How to Swim with Manatees—without a Tour!
Swimming with manatees had been a long-time dream of mine. They are such big, beautiful, calm and gentle creatures. I’ve seen documentaries where manatees curiously approach people, sniffing them up or giving them manatee hugs, and I said, ‘I want to be that person!’
So here’s what I did (it’s easier than you may think!):
I looked up, “where can you swim with manatees?” and apparently there is only one place in the world where you can legally swim with wild manatees: Crystal River, Florida. Perfect.
My mother lives in Florida and I was planning to visit her anyway. So I booked a flight to Florida and convinced my mom and her husband to take a “mini trip” to Crystal River during the time I was visiting them in January/February.
Then I got to work researching how to make it all happen. Like, can we definitely actually swim with them? Do we have to take a tour or can we just go on our own?
I would much rather go on my own, but I learned there was no way to (legally) jump into the water and start swimming with them, so you had to take a boat or some kind of vessel to get to the manatees.
I also learned that we needed cold weather—when it’s cold manatees come to Florida’s springs to warm up (apparently, despite their looks, they have little fat and therefore can’t tolerate water below ∼20°C). Florida’s spring water, however, comes from a massive aquifer which stays around 22°C year round. So when the weather’s cold, manatees swim to the springs and congregate around the warm water.
And luck was on our side! While I was there, Florida had the coldest weather it had seen in years.
So then I searched and searched and searched for a way to swim with manatees without taking a tour.
I learned that we’d have the best chance to see them at the Three Sisters Springs, and there was a kayak rental shop close by. A two-person kayak cost $57 for 3 hours or $67 for 5 hours. A paddleboard cost $50 for 3 hours or $60 for 5 hours. Not exactly cheap, but definitely cheaper than a tour—and, most importantly, they rented wetsuits and their website clearly stated that you can get out of your kayak/paddleboard to snorkel with manatees on your own!!! (As long as you watched their video and obeyed all the rules, of course.)
I booked a two-person kayak for my mom and her husband, and a SUP for myself for 5 hours.
And since my mother lives on the other side of Florida over 300km away, we also booked a hotel for one night. The hotel was crappy and overpriced, but it didn’t matter—we were planning to see manatees first thing the next morning!
When we woke up it was so cold that we actually had to scrape frost off our car. My mother could not believe I was planning to go swimming in this weather. She said she would kayak but there was no way she was going in the water!
Next, we got a quick coffee and headed to the Crystal River Kayak Company. Everything went super well, they gave me a 5mm wetsuit (for $15) and a SUP, while my mom and her husband got their two-person kayak. The staff explained exactly where to paddle to find the manatees and the Three Sisters Springs, and set us off on our own!
It was an easy 10-minute paddle from the rental place to the Three Sisters Springs, and as soon as we arrived, we saw manatees all around us! Because it was so cold, the springs themselves were closed for swimming/kayaking, but there were dozens of manatees all around the entrance of the springs.
I immediately found the spot where I could leave my paddleboard (there is a designated area with ankle-deep water), put on my mask and snorkle, and jumped in.
Wow. This was better than I had ever imagined! The water was crystal clear and there were manatees everywhere! Manatees resting, manatees swimming, baby manatees playing around—and then, a young manatee swam right up to my face and nuzzled me! Just like in those documentaries.
I poked my head up and found my mother and her husband in their kayak. “Go back to the rental place,” I said, “get a wetsuit, and come back here to swim. You’ve got to see this!” They were not so convinced yet, they decided to kayak around Kings Bay first. I wasn’t going anywhere, in fact I spent the next 4 hours in the water at the Three Sisters Springs, and it was truly a dream come true.
My mother and her husband kayaked around the bay and spotted a mating herd (a bunch of males competing for a female in heat), then returned to Three Sisters Springs. By this time it was a lot warmer, so finally, they went back to the rental place to get wetsuits and go for a snorkel.
Unfortunately, by the time they got in, the water was a lot murkier. Apparently, the water gets murky when the tide comes in, so this is something you can plan around if you snorkel in Crystal River.
Despite the bad visibility, an absolutely adorable baby manatee swam right up to my mom’s face and nuzzled her! And the same happened to her husband. We were all so happy.
If I were alone I would have stayed in the bay all day (and I would have done a bit more kayaking), but 5 hours was enough for my mom and her husband, so eventually we paddled back to the rental place, had lunch, and drove back to the east coast.
Long story short, my best advice for swimming with wild manatees is:
- Go to Crystal River in winter (and on a weekday to avoid crazy crowds).
- Rent a kayak or SUP (+ wetsuit, mask, snorkel) and go on your own so you can take as much time as you want. I felt that the SUP was even better than a kayak because you can stand up on it and get a better view of the manatees while you paddle.
- Don’t forget your mask! It makes a world of a difference to see them beneath the surface of the water.
- Go early in the morning when it’s colder and there are more manatees near the springs. Don’t be afraid of the cold! The spring water will be warm no matter what—that’s why the manatees are there! And a wetsuit will keep you warm for hours.
- Ask the locals about the tides and how this affects the visibility of the water.
- Find out if the Three Sisters Springs are open or not. If they’re not open because of the cold, there should still be plenty of manatees around the entrance of the springs, though the visibility may not be the best outside of the springs if the tide is coming in.
- Don’t worry about getting in and out of your kayak—you can do it easily in ankle-deep water.
- And of course, be respectful, don’t touch or hover over the manatees, just let them come to you. And PLEASE be careful if you rent a boat. Almost every manatee I saw had awful propeller scars on their body; this was sad and horrifying. Captains really must be a lot more careful in this area.
To finish this blog on a positive note, here is a video I made of our experience (in the last clip is my mom)—