Easy to book boats in advance on the phone. Was a bit hard to find the shop (van + stall) itself,…read morethey're situated in the parking lot across from a restaurant. There isn't a designated lot but you can either try to park near the visitors center (small amount of not timed parking) or along the street which is what we did. Decided to do some single kayaks. There is an option for either a 2 hour time frame or a 4 hour one. If you have the time then I would honestly recommend the 4 hour one. The routes that they have you travel are different (but the 4 hour also covers the 2 hour loop). Overall the water was pretty calm and we got to see plenty of seals. Recommend stopping by the beach, they'll point out where you can do so during the orientation talk, and walk along the shore to the seal and birds area. It's also a nice area to take a food break.

Two family adventure - four adults, four teenagers. What a lovely family experience. It was easy to…read morebook a few days in advance, and they even accommodated our request for 1 canoe, and then honored our 2 solo and 2 tandem requests. The on-shore guide showed us a nice map with a suggested route. I would have been happy with 90 minutes, but the rest of my avid kayaker group was happy to have the full 2 hours. Memorable summer family memories. Our friends had kayaked in Bodega in the past, and thought this experience was far more interesting and easier to navigate.

My group had such a great time on a self-guided downriver Russian River trip. Jeff is super…read morefriendly, and dog companion Zen was a lot of fun to meet. Jeff dropped us off and we paddled along the River. Whole trip took us a bit less than 2.5 hours for our group of 4 novice paddlers, including a break for water, snacks and a swim. The river is so beautiful, full of wildlife and gorgeous views. I highly recommend SUP Odyssey, 10/10 you won't regret making the trip downriver!

We had a great first-time SUP experience!…read more Jeff was very patient, thoroughly explained everything. Fun, beautiful day on a nice, placid, private lake in Sebastopol. Highly recommended! Oh, and Zen, Jeff's dog, is the BEST!

We had a great time paddle boarding on Russian River! John was very helpful, giving us clear…read moredirections and ensuring we were well set up for our adventure. The meeting spot was about 15-20 minutes from Healdsburg, a beautiful drive to get there. The water was calm and the area beautiful- we just saw a few other groups in 2 hours out on the water. It was a hot day, but on the cool river it felt great. There are a few beach areas to stop with a picnic, but lots of the shore area has plants so we ended up just stopping in a shady area and eating on the water. All in all, a great adventure when up in the area!

We had the most wonderful day paddle boarding from Wohler Bridge! It is such a serene stretch of…read moreriver. John was professional and so easy to work with from booking to the day of the paddle. We highly recommend Russian River Paddle Boards and will be back again soon.

We've been talking about trying out some kayaks on the Petaluma river for a while and we finally…read moredecided to do it. What a great experience! With six of us (including three kids and a dog), we needed two tandem and two single kayaks. The guys at Petaluma Paddle were great. On the phone, Drew helped me figure out what we needed - at the river, Chad was super helpful and got us going quickly. We were in our way. About 40 minutes later we made it to the turning basin where we docked and then walked into town for lunch. The timing was perfect, left at around noon as the tide took us up the river and on the way back the Petaluma wind was at our back. Glad we finally made it out, was great to see Petaluma from the river. Will definitely be back!!

Yelp doesn't only help when you're hungry. It helps when you want to be active as well…read more Today we decided to try something new. Something we've never done before. We decided it was going to be Paddle Boarding. I called Petaluma Stand Up Paddle earlier in the week to get the low down. Jessica filled me in on how things operate. Today, I got the pleasure of meeting Jessica and Drew the owner. They got us all set up and have us a tutorial for us newbs. We rented our boards for $20/hr Or $65/day. They offer downwind paddles and other guided tours in their 2 other locations. Paddle Boarding seemed very novice. Anyone can do it. And you should do it especially if you're looking for a good core and upper body workout. You can paddle into Petaluma and have some lunch and paddle back. We did paddle twards town but never made it all the way. I think they said it was about a mile ? Along our paddle, we saw Blue Herons and Egrets hunting for their lunch. We watched as they caught and ate the fish. While we paddled, a parade of ducks joined us in the paddle. There were so many birds everywhere. We also saw jellyfish in the river. That was unexpected and neat to see. On the way back, the Smart train passed right in front of us. The passengers on the train waved as we waived back. We will be back and will hopefully bring others along with us. THANK YOU DREW AND JESS AT PETALUMA STAND UP PADDLE :-)

We had a great time yesterday! I emailed & spoke with Chris several times before we met for the…read morelesson. At the dock, he brought everything needed for the stand up paddle board experience! He is an excellent instructor. I have trouble hearing but was able to understand & felt at ease on the water. I feel pretty confident I could go out on my own for more practice. Give Chris a call & go out & paddle!

We had a fantastic experience. Chris was professional and responsive. We called in the morning…read moreand had kayaks and paddle boards later that morning.

So fun! 65th Birthday gift from my sweetie and couldn't have made a better choice! We will be back!read more

Despite the jet skis delivery and pick up to/from the lake being 30 minutes late each way, my…read morefamily had a blast. Why the -2 stars? My family and I have been renting jet skis around the globe for years, and not once did anyone perform a post-use inspection. I have no problem with them performing a post-use inspection, but if you are going to do that, you need to also do a pre-use inspection in front of us. We were on the lake, away from debris and the shore, yet she said the jet ski sucked up something and was damaged. We were charged an additional fee for parts and labor for repairs. The thing is, if you didn't perform a pre-use inspection in front of the customer, how do we know this isn't previous damage? Do they do this to all unsuspecting customers? Who knows. Lesson learned for next time.

It has always been an item on my bucket list to see bioluminescent plankton. However I held very…read morelittle hope of ever seeing it because it was my understanding that you never know when or where it'll ever appear. So when my wife mentioned that Napa Valley Paddle was doing a guided kayak tour though bioluminescent waters in Tomales Bay I had no choice but to book a trip. I've been kayaking exactly twice before and both times on lakes in broad daylight. So I was a little nervous about kayaking in a salt water bay in the dark. Hopefully the water is smooth and it doesn't get too choppy for my wife and I. Also, I had low expectations, maybe the plankton won't be there that night, and if it is, it's probably a very subtle glow that you almost have to use your imagination to see. When we arrived we found ourselves in a parking lot at the Miller Boat Launch in Marshall. We got some basic instructions on kayaking, given life vests and whistles and headlamps set to red light to wear backwards. It was all pretty laid back and chill. As the sun went away and the fog came in we paddled out to Hog Island and by the time we were close to it, it was dark enough that some people were beginning to see the water light up. Fortunately the water was very calm and it was comforting to see all the red headlamps on the water to guide us on our way. We paddked clear across the bay to the other side where there were cliffs making the water especially dark there. This is where we turned off all of our lights. There was no subtlety at all, it was nothing less than magical. The water lit up with every paddle and every splash. It was a smooth blue glow in the dark with occasional spatks mixed in. We spent a good while paddling around and splashing and generally bring awed by the trippy water. Then it was time to start heading back, the goal was to paddle around the other side of Hog Island where the water is also very fun to look at. However the water glowed the whole way there even. Unfortunately this is also when conditions changed. We had a nasty headwind and the water got choppy. We were seriously worried we might capsize as we paddled like crazy to get to the island again. When we finally got there, we were done. We just wanted was to get back to the car and go home and drink hot coacoa. So we kept on paddling as hard as we could while we struggled to keep the kayak heading in the right direction. People were starting to scatter and soon the only lights to follow were at the boat launch we came from. Whether that actually was the boat launch was debatable but it was the only indication of civilization so we kept heading in that direction. Maybe it was because we were heavier than anyone else or perhaps we just couldn't paddle very well but we lagged behind in the dark. To make things even more interesting the conditions continued to worsen. We had to fight the wind and the choppy water harder as we made that last leg of the paddle back to shore. Fortunately the lights we were aiming for did happen to be where we needed to land and although we missed the dock we did get to shore soaked but not dreched and we managed to actually make it without going into the drink. Needless to say, it became an adventure however no one could have predicted conditions would change like they did. Apparently under typical conditions we would have had a tail wind and that part of the trip should have been the easy part. A professional paddle boarder who was with our group told us those conditions were "insane" and it was not something she would have willingly attempted unless it was over a short distance in daylight. So we feel better about ourselves having a hard time making it back. I'm very glad we did this, it's a beautiful memory, and a great story to tell, and I highly recommend going.

We met Tanya downtown at the river walk and she set us up with a Fagan Marsh kayak trip the next…read moreday. Loved talking with Drew beforehand, learning about wetland restoration efforts and how quickly nature can rebound. The slough was peaceful and sparkling on this sunny October afternoon. We observed cranes and fish nibbling at surface snacks. In the distance, you can see Mount Tam and a bit closer--the Brazos railroad bridge. While there is much to see and do in Napa, this experience at the end of our trip was a definite highlight.