Kissimmee Swamp Tours — Attraction in Hillcrest Heights

As they say on their website, this airboat experience is very different than many offered around South Florida. Our family has taken a variety of airboat tours from Kissimmee to the Everglades during our trips to the area over the last 10 years.

Kissimmee Swamp Tours has a few really nice advantages.

Scheduling is very easy. They responded quickly to their online form and phone call. That was much appreciated for our last minute planning.

It is a small operation with the owners being a huge part of it. (So, it's not just hourly employees waiting to get off shift and displaying snide attitudes.) Really, that is huge in my opinion.

The website is simple and easy to navigate. (Maybe mentions adults/kids ages on there.)

The drive to the dock down Overstreet Road is really neat as it passes through miles of working ranchland. We even got to see them round up and drive 100+ cattle down the road for 15 minutes.

The area around the dock is small with lots of shade so we enjoyed walking around looking over the marsh and having our lunch at a picnic table, without any sort of crowd. Basically it felt like we were nearly the only ones there. It is just a really pretty and neat spot without huge parking lots, and fast moving highway traffic right next to you (e.g. airboat rides off Tamiami Trail).

The tour itself was nice and it was fun! There were great views of birds, gators, cows and horses. The narration and info from the boat captain was a little disorganized. While full of interesting tidbits, it felt like random trivia. A little more context for a big picture overview of the the lake and area would be helpful. The boat captain (I forget his name) was funny, too.

Overall, this was a good experience and I recommend this for others who are interested in a less touristy, less crowded and more wild...

We booked via email the night before and then drove down to this relatively isolated place late morning the next day. Actually my son & I arrived quite early and we had the pleasure of checking out the lie of the land, admire the bulls in the nearby paddocks & fight off the many non biting flying insects that obviously found us very attractive. I even caught sight of a local buzzard which was exciting.

We took the one hour tour starting at 12:30 (more or less), sharing the airboat with three ladies from the Balkan states. Mark was our trusty guide, pilot and general looker after. We all wore ear protectors and radio headsets so that we could follow Mark's descriptions of what we were seeing and politely smile at his "dad's" humour. Actually during the one hour tour Mark's batteries packed up on him (the ones servicing his radio head set) and I gallantly gave him mine. No further comments on that one...

Once we got going Mark obviously took us to those parts of the lake with the best chances of seeing alligators and various forms of birdlife. In fact we were lucky enough to see plenty of wildlife including alligators - small youngsters, adolescent creatures and and even a large male apparently looking for a mate (or perhaps a luckless tourist...). We also saw a tree with a nest with bald eagles & a plethora of wading birds.

Skimming across the swampy, muddy waters at relatively high speed was also quite invigorating. We were lucky that the wet, rainy weather held off until we got back which was great. And only when we were finished did we pay up.

Certainly a different experience that we...

If you are Asian and looking for a swamp tour to see Gators, don’t waste your time with this facility. The front desk service is on point, friendly service over the phone and in person, but beyond that, if you decide to go, be prepared to be belittled and yelled at by the captain.

My family and I have had an amazing time in Florida, up until our visit to Florida Swamp Tour. Our reservation was at 1:45pm, we arrived at 1230pm. We checked in. Then decided to walk around in the cold to kill time. The grounds in front of the office is not overly huge, you can see each other throughout the waiting area.

When we were told it was time to get ready for our tour, it was 1:45pm. Instead of being greeted with a smile or a positive energy from the captain, he was snarky, abrubt, and rude. He yelled at my wife and brother at 1:47pm, stating that we were behind schedule, by 2 minutes!? Did the think it was OK to speak to us this way because he thought we didn’t comprehend the English language? Did he think that our family of 11 wouldn’t take offence to his abrasive attitude!?

We dropped our life jacket and decided against the tour. The staff clearly saw I was shaken and upset by the incident.

My brother, instead of having me upset and visually on the verge of tears, decided against the tour.

I’m sure the tour could have been great, but it’s a shame that the hospitality that people rave about with this tour company did not transcend beyond what we read.

To the front office lady, that incident cost your company $60 per head. I would reiterate to the captain that there is a certain way to talk to...