Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Maarten snorkeling

[Z-Bird]

We will be on the Reflection in March 2018 with stops in Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten. We'd like to pick 3 of these islands for snorkel boat trips and wondered what others' experiences were with snorkeling at these locations? Which ones do you think offer the best snorkeling in terms of variety and quantity of sea life that moderately experienced snorkelers could see? Any particular spots you'd recommend? Thank you for all feedback.

[Grandmaanne7]

We haven't snorkelled on the other three islands but have done it twice in Barbados. Both were good but our favourite was Calabaza. A full day on a beautiful catamaran with wonderful snorkeling with turtles and over wrecks. Amazing hosts and food and the best rum punch I have ever tasted!

 

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[verodoodle]

Barbados--one word. Calabaza.

http://sailcalabaza.com/

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Gail :)

[trishkri]

Barbados--one word. Calabaza.

 

http://sailcalabaza.com/

 

 

 

Have a great cruise.

 

 

 

Gail :)

 

 

Book right away. They were booked up during my Jan '18 cruise a couple of months ago when I checked.

 

 

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[Turtles06]

OP: the Ports of Call/Caribbean forum is a really good place to find a great deal of info about these islands (including good places to snorkel), and to ask questions.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[Z-Bird]

Calabaza was the first booking we made.

 

Thank you for reinforcing that choice :D

 

But we are also curious about how the snorkeling is on the other islands we will be visiting. Any thoughts?

[Z-Bird]

The ports of call board is an excellent source of info on each individual island. The reason I started this thread was to ask for feedback on how these varies ports compared to each other in terms of snorkeling, which the ports of call board doesn't really lend itself to. I appreciate specific tour recommendations but recognize that I can find those elsewhere. It is the comparison info I really am asking about. Thanks.

[NemoCrownie]

St Lucia is excellent snorkeling - between the Pitons at the Marine Reserve, most excursions go there but not all have snorkel gear.

 

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[bigbeergut]

Given that list of islands, I would eliminate St Maarten. It is fair at best. We've been there a few times and did not find a huge variety of fish, interesting wrecks (perhaps a stray cannon) or much coral. Mainly small fish around boulders.

 

Good Luck

[Z-Bird]

Thank you - St Maarten is the only one of these 4 ports that we have previously been to. We did an excellent speedboat excursion there but the snorkeling wasn't the best. It was a windy and cloudy day so wasn't sure if we had simply gotten the wrong impression based on that one experience.

[tfg]

I would eliminate Antigua as the sea is very milky.we did captain bob in st maarteen and calabaza in barbados

 

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[SnorkelMoose]

I haven't been to St. Lucia in years, but I remember the snorkeling experience being one of the best I've ever had. Definitely give it a shot.

 

I also recall an odd encounter with a gentleman who actually rowed his small boat out to our parked catamaran and tried to sell his collection of conch shells. He wasn't pushy or anything, but wow--talk about going the extra mile (literally) to find customers!

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

 

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[steve ch]

I would eliminate Antigua as the sea is very milky.we did captain bob in st maarteen and calabaza in barbados

 

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1. The milky water is usually around the Jolly Beach area, no good for snorkelling from the beach. For this, I recommend looking at the excursions offered by Adventure Antigua.
   

[Z-Bird]

Really appreciate this feedback in helping us narrow down which islands to focus on for snorkeling. So far it sounds like Barbados and St. Lucia are the top 2 keepers. Still deciding if we will drop St. Maarten or Antigua from our snorkeling schedule.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

I would skip St Marten for snorkeling as others have said. Just not a lot of fish. We were in Antiqua after about 3 days of rain so the water was pretty murky so not a good experience for us. I've had a different experience at St. Lucia than what has been reported here. We took a ship's excursion to snorkel under the Pitons. They hearded us into a very small area, lots of kicking and bumping, not a lot of things to see except a school of stinging jelly fish. It actually was one of worst snorkel experiences and excursions we have been on. They stop at a beach but tell you to stay to one side but you don't really have to. It wasn't a private beach. I've seen pictures from others that make it look quite lovely. We just didn't have a good experience. We haven't snorkeled in Barbados but we had a fantastic beach day and the water was just beautiful so I think Barbados is your best bet.

[sanger727]

We did the xtreme circumnavigation tour with adventure Antigua. Hands down the best tour we have ever taken in the Caribbean. Way better than Capt bob in st Martin. While there are a couple snorkel spots it's not serious snorkeling with great water but the island is beautiful

 

 

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[aquidneck1]

We went to St. Martin and then to Pinel Island for the day. At Pinel Island, they are creating a marine reserve on the right side of the beachfront as you face the Yellow Beach Bar from the water.