Oak Island By Boat: Salty Dog Sea Tours Review
Canada Travel || Tags: Nova Scotia, South Shore ||For the last couple years, I’ve been a bit obsessed with the TV show The Curse Of Oak Island. Since Oak Island is not far from where I grew up, I was fascinated by the search for treasure, and the mystery of who put it there and why. We’ve done the walking tour that takes place on the island, but this time we decided to take a tour by boat. We booked Salty Dog Sea Tours that operates out of Oak Island Marina.
Salty Dog Sea Tours Information
Tours are operated 7 days a week and are offered 3-4 times a day; 10am, 1pm, 5pm and sometimes 7pm. The tours last approximately 90 minutes
You can book your tours online easily on their website
Price
Adults – $60 + tax
Children ages 2-5 – 30 + tax
Children under 2 – Free
Location
The tour leaves from Oak Island marina, located at the Oak Island resort, which is on the mainland, not the island itself. There is lots of parking at the resort, and if you’re looking for a place to have a bite to eat before or after the tour, there is a restaurant as well.
Lunenburg and Mahone Bay are towns close by. Here are my favourite things to do there!
Salty Dog Sea Tours Review
If you’ve watched The Curse of Oak Island, then you might remember diver Tony Sampson. He’s been on the show each season, and he is the owner of Salty Dog Sea Tours. Tony is skipper/narrator on many of the tours, but the night we took the tour, we had Ken as our guide. Ken works with Tony as a diver and has been on the show as well.
The tour started with leaving Oak Island Marina and stopping by the Oak Island causeway, which connects the Island to mainland Nova Scotia. We learned the history of the causeway, and then we continued motoring our way around the Island. It was neat to see the island from another perspective. In some ways it is bigger than you would think, but also very small.
The most exciting thing that you can see from the water is Smith’s Cove. If you’ve been following the show over the last season, then you’ll know there is a lot of treasure and information hunting going on there. You can see that they’ve extended the cofferdam around the cove, and they’re definitely doing a lot of work in the area. We will have to wait for the season to air to see what they find!
The next part of the island you see is the money pit area and the swamp. Again it is interesting to see from the water. You can’t see much of the money pit, but we were able to see that there was a new big pile of dirt. I guess they dug down somewhere! The local rumor was that they found something… but we’ll have to wait and see!
We boated back to the marina to say goodbye to Ken. He answered any questions he could (since he does have a non-disclosure agreement) and we parted ways.
Boat Tour vs Oak Island Walking Tour
As we have done the Oak Island walking tour put on by the Friends of Oak Island Society, you might be wondering what tour is better. The walking tours have extremely limited tickets and sell out very quickly (within 20 minutes of going on sale!) which means they are hard to get. If you have never been to Oak Island, you definitely get to see more on the walking tour. Being able to look down 10X and see the money pit up close, really brings the TV show to life. Since we had done the walking tour, we really enjoyed seeing the island from a different point of view.
No matter which tour you do, (or neither) you can still visit the Oak Island Interpretation Centre, which is located on the island, just across the causeway. The Interpretation centre serves as a museum of things that have been found on the island, as well as a timeline of the history of the treasure hunt. It is open 7 days a week from 10am-5pm, however it is closed on days that tours operate on the island (certain Saturdays and Sundays in the summer). Check their Facebook page for all the info.
Read More About The Oak Island Walking Tours
Final Thoughts
All in all we had a great time with Salty Dog Sea Tours and I would go on one again. Maybe by next year they’ll have treasure to tell us about!
If you’ve been to Oak Island tell us what you thought in the comments!
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2 responses to “Oak Island By Boat: Salty Dog Sea Tours Review”
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So if you take the boat tour is still possible to meet members of the crew and Rick Lagina himself? I am a fan of the show and I would love to meet him.
Hi Caroline!
Not usually since you don’t actually touch down on the Island during this tour. Usually Tony Sampson the diver is your captain so you should get to meet him! The walking tour is your best bet to meet Rick Lagina!