Rows of boats moored in a marina basin on flat water at first light with a low skyline beyond

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Tours

Boat Tours in Biloxi: A Working Harbour, Not a Marina

Last updatedSeptember 21, 2026

What is actually on the water in Biloxi: two replica oyster schooners, a shrimping trip with a real trawl net, and the quiet Back Bay behind the city.

Biloxi is a port before it is a resort, and the boat trips reflect that. There is no fleet of glass-bottom catamarans here and no sunset booze cruise industry. What there is, instead, is a small number of genuinely unusual things: two replica oyster schooners kept sailing by a museum, a working shrimp boat that drags a net for seventy minutes so you can see what comes up, and a back bay behind the city that almost no visitor ever looks at.

The setting explains the shape of it. Every trip out of Biloxi runs in protected water. The Mississippi Sound is a shallow lagoon closed in by the barrier islands ten to twelve miles offshore, and Biloxi Bay and the Back Bay behind the peninsula are quieter still. Nobody here is running you out into open Gulf swell for six hours, which is why the trips are short, cheap and family-tolerant in a way they are not in the deep-water ports east of here.

The history explains the rest. Biloxi called itself the Seafood Capital of the World during the canning era, when factories along the Back Bay packed oysters and shrimp by the trainload and two-masted schooners dredged the reefs under sail. Those boats were designed for this exact water. The two the museum sails, the Glenn L. Swetman and the Mike Sekul, are replicas of them, and going out on one is the closest thing this coast has to a time machine.

One honest note about booking. Biloxi carries a very small amount of bookable tour inventory on the international platforms, so what appears below may be thin or empty depending on the day. That is a fact about the market, not about the place. The schooner sails are arranged through the maritime museum, and the shrimping trip is booked directly with its operator. Phoning ahead is normal here and nobody will find it strange.

Our picks

The ones we would book

Editor's Pick
Best single boat trip in Biloxi
Why we chose it
The shrimping demonstration is the one to book if you book only one thing. It is short enough to survive a marginal forecast, cheap enough not to matter if the catch is dull, and it shows you the industry that named this city using the actual method rather than a display case. Ask what came up on the previous run before you choose your departure.

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Biloxi's boat trips are priced against a small local market rather than a resort one, which puts a short harbour or Sound trip well below what the same time on the water costs further east. Check what the fare includes and whether the trip actually stops or turns anywhere, because a cheap seat on a boat that never slows down is not value.

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Two masts, a shallow draft and a reef full of oysters

A shrimp trawler tied at a weathered timber dock on a marsh creek in the last light

The Biloxi schooner is a local design and it looks the way it does for local reasons.

Oyster reefs in the Mississippi Sound sit in shallow water. A boat working them needed to float in very little, carry a heavy dredge and a heavy catch, and move in the light airs of a summer morning without an engine to fall back on. What the yards along this coast produced was a shallow, beamy two-masted schooner carrying a lot of canvas for its size. Hundreds worked the Sound in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the canneries behind them shipped the results north by rail.

Engines ended it. The fleet motorised, the schooners were abandoned or converted, and by the middle of the twentieth century the type was effectively gone.

The Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum had two replicas built and it sails them: the Glenn L. Swetman and the Mike Sekul, both named for men who worked this coast. They run from the museum's schooner pier on the beach road, the sailing season is weather-dependent, and passengers are generally invited to help haul on a line rather than sit and watch, which is the point of the thing.

The museum itself is worth an hour before or after. Published admission has been around ten dollars for an adult, less for students, seniors and military, and the exhibits cover the canneries, the fleet and the Vietnamese-American shrimping families who have made up a large share of it since the late 1970s. Check current hours and sailing dates before building a day around either.

Seventy minutes, one trawl net, and everything that comes up

If there is one boat to put a family on in Biloxi, it is this one.

A working boat drops a sixteen-foot trawl net over the side and drags the bottom of the Mississippi Sound for a while, exactly as the commercial fleet does with much larger gear. Then the net comes up on deck and everything in it goes into a tank: shrimp, obviously, but also blue crab, croaker, small flounder, squid, the occasional baby shark, and whatever else was on the bottom in that particular hundred yards. The crew name things, pass them round, explain which ones the fleet keeps and which go back, and then most of it goes back over the side.

It takes about seventy minutes and the published fare has been around thirty dollars for anyone aged four and up, with under-threes free alongside a paying adult. Treat that as the advertised figure rather than a guarantee and check before you turn up.

What makes it good is that it is not a performance. This is the actual method that built the city, demonstrated at a scale a child can see into, and the honest answer to "how does a shrimp get to a restaurant" turns out to be far more interesting than a narrated harbour cruise.

Two practical notes. It is the shortest trip on this page, which makes it the one that survives a marginal weather forecast and a short attention span. And it pairs naturally with the maritime museum, which is a five-minute drive along the same road and covers the same industry from the other direction.

The Back Bay, which almost no visitor ever sees

Biloxi sits on a peninsula, and every visitor looks south at the Sound. The water on the north side is better.

The Back Bay of Biloxi is a wide, shallow, sheltered bay running inland behind the city and feeding a network of bayous and marsh drains. It is where the canneries were, where a large part of the shrimp fleet still ties up, and where the wildlife is. Herons and egrets work the marsh edges. Osprey nest on channel markers. Brown pelicans, which were nearly wiped out of the northern Gulf by pesticides in the mid-twentieth century and came back, are now ordinary here.

It is also flat. On a morning before the sea breeze fills in, the Back Bay is a sheet of glass, which makes it the best paddling water on this coast and a comfortable place to take somebody who does not love boats.

Cruises here are irregular and often run by small operators or as charters rather than scheduled departures, so ask at the small craft harbour or at Point Cadet. What you get is the industrial and ecological reality of the city at the same time: a shrimp dock, an egret, a bridge, a bayou, and a skyline of casino towers standing above all of it.

Take binoculars and insect repellent. In still air from May to September the marsh will find you.

What it costs, and when nothing sails at all

When to go

Cost. This is cheap water. The shrimping trip has been advertised around thirty dollars a head, and a schooner sail is in a similar band rather than a luxury one. Private charters are the exception and are priced by the boat. Against a destination where a half-day tour starts at a hundred dollars a head, Biloxi is unusually accessible, and the reason is that nothing has to run far.

Season. The practical window is March to October. Schooner sailings and most small-operator trips thin out or stop in winter, not because the water is rough but because demand collapses and crews are seasonal. December to February is a fine time to be in Biloxi for casinos, museums and food. It is not the time to plan a boat.

Weather. Two things cancel trips here. From June through August, thunderstorms build inland in the late morning and come back over the coast in the afternoon, which is the argument for the earliest departure of the day. And from June through November this is a hurricane coast; September is the statistical peak and the month when a system in the Gulf three days out empties every dock on the Mississippi shoreline. Build flexibility into a September trip.

Wind. The Sound is shallow, so it does not need a lot of wind to turn choppy and unpleasant. A sailing boat needs some breeze and a small motor boat wants less, which is why two operators can make opposite decisions about the same afternoon.

Book it

Everything else we track

Some links below go to Viator, our booking partner. We earn a commission on bookings made through them — at no extra cost to you, and with no influence on what we recommend.

Sharing, or having it to yourselves

Most of what is bookable here sells two ways, and the cheaper one is not always the cheaper one. A shared departure is priced per person; a private booking is priced for the party, so the arithmetic flips somewhere around four to six people — and it is the only version where you pick the time. Check the party size each listing actually covers before you decide.

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A shared departure, priced per person. The cheapest way to do this for one or two people.
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What is actually on the water here

How they compare

Trip	Roughly how long	What it really is	Who it suits
Schooner sail	Around two hours, seasonal	A replica two-masted oyster schooner under working sail	Anyone interested in how this coast made its living
Shrimping trip	About seventy minutes	A trawl net dragged along the Sound bottom, the catch shown and returned	Children, and adults who like knowing how things work
Back Bay and bayou cruise	One to two hours	Sheltered water behind the city, herons, shrimp docks, marsh	Birdwatchers and anyone tired of the beach road
Ship Island ferry	A full day, mid-March to October	Not a tour: transport to a barrier island twelve miles out	Anyone who wants clear Gulf water; see its own page
Private charter	By arrangement	A captain, your route, usually out of the small craft harbour	Groups of six or more, or anglers wanting a specific trip

There are two things this list does not contain, and both absences are deliberate. There is no dedicated dolphin-watching fleet in Biloxi, because the animals are seen on the trips above rather than on boats built to chase them. And there is no casino boat: the floating casinos that the 1990 law required were moored gaming floors, not vessels that went anywhere, and after 2005 the law let them rebuild on land. Nothing gambles its way out into the Sound.

On the ground

Where to go

Every place below has its own page — hours, parking, what it costs and what to expect when you get there.

All attractions

Park
Ship Island
A barrier island twelve miles offshore with clear Gulf water, a brick fort, and an anchorage that shaped three centuries here.
4–7 hoursThe island itself carries no entrance fee. Getting there does — the ferry is a ticketed service, and a private charter costs considerably more.
Museum
Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum
Canneries, schooners, net-making and the Vietnamese shrimp fleet: the museum that explains why Biloxi is here at all.
1.5–2.5 hoursA modest admission charge for adults, with lower rates for children, students and seniors. Schooner sailings are priced separately.
Marina
Biloxi Schooners & Schooner Pier
Two sixty-five-foot replicas of the oyster schooners that worked this coast under sail, and you get to help haul the halyards.
2–3 hoursPublic sailings are ticketed at a modest per-person rate, with reduced rates for children. Private charters are priced separately.
Marina
Free
Biloxi Small Craft Harbor
A working harbour of trawlers and charter boats on the Sound side, best at dawn when they leave and at four when they come back.
0.5–1.5 hoursFree to walk and watch. Boat trips, charters, fuel, ice and ramp use are charged by the operators.
Neighbourhood
Free
Point Cadet
The headland where the canneries stood for a century and where Mississippi's coastal casino era began in 1992.
1–3 hoursFree to walk. The museum and the schooner sailings are ticketed separately.
Nature preserve
Free
Deer Island
Four hundred acres of state-owned pine and marsh a short paddle off the beach road, with no ferry, no dock and nothing built on it.
2–5 hoursFree. The cost is the boat.
Water feature
Free
Back Bay of Biloxi
The sheltered estuary behind the peninsula, where the shrimp grow up and the fleet goes to hide from hurricanes.
0.5–4 hoursFree. Public ramps, bridges and shoreline access cost nothing, though some ramps may charge for launching.

Straight answers

Questions people actually ask

What boat tours are there in Biloxi?

A short list, and an unusual one. Two replica two-masted oyster schooners sail seasonally from the maritime museum's pier on the beach road. A working boat runs a seventy-minute shrimping demonstration with a real trawl net. Small operators and charters run Back Bay and bayou trips. The Ship Island ferry from Gulfport is transport rather than a tour but puts you on the water longest of all.

How much do boat tours cost in Biloxi?

Less than most of the Gulf coast, because nothing has to run far. The shrimping trip has been advertised at around thirty dollars for ages four and up, with under-threes free alongside a paying adult. Schooner sails sit in a comparable band. Private charters are priced by the boat and run into the hundreds. Check current fares directly with the operator, since published figures move each season.

Can you sail on the Biloxi schooners?

Yes, when they are sailing. The Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum operates two replicas of the historic Biloxi oyster schooners, the Glenn L. Swetman and the Mike Sekul, from its schooner pier on the beach road. Public sails are seasonal and weather-dependent rather than daily, and passengers are usually invited to help work the boat. Check the museum's current sailing schedule before planning a day around it.

Is the Biloxi shrimping trip worth it with kids?

It is the best seventy minutes on this coast with children. A sixteen-foot trawl net comes up on deck and everything in it goes into a tank to be handled and named before it goes back: shrimp, blue crab, croaker, squid, small flounder, sometimes a baby shark. It is short enough for a small attention span and it explains an entire industry better than any exhibit.

Are there dolphin cruises in Biloxi?

Not as a dedicated product in the way there are further east. Bottlenose dolphins are common in the Mississippi Sound and the passes, and most people see them from the Ship Island ferry crossing or from a shrimping or harbour trip rather than from a boat built to find them. Our dolphin tours page explains where the animals actually are and how to see them without paying anything.

Do boat tours in Biloxi go out into the Gulf?

Almost never. Everything sails in protected water: the Mississippi Sound inside the barrier islands, Biloxi Bay and the Back Bay. Genuine open Gulf is beyond the islands, ten to twelve miles out, and reaching it is an offshore charter rather than a sightseeing trip. That sheltered water is why trips here are short, inexpensive and comfortable for people who do not normally enjoy boats.

When is the boat tour season in Biloxi?

Broadly March to October. Schooner sailings and small-operator trips thin out or stop over winter, when demand falls away and seasonal crews move on, even though the water itself is usually calm. Summer trips are best taken early in the day before thunderstorms build inland, and September carries real hurricane-season cancellation risk. Spring and October are the most reliable months.