Snorkeling Better In St Thomas or St Maarten?

[mitsugirly]

Loved your photos of Sapphire Beach.

 

Thanks. It was the best day ever. :)

[Nanatopiper]

We are trying to decide on St John Beach & Snorkel Tour, or Spphire Beach & Island Tour. We have been to Coki Beach and Coral World, and would like to do something different this time around.

 

Could anyone recommend one over the other? Have read alot of negative reviews about Sapphire Beach, and some positive ones.

 

We don't port until 11 on the day we are there, and the excursion's start at 1 and 1:30, and 1 is 31/2 hours long, and the other is 4 hours long. Guess we had better change the dinner reservations either way!:eek:

 

Someone mentioned sea turtles at Sapphire Beach?

[Gizzy02]

I heard that you can rent snorkle equipment on Saphire beach.

Does anyone know if a person can just rent the vest & fins. I think were going to bring w/our own mask & snorkles.

THANSK!

[blue_water]

We spent a week at Sapphire in April, beautiful spot and I would recommend that over St John, especially for the time you have.

Sea grass with turtles and rays and there is a nice reef. We like hitting Patadise Point for a drink and the view before walking back to the ship.

 

The dive center rents alot, I think they must have vests and fins but I can't remember for sure, sorry

[bubbleboy66]

I have been snorkeling on both islands, but I must say that snorkeling on St. Maarten / St. Martin was a bit nicer. The last two times on St. Maarten we went with the Swaliga 2 Snorkeling Tour Boat Excursion, that took us to Creole Rock, Pinel Island and Tintamarre and we ( I was there with the family ) had an amazing day and great fun. A big plus was that we were back in time to make it back to the ship. I would definatly recommend this excursion to anyone that likes to snorkel when they are on St. Maarten.

 

On St. Thomas the environment looked a bit better maybe, also because I think St. Thomas is not as busy as St. Maarten is nowadays. The last time on St. Thomas we went with a company called St. Thomas Adventure Tours. Sorry i cant remember their website. And it was fun but far less professional than all the other snorkeling tours we made in the past. But maybe that is just a personal view on things.

 

Thanks for this topic it definitely reminds me of all the good times me and my family had while being on cruises to the Caribbean and all the beautiful islands in the Caribbean.