Rover Tours

We booked our excursion for March 26 2023 on Feb 6 2023. We arrived as advised in the attached e-mail. Several other people waiting at the Broad St location as well. With no sign of a boat I decided to check website and discovered the location had changed. Luckily we had barely enough time to get to the new location. We ran into a family headed toward Broad St location and told them or they would have missed the boat. I don't know when this change of location took place, but wish we had been notified in a follow up email. It was very stressful getting to the new location on time. With all that said, once on the boat we had a great trip. The guide and captain were great. We saw lots of Eagles and got quite a few shells.

This company does not deserve the one star I had to give to leave this review!! I booked a shelling trip for August 14, 2023. Received a text message on the evening of August 13 stating that the trip was canceled due to a vessel issue and I would receive a refund. Well, after 6 weeks and multiple calls with no answer and a full voicemail, I have yet to receive my refund. I will be contacting the better business bureau and my credit card company to dispute the charges. Do yourself a favor and do not book with this company. Rover Tours, you should be ashamed of yourselves!!

I would not rate this company even a 1 star. I made a reservation on 8/2/2023 for a tour while on my vacation at Myrtle Beach on 8/12/23 and my credit card was charged. On 8/11/23 I received a text stating the tour had been cancelled due to vessel issues and that a refund would be issued. It has been three weeks and my refund still has not been issued. I have called their phone and a message states that they are closed due to vessel issues. I replied to their text that stated a refund would be issued and no response. Please don't ever send this company any money.

We had Judd as our First Mate and Jesse as our Captain and they were both great. Judd had informative narrations as we took our 3 hour plus journey along the river to North Island. We learned very interesting tidbits about Georgetown, Crabs, Shrimp, the Civil War, Yawkey family, and Baruch Family. We saw 4 bald eagles and 2 alligators plus other birds like egrets and herons.
We arrived an hour after departing Georgetown at North Island where you can see an abundance of oyster shells, whelk, and other shells. There is only a 3/4 mile section of beach that you are allowed to explore. There is driftwood and lots of fallen trees. The water is very brackish and not a place you would go in for a dip (or pee) so plan accordingly. You are given a little over an hour to explore and then you head back passing the Georgetown Lighthouse. Judd had some interesting things to say here too. Then you head back going by South Island and the marshes and learn about the rice Plantations that made some people very wealthy. It's interesting to learn how they flooded and drained the fields. We also learned about the Government cut for the intracoastal waterway as we headed back into town.
All in all it was a nice excursion. A tad long in the uncomfortable seats but still a fine experience. Thank you to Judd for all the history and information and for Jesse finding us wildlife along the way.

OH MY GOSH! I RECOMMEND SO MUCH! I had the best time of my life! But it was super nice! They were also nice. They beach part was super fun also! My cousin and I found super big shells!

I've patiently waited for several years to take this trip to see the Lighthouse and go shelling. It was a great experience! Judd was very informative and knew so much about the history of the entire area. The weather was perfect and we couldn't have enjoyed ourselves more!

Sadly I am not able to give my recent experience with Rover Tours Shelling trip more than one star. I had heard so many wonderful things about this trip and was looking forward to bringing guest from out of state on it. On the day of our tour there was heavy rain all morning and high sea warnings until late in the evening. When we arrived the skies were growing dark, but the tour representative said we were still going out to the island. Once all passengers had boarded, the tour representative told the captain to get going before "that arrived ". She was pointing to a very dark omonious sky. We hadn't even left port when it started to drizzle. The first mate began our guided tour sharing what I assume were many interesting facts about the harbor, sea life and our surroundings. Unfortunately we could not understand a thing he said. His microphone was a mess. When a passenger asked him to fix it all he did was blow into it and continue to talk. Not good. The seas became very rough and it began to pour. We were getting soaked and the wind was blowing. The captain continued on. We were the only boat on the water during our entire trip. I wonder if the coast guard knew we were out there. The first mate gave us plastic ponchos and said,"It's sunny over there." Pointing out to the seas. After 45 minutes of rain, wind, and being splashed by high waves, I questioned the captain about Rover tours weather policy and asked how we were to shell in the rain. I suggested we turn back. Six other passengers agreed. The first mate told other passengers that I had safety concerns and that we would be turning around. He made me the bad guy. After heading toward shore for about 10 minutes a few passengers realized we were heading back and became disappointed. SO believe it or not the captain turned us back around and headed to the island. The weather was getting worse, but the captain continued on for another 25 minutes. He let untrained people make important decisions about how and when to sail. It was apparent that safety and a good shelling experience was not his priority. Perhaps money was? Finally after 2 hours of this nonsense the captain pulled on his big boy pants and told us that it was too windy for him to sail to the other side of the island. We all knew that 45 minutes into the trip. Again does Rover tours put safety first? Why did it take so long from him to turn us around? Why did we sail when the representative saw a dark dangerous sky? Why did he let passengers make important sailing decisions? Should we have even gone out if there were high sea warming? Rover tour is a bunch of amateurs. Find another tour to take.

The only reason I gave them one star was because they left on time, were pleasant to deal with and did give all passengers a complete refund. It's the least they could do.
Teresa d.

We found out about this touring company from a facebook recommendation. We booked a few days out and really looked forward to this excursion. We hadn't expected to recieve so much history from the amazing crew! We learned so much and really enjoyed the boat ride to and from the island just as much as we did the shelling on the island! We chose to go right to the jetty as we disembarked from the boat first to shell hunt and found lots of shells, got to see a starfish, jelly fish, blue crabs and lots of oyster shells too!
We recommend wearing water shoes so you can walk through the water, bringing a back pack for shells as well as packing sunscreen and bug spray as there are flies on the island that LOVE tourists, and packing water/snacks/a light lunch. Bring a smile and just enjoy yourself! This is one great company to tour with! Georgetown is a cute town as well, so enjoy your time there too!

As I waited to board the boat this lady beside me was so excited due to having to reschedule 3 times. She was like a lil girl getting a new puppy! So now we are loaded and the tour guide whose name was Paige he began to speak and said if we saw wildlife to say where it was so ppl could take photos.fast forward on our way back he saw a couple of bald eagles that we all loved to see. the captain stopped the boat so she could get some really awesome pictures. To see her smile on her face put a smile on mine! Kiddos!
Any way he told us facts about the area told us different places you could go see as well.
So we get to the island and it was full of sea shells. Walk to the long row of rocks and u will find a lot!
I only wish we had more time on the island. My mom and myself take time to look and treasure the shells.
All in all it's worth the trip !!

They advertise a four hour tour it's only four hours because they drive so slow. The boat never made it above 1/3 throttle taking 1 1/2 hours to drive the 10 miles to the shelling island. The trip would have been way more enjoyable at a faster pace on the water giving more time on the island. The price is also pretty high for what you're getting. I won't be back.