For a memorable kayak and SUP experience in the Florida Keys consider a guided eco-tour or rental with the amazing people and operation at Lazy Dog Adventures. Lazy Dog Adventures eco-tour excursions visit mangrove tunnels and regularly encounter sharks, tropical birds, and other marine life.
What is Lazy Dog Adventures?
Lazy Dog Adventures is a popular activity provider in The Florida Keys offering kayaking and paddle board rentals, lessons, and tours. Standard eco-tours (kayak and SUP) run two hours.
A less active but still really fun Lazy Dog adventure is their eco-tour pontoon charter boat adventure. You book the boat for a half-day trip, lasting 3.5 hours, and bring along up to six people. Kayaks and SUP boards are onboard two enjoy when hanging around the sandbar or island. The Lazy Dog captain will take you to favorite Florida Keys spots for seeing turtles, sharks, and dolphins, sandbars for lounging and great selfie pix, and more.
Where is Lazy Dog Adventures?
Lazy Dog Adventures is located next to the bridge between Key West and Stock Island. They are across the street from Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, on Cow Key Channel, and in Hurricane Harbor with Conchubine Charters (nice name!), Salty Bonez Adventures, Laid Back Key West, Looney Tunes Fishing and Seafood, and Pirate Adventure Charters.
They all share a dirt parking lot and available spaces may be at a premium during peak season periods. See our tip below to make getting to Lazy Dog Adventures as worry-free as possible.
Florida Keys Kayak Eco-Tour With Lazy Dog
Here, in The Florida Keys, is the only place where you can easily paddle between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. That paradigm makes for some memorable US Gulf Coast liquid road trip experiences.
Cow Creek (Cow Key Channel) is one such waterway connecting the two large bodies of water and on which Lazy Dog Adventures launches.
During our two-hour paddling eco-tour we saw nurse sharks (up to 6 feet in length) and later in the protected mangroves off Cow Creek we held jellyfish. Our guide gathered us a few times to describe geographic features, explain local flora and fauna, but mostly guided us through an amazing environment.
The Florida Keys islands are protected by mangroves with deep roots. My personal Lazy Dog Adventures tour highlight was entering and navigating through three different mangrove tunnels. I call them mangrove tunnels but the correct term is mangrove tidal creeks—places where mangroves cannot establish and put down roots because of constantly moving water.
McCool Travel tip: Parking is extremely limited near Lazy Dog Adventures. Plan to arrive earlier and perhaps even walk a long way. They recommend ride share or taxi.
- Separate Florida Keys mangrove SUP eco-tours may combine forces with the kayak tour when there are not enough registrants.
- Lazy Dog Adventures give discounts to Lower Keys residents, military, and service (police, fire, EMS) employees with proper ID.
- And dogs are allowed everywhere here, of course.
See our suggested Key West Tips and other Spots to Visit in the Florida Keys.
About Lazy Dog Adventures
The owner of Lazy Dog Adventures left a corporate executive role in order to pursue personal fulfillment.
That is a common theme in the Florida Keys and along the US Gulf Coast, right? People choose to live in US Gulf Coast beach areas and experience cool, happy, and fun environments while leaving behind the hassles and stresses elsewhere. Cue the Jimmy Buffett tunes and pass me that pitcher of margaritas.
Sue Cooper later wrote Millionaire in Flip Flops and is a speaker and consultant for topics such as success mindset and creating your ideal lifestyle. Lazy Dog Adventures is run by a savvy businesswoman.
Lazy Dog merchandise has national distribution and popularity. All of the dogs pictured on their products are actual dogs, most of which come to work with Sue and Lazy Dog employees.
But the core purpose of Lazy Dog Adventures is introducing people to the remarkable Florida Keys nature through paddling eco-tours and they do it extraordinarily well.
For more information about Lazy Dog Adventures, visit them on their website, Facebook, or Instagram.
For other great US Gulf Coast paddling spots see Kayaking in Coastal Mississippi and Texas Gulf Coast Paddling Trails. And see Fun Places to Kayak in the USÂ for more liquid road trip funness.