Crane Point Hammock — Attraction in Marathon

A great place to go and super friendly people. The woman that works in the gift shop museum was so friendly and helpful. She told us all about the kayak and snorkeling package that they offer. It was 59 dollars per person which was good from 9 to 4. This included kayaks and snorkeling equipment as well as entrance to their museum and other attractions and hiking trails on the property. My wife and I first viewed the movie that they have that tells all about the property and its history. We were then taken by golf cart to the kayaking area by the gentleman who runs the kayaking and snorkeling area. My wife and I chose the tandem kayak but we could have also chosen 2 single kayaks. We had our own snorkel gear so we did not need the gear that they offered with the package. They also offered dry bags for our keys and phones. We had a great time kayaking and snorkeling around the small islands that were not too far from the kayak launch. We saw a lot of beautiful fish. We were pretty tired after a few hours so we came back in and then enjoyed the fish pedicure area. It was very relaxing having the guppy sized fish nibble on our toes for 20 or 30 minutes. We did not get a chance to walk on their trails because we were feeling kind of lazy at the end and opted for the golf cart ride back to the entrance. I would recommend to anyone visiting Marathon to take a day to visit this wonderful place staffed with...

Our family had a vacation in Marathon for a week... we had a late start on our last full day of vacation, as weather was uncertain. Once we realized that the waters would be too choppy for a snorkel excursion, I started calling around to nearby places where we could at least get in the water again somewhere close to shore.... I called Crane Point Hammock to see if we would still have time to take kayaks out for snorkeling near shore, but it ended up being too late in the day.

THE REASON I'M LEAVING A 5 STAR REVIEW - Elijah, Crane Hammock's kayak guide, took the time to recommend other areas nearby where our family could easily find beach access at some locally known spots on the island. Elijah gave me a good 3 or 4 spots, and even texted them to me once we hung up!! I appreciate those who go above and beyond, simply because they enjoy being helpful. That's a rare find, and because of Elijah's exemplary service, I'll be making it a high priority to visit Crane Point Hammock for kayaking & snorkeling on our next trip to The Keys.

@Elijah - We appreciate your professionalism, and how generous you were with the time you took to make sure we had other options to make for a perfect last day on vacation. THANK YOU for sharing your wealth of knowledge! You deserve to be recognized for going the extra mile...

Unhappy with this stop, especially after reading the google reviews and high rating. The good: the 10 min intro video, informative and helped us understand what we were seeing as we walked around. And, the flora, this is the big redeeming feature of the site. The bad: the fee was about $36 for 2 adults and should have been half that. The map and signage in general was subpar so it was not overly obvious which trail was which and some of the plant signs were faded and need to be refreshed. There is much made of Crane house, especially the internal architecture features but you can't go in, its locked. The wild bird sanctuary is a series if small pens and not appealing displays - its great they are rescuing injured animals but the display setting could be improved. No mention was made about the golf cart tours, although we did see 2 of them go by us in the 2 hours we were there.

In general its a bit dated, esp for the price. Its great that a non profit has preserved this site as a great example of an ecosystem, but if they are going to charge a market rate they should pay more attention to bringing their exhibits and facilities to...