A1A Watersports & Boat Rentals — Attraction in Islamorada

Would not recommend. We were mislead and misguided from the start. My family of 4 booked 2 jet skis for the 2 hour tour and immediately upon hearing that the tour guide told us that was a recipe for an accident. Weather already wasn’t good so we couldn’t go snorkeling, but we were still optimistic about going on the tour. At the beginning before we even left the dock, the tour guide was very clear that if you weren’t comfortable to give more space as the jet skis are expensive and you didn’t want to crash because they charge $100 per inch of damage. They again harped at the fact that we were a group made it much more likely to cause an accident so they told us to give more space. We listened. Upon leaving we were all excited to tour the mangroves and the views. What we didn’t expect was to be reprimanded and yelled at for not going fast enough and giving too much space. The practice area that we were taken to, to practice getting up to 45 mph, was #1. very crowded with boats that had diver flags up so we had to be careful to avoid that and #2. not big enough to actually get up to the speed because we had 5 other jet skis to watch out for. We were given 5 minutes to practice and then we were quite literally thrown into the deep end. We were put into a line and the tour guide took off. We did our best to keep up and follow the instructions that they gave us about space and everything, and then suddenly the tour guide is circling back and yelling at me that I’m giving too much space and not going fast enough. That we “aren’t going to actually get to do anything” if i don’t go faster. We were stopped a few times and basically yelled at each point. My mom and I at one point were thrown off our jet ski because of hitting a wave wrong and we did everything we were supposed to. Unfortunately my first thought was that I was going to get in trouble for losing the group, and not just being happy we were okay. We had totally lost sight of the other skis and I was shaken pretty hard. The guide, Jesus came back and immediately started yelling to fall back in line and that “we had to go”. I had no time to recover from falling and the fear that followed it. I had to jump right back in and go 45 again right after falling. There was no empathy or concern from the guide. We hit a terrible patch of rain were we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us and the waves were terrible - we lost the group again. And again there was no guidance from the guide. When we made it to the sandbar, which I guess was our final destination we had 5 minutes before we had to leave to get back to the dock or we were going to be late. Overall, at no point on the tour did my family feel safe. We had fun, if only because we went through something traumatic together. If expecting a leisurely tour (website says 26 miles in 2 hours = which is 13 mph), this is not it. Would...

Giving it a two star because The people here were nice and the jet skii were in good shape however …. If you’re looking for top speed to ride around with a guide go for it. But I brought my parents here for their anniversary that have never been jet-skiing and wanted to try it out as beginners which we advised the guide of this. We got the two hour tour because we were told we will be going snorkeling( we were really looking forward to this), ride around the groves, stop by the sand bar for a little and then back. However they told us after we paid almost $450 for two jet skii that we wouldn’t be snorkeling that day, if I knew this we would have just opted for the 1 hour tour and done our own thing. we spent 95% of the entire ride at high speeds trying to catch up with the guide and two other riders. Didn’t stop to get shown around to anything at all, We FINALLY stopped at the sand bar thinking we would finally get a nice long break here since we weren’t going snorkeling. But we spent all but 5 minutes here, took a couple of pictures, guide went to get soda and we’re asked to hop back on because we were headed back. I felt so bad for my parents because they were in pain riding in rough waters at high speed trying to catch up to the guide so that we wouldn’t lose him. We ended up with bad blisters on my hand from it banging on the handle from the rough waters. We decided on the way back to just go at our own pace which we should have done from the very beginning for our own safety. For all of this we would have just paid for the hour ride to do our own thing and go to the close by sand bar. I personally wouldn’t return here. There’s plenty of other rentals near by to try...

Been to the Florida Keys numerous times in the past 10 years. Looking for a larger boat this time so this was the 1st time renting a boat from A1A. We rented a 28 Intrepid, it was a terrible experience. 1st strike the starboard motor prop fell off while underway, also during the same trip it was discovered the boarding ladder was bent, lugs would not stay locked in the channel making boarding the vessel after swimming difficult (black and blues to prove it). A1a came out to the dock, repaired the prop and boarding ladder at the end of the day. The 2nd strike we went out reef fishing dropped anchor, it wouldn't hold, upon retrieval, it was discovered the fluke anchor was significantly bent , and would not hold bottom. Anchor was too small for weight of the boat so there went the day of reef fishing. I threw the BS flag when the owner stated they only use small anchors and they are supposed to bend (SMH). Strike 3 I found the boat to be in overall poor condition much worse then the picture on their website . The boat was wet, cooler mounts rotted causing the cooler to slide around the deck while underway, 1 fuel tank was unusable due to a leak in tank, digital guages were wired incorrectly, dock lines tattered, some gunwhale mounted rod holders were unusable, and overflow valve on the fuel fill leaked during filling, the boat was an overall basket case. If looking to rent a boat in Islamorada for anything more then going to sandbar, I'd advise you look elsewhere. Sadly I found nicer boats for rent in the area at the same price point after I was already in this heap. A1a is the definition of a tourist trap I'll never rent...