⚓ At a glance
- Bringing your own food
- Yes, on nearly every tour — no galley onboard, so you pack it yourself
- Best cooler type
- Soft-sided, zip-top — stows flat, won’t slide on a moving deck
- Ice strategy
- Pre-chill the cooler, then pack ice or reusable packs solid before anything else
- Skip
- Glass bottles, greasy or saucy food, and anything crumbly or fast-melting
- Alcohol & BYOB rules
- Covered separately — see our BYOB guide before you pack the cooler
- Trash
- Pack out everything you pack in — the islands don’t have trash cans
What Snacks Travel Best on a Boat Tour
Florida sun and Gulf wind are hard on food, so the best snacks for a boat tour are ones that don’t melt, crumble or need a fork. Individually wrapped granola bars, pretzels, trail mix, chips in a resealable bag, and whole fruit like apples, grapes or clementines all travel well and won’t turn into a sticky handful the second the boat picks up speed. Sandwiches wrapped tight in foil or a container hold up better than anything served on a plate, and pre-cut veggies or cheese and crackers in a small container are easy to eat one-handed while you’re watching for dolphins off the bow. Skip anything that needs to stay perfectly upright or plated — the boat rocks, the wind gusts, and a paper plate becomes a kite fast. If you’re heading out on the half-day shelling tour, pack a little more than you think you’ll need. It’s a longer trip with an island landing at Keewaydin or Kice partway through, and having real food on hand beats running on vending-machine snacks by hour three. Don’t forget water — bottled water and a few extra sports drinks matter more than any snack once the sun’s been on you for a couple of hours, and Gulf humidity dehydrates people faster than they expect.
How to Pack a Soft Cooler So It Stays Cold
A hard-sided cooler might keep drinks colder longer at home, but on a center-console boat it’s a tripping hazard and takes up deck space you don’t have. Bring a soft-sided cooler instead — it packs flat, tucks under a seat or console, and won’t go sliding into someone’s ankles when the captain throttles up. Pre-chill the cooler the night before (a few minutes in the freezer or a rinse with ice water works) so it’s already cold when you start loading it, then pack ice or reusable ice packs solid against the walls and bottom before you add anything else. Drinks that get opened and closed all day — water, soda, sports drinks — go in first since they’re sturdiest; food goes on top where it’s easy to reach without digging through melting ice. Keep the cooler out of direct sun once you’re aboard; most boats have shade under a T-top or console where it stays coldest longest. If you’re bringing a bigger spread for a group — multiple coolers, folding chairs, a full lunch spread — a private charter gives you more deck space and a slower pace to actually enjoy it, instead of squeezing a family cooler onto a shared tour.
Foods to Skip: Glass, Greasy, Crumbly & Melty
A few categories of food just don’t belong on a boat. Glass bottles are the big one — they’re a safety risk on a rocking deck and an even bigger risk if one goes overboard near a barrier island where bare feet and boat traffic mix. Stick to cans or plastic instead. Greasy foods, think fried chicken or anything dripping in sauce, turn hands and rails slippery fast, which nobody wants to deal with when you’re moving around a boat underway. Crumbly food — chips that shatter, crackers, anything that showers flakes — makes a mess in the cooler and, worse, tends to draw gulls looking for an easy meal, which isn’t something we want to encourage around wild birds. And anything that melts on contact with Florida heat, like chocolate bars or soft candy, is more trouble than it’s worth by the second hour on the water. For the full rundown on what’s allowed to drink onboard, including alcohol, see our BYOB guide — this page is just about what actually travels well in the cooler.
| Skip This | Pack This Instead | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Glass bottles | Cans or plastic bottles | Safer on a rocking deck; no breakage risk |
| Fried or saucy food | Sandwiches, wraps, cheese & crackers | Keeps hands and rails from getting slick |
| Loose chips or crackers | Resealable bags, trail mix, pretzels | Less crumb mess, less gull attention |
| Chocolate or soft candy | Dried fruit, whole fruit, granola bars | Holds up in Florida heat without melting |
| Open plates of food | Foil-wrapped or containered portions | Stays put when the boat picks up speed |
What to Eat Before the Trip If You Get Seasick
If you’re prone to motion sickness, what you eat beforehand matters almost as much as what you bring onboard. Skip the heavy, greasy breakfast and the extra cup of coffee — both tend to make queasiness worse once you’re out past the breakwater. Go bland instead: crackers, toast, a banana, or ginger chews about an hour before you board. An empty stomach isn’t the answer either; heading out with nothing in your system usually makes seasickness worse, not better. Once you’re underway, sipping water and nibbling something plain and dry, like pretzels or saltines, tends to settle things faster than trying to power through on an empty stomach or a heavy meal. This matters most on longer trips — the half-day shelling tour or a full afternoon on a private charter — where you’re on the water for hours, not just ninety minutes. For more on what else to bring, our general packing guide covers the rest of the list.
Pack-Out Etiquette on the Islands
Everything you pack in comes back out with you — that’s the rule on every island we visit. Keewaydin, Kice and the other barrier islands scattered through the Ten Thousand Islands don’t have trash cans, and anything left behind doesn’t just look bad, it ends up in water that dolphins, birds and sea turtles call home. Bring a small trash bag or reuse the one your snacks came in, and do a quick sweep of your spot before you head back to the boat. The same goes for orange peels, apple cores and other “biodegradable” scraps — pack those out too, since feeding wildlife, even by accident, isn’t something we encourage on any of our trips. It’s a small habit that keeps these islands as clean for the next boat as they were for yours, and it’s one of the easiest ways to raise a kid who grows up respecting this water the way our captains do. Want the rest of the pre-trip checklist? Head back to our Travel Guide for more honest answers on what to bring, wear and expect before you go.