Best island to snorkle

If we picked our itinerary solely on the best place to snorkel and/or dive, which islands in the Caribbean should we pick?

Wow, what and order:

I think Princess Cays has some great snorkeling at the Off Shore Pavilion .... be their early.

Coki Beach on St. Thomas is terrific, just move to the right after you enter the water and snorkel toward Coral World.

Trunk Bay on St. John is supposed to be good but the day we went over the water was very cloudy from wind and waves stirring up the white coral sand.

Eden Rock on Grand Cayman is excellent on a nice day and an easy walk from the tender quay.

Boca Catalina on Aruba is very good, it has white coral sand but if you get there early and move to the right after entering the water it tends to clear up.

Grand Turk is very good, I would stay away from Princess's vendor and try Blue Water Divers, the Wall is a very interesting experience.

Bonaire is supposed to be excellent but have only been there once and just toured with Dudette.

After 3 tries I have yet to find anything really worthwhile on St. Kitts.

St Lucia - I had a great day of snorkeling with Island Divers at Ti Kaye Village.

Barbados - this is my favourite island in the Caribbean but the whole scene at Carlisle Beach is not conducive to good snorkeling. I much prefer going with one of the operators off Folkstone Beach.

Tough question and it does really depend on whether you want to snorkel off a beach, a boat, or SCUBA. For SCUBA (if you are certified) it is hard to beat Grand Cayman or Bonaire. Snorkeling is tough since a lot depends on the sea conditions. But we think doing a "drift snorkel" in Bonaire (this is done in the slot between Bonaire and Klein Bonaire) is about as good as it gets, with little effort. And we recommend a boat called the Woodwind (you can Google it) which is run by a wonderful lady (Dee). Some also would argue for St Johns (you get there from St Thomas) although we think that the popular reefs have been ruined.

Hank

The reefs around Belize are great, but you need to do an organized excursion, either ship tour or independent operator. It' a long swim ;)

Thanks for the input. Diving is for a certified diver. Were thinking more of an organized tour to a good spot, rather than just off the beach. I had heard that both Grand Cayman and Belize were good. Probably going to have to be Western Caribbean this time.

In Belize and Roatan there are excursions that take you to the Barrier Reef (2nd largest in the world). The snorkeling is awesome! :)

Bonaire also has amazing snorkeling! :)

If you have a port stop in Tortola, take a snorkel excursion to Norman's Island for some interesting snorkeling and a lovely sail! :)

LuLu

It really surprised us, but we experienced some great snorkeling in Jamaica.

My OH loved Champagne Reef at Dominica.

In addition to all the great suggestions above, I can add Grenada. The Underwater Sculpture Park is quite simply amazing and a completely different snorkel/scuba experience! :cool:

The ABC islands Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao- in our experience.