7 destinations - which to choose for snorkeling?

[german89]

Hey there!

 

We'll be on our first Caribbean cruise and decided to snorkel at about 3 of them. Which would you recommend for the best snorkeling experience? Which is the best place to snorkel with wildlife?

 

• Philipsburg, St. Maarten
  
• Castries, St. Lucia
  
• Bridgetown, Barbados
  
• St. George's, Grenada
  
• Scarborough, Tobago
  
• Roseau, Dominica
  
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
  

Thanks you very much!

[german89]

Hey there!

 

We'll be on our first Caribbean cruise and decided to snorkel at about 3 of them. Which would you recommend for the best snorkeling experience? Which is the best place to snorkel with wildlife?

 

• Philipsburg, St. Maarten
  
• Castries, St. Lucia
  
• Bridgetown, Barbados
  
• St. George's, Grenada
  
• Scarborough, Tobago
  
• Roseau, Dominica
  
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
  

Thanks you very much!

[Cruzin-K]

Hey there!

 

We'll be on our first Caribbean cruise and decided to snorkel at about 3 of them. Which would you recommend for the best snorkeling experience? Which is the best place to snorkel with wildlife?

 

• Philipsburg, St. Maarten
  
• Castries, St. Lucia
  
• Bridgetown, Barbados
  
• St. George's, Grenada
  
• Scarborough, Tobago
  
• Roseau, Dominica
  
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
  

Thanks you very much!

 

I can't comment on the others, but Barbados has wonderful snorkeling (with or without turtles :D)

[pythia]

I recently had the same dilemma:

 

Roseau, Dominica - The Champagne Reef is worth checking out - lots of wildlife (I went back through my photos and found an octopus!) - but the big attraction is the bubbles.

 

Philipsburg, St. Maarten - There were a lot of fish (and I got a little too close to an eel for comfort) but the water clarity wasn't great; then again, they were between hurricanes...

[Lsimon]

St. Lucia has some decent snorkeling but it is some distance from the ship and you'll need to arrange an excursion. We've been twice once was a bit cloudy and once was nice.

 

St. Maarten is known for beaches more than snorkeling. We've never gone snorkeling there.

 

Barbados - Our favorite excursion at Barbados is one of the day sails that go to the area where you swim with the turtles and then snorkel at a nearby reef & wreck. Snorkeling there varies from Ok in cloudy conditions to fantastic when water is clearer. The Silver Moon private excursion day sail is fantastic and you'll love the boat ride, lunch and the before and after even if the conditions are terrible for snorkeling.

 

Tobago - never been

 

Dominica - never snorkeled there but have only heard great things about Champagne reef

 

St. Thomas - On of my favorite snorkeling locations but the best snorkeling is over by St. John or an excursion to one of the tiny islands in the area. A fantastic excursion is a day sail on a sailboat like the Rumbaba which does a lunch sail from St. Thomas. They'll do a nice sail, one or two snorkeling stops and lunch. They usually go to a nice cove off of St. John with great snorkeling but they'll vary their destination if the conditions in one place won't be good so unless it is a big storm they'll find you nice snorkeling conditions. There are similar operators and running similar excursions all take a maximum of 6 passengers. Google Rumbaba or St. Thomas Day Sail to find them.

 

Grenada - we've never had fantastic snorkeling there but none the less some enjoyable beach days by an area with decent snorkeling - magazine beach - have a taxi drive you to the Aquarium restaurant and hang out on the beach in front. On our last trip there we did a ship's excursion the Shadowfax Champagne and Lobster cruise that took us to an area with deep reefs and submerged statues for some just OK snorkeling but then a nice sail to a beach where they served a fantastic lunch of grilled Caribbean lobster.

[Mommy2mo26]

We just came back from a 7 day Southern Carib cruise w/RCI, and our favorite island for Snorkeling was Barbados. We booked with Captain Jason O'Neil from Shasa Catamaran, and he and his wife Tess are both wonderful. The excursion itself was by far the best snorkel trip we have taken. We snorkled both with the turtles and over a reef. Captain Jason fed the turtles and the fish at both locations which made it all the more interesting. We saw an absolute ton of fish and a large number of turtles. Jason was very informative both with regards to the marine life as well as the island itself. We did the 3 hour tour and were wishing at the end that we had booked the 5hr instead!!! Highly recommended tour for anyone visiting Barbados!!

[german89]

Thanks for your answers! Started planning this week and only got Dominica ready yet. Organized a nature tour ending with a snorkeling trip at Champagne reef. I'll get back to this thread as soon as I get to the other stops.

 

Barbados seems to be very nice for snorkeling, so will include that. St. Maarten will surely be a beach day to catch some planes and maybe some shopping before. No plans for the other destinations so far.

 

So again, thanks for your advice :)