Our Island Hopper landing boat beached bow-first on an empty shell beach with the open Gulf of Mexico behind it, near Marco Island, Florida

Near Your Stay

Boat Tours Near Lely Resort, Naples

Lely Resort sits at the hinge of our whole operation — one slip fifteen to twenty minutes west on the Trail, the other twenty-five to thirty minutes south past Marco. They run completely different water, and this page exists to help you pick the right one.

Two docks: Naples Bay & Goodland
1.5–2 hour cruises
All ages welcome
USCG Master Captains

Check Availability & Book (239) 301-8913

Nearest dockNaples Bay Resort & Marina or Goodland

From Lely Resort15–20 min to Naples Bay; 25–30 min to Goodland

Waterprotected Naples Bay west; Ten Thousand Islands south

You may seedolphins, shell beaches, big evening light — never promised

Two Docks, One Decision

The dock you want depends on what you want to do

Lely Resort is a large master-planned, gated community out in East Naples, spread across many separate neighborhoods with Collier Boulevard on one side of it and the Tamiami Trail on the other. Those two roads are the reason this page reads differently from every other one we write. Follow the Trail west and you reach our slip at Naples Bay Resort & Marina, 1500 5th Avenue South, in roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. Turn south on Collier Boulevard instead, cross the bridge to Marco and run east on San Marco Road, and in roughly twenty-five to thirty minutes you are standing on the dock at San Marco Marina in Goodland. Nobody else we write for is genuinely choosing. You are.

Ten minutes of driving separates those two slips, which is nothing. What separates the water is enormous. So here is the rule we give people who call from out this way, and it is the only one you need: let the trip pick the dock, not the map. Naples Bay is protected, close to downtown and built for an evening — dolphins working the basin, the run out toward Gordon Pass, the mansion cruise along the Port Royal seawalls, the $20 water shuttle. Goodland is the launching point for the Ten Thousand Islands, which is where wild beaches, shells and backwater country actually live. Neither one is the compromise version. They are two different days.

Sort it by verb and it gets easy. If the plan is to sit down, watch the light go long, point at a fin and be back near a downtown table by eight, drive west. If the plan is to get off the boat, walk a beach nobody rakes, fill a bag with empty shells and see mangrove country that has no road to it, drive south and hand over the extra ten minutes gladly. Dolphin trips are the honest overlap — wild bottlenose dolphins work both sides of this coast year-round, and what really changes is the scenery behind them. If you would rather just talk it through with a person, call (239) 301-8913.

Naples Bay Resort & Marina: 15–20 minutes west on US-41
San Marco Marina, Goodland: 25–30 minutes south past Marco
Bay side runs sunset, Port Royal and the $20 shuttle
Goodland side runs shelling, island landings and backwater

Check Availability

A Sand Dollar Bennington pontoon with shade tops underway on calm Naples Bay, the Naples waterfront behind it in Naples, Florida — ⚓ The west option: fifteen to twenty minutes, and a lot of protected bay

Sorted by Dock

Five trips worth knowing, and where each one boards

Read the dock on every card — that is the part people get wrong from out here.

Shelling ToursGoodland dock. Boat-only island beaches, empty shells only — from $125 adult, $90 child. Beach & Island TripsAlso out of Goodland. Step off onto a barrier-island beach with no bridge running to it. Dolphin ToursRuns from either side. Wild bottlenose dolphins work both — often, never promised. Sunset CruisesNaples Bay dock. The shorter drive, and the reason most Lely evenings point west. Private ChartersYour pick of dock. Your group and your clock — tell us which side when you book.

Door to Dock

Both routes out of Lely Resort, walked step by step

Six steps that cover either direction, so you can commit before you turn the key.

Start: figure out which way you are pointing

Lely Resort covers a lot of ground, and your own front door shifts the numbers by a few minutes either way. Before you book anything, open a map app and drop in both marina addresses: 1500 5th Avenue South in Naples, and 604 East Palm Avenue in Goodland. Let it tell you the truth for your street at your hour. The ranges on this page are honest averages rather than promises, and they stretch in season, when Collier Boulevard and the Trail both fill up with people who had the same idea. Once you have those two times sitting side by side, something useful happens: you stop comparing distances and start comparing days, which is the only comparison that has ever mattered here.

West: the Trail run to Naples Bay Resort & Marina

Getting to our Naples slip means heading west on the Tamiami Trail toward downtown, across the Gordon River, then down to the water end of 5th Avenue South. Figure fifteen to twenty minutes on a quiet morning and closer to twenty-five on a February afternoon when everyone else is driving the same direction you are. The address is 1500 5th Avenue South, tucked into the Bayfront end of downtown, so the last few blocks look more like a restaurant district than a boatyard — that is normal, keep going toward the basin. This is the drive for anything that happens on protected Naples Bay: the sunset slot, the Port Royal seawalls, the water shuttle and the bay dolphin loops. It is also the easier one to do on a whim after five o’clock.

South: Collier Boulevard, the bridge, and Goodland

The southbound route is a different animal. Collier Boulevard down to the bridge, over onto Marco Island, then east on San Marco Road until the traffic thins out and the mangroves lean in over the pavement. That is Goodland — a small working fishing village on the southeast tip of the island, crab traps stacked along the seawall, roughly zero resort polish. Our slip is at San Marco Marina, 604 East Palm Avenue. Call it twenty-five to thirty minutes, give or take the bridge and whatever the season is doing to it. Those extra ten minutes buy a real head start: from Goodland the bow is pointed at open island country almost immediately, instead of spending the first stretch of your cruise working out of a city bay. That head start is most of what the drive is actually buying.

The slips — and why we cannot come to you

One logistics fact worth settling before you book, because plenty of homes out this way sit on water and people reasonably ask: every trip we run boards at our slip at one of those two marinas, never from a private residence, a community dock or a neighborhood boat ramp. That is not us being precious about it. The slips are where the boats are berthed, where the crew stages coolers and life jackets, and where a full group can get aboard safely and legally. Your confirmation carries the exact slip and a short where-to-meet note for whichever side you chose, so nobody spends the last ten minutes walking finger piers reading transom names. Both marinas have restrooms available before you step on, which matters more with kids along than anybody likes to admit.

Parking, and the cushion to leave on either end

Plan to be parked and standing at the slip about ten minutes ahead of departure whichever way you drove, and know that the two ends feel nothing alike. Downtown Naples parking is a city problem in season: the Bayfront and 5th Avenue South blocks fill, and the walk in from a spot you actually find can eat a few of those minutes. Goodland is the reverse — there is room, it is flat, and the genuine hazard is driving straight past the turn. Leave the cushion either way, because we push off on schedule and the sun has never once waited on a late car. If you are running behind, call (239) 301-8913 rather than guessing at it. Somebody real answers, and they can tell you whether to hurry or whether you are fine.

Then: the two very different days

Once the deciding is over the day just happens. Head west and you idle out of the basin with your captain naming what you are looking at, work the bay, maybe push toward Gordon Pass for the open Gulf horizon, and step off with the evening still usable. Head south and the boat clears Goodland into the Ten Thousand Islands, where the shoreline stops being houses and starts being mangrove, and where a beach landing means stepping onto sand nobody has raked or set a chair on. Cruises run about an hour and a half to two hours from either dock, so the length is not what changes. What changes is what fills the frame from the rail — and, honestly, how much driving you felt like doing that morning.

Who It Suits

A great fit if you’re…

Four versions of the same question, and the dock each one answers to.

Weighing the two docks for the first time

You knew we ran boats. You did not know there were two starting points — now you can choose on purpose instead of by accident.

Here for shells, not the skyline

Take the extra ten minutes south to Goodland. The beaches actually worth walking have no road running to them.

Fitting a cruise into one evening

Point west on the Trail, take a late bay departure, and still make a downtown table afterward without rushing.

Hosting people who flew in

One group, one boat, one dock — describe the trip you have in mind and we will point you at the right marina.

Both Sides

What each dock actually looks like

One frame from the islands, one from the bay, and the beach that settles a lot of arguments.

A Sand Dollar tour boat cruising the mangrove-lined backwater of the Ten Thousand Islands near Marco Island, Florida — South from Goodland: island country, no bridges

The Naples waterfront and its docks seen from aboard a Sand Dollar boat on protected Naples Bay in Naples, Florida — West to Naples Bay: downtown seen from the water

A wide, empty white-sand beach scattered with bleached driftwood, with old wooden pilings standing in the shallows offshore — The reason people give up the extra ten minutes

Keep Planning

Both docks, and the rest of East Naples

Read up on either marina before you commit, or see what else we run from this side of town.

Naples Bay Resort & MarinaThe west dock — where the bay, sunset and Port Royal trips board. San Marco Marina, GoodlandThe south dock — your head start into the Ten Thousand Islands. Boat Tours in East NaplesEverything we run from this end of town, gathered in one place. All Stays We ServeEvery neighborhood and hotel we run boat tours near.

Good to Know

Picking a dock from Lely Resort

The two-dock questions we actually get from this end of East Naples.

Which dock should I drive to from Lely Resort?

Start with the trip, not the mileage. If you want a sunset cruise, a Port Royal mansion run, the Naples Bay water shuttle or an easy evening dolphin loop, drive west to Naples Bay Resort & Marina — roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. If you want shelling, a barrier-island beach landing or backwater country, drive south to San Marco Marina in Goodland, roughly twenty-five to thirty minutes. The extra ten minutes buys an entirely different kind of water, not a slightly better version of the same one. In practice the trip you choose already names the dock, and we confirm it in your booking.

Is the longer drive to Goodland actually worth it?

For shelling and island days, yes, and we would say so even if it cost you an hour. Goodland sits on the southeast tip of Marco Island, which puts the boat pointed at the Ten Thousand Islands from the moment it leaves the slip rather than after a long run down a city bay. Those beaches are reachable only by boat, nobody rakes them, and what washes up stays where it landed until a person picks it up. If what you want is evening light on protected water and a short drive home afterward, though, the extra mileage buys you nothing at all. Go west.

Can you pick us up at our dock, or at a community ramp?

We cannot — not from Lely Resort and not anywhere else. Every trip boards at our slip, either at Naples Bay Resort & Marina at 1500 5th Avenue South, or at San Marco Marina at 604 East Palm Avenue in Goodland. Private residential docks, community docks and neighborhood boat ramps are all out, because the slips are where our boats live and where a group can board safely. Better to know that now than to discover it on the morning of. Once you have booked, we send the exact meeting spot for your dock so you can drop it straight into your map app.

Do dolphin trips leave from both docks?

They do, and it is the one trip where the choice comes down purely to scenery. Wild bottlenose dolphins live in this water year-round, both on the Naples side and out through the islands, so either dock puts you where they genuinely are. From Naples Bay you will watch them against a downtown waterfront, seawalls and boat traffic. Out of Goodland the backdrop is mangrove shoreline and open tidal flats. Neither version comes with a promise — these are wild animals on their own schedule, and anybody guaranteeing a sighting is selling you something. What both give you is a captain who knows where to look.

When is the best time of year for shelling out of Goodland?

Shelling runs year-round here, so there is no season to sit around waiting for — the tide matters far more than the month. Winter tends to put the good low tides in the morning; summer pushes them into the evening, which is why a shelling departure time moves around across the year. Two rules to know before you fill a bag: Collier County is empty shells only, so nothing with an animal still living in it, and the Florida state shell is the horse conch. Shelling starts at $125 per adult and $90 per child, and it leaves from our Goodland slip.

We have family in for a week. Can we do both docks?

Plenty of people out here do exactly that, and it is a good use of a week. A common split is a morning shelling or island run out of Goodland early in the trip, while everyone still has the energy for a beach landing, then an evening cruise from Naples Bay near the end when nobody wants to drive far. If the group is large or the ages run wide, a private charter lets you set the clock and the pace on either side of the map. Call (239) 301-8913 and tell us which week you are here — we will help you lay the two days out.

Reserve Your Seats

Know which dock you want?

Check availability and book — the trip you pick sets the marina, and we confirm it in writing.

Or call (239) 301-8913

Two Docks, Your Call

Book a boat tour from Lely Resort

West to Naples Bay for sunsets, Port Royal and the shuttle. South to Goodland for shells, wild beaches and backwater. Pick the day you want and we will tell you exactly where to meet us.

Book a Boat Tour (239) 301-8913

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