Glass Reef Dolphin Encounter and Snorkeling, Key West, Florida - Activity Review

In October of 2008, my husband and I took a trip to Key West, Florida and Miami, Florida. The Key West excursion was kind of a belated honeymoon, as we had already been married for over a year. The Miami part was an added bonus. My parents rented a condo in Miami to stay in while they completed some projects in the area. They invited us; we were happy to accept.

For this trip, our goal was to fully unwind and relax. We both work hard all of the time and sometimes forget that the world can move at a much slower pace when we let it. We needed the break, the rest, the vegging out. But neither one of us can sit still long enough to truly do nothing for an entire week.

We decided that the best option for us would be to go somewhere tropical, where we could lie around on the beach, but where there was enough going on that we could take in lots of sights and activities, too.

We decided to go to Key West for many reasons. It seemed like a city that could accommodate all of our needs without breaking our budgets completely.

When we first started discussing a trip to the Keys, my husband immediately said he wanted to see dolphins. He had never seen them up close. I had, and I think they are amazing creatures, so I was excited to oblige his wish. While you can pay to actually swim alongside the dolphins when they are in captivity, in the Keys, you can watch them in their natural environment (and none is in captivity).

Once we got to Key West, we got bombarded, as most tourists do anywhere, by the people selling trips and excursions and shouting to the high heavens about how great of a deal they could offer. We decided that our first couple of days would be pretty much for relaxing and sipping drinks, and that later on in the trip, we'd go for a real activity.

After checking out the many activity packages, we ultimately decided on one after we'd seen it in a pamphlet at our hotel. It was called the Glass Reef.

The Glass Reef is the only glass bottom boat in Key West that goes out for dolphin excursions. Of course, since the dolphins are swimming and living in their own natural environments, companies like Glass Reef have to inform you that they can't guarantee you will get to see dolphins on the tour. However, one nice thing that we learned about Key West is that all of the excursion companies communicate with one another to share the best daily locations for seeing the dolphins. An added bonus of our trip package was to go snorkeling, which neither one of us had done. Since we called the Glass Reef phone number directly instead of going through a street vendor, we received $20 off our trip package, making the trip come to a total of $160 total. The trip was scheduled to last 1 ½ hours and the boat could only fit six people at a time, creating a comfortable atmosphere.

We decided to take the sunset tour. We arrived before our 4:30 scheduled departure time to find that the other couple backed out of the trip. We ended up getting a private tour for the regular price (if you take a trip there, you'll see "private tours" advertised for about three times the amount of money we paid). The check-in site was near the harbor, by the Thai Island restaurant (which we ate at, and it was wonderful, too).

Our tour guide was a nice young woman who originally came from Michigan. She and her husband both worked on the water, and she was pregnant with their first child. She knew a ton, obviously loved living there and being on the water, and really cared about giving us our money's worth.

We started the trip with the most exciting part: the dolphin viewing. At first, we had a hard time spotting them, but after awhile, we spotted a pair that was jumping out of the water and swimming excitedly. They were curious about our little boat. They swam near it, under it, and even showed off some of their exciting tricks. They were magical. We got to watch them for at least half an hour, happily swimming about, enjoying their surroundings. What is interesting, too, is that they have really good ears. They were able to hear us talking, and every so often, they acted like dogs perking up to hear what we were saying.

Once the dolphins had enough of us, we moved on to snorkeling. We learned how to use the mask and the tube, and I have to admit, I wasn't so good with the mouthpiece at first. I figured it out pretty quickly, though. We snorkeled in an area with many species of fish, coral, sponges, even lobsters and crabs! When we first swam in the area with the schools of fish, I noticed them looking up at us curiously. My favorite part of the snorkeling was toward the end of the trip. The schools of fish had gone from eyeing us curiously to swimming right alongside us. It was so cute - they accepted us as new members of their pack.

When we were done snorkeling, our tour guide gave us some snacks and soft drinks. A bag of Doritos and a bottled water really hit the spot after gulping down some oceanic salt water! Our final big events were to speed back in our boat to see the sunset and to learn about the harbor and Mallory Square.

The trip was wonderful, and definitely worth the money. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and provided the relaxed atmosphere we were looking for. It is customary on trips like that to tip, which of course we did, especially since we ended up getting the private tour for two!

If you're ever in the Key West area, I definitely recommend taking a tour with Glass Reef. The trips don't cost as much as some of the others, but you get so much.