I chose to do the beginners kayaking experience as I had never kayaked before, and I was disappointed with the overall experience. Our guide was not enthusiastic about his job at all and for the entire hour out on the water, I was about 30 metres behind him trying hard to keep up. The city is absolutely beautiful and I think that if you've kayaked before, this would be a great experience to have! Unfortunately I had to spend the whole time catching up with the guide and felt totally underwhelmed at the end.

Saw Urban Kayak on several trips we have made to Chicago in the past, but never had time to do it. Decided it was a "bucket list" activity, so we decided to get some friends together for a weekend trip completely dedicated & planned around kayaking with Urban Kayak; all other weekend activities took backseat to kayaking. We visited the Chicago Riverwalk location.

After the relatively short 3 hour drive from Green Bay, I did the Intro Paddle with a friend on Saturday afternoon. I have paddled numerous times before, but he had never been in a kayak. It was the perfect "welcome to the Chicago River" experience for me and allowed my friend to get some great basic instruction while trying things out. Shout out to instructor/guide Connor for a great job. His patience really showed (especially with some other very inexperienced paddlers).

Saturday night, four of us did the Ultimate Fireworks paddle. The tour included several stops in downtown first, to hear about different buildings & other interesting tidbits about the river. We finished out the night just beyond the Lakeshore Drive Bridge to enjoy the fireworks by Navy Pier. Again, shout out to the guide. I forgot his name, but he was fantastic with telling us stories & facts along the way.

Sunday afternoon we returned for yet another paddle. This time the Historic Chicago tour. Trevor was our guide & really knew his stuff! We made it farther this time than on the other tours. Much of the information shared by Trevor was the same as during the Ultimate Fireworks paddle the night before, however it was neat to see stuff in the sunshine, also.

Overall, an amazing experience. Highly recommend to anyone who might be interested in slipping away from the chaos of the streets above. The website wasn't very clear, but all of the tours are basically the same (at least from the Riverwalk location). Same course, same info. If the website spelled that out a little better, we may not have repeated so much.

Staff was all great. Not only the instructors/guides, but the staff checking you in as well as the guys on the docks as well. Everyone was pleasant, helpful, and courteous. After each tour, every single staff that we encountered thanked us for paddling with them. To me, this says a ton about the company right there!

Kayaks were pretty standard. We all used singles, but there were also tandems available. Paddle was a little long for me, but for the length & type of trip it certainly did it's job. On the Saturday evening paddle, one of the foot pegs wouldn't stay where I wanted it, and there was an issue with the seat always wanting to almost recline. Again, nothing I couldn't deal with. I didn't remember or really have a chance to point it out after the trip with dozens of paddlers being assisted out of the water in very quick order.

Worthy of a visit, whether novice or experienced paddler. Definitely will be visiting again, perhaps at the Monroe Harbor location next! Also likely to buy a season pass in 2019!

We booked an 815pm kayak/firework tour last minute with Urban Kayaks. It was incredible! Entirely worth the money. The location on Riverwalk is scenic, but once on the water the views are amazing. The launch was a well-oiled machine. Our tour guide Trevor was informative and easy to hear. His information made the tour that much better. We had 3 guides total to make sure we were safe on the water on such a busy night. Other tour groups didn’t have this. The fireworks from the water was the best part of the tour! Highly recommended!