KAYAK LOVERS · THE WORLD BY PADDLE
Some water you only reach at paddle height.
Reviews of the best kayak trips on earth, water by water. The Benagil sea caves on the Algarve, the manatee springs of Florida, the karst towers of Halong Bay and the seven-colour lagoon at Bacalar. We read through the options so you pick the right paddle.
Worth the airfare
Three paddles that belong to one stretch of water.
You can rent a kayak almost anywhere now. But the column of light inside the Benagil cave, the hidden lagoons of Halong Bay, and the seven shades of Bacalar at dawn happen on these waters and nowhere else on earth.
The Algarve
Into the Benagil Sea Cave
Portugal’s southern cliffs are riddled with sea caves, and the most famous has a perfect hole in its roof that drops a column of sunlight onto a hidden circle of sand. A kayak is small enough to slip in under the low arch, the water glows that impossible green around the blades, and you land on a beach that has no path down to it. Nothing else in Europe paddles quite like this stretch of coast.
- 1 Benagil: Guided Kayaking Tour to the Benagil Cave
- 2 Benagil: Caves, Beaches, and Secret Spots Guided Kayak Tour
- 3 Lagos: Kayak Experience
Halong Bay
Through the Karst of Halong Bay
Thousands of limestone towers rise straight out of a jade-green sea, and the only way into the quiet heart of it is low and slow. You paddle through sea-level caves into hidden lagoons ringed by jungle cliffs, where the water goes glassy and the towers close behind you. The day cruises drop kayaks right among the karsts, so the bay opens up at eye level instead of from a deck.
- 1 Hanoi: Full-Day Halong Bay Cruise with Swimming & Kayak Tour
- 2 Cozy Bay Halong 5-Star Day Cruise, Buffet, Cave, Kayak, Swimming
- 3 Halong Bay Day Tour With Titop Island, Cave, Kayak & Lunch
Yucatan, Mexico
Dawn on the Lagoon of Seven Colours
Bacalar is a freshwater lagoon so clear and so layered over white sand that it shades from near-white through turquoise to deep indigo, all at once. The water is stillest at first light, so the classic trip is a sunrise paddle out over the cenotes and stromatolites with the colour coming up under the hull. A floating breakfast, a swim in bathtub-warm water, and a lake that genuinely looks like nowhere else.
- 1 Pirate’s Channel & 3 Lagoons Kayak or SUP/Paddle Tour +Meditation
- 2 Sunrise Paddle Quest: Embrace the Dawn on Bacalar’s Waters
- 3 Sunrise by Paddle or Kayak with Floating Picnic
The paddle everyone books
If you only get in one kayak.
More travellers reach for this trip than any other on the site. A safe first booking on water you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Kayak Trips
Benagil, Halong Bay, Dubrovnik, Crystal River, La Jolla. The paddles travellers reach for first, on the water they most want under the hull.
Where to put in
Pick your water.
The Algarve for sea caves. Florida for manatee springs and glowing bays. Halong Bay for the karst lagoons, the Adriatic for sunset paddles, the Balearics for hidden calas, Mexico for the lagoon of seven colours. Each one, with the paddles it does best.
Which kind of water
What do you want under the hull?
The water decides the day as much as the place. Three kinds of paddle, depending on the time you have and what you want to be looking at over the bow.
Florida & beyond
America paddles clear and wild.
No country has more kinds of water to put a kayak on. Clear-bottom boats over the manatee springs of Crystal River, mangrove tunnels and bioluminescent lagoons that light up under the paddle on Florida’s coast, the sea caves of La Jolla, and red-rock canyons on the Colorado below the Hoover Dam. Wildlife close enough to touch, water clear enough to see the bottom, and put-ins for every level.
See the best kayaking tours in the USA →Croatia & the Adriatic
The clearest water in the Adriatic.
Out of Dubrovnik you paddle right under the old-town walls and out to the islands as the sun drops, snorkel gear stowed in the hull. Off Pula the kayaks thread the Cape Kamenjak islets and into sea caves, and up near Zadar the Zrmanja runs jade-green through a limestone canyon to a waterfall. Water so clear you watch the stones slide past below the boat, and a swim stop whenever you want one.
See the best kayaking tours in Croatia →The best part
A kayak goes where the crowds can’t.
The quiet is the whole point. No engine, no wake, just the drip off the paddle and a hull that fits where nothing bigger will: under the low arch, into the mangrove tunnel, across the lagoon before the day boats wake up. You set your own pace, get close to the water and the wildlife, and reach the corners everyone else only sees from a distance.
Browse every kayak trip →Rivers & bays of Asia
In Southeast Asia, the water is the road.
A kayak gliding between the limestone towers of Halong Bay and through sea-level caves into hidden lagoons. A paddle along the Andaman karst off Krabi and Phuket, past beaches with no road in. These are paddles with a different rhythm: slower, greener, framed by jungle and karst, where a guide who grew up on the water knows the channels and the quiet corners.
- 1 Hanoi: Full-Day Halong Bay Cruise with Swimming & Kayak Tour
- 2 Cozy Bay Halong 5-Star Day Cruise, Buffet, Cave, Kayak, Swimming
- 3 Halong Bay Day Tour With Titop Island, Cave, Kayak & Lunch
By time on the water
How long do you want to be paddling?
Some days you want an easy hour on glassy water and a floating breakfast. Some days you want the caves, the cliffs and a swim stop. And some days you want to be out from dawn to dusk among the karsts. Pick the day, we will point you at the put-in.
An hour or two
Just dip the paddle in.A short calm-water outing: a dawn glide across a lagoon or an evening loop along the shore, easy strokes, no experience needed, dry and grinning before the next thing on the list.
Half a day
Caves, cliffs and a swim stop.A guided run along a cliff coast to the sea caves and a quiet cove: snorkel gear in the hull, a swim where no road reaches, and a guide who knows which arch the light comes through.
A full day on the water
Paddle from morning to dusk.A whole day among the karst towers and hidden lagoons, or a multi-stop expedition with lunch on a beach you can only reach by kayak. The big days you plan a trip around and talk about for years.
Thailand’s Andaman coast
Paddle into the limestone of Krabi and Phuket.
Off Krabi, Phuket, Ko Lanta and Khao Lak the karst rises sheer from warm shallow water, hollowed out with sea caves and hidden hongs — collapsed lagoons you can only enter by ducking through a tunnel at low tide into a ring of jungle cliffs. A guide times the tide, you paddle in, and the noise of the coast drops away. The gentlest way into the most dramatic scenery in the country.
See all 24 kayaking tours in Thailand →By place
Pick a put-in and dip the paddle.
The Algarve for the Benagil sea caves. Halong Bay for the karst lagoons. Dubrovnik for the sunset paddle under the walls. Bacalar for the dawn glass. Crystal River for the manatee springs. Mallorca for the hidden calas.
By country
Every country worth a day on the water.
From the springs of Florida to the Algarve cliffs, the Adriatic to the Andaman, the Balearics to the bays of Vietnam. Browse by the country whose water you want under the hull.
Sunrise to sundown
A perfect day on the water.
First time here and want to make a day of it? Here is how it flows, from the glassy dawn lagoon to a last paddle as the light turns gold.
Just added