A Weekend Crystal River Staycation
Karen and I headed to Crystal River thanks to Discover Crystal River and had the perfect close to home getaway!
Our Staycation Itinerary
Growing up in central Florida, the first time I visited Crystal River was on a school field trip. The charming thing about revisiting places as an adult is you’ll have childhood memories to look back upon and feel what’s different about the experience for you in the present. What made this trip so special is that for both Karen and myself, we had previous memories of this magical we visited when we were much younger. Now we were going to share this new experience, and rediscover Crystal River together.
We left Orlando on a Friday after wrapping up work for the week. Given the year we’ve all had lately, we were ecstatic about the potential for a getaway staycation. Upon our arrival at Crystal River, we checked into our room at the Best Western Crystal River Resort. Dinner that evening was scheduled for The Waterfront Social at 7pm, which gave us a few minutes to look around our room and freshen up before heading out to dinner. Discover Crystal River left us with a lovely welcome gift upon our arrival and with our new masks in hand we were ready to explore.
The drive to The Waterfront Social from our hotel was only five minutes. One thing we really enjoyed about our stay in Crystal River was the proximity of our hotel to all the places we went over the weekend. It allowed us a sense of peace, a feeling of not being rushed anywhere we went. Everything was easily accesible, reachable within a ten minute drive. It’s a feeling we don’t often get in Orlando, where places are often vastly spread out. As soon as we saw the sign for The Waterfront Social, we knew dinner was going to be incredible.
From the moment we pulled up we fell in love with the cute entryway and decided to tour the rest of the restaurant before sitting down to eat. The seating area in the back porch was our favorite and if we returned we would recommend dining outside for a romantic river view. The inside dining had its own cosy charm (and better lighting) so we took our meal inside.
After reviewing the menu and asking our waiter for their recommendation (it was hard to choose when everything sounded so tasty) we decided to go with a salmon poke bowl and the sticky pork ribs. Since Crystal River is near the water, we definitely wanted to try some fresh seafood- and the ribs looked too good to pass up!
The manager, Matt, came over to our table to introduce himself and make sure that everything was to our liking. It was easy to pass a copule hours at The Waterfront Social, enjoying the amtosphere and ambiance that this newly opened restauraunt had to offer.
After dinner we headed back to our room and changed into our pajamas before enjoying the rest of our girls’ night. We found ourselves staying up to chat on the balcony, enjoying the sounds of the waterfront and the reflection of the moon. Once we couldn't stay awake any longer we headed off to bed, excited for what the following day would bring.
We rose before sunrise on Saturday morning, with the plans on visiting Three Sisters Springs before we went out on the water for the day. During the winter months while the manatees seek refuge in the springs, the springs are closed to all water vessels. However, visitors can still view manatees from the obesrvation boardwalk above the three springs.
Armed with this information, we had a grab and go breakfast at the hotel (as a COVID precaution this is currently the only way Best Western serves breakfast) and headed out for the day. In the car we caught an inspiring sunrise on the way to Three Sisters, and felt positive about the day ahead of us.
At Three Sisters Refuge we met many friendly and knowledgeable volunteers who were able to answer all of our manatee questions. On this weekend, there were at least 300 manatees resting in Three Sisters. The manatees take refuge in the springs anytime the water in the Gulf of Mexico drops below 60 degrees in the ocean, as the springs are warm 74 degrees all year long. The mothers often bring their calves into the springs to leave them in the warmer water as they search for seagrass.
Fun fact: Three Sisters is a second magnitude spring, which means anywhere between six and sixty million gallons of water are pumped out of the spring continuously.
Our next stop was Paddles Outdoor Rentals to get fitted for wetsuits and head out on the water with the hopes of seeing manatees. We adore Chris and the staff at Paddles! Every time I've visited, the staff are extremely knowledgeable and willing to offer suggestions to make sure you have the best ride possible. A brief discussion concerning our agenda for the day led to a recommendation from the Paddles staff that we should consider a tandem kayak, as the winds on this day were blowing pretty hard and would make it difficult to ride the paddle board out (our original plans). We were also advised to return within three hours, as the winds would be picking up by then and make the paddle back more difficult (after our swim with the manatees we would be blasted by strong winds ). Lastly we were advised to bring a jacket on our kayak. On the way back we would unzip and peel off the top half of our wetsuit, allowing us to wear the jacket to help keep us warm and fight against the strong winds.
Paddles provided us with a portable laminate map of our journey, so we wouldn’t get lost heading out on our own. They directed us to Kings Bay Park, a public access ramp where we would launch our kayak, just down the street from the shop.
Since Karen and I are both outdoor lovers, we were able to handle the tandem kayak no problem. We did meet a lot of people on the water who thought it was funny we rode tandem as they had witnessed enough squabbles over partners paddling together, arguing over who was paddling “correctly,” but there were no arguments to be found in our boat.
We enjoyed the scenic ride over, passing through the bay surrounded by boats, birds, and marine life. We arrived at the entrance of Three Sisters Springs (well, as close as we could given the entrance is roped off for manatee protection) and excitedly waited with other tour boats. All of us made for a site to see, floating around with pool noodles eagerly awaiting our first spotting of a manatee. That morning we were able to see a couple manatees, even one or two that swam up to us, but mostly the manatees stayed inside the springs as it was a cold and windy day. After an hour and a half of not seeing manatees we decided to head back before the winds picked up.
To warm up, we went in search of lunch. Karen and I both have food allergies which can makes things tricky when trying to eat in a small town, but luckily for us Crystal River has such a diverse culinary scene that we were left with many options. We settled on Thai Phoon and knew right away that we had walked in on our favorite kind of restaurant. An elderly woman sat at a back table cleaning a large dish of fresh herbs and the sight and smells reminded me very much of home. We ordered the Chicken Pad See Ew and the Pineapple Curry with Shrimp, as well as jasmine tea to dethaw from the morning swim. Everything we ate was delicious and came out quickly.
The sun made an appearance when we returned to our room. Since we’re both native (well practially native for me) Floridans we took advantage of the warmth of the sun. We relaxed on our balcony, enjoying the sights of the boats, birds, and marine life teeming before us.
After a bit of sun, we left our room to try to catch the sunset at Fort Island Gulf Beach. Driving in, we took in the endless grassy savannah that spread before us. Birds flew low as the beginnings of a sunset moved across the sky. When we arrived at the beach we found the parking lot packed with people who had come to watch the sun set.
Saturday night’s dinner was at Vintage on 5th, and much like the first night, only a few minute’s drive from our hotel room. Upon being seated at our table, the owner, Rodney, came by to introduce himself and welcomed us to the delicious experience.
Our waiter made a few recommendations with our menu selection that we graciously accepted. We went with Caribbean Jerk Shrimp and the highly recommended seasonal clams, caught fresh by a Crystal River local fisherman.
As for dinner, we ordered the fresh cut grouper with jerk seasoning and truffle fries as well as the angus beef tenderloin medium rare accompanied by veggie medley and bacon risotto.
The grouper was cooked to perfection as was the tenderloin. The risotto and tenderloin melted in your mouth for an otherworldly experience, accompanied by a glass of Chateau Souverain Merlot. For desert, we chose the creme brulee. All and all it made for a lovely evening, with an excellent dining experience. We plan on returning to Vintage on Fifth the next time we are in Crystal River, and even discussed who we wanted to bring along next time to share in the experience.
By the time we returned to our hotel room on the second night, we were ready to head to bed after a busy day exploring. Lucky for us, Best Western rooms come with temperpedic mattresses so we were able to get a good night's sleep and feel recharged to head back out again. The next morning after our grab and go breakfast, we checked out and headed back to Three Sisters to see the manatees one last time before meeting up with our tour for the day with Crystal River Watersports. We were scheduled to go out with Mike, the owner, and Vince, the captain.
After some brief introductions and safety vidoes, we were fitted for wetsuits and headed out on the water with the hopes of a manatee encounter for the day. Both Mike and Vince were extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We discussed some interesting manatee facts including:
- Calves do not forage for food and tend to stay in Three Sisters Springs. As such, they are more curious. These are typically the manatees that will approach you in the water near the mouth of the springs
- Manatees typically have one calf at a time
- Manatees are mammals with hair covering their bodies. The hair on a manatee is very sensitive (think cat whiskers) which allow the manatee tactile sensations. They will be able to feel where you are in the water better than you can see where they are
- Manatees age two and older are considered juveniles until age 15
- Manatees lose their front teeth from chewing sand (a side effect of eating seagrass) from the bottom of the bay. They wear the teeth down with the sand to the point where the front teeth eventually fall out. To replace them, manatees grow molars in the back that “migrate” forward (about 1mm a month) to replace the teeth that have previously fallen out and continue to do so all their lives. Mike illustrated this point with the use of a 3d printed manatee skull, provided by the University of Florida.
- Manatees grow to be anywhere from 1200 to 1500 lbs as adults; however a few at Crystal River have been spotted as big as 2500 lbs
- Manatees eat 10% of their body weight a day (~100 lbs of seagrass, and that’s because there isn’t a lot of nutrition in it)
It takes a week for a manatee to digest a meal, just imagine being full of 600+ lbs of food every week!
- Manatees do not have bone marrow (their bones are solid). This allows manatees to be more dense and sink to the bottom of the water for food. It also means that when manatees get hit by boats the major damage comes from a bow strike rather than propeller strike, which cracks their bones and can puncture internal organs
- Manatees only have 3-5% body fat, the rest is muscles, organs, bones, and food
- Manatees can hold their breath for 15-20 minutes stationary and 3-5 minutes while swimming due to lung size. So when you are swimming with manatees and you see one surface, you may need to be patient to see it move again
- Manatees often take two breaths at the surface when they are resting before returning to their resting position
- Calves stay with mothers for anywhere from 1.5 - 2.5 years after birth, nursing the entire time
The first spot we came to was called Banana Island, but we weren’t able to see any manatees. It was rumored that some free divers dove at the spot earlier, and the sounds from the diving tanks can scare the manatees away. We shifted to a few other lesser known spots, and sure enough our persistence paid off.
The last spot we stopped was Hunter Springs State Park and it was there that we ran into at least 12-15 manatees. We had so much fun swimming in the water and seeing such beautiful and gentle creatures relax, play, and swim. There were times that the manatee would breach right in front of my face and I would be left scrambling to back up and make sure to practice passive observation.
We headed back to shore and shared some hot chocolate, some laughs, and an incredible day adventuring in the crystal clear water of Crystal River. We had so much fun on our tour with Crystal River Watersports and felt like we learned quite a lot! If you’re ever looking for a guided river boat tour to swim with the manatees, we cannot recommend Mike and everyone over there enough.
After our tour we started to make our way back to Orlando, with that vacationeque glow yet a short drive back home. Sometimes you don’t need to go far to feel like you’ve gotten away and thanks to Discover Crystal River we started our work week refreshed and renewed.
We hope you enjoy our recommendations and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions!
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