Re-opening 1st June 2025- check back soon for online bookings
Welcome to Antigua Reef Riders
Drive your own boat as you and your friends explore the beautiful west coast of Antigua out to the stunning Cades Reef.
Re-opening 1st June 2025- check back soon for online bookings
Drive your own boat as you and your friends explore the beautiful west coast of Antigua out to the stunning Cades Reef.
Situated in the picturesque Jolly Harbour Marina, just a short 20-minute taxi ride from St. John’s Port, WCT Antigua Reef Riders presents you with a unique opportunity to captain your own 11-foot, two-seater inflatable Reef Rider boat on our award-winning snorkeling tour.
We are a small company that specialises in offering small, intimate tours, usually of no more than 10 guests, although we can accommodate larger group sizes upon request.
We offer multiple tour times throughout the day to keep our tour sizes small so that we do not take too many people to the reef at the same time. We believe this greatly enhances the tour experience and makes us different from many of the other tours in the region.
When you arrive, you are greeted with warm smiles and a chilled bottle of water. Attend a brief safety orientation, then suit up with your life vest and snorkeling equipment.
Our trained guides show you how to drive our boats before you set off on your snorkeling adventure.
The Reef Riders offer a fun, safe, enclosed, secure, and exhilarating experience, far safer than jetskis, and there’s absolutely no previous experience required.
Follow our tour guide and drive slowly through the marina, and then once you’re safely past the marker buoy, push the throttle forward and accelerate.
Turn left, then hold on tight as you and your friends drive your own boat seven miles along the beautiful west coast of Antigua and explore the stunning Cades Reef – top of the “things to do in Antigua” list!
On your way, you pass many of our famous west coast beaches, starting with Jolly Beach, past Valley Church, Ffryes, Darkwood, Turners, and more. Don’t forget to wave to the people on the beach and the sailboats as you zip past them, with the wind in your hair and a smile on your face. Keep a look out for some of our beautiful marine life as you zoom along the coast. The area is well known for turtles and rays.
Then, head out to Cades Reef, which is a protected area and part of the National Marine Reserve. It is simply the best reef snorkeling spot in Antigua. Put on your snorkel, mask, and fins (provided) and dive into the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean Sea. We offer a fully guided snorkeling tour of the reef, which takes approx. 45 minutes, with your tour guide with you in the water at all times.
Our boats are small enough to moor inside the reef lagoon to get you closer to the amazing marine life, including stingrays, lobster, parrotfish, surgeonfish, wrasse, and maybe even a turtle or two, as well as the beautiful coral reef itself. But don’t forget to look at the hundreds of other beautiful smaller fish too! The reef is home to many different species, each with their own unique behaviour and beauty.
Once the snorkeling is over, then it’s all aboard on the boats and back along the coast before returning you safely to our launch spot in the marina and a chance to buy some souvenirs.
Please reach us at tours@antiguareefriders.com or use our live chat if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Antigua Reef Riders is a popular self drive boat tour. Established over 15 years ago we have over 700 five star reviews on TripAdvisor.
A Reef Rider is a bespoke 11 foot rigid inflatable boat. It has a solid fibreglass construction with a Jetski type centre seating for 2 people and high quality hypalon tubing to provide excellent buoyancy and handling. It has a steering wheel and hand throttle and a 25hp 4 stroke Yamaha engine to offer unrivaled reliability. It has a storage compartment at the front of the boat to store our high quality snorkel gear.
It costs $250 for a double rider (That’s $125 per person). Single riders cost $200.
The newer technology 25hp 4 stroke Yamaha engines will push the Reef Rider to speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.
You don’t need an licence to drive a Reef Rider. Our guide will show you how to operate the boat and as long as you follow them and their instructions then they are very simple to operate.
Each Reef Rider can carry a maximum of 2 people. There must be at least 1 person 18 or over on each boat to drive. The youngest age to be a passenger is 5 years old.
We operate from our brand new tour office in Jolly Harbour, next door to Al Porto restaurant. There’s a map on the bottom of our homepage.
We have our own rest room where you can change, and a selection of drinks and Reef Riders merchandise and island souvenirs for you to take away to remember your experience.
You can pre-book your transportation during the booking process. We offer pick up from all hotels, villas and ports. Simply select the transportation option and it will calculate the price and give you detailed meeting point and time.
Please wear your bathing suit under your clothes to save time when you arrive, although there is a small changing room that you can use.
Also bring your towel, reef safe sunscreen and sunglasses. Non reef safe sunscreen is not allowed There is a splash-proof storage area on board for your personal belongings and a locker is available in our store.
Reef safe sunscreen is available to purchase in our store.
Antigua is located in the tropics. As such, we can often be blessed with a “lickle rain”. Don’t worry, it won’t spoil your fun, rain or shine you’re going to get wet!
If the weather conditions mean that it is unsafe for us to reach our planned destination then we may offer an alternative stop, reschedule or offer a full refund. If we discuss the options with you BEFORE we leave the dock and you agree to go out then we cannot offer any refund. As we say “If we could control the weather, we wouldn’t run a watersports business, we’d run the whole world!”
We are currently run every day excluding bank holidays and operate 2 tours a day, at 10am and 1.00pm. The second tour will only open if the first tour is full, or cannot accommodate all of your group. Our booking system offers live availability and a waiting list is available on busy cruise ship days.
Use the booking link on this page to make your reservation. All bookings must accept our terms and conditions and be paid for in full. You will receive an automated booking confirmation which will show any pre-booked transportation, so please enter your email address carefully. There is no need to print out your booking confirmation, simply give your name to our host when you arrive so you can be checked in.
If we need to cancel your charter due to bad weather or due to any unforeseen circumstances then we will issue an immediate and full refund of any monies paid.
If you need to cancel then you can cancel with a full refund providing that you give us at least 48 hours notice before the time that your tour was due to start. Any cancellation within 48 hours of the start time of the tour for ANY reason will mean that we have to charge the full amount due to your card. In this age of travel uncertainty we highly recommend that you take out travel insurance before you leave your home country. The only exception to this will be if you are planning this trip as part of a cruise ship excursion and your cruise ship fails to port in Antigua on the day of the tour. In this case, we will offer a full refund.
Please note that our departure times are local time, which may differ from cruise ship time.
Each Reef Rider has a maximum operational total carrying capacity of 400lbs. That includes driver, passenger and personal belongings. If the 2 of you exceed that limit then you must book 2 x single riders. If any guests exceed the maximum weight capacity then they will be prevented from boarding the Reef Rider and will not be entitled to a refund.
We love our customers, so feel free to visit during normal business hours.
Open today | 09:00 am – 05:00 pm |
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