We’ve had and used both of your different choices quite a bit over the past 40 years …
So, some misc thoughts/pts based on our experiences:
How would you be Vehicle
Transporting your boat?
Some cheaper brands of canoes can be awfully heavy to load up on a high roofed rig. Some kayaks long enough for three, the same.
Transporting from car to water, I’d say the same. Inflatable or folding kayaks might be easier to transport in both circumstances.
Self rescue if you capsize is might be easier in a canoe (although takes more work to bail it). Stay away from ridiculously tippy canoes like the older poly Colemans. With a youngster on board you might try adding outriggers for stability. Inflatable family sized kayaks are less tippy and much easier to climb back into if flipped, and self bailing rigs more easy to rid of water.
Someone mentioned the
Sportspal canoes. I definitely second that great recommendation if you go the canoe route. These are very lightweight for their size, have foam insulation on the inside that helps reduce the bite of cold water transfer which otherwise makes passengers uncomfortable and helps floatation once tipped, and have built in side sponsons/floats to better stabilize the craft. These are wonderful play boats.
If you can find an old
Folbot, these skin or aluminum frame hybrids fold for easy transport and storage, are deep bodied and high sided (very hard to tip, you can even stand up in them) and carry a large volume and weight of people/ gear.
Skin on frame Folbot out in the Georgia Strait, in some very calm water off of northern Vancouver Island
(Sorry for blurry pic)
Advanced Elements inflatable double kayak easily going against the current of a PNW river. We’ve confidently paddled this in the Pacific Ocean and the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River.