Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought the intex Explorer and the intex Excursion Pro at the same time. In my opinion the Excursion Pro is worth the extra $135. The material the Excursion is made of a much heavier ruberized textile not just plastic like the Explorer. Both paddle well and I'm confident that either kayak will serve you just fine for occasional recreation. For long term durability and impression of fit and finish the Excursion is just much nicer. I haven't owned a kayak before but I've paddled a few around and I've paddled hundreds of miles in a canoe. Both kayaks track well and respond quickly to your paddling. One thing worth noting if you're planning on using the Excursion Pro for fishing. The rod holders point inward. Meaning if you put a rod in both rod holders they will literally cross. This makes the rod holders basically unusable for fishing or even transport. I added a couple Scotty rod holders to solve this problem. With a couple rail adapters they work great with the included accesory rail. I'm also not a fan of the paddle although that might just be because of my extensive canoe experience. So, I will probably just switch to a canoe paddle or maybe try a longer kayak paddle. Everything else is better than expected. The seatinging in both kayaks is pretty modular to set it up for one or two people. The seats are relatively comfortable considering that they're inflatable. The foot rests work well. The pump nozzle and the pressure guage both lock into the valves and work great (a feature lacking on the explorer). The extra seat pad included with the Excursion pro is a must have in my opinion and I'll be ordering one for the Explorer as well if intex will sell me one. All in all I'm very pleased with both. If you can afford it buy the Excursion Pro over the Explorer. The excursion just feels and looks like a much higher end kayak than the explorer. But if your budget is tight enough both kayaks paddle and handle well and either will put a smile on your face out on the water. Update 5/9/19 I added a Garmin Striker 4 fish finder mounted on a plano 1364 tackle box. The battery fits in the top of the tackle box with plenty of room to spare. I fixed the transducer to the skeg using a piece of aluminum stock and a few nuts/bolts. This thing is now a fishing machine. Also, buy an anchor or you're gonna wish you had one pretty quickly.