I would like to plan a trip to watch manatees while we are on AC. Is the trip worth it and if so, could someone recommend a guide? Thanks!

Willie Leslie at Searious Adventures is my recommendation! Very knowledgeable and almost always finds them. Searious Adventures is located on the beach in front of Ruby's Hotel.

Please remember that manatees are very shy. There is no guarantee that you will see them. When you do it's usualy just a small splash in the water. They live in murkey water on the coastline, usualy near a river ending. Good luck in seeing them, I('ve only seen a few.

Dave your right, they are elusive and shy but I have had 100% sighting with Willie. Have seen mothers with babies right on the surface! It isn't gaurenteed though.

We just got back last night. We did the Manatee trip with Seaduced and saw several of them. What we saw were mainly underwater, but an occassional snout would poke out of the water when they breathe. I didn't know it was so unusual to see them, so maybe Seaduced wasn't that bad a choice afterall. I felt that our guide, Herman, was rather apathetic to the plight of the manatees, he poled the boat in what he called the "nursery", but just raced it around in other areas, and the manatees were flying trying not to get hit by the engine! The manatees really can more fast when they feel their lives are in danger!

Im confused, he was apathetic to the plight
of the manatees but raced around in their
areas???? Seems contradictory to say the
least....education is the key, the manatees
are such wonderful creatures,....just too
bad some people don't care about their future.

Yeah, I assumed that anybody leading a tour would be sensitive to the manatees, but he didn't seem to be with the way he raced around their habitat. He even talked about eating them up to a year ago, but that they can't do that now because they're protected.