Florida Manatee Tours

Your Family's Gotta Try This: Snorkeling with Manatees in Crystal River

By Lauren Tjaden

When you get up-close-and-personal with a manatee, the first thing that you notice is its gargantuan size. Adult manatees are normally 9-10 feet long and weigh around 1,000 pounds, but they can grow to over 13 feet long and weigh more than 3,500 pounds. 1,000 pounds is the size of the average horse. That’s a big animal—whether you’re atop a paddleboard, in a kayak or boat, and particularly if you’re swimming next to one.

The second thing you notice is how cute they are. A manatee face is akin to something out of a cartoon, with tiny, round eyes and a shrunken, smushed- in version of an elephant’s trunk for a snout—big, soft and grey, complete with a smattering of whiskers. Their profiles are blimp-like, and they have two forelimb flippers they employ to steer and to hold vegetation while they munch on it.

Algae and barnacles cling to their backs, a hint at their speed—or rather, their lack of it. They normally lumber around at about five miles an hour, but have the capacity to motor up to 15 miles per hour in short bursts, should the rare occasion warrant it. They’re gentle beasts with no natural predators, and as they eat more than a tenth of their weight in food every day, grazing is a focal point of their days.

Meeting these marvelous mammals is worthy of any bucket list, and the Sunshine State makes it easy, delivering a myriad of tours where the beloved manatee takes center stage- from kayaking and stand up paddle-boarding and boat tours to those that offer swimming with manatees.

Here’s your guide to Manatee tours in Florida.

Swimming with Manatees

Guided tours provide the easiest, safest, and surest way to swim with manatees. Conducted via boat or kayak, tours allow you to get into the water quicker and have a dry place to rest and keep your items.

Crystal River, Homosassa, and the waters of Florida’s Citrus County are one of the rare places in the world where you can have an in-water experience with manatees in their natural environment—and it’s ideal.

Heralded as the Manatee Capital of The World, every winter Citrus County draws between 500 and 1000 manatees to its springs, which provide a natural warm water refuge. Even in the warm summer months, up to 100 manatees remain in the springs.

Tour companies on Kings Bay in Crystal River operate under Special Use Permits issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, the sole Refuge in the United States solely dedicated to protecting critical habitat for manatees.

Tour guides are trained to make sure this beloved, threatened species is treated with the utmost care and respect, and all swimmers on manatee tours learn their “Manatee Manners” before ever getting in the water.

Check out these tour guides and outfitters that will take you on a once in a lifetime adventure to swim or snorkel with the manatees in the wild.

*If you prefer to keep your feet dry, most if not all of these tours offer manatee viewing as well as swimming.

Air Tank Divers, Homosassa

American Pro Diving Center, Crystal River

Art N' Diving Tours, Crystal River

Bird’s Underwater, Crystal River

Blue Heaven River Tours, Homosassa

Captain Mike's Swimming with the Manatees, Crystal River

Captain Tim’s Family Adventure Charters, Crystal River

City Sightseeing Orlando, Orlando

Crystal River Guide Service, Crystal River

Crystal River Kayak Company & Dive Center, Crystal River

Crystal River Watersports, Crystal River

Explorida, Crystal River

Florida Manatee Adventures, Crystal River

Gulf Coast Expeditions, Crystal River

Homosassa Manatee Snorkeling Center, Homosassa

Homosassa Manatee Snorkeling, Homosassa

Hunter Springs Kayaks, Crystal River

Manatee Connection, Crystal River

Manatee Tour & Dive, Crystal River

Manatees in Paradise, Crystal River

Nature Coast Manatee Tours, Crystal River

Paddles Outdoor Rentals, Crystal River

Pete's Pier, Crystal River

Plantation Adventure Center & Dive Shop, Crystal River

Plantation on Crystal River, Crystal River

River Adventure Tours, Homosassa

River Safaris, Homosassa

River Ventures, Crystal River and Homosassa

Salty Siren Tours & Charters, Crystal River

Sea Education Adventures (SEA), Crystal River

SeaDaddy's Dive Center, Crystal River

Snorkel with the Manatees, Homosassa

Manatee Viewing

These tours offer the opportunity to observe manatees, not swim with them. In addition to the tour agencies listed here, most if not all of the companies that offer swimming with manatees offer ‘dry’ tours as well.

Canaveral Wildlife Tours, Merritt Island

Florida Cracker Riverside Resort, Crystal River

Florida Island Tours, Marco Island

Florida Keys Kayak and Paddleboard, Marathon

Florida Rick, Crystal River

Happy Place Adventures, Crystal River

Homosassa Fishing & Manatee Charters, Homosassa

Jupiter Outdoor Center, Jupiter

Kayaking SRQ, Sarasota

Manatee and Eco River Tours, Fort Myers

Manatee Sightseeing & Wildlife Adventures, Naples

Mellow Mangrove Charters, Homosassa