A group of guests standing on an exposed low-tide sandbar surrounded by shallow green water in the Ten Thousand Islands near Marco Island, Florida

Near Your Stay

Boat Tours Near Windstar on Naples Bay

Naples Bay is the water your neighborhood is built on. It is also only the top of a much longer run — and covering the rest of it, on the right tide, is what a captained boat is actually for.

Naples Bay Resort & Marina
5–10 minute drive
1.5–2 hour cruises
USCG Master Captains

Check Availability & Book (239) 301-8913

Nearest dockNaples Bay Resort & Marina

From Windstarabout a 5–10 minute drive

WaterNaples Bay out through Gordon Pass — islands from Goodland

You may seedolphins, shorebirds, wild tidelines — never promised

Range, Not Access

How far the water goes past Naples Bay

Windstar on Naples Bay sits along the bay and Haldeman Creek south of downtown, off Bayshore Drive, which means the water outside your neighborhood is the top of a system rather than the whole of it. Our slip is a few minutes up that same bay — Naples Bay Resort & Marina, 1500 5th Avenue South — call it a five to ten minute drive. From there the bay narrows south into Gordon Pass, and the pass is the door: clear it and you are in open Gulf water, barrier beaches off one shoulder and nothing but horizon off the other. That door is where this page starts.

What a captained boat adds from an address like yours is not access to water. It is distance, and the local knowledge to cover it well. Off the pass the coast runs south past the barrier chain — Keewaydin, Kice — and then stops behaving like a coast at all and breaks apart into the Ten Thousand Islands. That is twenty-odd miles from Naples Bay, and it makes for a completely different day: mangrove islands most maps never bothered to name, beaches with no bridge to them, oyster bars that only exist for part of the tide. Those trips leave from our second dock in Goodland, roughly forty to fifty minutes south of you by car.

The other half of what we add is knowing when. Gordon Pass behaves one way on an outgoing tide and another on an incoming one, and the island beaches twenty miles south only give up their tideline for a window on either side of the low. Our captains build departures around those windows rather than around a round number on a clock, which is the difference between a boat that comes home with a full mesh bag and one that comes home with a story about wind. Shelling runs all year here — winter delivers morning negative lows, summer pushes the good ones toward evening — and Collier County is empty shells only, on every beach we land on.

Our Naples slip is 5–10 minutes up the bay, at 1500 5th Avenue South
Out through Gordon Pass for open Gulf water and Gulf-side beaches
Ten Thousand Islands days leave from our Goodland dock, 40–50 minutes south
Captains who time the trip to the tide, not just to the calendar

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An overview of the mangrove islands and shallow backwater channels of the Ten Thousand Islands near Marco Island, Florida — ⚓ Twenty-odd miles south of Naples Bay, the coastline stops being a coastline

Worth the Distance

The trips that use the range

Some of these leave from our Naples slip and some from Goodland — each card tells you which.

Shelling ToursBoat-only beaches where the shells actually pile up, out of our Goodland dock. Beach & Island AdventuresA landing on a barrier-island beach with no bridge to it — the full wild-island day, from Goodland. Private ChartersThe whole boat, your own route and your own clock — available from either dock. Sunset CruisesDown the bay and out toward the pass while the light goes long, from our Naples slip. Fishing ChartersBackwater and nearshore out of Goodland with a captain who fishes the tide. Tarpon is catch-and-release.

Door to Dock

Getting from Windstar on Naples Bay to the water

Six steps, two of them drives, and only one of those is long.

Start: the water your neighborhood sits on

Windstar on Naples Bay is a gated, quiet, water-oriented pocket on the Bayshore Drive side of town, south of downtown, laid along Naples Bay and Haldeman Creek. Geography is doing you a favor here that most Naples addresses never get: you are downstream of everything. Downtown, the Gordon River and Tin City are all north of you, and the pass — the only way out of this bay to the Gulf — is south. So when you look at the bay from this side of Naples, you are looking at the start of a route rather than at a view. Everything on this page follows that line: up the bay by car to our slip, back down it by boat, out through the pass, and then as far south along the coast as the trip you booked will carry you.

The drive: about five to ten minutes up the bay

The route is short and unremarkable, which is exactly the point. Out to Bayshore Drive, north to Tamiami Trail East, west across the Gordon River bridge, and the marina is at the water end of 5th Avenue South at number 1500. Five to ten minutes describes it honestly for most of the year; in February, when the Trail thickens up, take the top of that range and give yourself a little more. It is a rounded range and not a promise, so drop the marina address into your own map app the morning of and let it tell you the truth for your street and your hour. Nobody from this neighborhood has ever needed an interstate to make one of our boats.

The dock: our slip at Naples Bay Resort & Marina

We board at Naples Bay Resort & Marina, 1500 5th Avenue South, on protected water a couple of blocks from 5th Avenue South itself. This is worth stating plainly in a neighborhood built around canals and seawalls: every tour we run departs from our slip at a marina. We are not able to collect you behind a house, at a neighbor’s dock, or at any private or community dock anywhere we operate, because the slip is where the boats are berthed, where the crew stages, and where a full group can step aboard safely. That is a logistics fact rather than a brush-off, and from this address it costs you almost nothing. Once you book, we send the exact slip and a short where-to-meet note so nobody is wandering the docks at five to six looking for us. Restrooms are right there before you step on.

Parking, and the ten minutes worth leaving yourself

There is parking around the marina and through the Bayfront and 5th Avenue South blocks. In summer it is easy; from January through April, budget more of it than you think you need, especially for an evening departure. Bring the group in one car if you can — that is one fewer space to find. Arriving ten minutes early is the difference between stepping aboard settled and stepping aboard out of breath, and it means we push off on schedule, which matters most on the trips that are chasing a tide or a sunset, since neither one has ever waited for anybody. If you are running behind, call (239) 301-8913 instead of guessing. A real person answers and can tell you whether to hurry or whether you are fine.

The other drive: south to Goodland for an island day

If what you want is the Ten Thousand Islands — the shelling day, a landing on a beach nobody rakes — the meeting point changes. Those trips run from San Marco Marina, 604 E Palm Avenue in Goodland, a small working fishing village on the southeast tip of Marco Island with stone crab traps stacked along the seawall. Figure roughly forty to fifty minutes south of you by car, down US-41 and Collier Boulevard. What the drive buys is a head start: from that slip you are into island water within minutes instead of burning half the trip getting there. Pack differently for it too — more water than you expect to drink, a hat that stays on in a breeze, soft-soled shoes you do not mind soaking, reef-safe sunscreen, a mesh bag, and a light layer for the ride back. It is a day, not an evening. Plan it that way.

Then: out through the pass, or out into the islands

This is where the driving stops mattering. On a Naples departure your captain runs you down the bay and out through Gordon Pass, and how that stretch feels depends entirely on what the tide is doing when you reach it, which is why we choose departure times the way we do. Past the pass it is Gulf water, the seaward side of the barrier islands, and light that only improves as the afternoon goes. On a Goodland departure the boat turns the other way, into the maze, and the day becomes tideline, shallow green water and whatever the low uncovers. Either way you get a captain telling you what you are looking at as you go, and either way you come back to the same slip you left from with the drive home already sorted.

Who It Suits

A great fit if you’re…

This one is written for people who want to know what is past the end of the bay.

Curious how far south it really goes

You have looked at the chart. We run it — twenty-odd miles of coast that eventually quits being coast.

Serious about shells

You want a tideline nobody raked, which takes a boat-only beach and a tide that cooperates.

Showing visiting family the real thing

Anybody can see the bay. Take them past the pass and they will still be talking about it in June.

Fishing the tide instead of the clock

Backwater or nearshore, the water picks the hour. Tarpon is catch-and-release, every time.

Down the Coast

What the range actually buys you

Wild tidelines, dolphins working the island water, and Naples going gold at the end of the day.

A low, empty white sand island across shallow green Gulf water under a big cloudy sky near Marco Island, Florida — Twenty-odd miles south, this is what an unraked tideline looks like

A wild bottlenose dolphin fully airborne above a boat’s white wake, with a green mangrove treeline and turquoise water behind it in the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida — Wild dolphins on their own schedule — often, never promised

The sun dropping between palms and waterfront homes along a Naples waterway, seen from the water — Evening light on the Naples waterways, from out on the water

Keep Planning

Where the water goes from here

The pass, the islands, and the bay you already look at every day.

The Ten Thousand Islands GuideWhat is down there, how it is laid out, and why it takes a boat to see it. The Gordon Pass GuideThe door between Naples Bay and the open Gulf, and how it behaves on a tide. Boat Tours on Naples BayEvery trip we run on the water your neighborhood is built along. All Stays We ServeThe rest of the Naples and Marco Island addresses we run boat tours from.

Good to Know

Boat tours near Windstar on Naples Bay

The questions we get from this end of Naples Bay.

How long is the drive from Windstar on Naples Bay to your dock?

About a five to ten minute drive to Naples Bay Resort & Marina at 1500 5th Avenue South — out to Bayshore Drive, north to Tamiami Trail East, then west over the Gordon River bridge. Take the longer end in season, when the Trail slows down. Because that is a rounded range and not a guarantee, check it from your own address in a map app before you head out. One exception matters: our Ten Thousand Islands trips, shelling included, leave from San Marco Marina in Goodland instead, roughly forty to fifty minutes south.

Can you pick us up at our dock or at a dock in the neighborhood?

No, and it is much better to know that before you book than after. Every trip we run boards at a marina slip: Naples Bay Resort & Marina for the Naples departures, San Marco Marina in Goodland for the island days. We do not run pickups at private residences or neighborhood docks in any of the areas we serve, since the slip is where our boats are kept and where a group can get aboard safely with crew standing right there. From where you are, that costs a few minutes of driving and nothing more. Exact slip and meeting details go out as soon as you have a booking.

What is actually out past Gordon Pass?

Open Gulf. The pass is the only way from Naples Bay to the outside, and once you clear it you have the seaward face of the barrier islands to the south and nothing but water to the west. It runs one way on an incoming tide and another on an outgoing one, which shapes both when we leave and which direction we turn. Rather than turn this page into a guide, we would point you at our Gordon Pass guide — it covers how the pass behaves and what the ride out is like. Sunset cruises and private charters both use it.

Why do the shelling trips leave from Goodland instead of Naples?

Because that is where the shells are. Goodland sits on the southeast tip of Marco Island at the mouth of the Ten Thousand Islands, so starting there means you spend the trip on island beaches instead of running to them. Those beaches have no bridge and nobody rakes them, so what the tide leaves is what you get to look through. Shelling starts at $125 per adult and $90 per child and runs year-round. Two rules before you go: Collier County is empty shells only, and the Florida state shell is the horse conch, not the whelk most people guess.

Can we do a bay trip and an island day on the same visit?

Plenty of people do, and the two are genuinely different outings. An evening on Naples Bay and out toward the pass is a couple of hours from a slip minutes from your driveway. A Ten Thousand Islands day is a drive south, a full stretch of running, landing and looking, then a drive back. Book them on separate days and put the island trip on the morning the tide suits it — tell us the dates you have and we will tell you which morning that is. If you would rather wrap both into one boat and one schedule, a private charter is the cleanest way.

Will we see dolphins?

Often, and never guaranteed. Wild bottlenose dolphins live in this water year-round, from inside Naples Bay all the way out to the island passes, and they regularly surface beside the boat or come in to ride the wake. They are wild animals keeping their own hours, though, so be suspicious of anyone who promises them to you. What we can promise is that you will be in the water they actually use, with a captain who knows the stretches that tend to produce. Ospreys, pelicans and wading birds turn up on nearly every trip as well.

Reserve Your Seats

Ready to go farther than the bay?

Check dates and book a boat tour — our Naples slip for the bay and the pass, Goodland for the island days.

Or call (239) 301-8913

Past the Pass

Book a boat tour from Windstar on Naples Bay

Sunset runs and private charters from our Naples Bay slip, five to ten minutes up the water from your driveway — and the full wild-island day out of Goodland when you want the whole coastline. Tell us which one and we will handle the timing.

Book a Boat Tour (239) 301-8913

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