 3 hour lunch tour and planning accordingly if its O'Keefe. There are much, much better places to have lunch in either Tavares and especially Mt. Dora.

We then departed the public dock and headed straight back to the Rusty Anchor dock.

I left 5 stars because most of my complaints are out of the tour company's control other than the narrative and choice of restaurant. We were really hopeful because this tour has overall great reviews, but we found it...

My girlfriend's grandparents came into town to hangout for a few days, so we decided to take them on a boat ride around Lake Dora. We were going to go with the other company, but they were not communicative enough to want our business apparently, so we came to the Rusty Anchor, and thank God we did.

We have a captain and another guy on our boat for color commentary. I forget the captain's name, but the other guy was Chris, and they were both great. The ride was super smooth and the lake itself it beautiful and massive. There were unique houses along the coast and a Bald Eagle nest. They stop and tell you about all the interesting stuff along the way. It was quite informative. And these guys were entertaining.

After the lake, the next part of the tour was through the canal. You go through a long no wake zone where there are tons of birds and plant life that the guys talk about. It was so interesting getting to see all the waterfront houses and boat launches and birds and stuff. Friendly boaters are everywhere, too, always waving and being friendly.

Speaking of friendly, there's complimentary water bottles on the boat for you to have. Also, later on, talking to my girlfriend's mom about things. The other company wasn't getting back to our messages because they were waiting to see if they had enough people to even run a tour, so they were hesitating. We ended up just canceling them and going with Rusty Anchor, and you know what? They ran a tour with just seven of us on that boat. Seven.

That's so nice of them. I'm so glad they did that. On my way out I tipped the guys mighty nicely for going out with only seven of us and for the great ride and for the great conversation. If you like great value boat tours of the Mount Dora area, I recommend this place...

This is a reply back to the owner after his reply from my original review:

My boat was not blocking any canal or fairway. I was fishing in the back of a dead end canal not impeding any boat. This area of tiki village is a bay not a narrow canal. The captain had ample room to turn around in the front part of that bay without interfering with my fishing area, but the captain chose not to do that but to come right up beside me to look at something. Because he came back there that far it was a tighter area to turn around, thus causing my complaint in the first place of ruining my fishing area. As you state, maneuvering a boat of that size and weight is difficult, maybe you should consider not coming into a canal that small if it may cause issues with people fishing which you know may be present.

Below is original review before the owner replied:

This company and captains do not care about the respect and courtesy of fishermen. Came into an area which I was fishing, very close to my boat and completely ruined the area by bringing a big boat into the area and stirring up the mud. When I asked the captain “no respect for fishermen” the captain responded that “I do not own the water”. Totally disrespectful towards me and clearly all he cares about was seeing a few turtles on a log and no care about the respect of someone fishing in an area before any tour boat was present. A competent captain should know not to intrude a fishermen. Total incompetence by this company...