Stingray City or day at the beach for family with young, new snorkelers

[losbun]

I was going to post this in reply to the 7 mile beach thread but then I thought it might be too hijack-ey :D.

 

We're a family of five, my husband and I dove before kids, my daughter is a competitive swimmer but my 8 & 10 yo boys are not that strong of swimmers. None of the kids have snorkeled before although we did get all of them snorkel sets for Christmas.

 

Anyway, I go back and forth about doing the stingrays. From what I've seen my husband and I are both "meh" on it. Yeah petting stingrays would be cool but at a minimum it's three hours and the snorkeling doesn't seem very exciting and then times the cost by five people. But several people have told me it's can't miss for the kids. So we could do that first thing and still spend an hour or so at 7 mile beach.

 

Or I was thinking that since it was our first stop, it might be better to just stay at the beach and let the kids get the hang of snorkeling in the ocean. With this plan it sounds like Cemetary Beach would be our best bet and then after we've snorkeled wander down to Calico Jacks.

 

So any advice, thoughts and opinions of how to spend the day in GC would be appreciated please and thank you :).

[cb at sea]

I'm not sure what the attraction of snorkeling is....the water is so clear, there's no need to put your face in it! Oh well....

 

The stingray thing is expensive....if the kids are ok with a beach day, it will cost a LOT less!

[BigDaddyCVO]

Have you considered the turtle farm? They have a man made beach and lagoon stocked w/ turtles and fish for snorkeling. The turtle farm also has a decent size pool and food/beverages. My 7 y/o (at the time) son enjoyed interacting with the sea turtles and other exhibits before the pool and snorkeling. We would have stayed at the turtle farm all day if we know more about it before going, but had other plans and had to leave early afternoon.

[Fergus]

Do the stingrays! Your kids will LOVE it and who knows if you'll ever have they opportunity to do it again - it really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!