Tour and snorkel, not shopping?

We will be visiting St Thomas in November - on a day with five ships scheduled to be in port. Since we have never been there before, I thought it would be fun to hire a taxi/tour guide to explore the Island for a bit, and then spend some time on one of the beaches where we could rent snorkeling equipment. Many of the tours seem to focus on shopping - not a high priority for us. Any taxi/tour guide recommendations from those of you who are familiar with St. Thomas?

Thanks

If you feel comfortable snorkeling, you can rent snorkeling equipment at most beaches. The best snorkeling beaches are Coki, Secret Harbor, and Sapphire. Taxis at the dock will take you for approximately $10-12 per person each way. These beaches all have chair rentals and food and drink in addition to snorkel rental.

We will be visiting St Thomas in November - on a day with five ships scheduled to be in port. Since we have never been there before, I thought it would be fun to hire a taxi/tour guide to explore the Island for a bit, and then spend some time on one of the beaches where we could rent snorkeling equipment. Many of the tours seem to focus on shopping - not a high priority for us. Any taxi/tour guide recommendations from those of you who are familiar with St. Thomas?

Thanks

We enjoyed the company of Stanley Coram, he was working at the Secret Harbour Resort at the time and providing tours too. He tailored a private tour to what we wanted to see and threw in other spots we were happy to see. He can include a beach/lunch stop if you want that and his rates are reasonable. You have to specify you want a private tour as he also provides group tours.

Call him directly to see if he is still available.

(340) 690-4544

Have also seen recommendations for but have not used Deans Taxi (http://www.deanstaxi.com).

This February we used Island Buddy, http://www.islandbuddy.net/

They will take you around the island in Jeep Wranglers and will customize the day just for you. Duncan the owner is great. The snorkeling was awesome and we were able to feed the fish right from our hands. It was a really cool experience.

We hit a couple of snorkeling spots and then he took us to this restaurant/bar/ private beach that you can only access via off-roading or by boat. It was a great day. On the way back to the ship we stop at some lookouts. I just contacted Duncan about our upcoming cruise and we are looking forward to another great day.

Here are some pictures from our day. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showp...4&postcount=16