🏝️ At a glance
- Keewaydin
- Long barrier spit off Gordon Pass; closer in, easy beach day
- Kice
- Wilder & remote near Cape Romano; even fewer people
- Access
- Both boat-only — no roads, no bridges
- Shells
- Tide-restocked & un-picked on both
- Rule
- Empty shells only — Collier County
Both untouched, both ours
Let's start with the good news: there's no bad pick here. Keewaydin and Kice are both true boat-only barrier islands, which means no one drives on, no one combs the sand at dawn, and every tide brings a fresh load of shells nobody's touched. That's the whole reason the shelling stays so good. What changes between them is the feel of the day — how far out you are, how alone you feel, and what tends to wash up.
Keewaydin: the long spit
Keewaydin is a long, skinny island stretching south from Gordon Pass, just off Naples. Because it's the closer of the two, it makes for an easy, breezy shelling-and-beach day: short ride out, miles of Gulf-facing sand to roam, and a good shot at lightning whelks, fighting conchs and olives. It's the spot we point people to who want the boat-only payoff without going to the ends of the earth. Curious how it stacks up to the famous mainland beach? See Keewaydin vs Tigertail.
Kice: wilder and remote
Kice Island sits further south, down toward Cape Romano and the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands. It's wilder, quieter and more remote — the kind of beach where you might not see another soul. That extra distance is exactly the appeal: the sand is even less traveled, and the whole experience leans more castaway. On the right tide, Kice's wrack line is the stuff of shelling daydreams.
| Keewaydin Island | Kice Island | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Off Gordon Pass, near Naples | Near Cape Romano, further south |
| Feel | Long spit, easy beach day | Wilder, remote, castaway |
| Crowds | Very few | Even fewer |
| Access | Boat only | Boat only |
So which do we run to? Both — the call depends on the wind, the tide and what you're after. Tell our captains you want the wildest sand and we'll steer toward Kice; want an easy, gorgeous half-day, and Keewaydin delivers. Either way you're on our shelling tours, and either way Collier County is empty-shells-only — living shells go back in the Gulf.
From the Helm: Big Marco Pass to Keewaydin, Caxambas around the shoals to Kice: two different runs
Guests booking a boat-only trip usually ask us to just pick one, and the honest answer is that we pick based on the run, not just the island. Keewaydin is the shorter trip on the mornings we leave from Marco through Big Marco Pass, a straighter shot that gets guests standing on sand within twenty or so minutes of leaving the dock. Kice asks for more patience — we thread Caxambas Pass and swing wide around the Cape Romano shoals, adding real time to the morning before anyone touches a shell.
That extra run to Kice isn’t wasted time. Threading past the shoals means slowing down and reading the color change in the water that marks the drop-off, since the charted depths there shift more than almost anywhere else we run — a hard storm season can redraw that shoal edge enough that last year’s line is just a suggestion. We’d rather idle through it twice as slow than clip a sandbar with a boat full of guests aboard.
We plan fuel and timing differently for the two runs, too. A Kice morning burns enough extra range that we top off before we ever leave the dock, and we build in a wider cushion before the tide turns back against us on the way home. Keewaydin’s shorter hop rarely asks for that kind of margin, which is part of why we can fold it into a tighter half-day schedule when a private charter needs the flexibility. Wind gets a harder look on a Kice morning, too — a brisk southwest breeze can turn its open gulf-front bar into a wet landing, so we’ll swap to the calmer lagoon mouth on the bay side instead.
Keewaydin’s approach through Big Marco Pass is calmer water most mornings, which is part of why we’ll favor it for a family trip or anyone who gets queasy on a longer run. Kice’s longer approach past the shoals rewards guests who want the feeling of leaving civilization behind entirely — by the time we cut the engine there, the mainland skyline has dropped out of sight behind mangrove for a good while. We hand out the same mesh bags either way, but Kice guests also get a dry bag for a phone, since that longer stretch throws more spray over the bow than the calmer Marco run ever does.
Both landings end the same way — ladder over the side, one captain steadying the bow while the other checks the footing — but the mood on the ride out is different enough that we notice it in how guests behave at the rail. The short Marco run keeps people chatting; the longer Caxambas run tends to go quiet, guests leaning over the rail to watch the depth sounder tick down as we thread the shoal edge, calling out the numbers like a countdown before the island finally comes into view.
If the run itself is part of what you’re after, our Keewaydin Island guide covers that shorter trip in more depth, and either way starts with a seat on our shelling tours.