River Ventures — Local services in Crystal River

We participated in the "Semi-Private Tour" on November 29, 2024.

Our tour boat had only the four of us, so it was essentially a private tour. We were very lucky.

Rachael was an excellent guide. She explained various things in an easy-to-understand manner, even for us who are not very proficient in English. She also encouraged us to overcome our worries about the slightly cold water and swimming. Captain Chris was equally friendly and taught us about the manatees and the ecosystem of Kings Bay.

We participated with our 10-year-old and 5-year-old daughters. Our 5-year-old daughter cannot swim well and can only float, but Rachael was always considerate of her, helping her stay calm and enjoy the experience. If there had been other participants in our group, perhaps she wouldn’t have been able to give our daughter as much attention, but we were fortunate.

Rachael managed to take numerous photos while taking care of children. There was no reason not to buy these photos.

Although there were not many manatees since it wasn't very cold yet, Captain Chris quickly found the manatees, pointed them out to us, and found suitable swimming spots. We were able to observe a mother and baby manatee swimming together and see a sleeping baby manatee up close, making it an invaluable experience.

Being in the water for an extended period was a bit cold and tough for the kids, but they still felt more joy than discomfort.

Although the office was unusable due to damage from Hurricane Helen, the River Ventures staff did their utmost for us, and we are truly grateful. We hope they can return to normal operations as soon as possible.

This manatee swim tour was the highlight of our trip from California to Florida. When asked what was the best part of our Florida trip, everyone in my family immediately says "the manatees." We will definitely return here someday.

Much appreciate,...

I did the 7:30am tour with friends on 2/5/24. The experience was incredible and i am beyond happy i drove 2 hours to do this. I would do it again in a heart beat and will 100% be back! Our tour guide was Zach. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. Our captain was Ermerson and he was excellent as well. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and you could tell they both just loved what they were doing.

The hot drinks on the boat was amazing after being cold while getting out. It really did help bring your temp up. Maybe it was in my head but i thought it helped!

My only recommendation would be maybe hang a funny info sign about how to put on a wet suit in the fitting room. It would have saved me the embarrassment of me walking out with mine on backwards lol.

Second trip 2/28/24 review- I updated my review from my last trip to this trip. I had previously left 5 stars and i would say this one was 3 stars so i am leaving 4.

First Natalie our guide was absolutely great given what she had to work with. She cracked jokes, told facts, and was fun to explore with!

The difference tho was Zach i felt had it easy with there being manatees everywhere and Natalie had it very hard with there being few manatees and a TON of other tour groups in the water.

I still had a fun experience but it was totally different. We saw a few manatees swimming by fast and one under a boat this time. My first time there was so many and they were very playful with us.

I am mostly shocked that they have a price increase for “peak season” so i paid more for the second experience when i saw way less manatees. They encourage a 10% discount for repeat customers when realistically i paid more and i brought back 4 more people with me because my experience was so good...

Last December we took the 3-hour tour with River Ventures to swim with the manatees. Despite the fact that there were some manatees, this was still a very disappointing experience as we only had the chance to swim with one manatee for a couple of minutes. Most of the tour the captain was going through the bay to search manatees on places where no others were and despite the fact that he knew that there were some at a specific part of the bay where other tours were already in the water. After most of the tour went by without seeing a manatee up close, we finally returned to the spot where the other tours were at and we had the chance to swim with only one manatee. There were some others very close by, but we were not allowed to swim there, while other tours were allowed to do this. We did not understand this. Also the swimming experience was very short, so after 10 minutes we were back on the boat already.

As we have paid an extra amount as a guarantee to swim with manatees (we would get our money back if there were no manatees), this experience really felt as if we were just swimming with one manatee for some minutes just to prevent us from getting back our money.

Given this disappointing experience, the tour felt like a waste of time for us and it is shameful as well that the photos that were made by the tour guide during the tour, which were of very bad quality and not professional at all, are only available for download for a whopping $39. The tour itself was already really overpriced at more than $150 as total for the both of us and we really regret taking this tour. We also did not understand why the tour guides even asked for a tip, which they were not entitled to...