River Adventure Tours — Local services in Homosassa Springs

We decided to take a trip up to Homosassa to visit the manatees after seeing them last year in Crystal River. Gary made it an absolute breeze to book with him! He answered any and all questions I had before booking (including some suggestions about things to do in the area, springs to visit for swimming) and tailored everything to our needs. The price to get a PRIVATE MANATEE SNORKEL TOUR is unbeatable.

I checked with him the night before and he actually suggested pushing our tour time a hour later based on the experience he had that day with what time the manatee were out! Very flexible with scheduling and determined to make our trip the best it could possibly be. He docked at the Homosassa Riverside Resort where we were staying, brought the wetsuits to my husband so we could change privately in our rooms (vs in a room of 20 people like last place we went with) and we hopped on the boat. The ride is very short from that hotel and he took us to the start of the springs where we had the place to ourselves for over an hour! Experiencing the peace and serenity, just my Husband, myself and of course Gary was a real treat.

We would pop our heads up and he would point, directing us to where the manatees we couldn't see were and telling us to be still if one was coming up to us. We had such an incredible experience with several of the manatee, including a baby that hung around for a 10 minute (got the proof on our GoPro) body massage! Afterward he shifted even our kayak rental time since we snorkeled later and we headed back. Everything is done digitally and easy to keep tabs.

Later in the afternoon we went to the shop to get our kayaks and met Mike. Mike was funny and very knowledgable about the area and kayaking. I picked his brain a bit about what type of kayak was best and the general facts about the area. He got us in and out of the kayak in no time flat which was awesome since I'm used to having to load up and launch ourselves.

Overall, can't wait to come back with friends and book our next tours (like the Airboat tour!) with River...

We rented one single and one tandem kayak for Saturday March 30, 2024. We arrived and it took us a few minutes to find the employee Emily. Once we located her she was so friendly and had great tips on where to go look for manatees based on other kayakers recent experiences. I love that they give you a laminated map with different numbered areas to go check out. The pricing was very reasonable. Less than $34 after tax for the single kayak and less than $57 after tax for the tandem kayak for two hours. We are not experienced kayakers so it took us about an hour and a half to paddle from the launch point to Homosassa springs under the smaller bridge and into the beautiful clear water and then back to the launch point. I would recommend wearing some type of gloves so that you don’t get blisters if you are out for more than two hours and inexperienced like us. I did not end up with any blisters but I felt like they were forming by the end of our two hour trip! We launched around 8:45 AM and Emily told us that since she was not booked up that day if we were late coming back it would not be a big deal. Also if we wanted to extend our trip to the four hour rental we could just call her and let her know. It was very nice how accommodating she was. Since we got out on the water early we avoided the majority of the boats and other kayakers. We were able to see several manatee and get up close. That same afternoon we went to the Ellie Schiller wildlife park and were able to see the exact area that we had kayaked through that morning and it was lined with about 15 to 20 boats with people playing music and partying. That was very disappointing to see. I’m glad that we got out on the water as early as we did. We pretty much had the springs...

We booked a 2 hour tour to do with our 4 kids. Friday when we went to dock it was thundering and we were worried to go out even though it wasn’t raining. They rescheduled for us saying they didn’t want us to take the kids out in it. I sighed with relief. They were able to reschedule us for Sunday. Sunday when we arrived we explained that our oldest daughter had been having issues with the heat all day so we probably wouldn’t go far and not go out the whole 2hours. We wanted to give it a try because the kids were really excited to try a new adventure on vacation. The guide Emily was amazing!!! After we told her about it, she was so helpful and made us feel comfortable with a plan to just go out and stay close by. Explained that if need be they could help us get back quickly. She also Offered to see if she could get us a refund if we didn’t want to try. But we told her we wanted to just try to go out. We only lasted 15 minutes before our daughter said she was getting hot. So we turned around and went back. She offered to call the main office and see if we could get a refund for us, but we told her it was okay. We didn’t want the refund. It was a new experience with our kids and we got to enjoy it while we could do it was worth it. We will definitely be back next time we are visiting the area. We really appreciated her compassion and willingness to help us have the best experience! ((Next time we’ll have to come when the manatees...