Snorkeling from the beach?

[thomassophie]

Is there any good snorkeling from the beaches? We'll have 4 kids from the ages of 5-9.  Looks like all boat snorkeling tours start at $55 which I hate to pay when the kids may not be into snorkeling.  I was thinking either the beach right off the port or taking a taxi to the Divi resort at Little Bay.

[SnorkelAway]

I recommend Divi Little Bay.

[thomassophie]

Thank you... have you snorkeled from the beach there?

[SnorkelAway]

Yes, many times.  The best snorkeling is on left side of bay, looking at water.

[thomassophie]

Great!  Thank you!

[TMW67]

Does the water taxi go to the Divi resort at Little Bay?

[Russ Lomas]

1 hour ago, TMW67 said:

Does the water taxi go to the Divi resort at Little Bay?

Unfortunately the water taxi only docks at Great Bay in town.  You would have to take a cab to Little Divi.

[TMW67]

Thank you for your reply Russ Lomas.

[OCruisers]

Which other ports are on your itinerary?

It's possible one of them might offer better snorkeling.  

[caribbean2000]

We stayed at Little Divi for a week a few years ago and have visited St. Martin many times off ships. We're pretty avid snorkelers, always bring our own equipment and shorty wetsuits. Generally the snorkeling is only fair at best in most places around St. Martin, although we did take a poor boat excursion once that stopped at a very small inhabited island and the snorkeling was pretty good there. At Little Divi, yes, the best snorkeling is along the rocks to the left side of the beach. You'll see a few fish, not a lot of big ones, mostly sergeant majors, etc., the "usual suspects." We usually take the shuttle boat out to Pinel Island (which we will do next month) and although they tout their snorkeling off the far end of the left side of the beach there is very little to see and my guess is that there there will be even less after the hurricanes. In any case, it's a great beach.... just don't expect a lot of ooh-ah sights when snorkeling off any of the beaches on St. Martin.

[fscool]

I've been researching this topic probably more than any other port stop on my itinerary in July.  We are pretty experienced snorkelers but mostly for seeing fish or wildlife and don't care as much about coral, although I know that you need coral or rocks to get the wildlife.  I do get that this port is not known for particularly great snorkeling.

 

Having said that, is Divi better quality than Pinel Island & Tintamere?  

[SnorkelAway]

Tintamarre is mostly to see turtles in terms of where the boats take you.  There is snorkeling to left of the beach (facing beach from water) where the excursion boats go, but the boats rarely want you to go over that far and it is not all that good.  If you go a couple hundred yards off Pinel, heading southeast from southern most point, there is a decent reef (decent for St Martin) which we think has better snorkeling than Divi, but if sea conditions are active, then it is not for anyone not comfortable in open water swimming. Given what you say about being OK with not much coral, you might want to go to Divi if you never have before, and seeing what is there.  One other option, if you are experienced open water swimmers, is to swim over to Green Cay from Orient Beach - snorkel along north west side, north of where sand bar comes out from the island.  About one-third mile over to Green Cay from Orient Beach - have to watch for boat/jet ski traffic - not for inexperienced but if experienced not that hard with mask and fins.