Long Bay Beach - Snorkeling - Antigua - Need all info you have please

How far is Long Bay BEach from the cruise ship pier?

What are the taxi rates to get there?

Is the snorkeling good?

Please tell me everything you know!!!:D

We need some help with this one.

anamarieus - I am also a Cruiseroo, and although I have not been to Long Bay, I have been researching it on these informative boards. I found this link for the Antigua taxi fares http://www.antigua-barbuda.org/Official%20Taxi%20Fares%20%20Dec%201%20%202005.pdf Most reviews say it is about 35 minutes from the pier. Have you done a search yet in the Ports of Call - Antigua forum? Just "search this forum" and enter Long Bay snorkeling and you will get lots of info. It appears to be right by Pineapple Resort, so read those threads to get more info even if you are not going to that resort for the day. Some say snorkeling is good while others say not so good.

This was posted originally by ming:

"The snorkeling at Long Bay is good to very good.

If you go into the water on the right side of the beach (facing the water) and swim out perhaps 100’, you’ll run into the beginning of a shallow reef.

Continuing out perhaps 250-400’ from the beach you’ll encounter deeper parts of the reef that go down 150’ from the surface.

It’s quite a shock to be snorkeling with the reef almost hitting your fins and then looking 150’ down!

Usually, the best snorkeling is found at Paradise Reef, North of Dickenson Bay, but you’ll need a boatlift to get there.

However, for convenience, you can’t beat Long Bay."

Here is a recent link to a thread about Long Bay:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=471750

This was posted by SolidGoldCruiser:

"I forgot to address your question about Long Bay. It's a beautiful beach and calm. If you snorkel, you will have to swim out a ways to the reef, but it's worth it. I saw my first octopus.

Long Bay is on the opposite side of the island from the port. We used the public part of the beach. On one side of us was the family-owned Long Bay Resort (so beautiful) and down at the other end was the Pineapple (some on our cruise purchased a day pass and had a great time there). I can't reccommend Gordan from BeachRunners enough. He was waiting for us at 8:45 (as requested) and drove us immediately over to the beach for the morning. At 12:30 (right on the dot) he picked us up and gave us an informative tour as we drove back to the port. We made a few stops, including Devil's Bridge. All in all, it was a very relaxing day."

Hope this info helps.:) We haven't decided yet if we will go there while in Antigua. Trish Traveler

Thank you so much, Trish! I cannot believe that this cruise is almost upon us!!! :D:D

We were in Antigua in February and ended up at long bay to do some snorkelling in the afternoon. We rented a car and went there ourselves and the drive took us about 30 minutes or so. The beach is really sandy, so in places the visibility wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't bad for the most part. The water was shallow when we were there (don't know about the tides at the time) and so it was a little trickey getting out to the reefs. To get there, you had to swim through a series of little crevases in the coral, usually with only a few inches of clearance, so if you are afraid of getting too close to coral it might not be fun. We did eventually find a nice stretch of reef however and we did see some pretty neat fish in the end - including our first octopus. Unfortunately, most of the reef that we saw seemed to be dead, so don't expect much coral. It seemed like the reef went out pretty far, but we stayed closer to shore due to our lack of knoweldge about the currents and such: so if you are really adventurous and/or experienced you might see more than we did!

On the whole, the snorkelling wasn't the best I've ever done, but it was pretty good. On a day when the wind is up I'd imagine it would be a bust though, with all of the sand that could be kicked up.

Hope that helps!

anamarieus- We are just back from Long Bay on 4/5/07. The beach is approx. 1/2 hour from the pier and it cost us $32.00 for 4 of us each way. On the way there we were put with a group from our ship. It was a large, clean, comfortable bus. He also gave us a nice little tour on the way to the beach. We could not stay til pick up time so we left in a broken down, dirty minivan. The backseat was broken and we kept knocking against the back hatch. Both taxis cost the same. Back to the beach- we had a great time at the beach. It was beautiful but a little crowded. We did not snorkle but alot of people were. We paid $35.oo to rent 2 chairs and a large umbrella. Smaller ones cost less. The guy also asked for his tip when giving us the price. There is a little restaurant. We did not get food. Just a soda and a beer. I'm not sure what my DH paid. We would go back to this same beach again. Hope this helps and enjoy your trip.

Thanks for all your info! DH and I ended up going to Long Bay this past week in Antigua while the rest of our group went next door to Pineapple Beach Resort.

Well, I am happy to report that it was one of the coolest reefs I have ever been to - the reef extended very far out!!! So far out, I stuck my head out of the water only to see the shore very very very far away. It was a challenge to swimt back to shore- being careful not to panic and remembering to breathe!

I definitely recommend Long Bay Beach for snorkelers! I saw all kinds of cool wildlife.

Thank you very much