My husband and I booked the EPIC (an accurate description) Sea Caves tour and what an incredible experience it was! There were so many great moments and high points, including a playful pod of dolphins that leaped in and out of the boat's wake (and alongside us); kayaking among a large nursery of leopard sharks, both babies and adults; in one of the sea caves, the phosphorescence was lit up like a bright neon blue light along one wall of the cavern; and finally, snorkeling in a gorgeous kelp forest was beyond words! SO many fish (and one seal that sped by us like a bullet train). Our deepest gratitude to the crew, Roger, Cameron and Cooper for their kindness, humor and far-ranging knowledge of marine and island life. It's plain to see they love what they do and we were lucky to be a part of it. read more

If you're thinking about taking this tour just do it! From the moment you arrive these guys treat you like your best friend visiting the islands for the first time. They show you all the cool stuff answer all your questions. It's been a few days and we're already missing them! They are truly lovely to chat with. When it was time to hit the activities they went to work showing their skills and knowledge. FYI we're vegetarian and the lunch was lovely- so make sure you order that too! Thanks Captain Dan and crew! It was a bucket list day we won't forget! read more

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Chartered the sunfish for a two hour sunset whale watching cruise last night and it was incredibly fun!!!! Roger was a terrific captain. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and just all-around awesome. Cheyenne was terrific as well. My group of 10 could not have had a better time. We weren't even sure we would see whales and we saw tons of them and we saw about 100 dolphins and adorable sea lions and other fish just swimming around our boat. What a phenomenal experience! So highly recommended!!! read more

Channel Islands Expeditions - Ventura County - Sea lions relaxing! - Snorkeling Near Me - Oxnard, California

My fiancé planned an adventure day for me through these guys for my bday this past weekend and it was an amazing experience we will not forget. I can't recall anyone's names on the crew, I am terrible with names. The lady cooking was awesome!!! It was a delic taco buffet for lunch and she even made extra cookies at the end of the day for my bday. :) Apparently, my fiancé told them, and they did a bday shout out. We were able to see SO much wildlife that day! We saw humpback whales and one was breaching out of the water, seals, dolphins and birds. It was truly magical. The kayaking through the caves was very memorable and they make sure to follow all safety guidelines, the snorkeling was cool! I was hoping to see more beneath the surface, but I saw some cool fish and swam around. Thank goodness for wetsuits they provided, the water is chilly!!! The crew overall was super chill and taking a private charter makes it more personable as well. One point of advice is to def take your motion sickness medication the night before. I am very prone to being seasick and I could tell if I didn't follow those instructions, I would have been very queasy, but all was good. I highly recommend checking them out! read more

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Highly recommend! This company when above and beyond my expectations. Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff. Can't wait to go again. Spent a beautiful day out at sea with a great crew. Thanks for making our first visit to the Channel Islands truly awesome. read more

4 stars for Tim and Megan, zero for Craig. I hate to write bad reviews but as a Yelp Elite I feel a responsibility to the community. First I will mention the good things about this experience. The captain, Tim was wonderful, funny engaging and helpful. The boat ride over and back to the island was fun and filled with dolphin and whale sightings. Megan was also wonderful and provided water, blankets and cookies. If we just wanted a ride to the islands though, there are many other boats that do that for less than 25% of the price. We paid an exorbitant amount of money for the cave tours. Now that we know better we will simply rent kayaks for a tenth of the price. I am an experienced kayaker, canoer and white water rafter, and have kayaked on the channel in high winds and in the open ocean. The tour guide screamed and yelled at us the whole time to go faster. They made us wear helmets, he said to keep bird poop off our heads, and mine kept falling down over my eyes and I had to keep pushing it up with one hand while trying to kayak with the other. My friend wanted to take pictures in the caves but he kept rushing us all through the caves and saying that we had to get on to the next cave. He was extremely mean and abusive, and we had a miserable time and did not get a chance to enjoy the scenery or the wildlife at all. I only got one picture of the caves the whole time. My friends even said "its not a race can't we slow down" but he wouldn't listen. He only stopped where he wanted to stop to tell us about the history of the island, but did not care if we wanted to enjoy watching the birds or anything else. He also kept telling us to kayak into the seaweed, which kept slowing us down and getting our paddles caught in it. I even got some in my kayak. It was awful. The boat also had seating and helmets for at least 20 people but there were only 5 on the boat and he couldn't even handle me, my two friends, and one other couple. I am not surprised that the boat was not full. We were also told to be there at 7:45 to leave promptly at 8 but we didn't leave until after 8:30. read more

Channel Islands Expeditions - Ventura County - Wanted to spend some time with the birds - Snorkeling Near Me - Oxnard, California

Great experience! Captain Tim was awesome, deckhand Bryson was super and Dan the guide was amazing. They took six of us on a short 1.5 hour boat ride to Anacapa. Dan guided us along the shore and in and out of spectacular caves. Some were one way in and one way out, while others were in one way and out another. The weather was a little overcast until around lunch time. This was perfect timing for Tim and Bryson to meet us at an area called something like Cathedral point. We all hopped on the boat, at a little food and jumped into the water with snorkel and mask. The clarity of the water was great. We saw sea bass, Garibaldi and a bunch more sea life. After about a half hour of snorkeling we were back in the kayaks for the final stretch. All in all everyone had a great time and the Captain and crew were great! Would definitely do it again. read more

Very attentive and helpful staff. We traveled to Santa Cruz and back, both trips had staff that were friendly and willing to assist. I get quite sea sick, so the travel to the island was rough, bit thankfully, the trip back was smoother. The staff in the snack shop helped me with plain Oatmeal and water. read more

We had the best day out with CIX on our trip to Painted Cave. The trip was a kayak and snorkel day trip. The crew was amazing, everyone was very friendly and knowledgeable. The kayaking was so beautiful and it was cool to get into the caves and learn about them through the guides. The snorkeling was super pretty, and we enjoyed the day out at the islands! The crew was also awesome at stopping on the boat ride to seek out dolphins and whales. 10/10 recommend for a lovely day out at the islands! read more

When our plans fell apart the morning of my bachelorette party (a "catastrophic restroom failure" that very reasonably put another boat out of commission), Channel Islands Expeditions found a way to include us on super short notice. I'm so glad they did -- it was a comfortable ride out to Anacapa island, with their blankets to lend out, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and a visit with a group of bow-riding common dolphins. We got to snorkel and pepper the crew with questions about geology, fish, birds, and more. We were cold, but that's just California water! On the way back, we had the most amazing look at a sperm whale. I guided whale watch tours for years and never spotted that species, so it was a thrill to get such a good gander at this lone male. Gorgeous day, helpful people, really kind. Safety conscious, too. They made my trip really special and I can't thank them enough on behalf of me and my friends. read more

SO MUCH FUN! Outstanding experience with the entire crew. The captain was great, Deckhand was great, guides were all great. It's a happy boat with a bunch of Kayaks on top of it... and you take those Kayaks through Island water caves. 100's of Dolphins trailed the boat on the way out to the Island, maybe thousands. Good deal. read more

I would not take this trip even if it is free again. Unprofessional guide C yelling at us the whole time and being super rude, left extremely stressed out as opposed to relaxed and having a fun day, I have been on many excursion trips in different countries always had fun and was safe. This tour is terrible, charged us double other locations in the country provided nothing but an extremely annoying guide. We are not college kids but young/mid age professionals that are very familiar and interested in our safety and following protocols. This guide used safety as a wild card to be rude, yell, intimidate, threaten he will put us in double kayak just because my friend asked him to adjust her helmet which literally took him 5 minutes. He started rushing us through the cave and ruined the whole experience. I told him we are not interested in double kayak and we bought separate tickets, he replied sometimes married couples buy separate tickets, what kind of logic is this? You cannot treat customers like this and start threatening them because you are incompetent to help total of only 5 customers. I dont care how many years you lived in the island or dived you need to have skills to provide good customer service to customers or close your business and go to island on your own. The whole trip he made fun of my friend who was a bit older from rest of us and questioned her abilities (she is actually better shape than us and dose strenuous exercise all the time) and he singled out her telling other customers on the trip if they are not in double kayak we cannot finish the tour, other customers freaked out and started fighting with our group it was a huge mess. He stopped a few times after that to tell irrelevant stories about his boss and sinked ships and he had enough time to cover all of that for sure not time for taking care of a customer who paid so much money only for 2 hours of kayaking. We took the tour on 17th, Captain T and the girl M on the boat were good people to be fair but unfortunately it did not make up for the stress we had. read more