Which port to snorkel at?

Hi.

We are on the Carnival Liberty Nov 28th. 2 adults, 2 kids (who are capable swimmers?). Where's our best port to go snorkelling? We stop at Grand Turk, St Thomas, San Juan and St. Maarten.

I was thinking of doing Trunk Bay on St John, but we are in St Thomas from 1 to 9. It wouldn't leave a lot of daylight once we got there so are we better off spending more time at a place like Coki or Sapphire?

Thanks.

Gumby,

I've snorkeled at Sapphire. Nice beach but a bit lacking in coral/fish. I've heard Coki is better. The threads here say go to the right once entering the water and it is supposed to be good.

Grand Turk is supposed to be nice snorkeling too. There is a ridge drop-off called "The Wall". Haven't been yet but will go when we get to GT.

San Juan and St Martin are not good snorkel sights.

Best I've had so far is in the Western Carib at Belize and Roatan. Am going to Bonaire in the winter and that is supposed to be one of the best as well.

Steve

Definitely head to Coki Beach in St Thomas. The snorkeling right from the beach, in fairly shallow water, is simply amazing. Check out my full review of our day there a few months ago. It's listed in my signature line and has TONS of pictures and you will be able to see what Coki has to offer. It had some of the most beautiful colored coral I have seen so far. :)

Definitely head to Coki Beach in St Thomas. The snorkeling right from the beach, in fairly shallow water, is simply amazing. Check out my full review of our day there a few months ago. It's listed in my signature line and has TONS of pictures and you will be able to see what Coki has to offer. It had some of the most beautiful colored coral I have seen so far. :)

Glad to hear that, I follow their pics on Facebook and hope to give it a try sometime. I probably would have went in 2013, but my wife doesn't dive and I couldn't get anyone to stay on the beach with her.

In Curacao we've often gone to Playa Porto Marie. A beautiful beach with a nice off shore reef that gets fairly deep. We just snorkel but have seen divers entering from shore and seen them below us when snorkeling in deeper water. There is a dive shop there as well which rents equipment and might provide other services you need.

http://www.playaportomari.com/to-do/scuba-diving/

Hi.

We are on the Carnival Liberty Nov 28th. 2 adults, 2 kids (who are capable swimmers?). Where's our best port to go snorkelling? We stop at Grand Turk, St Thomas, San Juan and St. Maarten.

 

I was thinking of doing Trunk Bay on St John, but we are in St Thomas from 1 to 9. It wouldn't leave a lot of daylight once we got there so are we better off spending more time at a place like Coki or Sapphire?

 

Thanks.

Forget San Juan. It's a long way to a beach and long way to good snorkeling.

As others said, Coki Beach at St. Thomas. You'll need to take the open air taxi to get there, and may have to wait for it to fill up. Lots of fish, and sometimes you can see thousands of those really little fish in schools. There're vendors there that'll rent beach loungers for a small fee.

In Grand Turk, some people stay at the beach right by the pier. It gets very crowded and people kick up sand, to make the water murky. I would go somewhere else. G Turk is great for diving. There are also good snorkeling places. If you want to take a boat snorkeling tour, it's on the expensive side like $40+/p and may require minimum 4 to go out.

Just for the record, you don't have to wait for the open-air taxi to fill up. You can catch a cab that will take you there just as easily. If there are none right at the cruise port, you can go past the shopping center and pick one up there.

Just for the record, you don't have to wait for the open-air taxi to fill up. You can catch a cab that will take you there just as easily. If there are none right at the cruise port, you can go past the shopping center and pick one up there.

It's not up to you whether the taxi driver will go or not. If they want to wait for more people before leaving, you can wait, or don't take taxi. Can always rent a car, but that's expensive and need to drive "not on the right" side of the road.

In Curacao we've often gone to Playa Porto Marie. A beautiful beach with a nice off shore reef that gets fairly deep. We just snorkel but have seen divers entering from shore and seen them below us when snorkeling in deeper water. There is a dive shop there as well which rents equipment and might provide other services you need.

 

http://www.playaportomari.com/to-do/scuba-diving/

Re-reading this thread and see you were asking about snorkeling and not Scuba. Well, Porto Mari has great snorkeling. There is nice snorkeling over some rocky areas very close to shore, some artificial reef balls in the sandy areas close to shore, and over the reef which is out a little ways but a little deeper. A great spot for snorkeling from shore. The beach is sandy and beautiful but right a long the shoreline it is rocky from old coral. I'd recommend some sort of water shoe for entry into the water. For snorkeling wear your full foot fins in or just enter off a small dock right into the water. Photos click here, here or here.

Just for the record, you don't have to wait for the open-air taxi to fill up. You can catch a cab that will take you there just as easily. If there are none right at the cruise port, you can go past the shopping center and pick one up there.

Our experience in St. Thomas is that the taxi's will not leave, especially for popular destinations, unless they are full or you have a large enough group to almost fill it (6 or more). Just about all the taxis are good sized vans and even on land trips we've taken there the drivers will pick up other passengers for multiple destinations. A driver once told us it is common practice there and a necessity to reduce traffic and make the drives economical because the price of gas is so high. Rates are per person.

The absolute best times we've had snorkeling during a cruise stop in St. Thomas has been on day sails on the small sail boats that run mostly out of the marinia near Red Hook. These hold a max of 6 passengers plus a crew of two and the standard day sail sails to St. John and settles into a small bay for snorkeling and lunch on the boat afterwards, then either another snorkeling stop or scenic sailing before heading back that afternoon. They'll modify the trip however you like and if the Captain feels snorkeling conditions will be better elsewhere that day they'll head to another spot. There are quite a few independent operators and many are recommended in the St. Thomas port of call forum here. My favorite is the Rumbaba.