Schooner Appledore - Key West — Attraction in Key West

Felt like we were on a private boat!

Thank you, Russ, Mario and Bradley for a fantastic vacation memory aboard this beautiful boat! Our family of four took the Bugeye excursion during our first trip to Key West in August. Start to finish, the whole trip was perfect and well worth the time and money. We set out in the morning and with 6 other fellow travelers there was plenty of room to spread out.

Our crew offered up some water as soon as we boarded. They each took time to chat with the passengers throughout the trip. We felt like these were our friends and we were on a private boat.

The waters were so calm. I had concerns leading up to our adventure that the water might be choppy and someone would be sea sick. Not at all! I was shocked how smooth the ride was.

We anchored out near Archer Key and the crew gave us plenty of great instructions for our first snorkel experience. We explored the clear blue waters around the boat to see huge sponges, beautiful fish, lobsters and a massive sea turtle!

After plenty of time to explore with snorkel gear, we loaded back on the boat for additional instructions for our kayak tour. We loaded up on two person kayaks and Bradley guided us through the mangrove, providing a lot of great information and insight about the area.

Upon returning to the boat, we began our return back to shore. The crew served up a fantastic lunch which included, chicken tenders, macaroni salad, assorted lunch meat slider sandwiches, some surprise peel and eat shrimp, and a delicious cookie for dessert! Bradley was our waiter and graciously ensured everyone had condiments they needed. Beyond lunch, we had a nice selection of drinks offered to us. Soda, beer, and sangria which was fantastic!

We took this tour on our first day of vacation and it was the highlight of our stay in Key West. We can’t recommend Appleadore enough. THANK YOU for the best...

I’m giving it a one star because… we - my finance and I- booked our schooner trip for my 50th birthday. It was fireworks tour we booked weeks out on THE WEBSITE “ fireworks tour” in CAMDEN MAINE. 2 days prior - we get a notification that that said there was an “issue” with our reservation and we called. They explained to us that there were no fireworks in the harbor or anywhere else in Camden that night that they knew of. They asked if we wanted to book an earlier experience or get a refund. We chose refund due to having other experiences planned already that day. They refunded us - so that was good AND we ended up enjoying live music in the harbor so my birthday evening ended well - regardless.

My fiancé got a text asking how he enjoyed the Schooner tour -(that was canceled) - then I have recorded two follow up text myself - only mine are asking for feedback on our tour in Key West. So my review is based on back-end customer service experience and booking trips on their site they don’t have available and then following up as if they did. It stung a bit knowing we didn’t get to go. While we enjoyed our dinner on the dock, in the harbor in Camden, the boarding of this boat experience is directly in front of where we are. We sat and watched people board the ship and it looked like it was going to be an amazing time. I’m sure it was - perhaps I’ll get to review that...

Do not miss this tour, you do not know what you are missing until you book this tour! This is a must do and then do over and over again! My husband and I booked the Backcountry Eco-Tour: Sail, Snorkel & Kayak on Mar 27, 2023 and due to plane delays had to change our tour to Thursday, March 30th. They were totally accommodating. There were only 6 individuals on the entire tour. We had such an incredible day. We actually were sailing and the waves were high, we were rocking and rolling and it was fabulous. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes and then we kayaked for about an hour through the mangroves, and the ocean. I had never kayaked before but they crew was amazing and got me comfortable and safely in and out of the kayak from the boat. Mark, Jamie and Katie were amazing. We also had the Captain and he was so fun. This was a must do. We will definitely sign up to do this again when we are visiting Key West. I can not say enough about how accommodating, friendly, fun and amazing this trip was from the sights to sailing, to Kayaking in the ocean and through the mangroves and then through the breakers to get back to the boat, what fun. I honestly can not say enough about the entire crew that day. We had a blast and want to...