Sea Kayak Rental, what you need to aware before contact us
With this article I will try to discuss in more detail about kayaking rental as I receive several messages with the same questions.
Starting from the size of the island (1024km of coastline) you should aware that we don’t do rentals for one day unless you are very close to our premises; that means you are located near or in Heraklion town or you can pick up the boat from our base in the south-west at Ilingas beach (next to Chora Sfakion). In any other case the driving is too much and cost is higher than joining a guided trip in most cases.
If you are happy to pay for delivery and pickup you can check the prices at the kayak rental page. Roughly speaking is 200-250€ for Chania region, 150€ for Rethymnon and 150-200€ for eastern Crete and same for pickup if it is a different day (more than one day). If you pick up the kayaks from our base in Ilingas beach (Chora Sfakion) there is no extra cost assuming we got enough stock. This is the case for last minute rentals. If you book months or weeks ahead you will have to calculate the delivery and pick up cost as we will have to bring more kayaks in most of the cases.
We don’t do rentals to non-experienced paddlers. Each participant needs to know how to perform an assisted rescue at least if you are looking for a day rental. For multi day rentals you need to be able to perform an Eskimo roll.
The weather in Crete can change from dead flat to force 5-6 winds in 30 minutes.
In kayak rental, you need also to sort out all the logistics yourself. This means that you need to make a plan before arrival. I can’t provide all that info via email due to being very busy guiding trips.
I don’t want to be rude by saying this but honestly speaking, if you are not able to make a detailed plan yourself you shouldn’t be asking for rental in the first place but instead join any of my guided trips. I will be more than happy however to answer any questions while delivering the boats to the starting point or have a look and advise you about your plan.
Availability of boats, in general, is not much of a problem as I got a very large collection of boats but delivering and collecting the boats might be a problem. If I’m booked guiding trips during your rental period I need to find someone else to deliver & pick up the boats and that is not guaranteed if it is last minute notice. May, June, September & October are the busiest months and if you intend to book during those months is good to do at least 2 months in advance.
Last but not least once a rental period has begun, there will be no refunds for days lost due to weather conditions or clients returning earlier than the agreed rental period as I do have to reserve the boats/days and cancel other clients to accommodate you. Be sure to read the rental terms in this link as that stays always up to date.