Snorkeling in St. Thomas or St. Maarten

[Holly1234]

I have a cruise booked for the summer. I'd like to go snorkeling, but I'm not an avid snorkeler, in fact I've only been twice!! This may be the one and only time I have a chance to snorkel in the Caribbean....which island do you recommend? And....is there a certain company you'd recommend? I feel most comfortable booking with the cruise line directly, but I'm not completely opposed to booking outside the cruise line.

 

Any suggestions???

[Dgonza]

Never been to St Maarten. But if you decide to snorkel in St Thomas, I would recommend going to coki beach. you can do a google search for them. I would do this on your own and not through the cruiseline.

[Lsimon]

For a fantastic trip try one of the day-sails in St Thomas. I'd recommend Rumbaba but there are about a half dozen similar operators. Search through the St Thomas forum for reviews and descriptions and google Rumababa or St. Thomas Day Sail to find their websites. Expensive but great snorkeling and a real nice day.

[Loves Snorkeling]

Saphire Beach in St.Thomas was my favorite.

I took a tour with Godfried, part shopping, part site seeing then brought you to either Saphire or Megan beach. Your choice.

I did not find St.Maarten good for snorkeling.

[TRESE]

Coki Beach in St Thomas is awesome.....also, you can go to Coral World, which is right next door. They have lockers, showers, bathrooms, food and shade!! (plus exhibits, like birds, Iguanas, sharks, turtles) Its quite resonably priced and well worth paying to go in and out of during your snorkeling at Coki. We were there and a dolphins swam up and played around the snorkelers for a half hour!! Others were paying over $100 to swim with dolphins, we got to for free!!

[TRESE]

oops.....we also did it on our own. AS soon as you get off the ship, there are taxis everywhere. Just tell them your going to Coki, its only about a 15 minute ride there. When you are finished, there are plenty of taxis to take you back. It was an inexpensive day and very fun!!

[TRESE]

AND..(LOL) the snorkeling was wonderful. The reef is touching the shore, you see fish the moment your feet hit the water. If you bring boxes of cereal from the ship, the fish will literally swarm you!!! Its one of the best shore snorkeling spots i've ever been to, and we've been on 7 cruises and snorkeled everywhere we went!!

[gregeol]

Generally I've found St. Martin snorkeling very poor. On St. Thomas there is decent snorkeling a Sapphire, maybe a little better at Coki and not at all at Megans. St. John is supposed to be the best and we are going there this fall with Rumbaba, but there are others that do it as well(Highpockets, Treazzure, Discovery, and Independence). All seem to be highly recommended, so I would suggest trying one of them. The other advantage to these is that you get to go sailing also, always a plus.:D

[TRESE]

i've been to Trunk Bay on St. Johns twice...first time was excellent....second time, the water was so rough you couldnt see anything.......i guess its like that anywhere tho....

[Lsimon]

Generally I've found St. Martin snorkeling very poor. On St. Thomas there is decent snorkeling a Sapphire, maybe a little better at Coki and not at all at Megans. St. John is supposed to be the best and we are going there this fall with Rumbaba, but there are others that do it as well(Highpockets, Treazzure, Discovery, and Independence). All seem to be highly recommended, so I would suggest trying one of them. The other advantage to these is that you get to go sailing also, always a plus.:D

 

Another big advantage of the day-sails is that they can quickly change their destination if the conditions are such that snorkeling is not good in one spot or another. Rumbaba is a great choice. We've sailed them twice - most recently about four weeks ago. They usually sail to the areas on the north side of St. John for snorkeling but as we sailed over Captain Bobby pointed to some small out islands and the waves hitting them and indicated that conditions would be poor on that side of St. John (where Trunk Bay and the other popular beaches are as well) there so instead we diverted to another spot, Christmas Cove, that was really nice and where snorkeling conditions were ideal.

[rav4lady]

I have snorkeled both of these ports and found St Thomas to be a lot better for seeing different types of sea life. I saw many sea turtles, stingrays, and lots of fish with the snorkel tour from St Thomas. It was a ship sponsored tour and I can't remember the name of the tour company, but it was great! I was with Captain Alan from St Martin and although the boat trip was fun, the sites weren't near as great. I think it was Nautical Girl at St Thomas but not sure.:D