Snorkeling Roatan v Cozumel

[KrAzYGaL]

Hi,

 

I am doing a western caribbean cruise stopping in Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel, and Princess Cays. In cayman we are doing a stingray excursion and stopping coral gardens & reef. My boyfriend that I'm traveling with (snorkeled one time before in bahamas) would like to go out on a boat one more time and maybe do more snorkeling somewhere... which would be better for that Roatan or Cozumel? ....or would we just be better with snorkeling off the beach in roatan west bay and skipping a second trip on a boat? I am okay with booking an independent excursion, does not have to be with our cruise line (which is princess).

 

Thanks!

[CPT Trips]

I'm partial to Roatan . . . you might want to head over to the ports of call boards.

 

We ran into some significant current off Cozumel and found it a bit disconcerting.

[Host Star]

Roatan right from the beach..... fantastic snorkeling

 

Cozumel for decent snorkeling a boat out to the reefs

 

chankanaab park is fair but the best snorkeling in Coz is from a boat

 

and yes, there can be current at Cozumel

[RooksWS6]

+1 for Roatan. Unbelieveable snorkeling right off the beach!

 

We also snorkeled at Chankanaab. The current wasn't bad the day we were there. However, it was fairly deep for snorkeling in my opinion. We did see some reef squid which pretty much made my day. :)

[Stevesan]

Roatan has good shore snorkeling.

Unfortunately, Cozumel's near shore reefs were destroyed by Hurrican Wilma. Some of the marine life has returned, but it will take years for these reefs to recover. Having said that, the off shore reefs were left largely untouched and the reefs, Columbia, Palancar, Punta Sur for example are all excellent.

Roatan best for shore snorkeling at West Bay and better on the South Side. Fantasy Island on South side isn't far from the port and an easy DIY.

Cozumel is excellent by boat.

 

http://fantasyislandvacations.com/

[hammo]

Hi there .

We are a family of 6 who would like to have an independant day snorkelling on Roatan . It seems you can see plenty of marine life snorkeling off the shore so that would mean we could maybe tour around the island a bit and stop off at beaches that suited us rather than taking a boat excursion.? Should we hire a taxi for the time we wanted ( how much should this cost ?) or can you rent jeeps or the like to do this?

We will be snorkeling on most of our ports of call and just thought this would be a good way to have a day that we can control ourselves ? We will be on Valor for her 7 night Western Carribean and then Celebrity for 7 nights Eastern .( with a week in Orlando inbetween ).

What do you think ?

[Stevesan]

Hi there .

We are a family of 6 who would like to have an independant day snorkelling on Roatan . It seems you can see plenty of marine life snorkeling off the shore so that would mean we could maybe tour around the island a bit and stop off at beaches that suited us rather than taking a boat excursion.? Should we hire a taxi for the time we wanted ( how much should this cost ?) or can you rent jeeps or the like to do this?

We will be snorkeling on most of our ports of call and just thought this would be a good way to have a day that we can control ourselves ? We will be on Valor for her 7 night Western Carribean and then Celebrity for 7 nights Eastern .( with a week in Orlando inbetween ).

What do you think ?

 

Local tour companies offer a variety of excursions that include snorkeling. Island Marketing, is an example:

 

http://roatancruiseexcursions.com/RoatanExcursions.html

 

Visit the Roatan msg board for more options.

[Mick sunfun]

Snorkeled West bay beach in Roatan. I went to the very end of the beach and just walked in. It was awsome! I was surprised at the coral, it was pristine. I expected it to be tore up from all the people but it was not. Me and my wife walked past the taxis right at the port and got a taxi just out of "Carnival city." The driver took us to West bay (Fosters resort) and showed us where the best snorkeling was stayed with us (off a little ways) the whole time and took us back for 50 dollars. Highly recommend this!

[mitsugirly]

After a bunch of research on the port forums, this is what I have come up with:

 

 

I was told in Roatan, a place to snorkel right off the beach is at West Bay in front of Infinity Bay resort.

 

In Cozumel, everyone is saying the Money Bar is the place to go (although you have to go down these steps to get into the water of iron shore and not much of a "beach") but they say that people are booking excursions with snorkeling companies and they actually bring them to this spot...when you can do it yourself.

 

 

It's probably easier to go to the boards of the different islands that you are visiting and read up on it. Do a search for snorkeling. That's how I decided where we would be snorkeling at on our cruise at the same ports. :)

[SnorkelDude]

For us Roatan wins hands down! great snorkeling and easy access from shore. Cozumel -- especially since Hurricane Wilma -- is just so so.