Smallwood Store Boat Tour — Local services in Chokoloskee Island

Found an absolutely fabulous boat tour by accident in the southern Everglades. Went to the Everglades Gulf Coast Visitor Center to take a boat tour of the 10,000 islands. They only offer the large pontoon boat trip currently, and I wanted a small boat for a more personalized experience. A ranger told me that I might find a boat a few miles south in Chokoloskee. I drove through the “town” and turned around. As I did, I saw a sign for boat tours. So, I turned around again and followed the road to Smallwood’s Store and Museum. (Don’t worry if you hear banjo music playing. You’re not really that far from civilization!) We arrived at 9:50 and they had a boat going out at 10 a.m. It was a 1.5 hour tour for $60/person. Paid the fee and soon Mallory drove the boat ashore so we could board. There were 5 of us in all. Mallory told us she is the great-granddaughter of Ted Smallwood, the founder of the store. She was very personable and knowledgeable about the area and wildlife. We saw osprey fledglings feeding, roseate spoonbills, and sawfish. And, best of all, we saw at least 2 dozen dolphins. Several of them rode our wake and we got nice close-up shots. After the boat tour, we went through the store/museum and saw lots of interesting artifacts. We will definitely come back if we are ever in this part of the...

Booking with Smallwood was very easily done online. The tour itself was fun and we had a good time with our guide, Cory. However, the procedure when we arrived was not very clear or professional. We stood around the boat area for several minutes and no one approached us or even acknowledged we were there. I eventually asked one of the guides what we should do, and was told just go in the store and they'll tell you what to do. In the store, the woman there told us to go back out to the boat area and wait for Cory. We went back and stood with several other people. As it turned out, one of those people was Cory, but nothing was said until he got on the boat and asked if we were going with him. We had reserved a private tour, but, without explanation, another couple was on the boat with us. Fortunately, they were just being ferried out to an island and dropped off, but we didn't know that for the first 20 minutes of our private 2 hour tour. Everything up to this point was confusing and disappointing. However, once the other couple was dropped off, we had a great time with Cory, who was very willing to show us around and answer our questions. Overall, we...

This boat trip was my favorite part of my 10 day trip to southern Florida, including Miami and the Keys! Gary was our guide and I believe he is a lifelong resident of the area and was born on one of the islands. He had so much great local information and knowledge of all types. We got to hear local history stories, including ones from his own family's experiences here going back 100 years (also ask him what he ran over with his lawnmower last year, LOL!). He pointed out and had facts about all kinds of birds and was amazing at getting dolphins to swim and jump right next to the boat! We got to see an ancient Native American shell midden which was utterly amazing for this former archaeology student. It was really amazing to go out through the maze of remote mangrove islands with a capable, safe captain. We got a close up look at islands which were covered in all manner of birds (rookery) at sunset. Thank you for a wonderful memory!

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