Best beach for snorkeling? With tour or solo?

We have a group of 7 people interested in snorkeling during our 1-day stop during our January cruise on R.C.

We have our own gear... would you recommend signing up with a tour, or can we take a taxi to a beach on our own?

We had a group of 12 with nothing booked when we got to Curacao, when we got off the ship, there were lots of tour operators for guided city tour only, they were almost cheaper than getting a taxi to the Caracas Bay on our own. So we bargained for $15 for 2 hour tour and they dropped us off at the somewhat distant Caracas Bay for snorkel and beach activities, they picked us up as well at the agreed time for $5/person. It coust $4 to enter the bay, there is 2 restaurants, bad food and lots of activities at the beach, you can snokel to a ship wreck off the beach, lots of fishes and even the dock had lots of fishes around it, we had our own gears (we brought 4 sets, no flippers don't like them and rotated snorkeling while doing sea-doo and kayaking-good bargain, $20 for 1 hour for a 2 person kayak) This same snokeling tour is offered from Royal Carribean for $40?? per person, and we saw 2 sets of organized tours coming and going all for lot shorter time spent snorkeling than we had. The beach itself is not so nice, ugly sand and even uglier humongous oil rig smack in front of the small main beach area. Snorkeling was surprisingly better than at St. John.

Where is Caracas Bay? I can't seem to find it on any maps. It soounds like an interesting place to go.

Found an answer to my own question - here's a great map of Curacao http://www.ih.k12.oh.us/msbeauregn/map.htm

How long did it take you to get there or back (one way) to Willemstad?