Channel Islands Outfitters

A wonderful experience. Matt took care of us from the beginning of our journey to the end. We never have been kaykaing before. We are an older couple. Matt is amazing.
Arlene L

JD was a great, well-​informed guide and Neal was helpful meeting us in the morning and getting our trip headed in the right direction. Santa Cruz island is lovely and amazing. The attention to detail with the food, safety equipment, training, and legit ourdoor adventure is enough to make even the most cynical city slicker want to return to repeat the experience.

The staff was awesome and so helpful! Experienced Kayaker or beginner this is the trip for you! They make you feel comfortable during the whole trip and make you feel like a pro. It was so fun going through the caves and checking out all the amazing sea life. They teach you about the Island and all the creatures of the island. If you are looking for a good adventure trip with some amazing people and lots of fun, look no further!
P. S. make sure to tell them if you have any dietary restrictions because they make you a free organic amazing and delicious meal!

Go with CIO, you get what you pay for. This is a top-​notch outfitter. The guides, food, and service were outstanding. Great adventure and the islands were beautiful! Just wish I would have explored the underwater environment. If you want top quality, go with CI Outfitters.

I went to an industry event and they used CIO as their guide service. Great experience, kept the level at what the group was comfortable with but allowed the more adventurous people go for it. They have a lot of knowledge about the islands history and wildlife. Great trip for those looking to do something unique to California. Marina was an awesome guide!!!

We had a great time exploring the caves and snorkeling with our guide Chuck. Chuck was a cool guy and so were the rest of the crew including everyone I talked with over the phone while making our reservation.

Did the 3-​hour kayaking tour with Ryan on Santa Cruz Island. Amazing experience, highly recommend. He was very knowledgable and showed us how to ride waves with our kayak, go in and out of tunnels, and much more

We booked Channel Island Outfitters ‘classic’ tour for a group of nine athletic individuals. Overall, we had a fantastic adventure. In particular, Ashley was extraordinarily helpful in coordinating and planning our trip. Our two guides, Emily and Philip were absolutely phenomenal, friendly and incredibly knowledgeable about the Fauna, Flora, history, and science of Santa Cruz Island. They were super helpful and patient with the kayaking course and most of all, incredibly fun and great individuals. I would note that one kayak was in a bit of a rough shape and filled with water near the end of our cruise. Otherwise totally cool. Food was great.

Excellent experience! I have done this twice with out of town guests and it had been a bucket list item for them both. On our most recent trip our guide, Ryan was really knowledgable about the environment and Eco system of the islands and also really fun! The trip was so much fun and quite adventurous! Ryan was also obviously very experienced and an EMT so we felt very safe as well. The food was amazing and the experience is really organized and well run, with high quality guides and staff. The only complaint was the organization for the ferry boarding but that is a separate company so I give five stars to this Channel Island outfitters. We had the time of our lives and want to go back again soon!

My dad and I had a great time. Very fun and every level of kayaker can enjoy the cave tour. Marina was an awesome guide but all the other guides for CIO seemed amazing as well. Would totally recommend it, exceeded my expectations.

My family and I just returned from our day trip kayaking with Channel Islands Outfitters. We chose the sea caves option and were blown away with how much fun we had exploring the sea caves and tunnels of Santa Cruz Island. The guides were enthusiastic and informative and made us feel completely safe the entire time. The whole day was an absolute thrill and I’ve already been telling friends that they need to check out CIO. A big thanks to Emily and Chuck!

Kayaking at Channel Islands was incredible. They have single and tandem kayaks and the water was pretty calm and easy to kayak in. You kayak for a few hours and you do not need much experience with kayaking to be able to do the trip. We had a small group that had 4 kayaks and it was a broad range of people. We had a single guy, a mother and daughter and two couple friends.
It was so awesome to be able to go in so many caves and coves. There was a lot of sea life we were able to see also. Every guide on the island and ferry ride to the island were extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. Our guide Marina made sure to get lots of photos of the group and shared them. The lunch they provided was delicious, I recommend the Italian sandwich or the veggie wrap.
Visited September 2015

This was a fantastic experience. The guides were knowledgable and fun as well as safety minded. They really wanted you to enjoy the experience as well as respecting the environment. Very easy to book and find them in the harbor. The owner Garrett was very helpful in getting my reservation on the ferry changed. IT WAS AWESOME

Dave and chuck were the best kayak guides ever. Awesome time and they made me feel safe with the waves and caves! Highly recommend. It was the best kayaking experience ever and totally worth it to do this on Channel Islands.

Let me start with the reason I’m rating CIO down 2 stars… it has nothing to do with the super friendly service! Their rates are a bit steep given their competitors prices. Channel Islands charges $ 15/​person/​hour, regardless of tandem or single kayaks. So we paid for my friend’s 6 year old daughter even though she was in a double kayak. Even with the 2-​for-​1 Axxess deal, it was $ 30/​hour for 2 adults/​1 child, and the SB Sailing Center charges by the Kayak, so even without a deal we would have saved $ 5 at the sailing center. Channel Islands also doesn’t offer dry bags for gear or phones. I’m not sure if any other companies do, but given that they charge 50−100% more than competitors, I think it would be nice to offer these to borrow. They do sell them however.
The plus side… the staff is really friendly and easy going. If there weren’t a better deal around the corner, I would totally be back for the friendly faces!

We spent the day with this amazing group on the beautiful Santa Cruz island. The whole day was breath taking. JD was patient, fun and informative! Everyone was professional from the harbor all the way back. These caves truly are breath taking and if you havent seen them please take time to do so… it’s a time u wont forget. If you do please do it with these guys, they’ll make it 100x better. Thanks again guys!

This is absolutely amazing! Only an hour north of LA and you feel like you are in a completely different world. You get to see some really beautiful things. I signed up for the Caves and Kelp Combo. I could snorkel all day long. It is so peaceful and fun. While I proved myself to be a weak player in the kayaking department, I still had a great time going in and out of the caves. This is definitely a must do, especially if you are looking for a day trip in LA.

I have been wanting to take my 12-​year old on a mother-​son adventure for a while. I picked Channel Island Outfitters because the reviews were great and I’d been wanting to check out Santa Cruz Island. I really didn’t have a specific expectation, but the trip was AMAZING. I’ve never kayaked before, but our guide Matt — who was AWESOME — made everything really easy and straightforward. We took the combo kayak/​snorkeling tour and I am so glad we did. The water is no joke. It’s super cold — but the gear provided worked great. It only takes a little while to get used to it. Seals were swimming around us. SEALS!!!
It helps to be in good physical condition, but the guides will accommodate for you. My 12-​year old got tired and a little cold, so we just wrapped it up when we had to.
Here’s what I recommend:
Order the lunches. They are delicious.
Bring more snacks than you think you will need. You will be hungry.
Bring a blanket/​change of clothes. The boat ride back to harbor is chilly.
Enjoy and have the best day ever!!!

We just got back from an awesome kayak tour and would recommend it to anyone.
We did the caves and coves tour, and there were a lot more caves than we had expected. Going into caves was really exciting, and I’m glad we went on a guided tour.
Our tour guide Matt was fantastic. He seemed really excited to explore the different caves and tell us about the wildlife we saw on our trip (Dolphins, urchins, starfish, garibaldi, pelicans and much more).
I was glad that I had some kayaking experience to help navigate the caves, but I’m sure you’d be fine without it. Matt was good at gauging our ability and made sure we were all comfortable exploring the caves.
The island is beautiful and I hope you have a great time!

Review Update:
I’m updating my review to 4 stars, because the business owner seems to really take great pride in his business and keeping his customers happy at all costs. While we didn’t have the best experience (but don’t get me wrong — still had a good time), I feel that it was not the norm, and he is going out of his way to make up for it. He honestly wants all his customers to be happy, and takes it personally when they are not. Satisfaction guaranteed? That definitely makes me a fan!
I was also made aware that joining the trip halfway through the day is not a standard offering but a special arrangement that they made to accommodate us, and at the last minute. It was a learning experience for them, and unfortunately, we were the guinea pigs. My advice is to stick with the regular tours, and I’m sure that you will have an amazing time!