We took a three generation Coronado Island tour for my mother's 80th birthday. I chose to go with Said because of the great comments he had received on TripAdvisor. I wanted a knowledgeable, patient guide who could converse in English.
We saw dolphins as we headed out to the island on the panga. Our first stop was near a reef where we jumped out of the boat to snorkel.
I was a little nervous to take my mom snorkeling, since she hadn't snorkeled in 20 plus years, plus she gets sea sick and cold really easily. Luckily she was up for it. She donned a full length wet and jumped in the water after a little coaxing. Said was her guide, pulling her along as she held on to a rescue buoy. This allowed her to keep her head down in the water and relax as she was pulled along. We saw tons of colorful fish, sea stars, etc.
Back in the boat, we headed to the area where the sea lions gather on the rocks. We jumped out a second time to snorkel with the sea lions.
Back in the boat, we headed to the other side of the island to an absolutely gorgeous white sand beach. The water was stunningly beautiful. Said prepared a delicious lunch for us as we relaxed on the beach and swam in the ocean. There were some small hikes we could have taken at that point but we were enjoying the water too much to get out. I could live on that beach... the only thing that kept it from being perfect were the other people. We were in a beautiful, natural environment where I just wanted to hear the birds and the waves, not someone's eighties' metal music on their boom box. There were also others at the beach, who had been dropped of without guides, who seemed to be treating the beach more like a party location, rather than the marine sanctuary / national park that it is. Disrespectful in my opinion.
On our way back to the marina, we passed another little island with sea gull nests and baby sea gulls. Said did a great job pointing out all of the things we would have otherwise missed.
We had a great trip and will definitely use Said again for a tour when we return. read more