answer:Canoes tend to be a bit more flat-bottomed. While you may think that’d help in shallow water it actually doesn’t. In order to control a canoe with any real degree of directional stability, you pretty much need to have two people in it, and that added weight will push the boat down into the water enough to reduce/negate the shallow draft advantage of a flatter bottom. Kayaks do better at the whole turning thing, and since they can be easily controlled by one person, they don’t have a terribly deep draft despite the hull being a little more V-shaped. Also, kayaks tend to be considerably narrower. If you wind up ever carrying (or even lifting) the boat, a kayak is a bit easier there as well. What are canoes good for then? Well, they can carry more stuff, so if you plan on camping your way down a river, the canoe is a bit better. Kayaks generally have no cargo capacity to speak of, and those that can carry stuff are limited to about a couple of small backpacks while a canoe can carry considerably more.