Captain Doug is from the area, and was thus was full of information, and gave me the ongoing…read morenarration I was looking for, throughout the tour. He He was helpful in answering questions as well. I will say that is way colder than you can imagine on the VERY windy water, and my 3 layers of clothing were not enough to keep me warm. No matter how tough you think you are, wear at minimum 2 *heavy* layers of clothing, and a thick windbreaker (my think raincoat did not hold up) and a hat to keep your head and ears warm. It's not just that it's 10 degrees colder on the water -- it's a constant cold wind blowing at you... and that's on a day when there wasn't a strong wind on the island itself. If you're not properly dressed, you won't find it relaxing. Although this tour company does warn you about the colder weather on the boat, it does not sufficiently warn you about the constant unrelenting wind.

The entire time was visually beautiful and Captain Dan was a wealth of information…read more We would highly recommend this tour.

A delightful real life experience of the famous Chincoteague Island and ponies. Storybook boat ride…read morearound the island at 6am spoiled us with ponies right off dock. Ours tour was chock-a-block full of personal stories from our husband and wife Captain and tour guide duo extraordinaire. Our eye candy consisted of a sting ray enjoying a clam breakfast, flopping around in the shallow waters like a happy kid in the candy shop. It was topped by a crane slurping down an eel then a bald eagle. We spied a few more ponies then made our way around the other side of the island for a full grand tour. Appreciated the excellent service and comfortable boat.

The best part of our trip! The sunset tour was perfect for our ten year anniversary! The staff was…read morevery great from start to finish. Our tour guide, Aiden was awesome. He was very knowledgable about the ponies and history of the island. We got a great view of the ponies and dolphins, as well as a great tour of the island.

Captain Barry's has become our family tradition with all the generations in our family. We never…read morestop learning something new with Captain Barry and we could not imagine our family vacation without this experience.

We had a fun and eye opening time experiencing the bay with Captain Barry. He is full of fun,…read moreobscure facts and knows the area like the back of his hand. We took a gorgeous route to secret spots, saw plenty of wildlife, and learned all about the local ecosystem. Fun was had by all.... Highly recommend!!

Captain Jake was very personable and had great knowledge of the island. We got to see the infamous…read more"Riptide" with his mares and their foals and two bald eagles, and enjoyed some laughs along the way. A super fun and beautiful experience. Highly recommend!

Still great! This is our third year with this company and we have had great luck every time. This…read moretime, the southern herd wasn't close but we saw a band that was part of the northern herd up close! Thanks again to Captain Henry and Captain Brad and the team for a great evening.

We had a wonderful boat ride with Randy as he gave a lot of information about the island, the…read moreponies and how the area has changed over the years. Very personable. A worthwhile tour.

Captain Randy is the best! Extremely knowledgeable of the area and provided lots of information…read moreabout all of the hidden gems. Friendly, kind, and helpful. Highly recommend!!!

We had a lovely time with Lacy and Brian. We went on a Saturday morning at 9 AM. The weather was…read moreperfect and we were able to see every band of horses! Brian and Lacy provided amazing commentary during our ride and made the tour very enjoyable. We definitely recommend this tour!

An extremely disappointing tour. We drove a total of 4 hours to come to this, only to find the good…read morereviews and website photos/description severely deceiving. Out of a 2-hour tour, we spent a total of 10 minutes looking at the horses, which were extremely far away. In the attached photos, the circled red area is where the ponies were located. The naked eye could not see them, nor could my camera equipment. It was a huge disappointment for my entire family that was looking forward to this for a Virginia vacation. The rest of the two hours were spent driving around the marsh, with some facts about the lighthouses and pony auction, but it was filled mostly in silence. Unfortunately, it was a glorified pontoon boat ride around the water, which was beautiful, but not worth the 4-hour drive and worth the cost of the tickets. Ultimately, we lost an entire day for 10 minutes with ponies we could not even see. I've been on plenty of wildlife tours (large and family-owned), and completely understand it's a matter of luck to get close to any animal. The guides at the very least try to salvage it by looking for other animals, birds, etc., or make it an informative trip. However, this absolutely felt like it was taking advantage of tourists to charge premium prices with zero effort to fulfill what was advertised. After returning from our trip, we looked at reviews and saw similarities of our own experience with the negatively rated ones. In summary, I would recommend another tour boat to see the wild ponies. Even with professional camera gear and binoculars, they were so far away that no photo (or our imaginations) could show what the ponies looked like.

If you want to go on a tour to look for ponies and other wildlife, this is the tour group you…read moreshould book. Captain Mike was great. He not only got us so close to the ponies, he pointed out bald eagles, the different birds that were flying around. I was amazed at how he could recognize what horse was there by sight. From hundreds of meters away while in the middle of the bay. He also had some fantastic and funny stories about Chincoteague (wait for the Sugar Shack story) what is was like growing up in the area. You can tell he loves his home very much. The pontoons were brand new and stable and very comfortable. It was windy when we went out but I never felt nervous because the pontoon was so sturdy and stable. We got some great photos. And Captain Mike was awesome. I would go again.

I highly recommend picking Mike and Up the Bay tours for your pony sightseeing…read more Mike is a native to the area, and thus very knowledgeable, but also extremely enthusiastic about the ponies. Thanks to Mike's knowledge of the area, the ponies, and the waterways, we were able to boat right up to the ponies in a manner that was clearly comfortable for them and not intrusive. He was happy to chill there watching them graze and swim, never rushing our tour. But we watched as many tours stayed outside of the marshes and never came close to ponies because the captains were not comfortable navigating the shallow marshes. We would have been quite sad if we were in one of those tours!!! Lastly, the boat is shaded fully shaded and the most comfortable tour boat I have ever been in. Recommend 10/10 - worth every penny!

Cap Mark and host Jenny / Jen were great. we had an amazing boat experience and we got lucky…read moreperfect great weather. - perfect family trip for large group to see wild ponies and dolphins! Highly recommended.

Great boat tour with Captain Mark and Jenny! Learned a lot about Chincoteague and Assateague, saw…read morebeautiful scenery, and the ponies were the best part of the tour!

We have taken this tour at least 4 times previously, each time we enjoy seeing the ponies close up…read more The bus is nice an clean, the tour guide was very informative and knowledgeable. Only drawback was the other tourists, from the time we got on grown adults had sprawled their belongings all over the bus to save seats for their friends who had not arrived yet. Our family of four had to split up, even though we arrived early. We looked past the seating issue only to have others push you out of the way to take pictures, shame the wildlife outside of the bus acted better then the individuals inside the bus! Maybe in the future the tour operators could make sure that families are not separated. We took a boat tour also during our trip and it was much more civilized!