Wildlife Refuge Tour: Explore 10,000 Islands

Explore Marco Island’s wildlife on a 2-hour tour. Spot dolphins, manatees, and rare birds with a Florida Master Naturalist. Book your adventure now.

Duration: 2 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Marco Island - The Everglades region, including the park and its islands, is brimming with wildlife, particularly manatees, dolphins, and birds. Marco Island stands out as one of the largest and most westerly islands in this region. During this 2-hour excursion, participants will venture into the area’s 10,000 islands for an educational tour and…
What's Included
  • Travel with a certified Florida Master Naturalist guide
  • Tour the Everglades area including Marco Island
  • See an amazing variety of birds and other wildlife
What's Not Included
  • Bottled water
  • Gratuities
Additional Information

Relax in comfortable captain’s style seating as you are safely transported into the heart of the 10,000 Islands Wildlife Refuge for a two-hour guided tour led by a Florida Master Naturalist. Depending on the time of year, you may see manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, bald eagles, ospreys, herons, egrets, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, along with a variety of fish and shorebirds.

Location
750 Palm Point Dr
Palm Point Drive
You will meet under the covered pavilion to the left of the building.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.6
(14 Ratings)
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1 star
554gaild
Apr 25, 2023
Dolphins so close to our boat! - Captain Joe and First Mate Kim (aka Shelly) were fabulous guides. We had an amazing tour. They were so knowledgable and friendly. We saw lots of the dolphins up close to the boat (captain Joe’s dolphins) and enjoyed our wander on the beach collecting shells. Kim also have us a great lunch recommendation. Great value for money on this tour, we recommend it highly!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sightsee13238523070
Apr 16, 2023
Who Knew Shelling Was So Exciting - Our 7 year old really wanted to go shelling. Having had a minor obsession with shells for the last year or so, he elected this over kayaking. However, it was a super fun excursion. We got to see dolphins, herons, osprey, and plenty of other birds. But the highlight was going to the island to go shelling. It felt a bit strange to walk over a mollusk graveyard, but the loot was well worth it. Wholly recommend this tour.
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Joekilgallen
Apr 6, 2023
Amazing tour to do with couples, friends and more.... - Amazing tour with great views of the beautiful homes along the water. Capt. Joe was great. Very knowledgeable of the history of this area and also added fun facts. Great wildlife (we saw Osprey, Dolphins and more). Stopped to do some shelling and found tons of really interesting shell, sand dollars and more. Great trip I would recommend to everyone.
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Danro9344ld
Apr 5, 2023
Absolutely amazing dolphin and shell collecting tour - This was truly amazing. We saw our first of many dolphins 5 minutes after leaving the dock. Captain Joe and his first mate Kim were very knowledgeable and answered all questions on marine life, the ecosystem of the Everglades and the local area. They stopped and explained along the way and accommodated everyone’s curiosity. After a memorable ride with the dolphins we landed on a shell filled beach where Kim pointed out details and identified certain species and even explained “baby” shells to our 6 year old daughter. We will go on this tour and request captain Joe and first mate Kim every time we are in Florida.
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Excursion20703551170
Mar 29, 2023
Dolphin & Shelling Boat Tour - This was excellent and well worth the money. I highly recommend early morning as it gets hot during the day. My husband and I and our 2 sons went at 8am, well worth getting up early. We saw many dolphins and wildlife. Our tour guides ( Ed & Kim) were friendly and hospitable, shared many interesting facts about the wildlife. The best part was watching the dolphins jump the boat wake for about 5 minutes. The dolphins were very close to the wake of the boat, it was incredible how playful they were. We docked on a little island south of Marco Island and looked for sea shells and sand dollars. Our guides were very knowledgeable about the various sea shells along the beach. Ask a lot of questions from the guides and you'll learn a lot!
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Carolesd115xu
Jan 30, 2023
Saw lots of birds! - We loved our tour with Joe! He was so knowledgeable! There was only our group (4) on the tour!! Had fun!
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Karencm4232dq
Jan 27, 2023
Great fun and nature friendly trip - The tour was great - Captain Ed was a terrific guide - very informative and engaging. We saw dolphin, large birds and collected beautiful shells from a quiet beach. The pilot and first mate were also helpful. We really got a sense of the vast expanse of mangroves and saw the city of Marco close up from the water which is a much clearer way to see it than when driiving around.
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Daverz6612ib
Feb 11, 2020
Great fun! - Captain Chris showed us a great time. We did some touring of the Mangrove Islands as our Captain pointed out birds. In our most incredible time we had Dolphins following our boat barely 5 feet behind us!!! He took us to an island literally made of sea shells. The boat we took only carried 5 so it was a nice small group.
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Elaineh350
Jan 19, 2020
An awesome shelling adventure - We arrived early for our morning tour and were greeted by our guide, Ed Romig. We were able to leave early which was great since it was full moon and we were anxious to get out during low tide. We were told that Ed was the guru of knowing where to find shells, and that was so true! We went out to one of the outer islands and couldn't believe the shells on the beach. We then went across to another island and found more awesome shells. I didn't realize angel shells got so big! Our 2 hour trip was over all too soon. Ed was very knowledgeable about the area and we learned a lot on our 2 hour tour. We will definitely do this tour again when we escape our cold Wisconsin winter for a week in sunny, warm Florida. We also had just finished a 3 day 2 night base camp kayak tour with Everglades Area Tours and enjoyed our guides on both tours. It's great to have guides that live in the area and also know so much about the area - not just guides hired for the tourist season.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $89
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).