Snorkeling at hmc

My sister, brother and I are going to be at HMC in February 2016 and we really want to go snorkeling where there is a lot of coral and fish. I am looking at videos and seeing a lot of flat bottom with small sections of coral. Has anyone been there and recommend where we can go and snorkel where we will see a lot of coral and fish?

A quick search reveals:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2139983&highlight=snorkel+hmc

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2051784&highlight=snorkel+hmc

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1680590&highlight=snorkel+hmc

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2018756&highlight=snorkel+hmc

And MANY others.

Summary: While there is some snorkeling there, HMC is not really the place to snorkel in the Caribbean. Far better sites on other islands.

We will be visiting HMC, Dominican Republic and Grand Turk. Any suggestions?

Grand Turk might be the best place for snorkeling in the Caribbean. Take an excursion to the Wall. Awesome snorkeling. Have not snorkeled in the DR.

See we thought that would be the best place for snorkling but in February that is prime humpback migration time and in another thread there was a person who went on a whale watching excursion and they got to go in the water with the whales and we really want to do that see grrrrr now what

The interaction with whales is going to be restricted by international law. I wouldn't count on it. Whales can come to you, but you can't approach within 100 yards.

I understand that but it would still be AMAZING

If you are snorkeling from the beach there, we found the best place was over by the wall at the entrance area and up and down there (it's where the private huge cabana with the slide is located). Go around the roped off area for them and on down the wall and you'll see things. By no means is it awesome snorkeling, but we did see a lot of coral and fish. It made for a nice day.

You can find my snorkeling pictures of what we did see starting on THIS page around post number 350 if you are interested. :)

If you are snorkeling from the beach there, we found the best place was over by the wall at the entrance area and up and down there (it's where the private huge cabana with the slide is located). Go around the roped off area for them and on down the wall and you'll see things. By no means is it awesome snorkeling, but we did see a lot of coral and fish. It made for a nice day.

 

You can find my snorkeling pictures of what we did see starting on THIS page around post number 350 if you are interested. :)

OP, this is on HMC. It is mentioned in the threads I linked earlier.

We snorkeled 2 spots on Half Moon and it was pretty dead. There might be a good place on the back side of the island but we didn't find it.

The area near the pier at Grand Turk is different. There is a vertical wall where they dredged the area under the ship. It was pretty neat to snorkel out to the edge and look down. That is unless you have vertigo. You swim out over a bottom that is 15' to 20' deep and then it drops vertically to maybe a hundred feet. Pretty cool!

We snorkeled 2 spots on Half Moon and it was pretty dead. There might be a good place on the back side of the island but we didn't find it.

 

The area near the pier at Grand Turk is different. There is a vertical wall where they dredged the area under the ship. It was pretty neat to snorkel out to the edge and look down. That is unless you have vertigo. You swim out over a bottom that is 15' to 20' deep and then it drops vertically to maybe a hundred feet. Pretty cool!

If you go to the actual Wall at Grand Turk- commonly snorkeled about a mile from the ships, pretty close to shore, the drop off is measured in thousands of feet. Never seen more fish anywhere else in the Caribbean.

GO TO THE WALL! really, it is the third largest reef in the world, and it drops a staggering 7,000 feet! (Hence, the name)