Top Telluride Cruises & Sailing: Find Your Perfect Tour

Telluride, often known for its epic ski slopes and stunning mountain views, has more to offer than meets the eye, like your perfect cruise or sailing adventure, that is. Very few know about some hidden treasures it holds! Very many forget all the different boat tours that can turn a great vacation into one of those experiences people recall for years after the fact. Finding the right boat can really create some unforgettable memories and provide entirely new vantage points of those breathtaking landscapes.

This guide seeks to showcase some boat tours that would enhance a visit there. You can consider it a helpful starting point, really. You’re looking at various cruises and sailing opportunities, each with its own distinct flavor, so to speak.

1. The Uncompahgre River Float: A Gentle Introduction

If you’re looking for something rather relaxing to start with, it’s almost always a nice move to try The Uncompahgre River Float trip! This is, too it’s almost a super calm and scenic option. Often, this tour offers some unbelievable views along the Uncompahgre River, right? As I was saying, the river happens to meander through the landscape that gently frames the beginning of the San Juan Mountains.

What sets this float apart happens to be its mellow pace! Even those brand new to boating are more than comfortable on it, really. It’s just a slow, gentle ride, that, like your childhood bike, becomes more fun than maybe anything in the world.

This river ride offers up the region’s striking cliffs and meadows, too it’s almost, more than a simple trip, one where there is every possibility you’re bound to spot local wildlife! Think, too it’s almost, deer or birds. They have a knack for popping up.

This ride typically runs from a couple of hours, like, two or three to a half-day, maybe. Perfect? Especially for those seeking a break, this river ride happens to be perfect! Particularly, the break could be from hiking. As a matter of fact, as I was saying, its smooth water experience gives a chance to recharge and soak in that mountain air!

Read our full review: Uncompahgre River Float Full Review and Details

2. Telluride Reservoir Paddle Boarding Adventure

Looking to trade the relaxing cruise on a SUP for some sweat equity? It looks like Telluride Reservoir is there for you! Telluride Reservoir Paddle Boarding offers the adventure you may be craving. The glassy waters make this locale quite great, really, so the location is just what some people like yourself want, I reckon.

Now, those interested in paddle boarding might know there is almost nothing like sliding on glass. You know, it lets folks glide easily on these high-altitude waterways, right? And the best part? This can take the watersports that one normally avoids because they’re very hot and make them doable during the summers. Pretty cool, honestly. It’s the thing, yet it’s very much easier to work than to try and tan by the sand and shore!

Tours typically provide the equipment! They may even get some basics instruction as required before even trying it on their own. It does let most try the activity at any comfort level at any level of boating comfort, arguably, right? That might not be your experience; yet this remains pretty true.

Paddling, this happens to offer an active yet intimate approach of getting up close with mountain panoramas and views! Tours may feature routes which offer stunning photograph backdrops, or are we wrong? You might capture, really, unforgettable shots in the clear, refreshing mountain sunlight. Now, most trips run from 90 minutes to up to three hours, though some extended and custom adventures do come as available!

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3. San Miguel River Whitewater Rafting

If adventure happens to be the goal, it might just be that San Miguel River offers just what you happen to need: challenging whitewater experiences! So many tour guides there show off opportunities on different parts of the San Miguel to experience exhilarating Class III and IV rapids. Now these trips feature all the fun stuff you ever see on boating excursions. This whitewater ride makes your summer exciting in the way skiing does your winter, or are we wrong? Still, I am more right than wrong; so let’s get back to those details!

Operators generally prioritize participant safety that provide necessary gear or training before departure, or what’s usually called “departure,” right? That’s why those who like whitewater can enjoy it at all skill levels. This sort of trip really balances fun and safety, if it were, I would say, almost the same level.

Depending on specific stretches, tours may last anywhere starting from several hours until virtually full-day excursions. Often, you have to think what suits everyone! Those experienced will love all the demanding routes that also boast spectacular, high scenery, even though most people, you included, seem mostly happy with something relatively moderate, right?

Read our full review: San Miguel River Rafting Full Review and Details

4. Charter Sailboat Adventure on Ridgway Reservoir

For you and yours, especially if it’s family oriented, or a group interested in exclusive experiences, you almost always want to consider chartering out a private sailboat trip when floating on Ridgway Reservoir. It often delivers one thing; it often delivers premium flexibility that will cover any interest you might find. Charter operators provide several of those services from hourly sailing rides to entire days which are packed into adventure, in other words, are they?

These sail boats allow you to dictate all kinds of different itineraries! I’ve heard everything, right? Ranging from quiet sunset outings with all the wine tasting and relaxation you can shake a stick at to vigorous sailing across what always looks like very expansive waters. So the thing comes from thinking of this the same as, literally, those VIP services with those velvet ropes and fancy seating sections at fancy stadiums that some of the “rich folks” do! I love the options!

In short, there happens to be a knowledgeable skipper and crew there who cater all the various activities like fishing, picnicking along isolated shorelines, and, even better, very picturesque photography excursions. Some options may offer customized meal or beverage plans based on those charter times, if not a few other options that a client, maybe you, happen to request. This gives an exclusive chance, too it’s almost, to experience all that Telluride’s waterways offer privately and luxuriously. Even those seeking bespoke adventures won’t get this from any group.

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5. Sunset Kayak Tour on Trout Lake

Picture what is perhaps something a bit relaxing: ending all that excitement in your day with an exquisite evening setting. Trout Lake often gets the reputation of providing a superb setting on all tours. Here, what will always seem calm is this crystal water which shows reflections during twilight which makes the entire location even more perfect. Sunset kayak tour is also worth considering here. You are now almost prepared to enjoy the entire world the next day, if anything, right?

Most tour operators run late afternoon tours lasting some two hours, or somewhere like two hours. Most also plan to time routes precisely when sunsets strike around all that distant peakage which frames what could perhaps stand, almost, to you as your personal panorama, you may be able to use that view someday soon, as well!

Most guides there offer their insights covering each local environment along with its geological formation with information about their flora or fauna, honestly. What can be expected here is you kayak together! Here’s an active approach, a good way to end all outdoor time during all those vacations. It makes the sunset the day’s highlight!

Read our full review: Trout Lake Kayak Tour Full Review and Details