Turtles, snorkeling over wrecks, catamarans all go to the same places?

We had a nice time on Shasta (sp?) the last time we visited Barbados. Saw quite a few turtles and fish over a few wrecks. The staff was very helpful.

That being said though, it looked like a parking lot with so many catamarans in the same locales.

There was a beach close to these swimming/snorkeling areas and I was thinking that we could have saved quite a bit of money by snorkeling out to the turtles from the shore and would have enjoyed sitting on the beach as well. Does anyone know the name of this beach?

Is there another place in Barbados where other catamarans go to have guests swim with the turtles and/or snorkel without the crowds?

Thank you.

Barbara

Typically, the booze cruise cats go to Carlisle Bay for the wrecks and either Carlisle or Paynes Bay for turtles.

If it's a lunch cruise, they'll generally stop at Paynes or Batts Rock for lunch.

Swimming out to the turtles from shore is pretty easy, most folks should have no trouble.

You can also find turtles at many of the south shore beaches. We used to swim with them at the reef at Rockley every morning.

Cheers, P:)

The name of the beach is Bayshore beach on Carlisle bay. Snorkeling around the wrecks at Carlisle Bay was one of the (many) highlights of our recent cruise on Emerald Princess. Though it took an age to find them. Eventually a chat with the beach lifeguard gave us a vague idea of where to look. And much swimming later we found the very spectacular wrecks.

To help find the wrecks a good tip is to start your swim adjacent to a green-roofed octagonal bandstand, and just head straight out to sea for 200yds (the bandstand is about 100yards south of the intersection between Bay St and Beckles Road, and you can just about see it on google maps in satellite mode).

I'm also attaching a map of the wrecks (discovered since returning home) from http://www.divebarbadosblue.com/snorkeling/shipwrecks/. The bandstand's located on the RHS of the 600ft line).

Are turtles a definite at Carlisle Bay? I really want to check turtles off of my bucket list!

You're pretty much guaranteed to see turtles at Carlisle Bay, especially when the catamaran tours arrive (usually around 9:30-10:00).

Cheers, P:)