St. Pete Dolphin Watching and Shelling Adventure
Description
Escape the mainland and join Coastal Cruises for a perfect day of Dolphin Watching and Shelling in St. Pete! Our three-hour tour starts with a slow 45-minute dolphin-watching cruise along the intercoastal waterways in St. Pete amidst the multi-million dollar waterfront homes en route to one of our favorite local shelling islands in Florida. Once stopped at either Shell Island, guests will have up to an hour and a half to go ashore and enjoy the day the locals’ way swimming and exploring at one of these pristine shelling destinations! Our boat has plenty of shade for those who aren’t quite as adventurous, so feel free to stay aboard, pick the crew’s brain on the local St. Pete area, take in the coastal views, or enjoy the satellite TV featuring your favorite game! Upon departing the St. Pete shelling islands, we will have an opportunity to once again search for dolphins along the 45-minute intercoastal route back to the marina.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Our journey will begin and/or end passing by multi-million dollar waterfront homes. Our guests love taking in these massive estates owned by St. Pete's local millionaires!
En Route to Sand Dollar or Shell Island, we will pass by St. Petersburg's historic Gulfport community where many sailboats can be seen mooring off the coast of this waterfront town.
En route to island stop, we will pass under several bridges enjoying their architecture. In, particular, the Pinellas Bayway bridge was recently constructed and has an interesting cathedral like appearance when looking to either side while underneath it.
Once arrived at either Shell or Sand Dollar Island, guests will have up to an 1.5hrs to go ashore and swim, tan, or search for their favorite shell. For those less adventurous, there is plenty of shade on board to sit back, relax, and pick our crew's brain on the area.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Service animals allowed
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(246)
We had a great experience with Dillion and Matt! They were very knowable about the area and the dolphins, and they made the trip fun , I would definitely recommend doing this excursion.
Thank you so much! We’re thrilled you had such a great time! We’ll be sure to pass along your kind words to them. Thank you for recommending us, and we hope to have you back onboard for another adventure soon! 🐬🌊
The Shell Island trip with Captain Tony and Captain Matt was fantastic. They were amazing hosts, and super responsive to my daughter's questions about the boat, weather, and animals. We saw a lot of dolphins and had plenty of time to collect shells and relax on Shell Island.
Thank you so much for the wonderful review! We’re so glad you and your daughter had such a fantastic time with Captain Tony and Matt. Seeing plenty of dolphins and getting time to relax and hunt for shells sounds like the perfect day on the water! We’ll be sure to pass your kind words along to the crew, and we hope to have you both back aboard again soon!
THE WORST EXCURSION EVER! Let me tell you about our experience . . . it started off just wonderful with Dan, our captain. He never offered us any life jackets, only told us that they were under the seats, but never saw one, since we did have my grandsons with us, one who has special needs, and as we were driving down the intercoastal, we saw our first 2 dolphins. One with his fin cut off, as Dan called him, "Chop." So we thought we were on a roll. The next hour we only saw 2 more dolphins for a brief second but we sure learned more than we wanted to about the houses on the intercoastal (their market value and who lived there), and saw some Osprey's nests. The water was murky as we continued to Shell Key. I didn't see any white beach or turquoise water as their picture displays. Dan beached our boat on a 5' x 5' piece of sand on Shell Key, turned the engine off, and said, okay you guys can get out now! WHAT!! WHERE!! There wasn't any safe place to get out too! No land -- just get out in the 3' murky water and then walk around this little piece of the shore where we could snorkel. We just sat there in disbelief, and said that we were not getting out there! It wasn't safe! Dan also warned us to not stray too far from the shoreline because there were strong currents that could sweep us away!!! We were so disappointed, and told him that we wanted to go back to the dock and that this was all a scam. His reply was that there was high tide! Well, then, he should have cancelled our excursion! Literally, there wasn't any beach, no guide (he wasn't getting out of his boat). He then offered to take us to a different strip of land where there were fisherman, but warned us that if we went past 10' from land, there was a huge drop! HOW CAN THIS BE SAFE for any person! We demanded to be taken back to the dock, and my grandsons were SO DISAPPOINTED, as were we! We were so looking forward to this in the Gulf waters! What a joke! We obviously were also told that we WOULD NOT GET A REFUND, AND TO CONTACT OUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY FOR A REFUND! The General Manager was so rude, and had no compassion, and had the nerve to tell us that we didn't finish our excursion! PLEASE! DO NOT GO WITH THIS EXCURSION.
We’re very sorry to hear about this experience. However, this review appears to have been posted on the wrong company’s listing. Coastal Cruises does not have a captain named Dan, and the trip described does not match any experience we operate. Our excursions are conducted aboard approximately 50-foot catamaran vessels that accommodate up to 48 passengers, and every trip has both a licensed captain and a crew member onboard. We also do not offer snorkeling as part of any of our excursions. Based on the description, it sounds like this may have been a private excursion operated by a different local tour provider with only a captain onboard. While we are genuinely sorry that your family had such a disappointing experience, we respectfully ask that you remove this review from our page and repost it on the correct tour operator’s listing. This will allow the responsible company to address your concerns and prevent our business and crew from being negatively affected by an experience we did not provide. Although Coastal Cruises was not the company responsible for this experience, we would love the opportunity to welcome your family aboard and show you how enjoyable a day on the water can be. Please give us a call, and our team would be happy to accommodate you and help provide the amazing experience you and your grandsons were hoping for.
Awesome experience! Great crew!
Thank you so much! We're thrilled to hear you had an awesome experience. We appreciate your kind words and hope to welcome you back onboard again soon!
We had a great experience doing the float party with coastal Cruises. The boat was very clean and well maintained. The crew was knowledgeable of the area, very accommodating, and made this experience amazing for our family.
Thank you so much for your kind review! We're thrilled to hear your family had such a great time on our Float Party. We'll be sure to share your kind words with our crew, and we hope to welcome you back for another adventure soon!
We brought our 8 & 10 yr old grandsons. Our guides were fun and played great music as we searched for dolphins. On the island we collected the most beautiful sea shells then floated on the huge rafts that were set up by the crew. I definitely recommend this trip!
We had an amazing time on the dolphin/Shell Key trip today! The staff were helpful and attentive and the boat was clean and comfortable. The trip started out looking for dolphins and we saw several. We also saw manatees, live conch shells (we looked at those and left them where they were, of course) and other wildlife. We enjoyed time on Shell Key floating, relaxing and looking for treasures. This was our 2nd boat tour with Coastal Cruises and they are highly recommended for any occasion such as a family vacation, bachelor/bachelorette parties, birthday parties, etc. Check them out!
Thank you so much for the wonderful review! We’re thrilled you had an amazing time on the dolphin and Shell Key trip and got to see dolphins, manatees, and all the other wildlife along the way. It’s great to hear you enjoyed your time at Shell Key relaxing and exploring. We really appreciate you sailing with us again and the recommendation means a lot. Hope to see you back for trip number three soon!
Highly recommend the Shell Key Dolphin Cruise and Float. Captain Noah & Matt were very friendly and accommodating. Lots of dolphin sightings. Opportunities for family/friend pics. Would definitely book again.
Thank you for the great review! We’re so glad you enjoyed the dolphin sightings and your time with Captain Noah and Matt. We’d love to have you back again soon!
Had a great boat ride with Captain Eric and Captain Dalton! Very friendly and and accomodating. Saw lots of dolphins. Shell island was beautiful and swimming was great! Wish we could of found some unique shells though.
Worth it! Very clean boat, great captain and first mate- Noah and Jason. Saw dolphins playing, great photo opportunities under the bridge as well. Although we didn’t find shells without animals in them, it was still worth the trip!
