Great Day Boat Tours

Great Day Boat Tours is run by Captain Eric and Captain Jenn, a husband and wife team with more than thirty years of combined boating experience and both holding US Coast Guard master captain licenses. The company operates two 24 foot vessels out of Venice, taking passengers out for sunset cruises, dolphin and wildlife watching, and one of the more distinctive offerings among Venice’s boat tour operators: guided shark tooth and fossil hunting trips.

Venice has built its regional identity in large part around shark tooth hunting, thanks to the Peace River formations offshore that continually wash ancient, fossilized megalodon and other shark teeth onto local beaches, particularly at Caspersen Beach south of downtown. Great Day Boat Tours takes that local specialty out onto the water itself, running dedicated shark tooth and fossil hunting charters alongside shelling expeditions that target the barrier island’s less crowded, harder to reach stretches of sand. For visitors who have heard about Venice’s reputation as a shark tooth destination but want an experienced guide rather than a solo search along a public beach, a captained charter built specifically around fossil hunting offers local knowledge of where teeth are most likely to turn up.

Beyond the fossil hunting niche, the company runs standard sunset cruises and dolphin tours, the kind of scenic wildlife trips that make up the bread and butter of most small boat tour operations along the Gulf Coast. The company also offers private charters for special events and celebration of life services, providing burial at sea options for families wanting to honor a loved one on the water, a service that reflects a genuinely full range of occasions the company is equipped to handle beyond typical tourist outings.

Trips run primarily Friday through Sunday for day and evening tours, with weekday sunset cruises and custom charters available by request, a schedule built around weekend tourist demand while still leaving room for local residents or visitors on weekday schedules to book a trip. Each boat carries up to six passengers, keeping tours small and personal rather than running large group excursions, and custom private tours start at 150 dollars for up to six people. With two licensed master captains running the operation and boats named GreatDay and Great Day To, the company presents itself as a genuinely owner operated business rather than a larger tour company hiring rotating staff. For anyone wanting to combine a classic Gulf Coast boat tour with Venice’s signature shark tooth hunting tradition, Great Day Boat Tours offers one of the more specialized options among the city’s independent charter operators.