Snorkeling in Grand Turks

[flcruisencrazy]

Our cruise in a few weeks stops at Grand Turk. We have our own snorkel gear and will be taking it and wanted to know if you can snorkel "The Wall" at Grand Turk from the beach without doing the excursion from the ship and if so, where is the best place to enter from the beach?

[mechcc]

You really cannot do it from the beach unless you are an Olympian Long Distance Swimmer. While "The Wall" is close to the shoreline of Grand Turk, it is not within a 100 yards or so of the shoreline. Plus you want to be right on the edge of the wall to get the full effect. The ship's tour or a private tour will take you to that exact location.

 

That said, it is a great experience to take the ship's tour or a private tour. Did it once on a HAL cruise and along with "The Wall" we went to another area to snorkel and saw a nurse shark and a barracuda. One of the best snorkel trips ever.

[kcdancerkc]

Ditto - we did the ship snorkel and got some amazzzzing photos and videos of so much sea life and coral

[cyntil8ing]

We've booked a snorkel only tour with Blue Water Divers in Grand Turk next week - http://grandturkscuba.com/. Tripadvisor ratings are excellent.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147397-d150113-Reviews-Blue_Water_Divers-Cockburn_Town_Grand_Turk_Turks_and_Caicos.html

[ThisFemmeKat]

we loved snorkeling in grand turk and have our own gear too.. we went on the stingray excursion through carnival and used our gear on their tour and it was awesome. I will do it again easily.

[42go]

We were just in Grand Turk, and the day we were there all of the beaches on the west side of island were experiencing heavy surf, so there would have been no visibility for snorkeling. We walked from the cruise ship with our gear to the south side of the island and around the point to White Sands Beach. It was much calmer, and there was a beautiful, healthy reef not far from shore. Several excursion boats soon brought their guests to the very same location!

[Pellaz]

As noted earlier, you'll have to pony up for an excursion to get to "THE Wall" since it isn't that close to the beach.

 

Our cruise in a few weeks stops at Grand Turk. We have our own snorkel gear and will be taking it and wanted to know if you can snorkel "The Wall" at Grand Turk from the beach without doing the excursion from the ship and if so, where is the best place to enter from the beach?

 

If you opt not to shell out the money for an excursion, there IS a small "wall" -- or drop off -- right at the barrier rope off the beach near Margaritaville, and someone has sunk a sizeable anchor and a cannon on the edge of the shelf before the dropoff, in about 12 ft.

The drop-off goes down to around 40 ft (my guesstimate; I went down to about 30 ft. and it seemed like about ten feet further down). If a ship is docked on the land side of the dock, it will be about 100 ft. further out...really close, though.

There wasn't too much aquatic life, although there was a lot more on my late-afternoon swim than there was earlier in the day.

[texancruzer]

I agree - take an excursion.

 

We did a great wall Dive while we were there with Blue Water Divers.

 

It would be really hard to tell you where to go in from even if you wanted to swim out to it. The reason being is that the wall does not go in a perfect straight line so some areas are a bit further out than others.

 

The wall begins in places at @ 18' of water and at 40' in other places. There are patches of rocky reef before the wall and before that clean sandy bottom. I will say that the wall was a GREAT dive though !!!!! It drops off to over 7000 feet so it has the Abyss appearance :eek:

[Pellaz]

I will say that the wall was a GREAT dive though !!!!! It drops off to over 7000 feet so it has the Abyss appearance :eek:

 

 

Or as one person said their snorkeling guide told them, matter-of-factly, "Do not drop anything HERE. You WON'T be getting it back." :)

[cruisinfromohio]

We contracted a boat onshore at Pillory Beach. Because we had our own gear we got a discount. Was an amazing experience! We had a blast and saw a lot of fish.

[Colorado Kat]

I've done snorkeling/diving with Grand Turk Divers before. Very nice.

 

There is also an operation called Crystal Seas Adventures. We're going snorkeling with them next week. (I've used one of Crystal Sea's Guides named Daniel Oselette before - he is terrific!)

 

Last April, we actually had a whale shark appear at the end of our dive. He stayed & played with us for over 10 min. Fantastic!

[Pmorton3360]

Would love to do the Blue Waters excursion. Really need to know what the ladder is like for the snorkel tour. I am older with a bad hip. We had one small boat in Barbados that was only three rungs and no hand rails. Was somewhat hard. We've snorkeled often and have done many ladders with no problems. Even did one with a sprained, pulled wrist. The size of the boat makes me Leary. Don't want to be a bother for the crew, but really think this may be something I don't want to miss.

[texancruzer]

Would love to do the Blue Waters excursion. Really need to know what the ladder is like for the snorkel tour. I am older with a bad hip. We had one small boat in Barbados that was only three rungs and no hand rails. Was somewhat hard. We've snorkeled often and have done many ladders with no problems. Even did one with a sprained, pulled wrist. The size of the boat makes me Leary. Don't want to be a bother for the crew, but really think this may be something I don't want to miss.

 

Since the wall is so close to shore, the boats are not large. When diving, we did a backward roll off. The ladder is not the kind you would find on a larger dive boat with a platform on back.

 

http://www.grandturkscuba.com/i/galleries/topside/beach1.jpg

 

Here is a pic from their website.

[cheyenna]

I've done snorkeling/diving with Grand Turk Divers before. Very nice.

 

There is also an operation called Crystal Seas Adventures. We're going snorkeling with them next week. (I've used one of Crystal Sea's Guides named Daniel Oselette before - he is terrific!)

 

Last April, we actually had a whale shark appear at the end of our dive. He stayed & played with us for over 10 min. Fantastic!

 

 

they also do whaling watching excusuions....trying to do that in feb since it is whale migration season past Grand turks!!

:eek:

[Colorado Kat]

they also do whaling watching excusuions....trying to do that in feb since it is whale migration season past Grand turks!!

:eek:

 

The whale watching sounds wonderful. What kind of whales usually?

 

Two weeks ago we were just motoring to our 1st snorkel spot, and found a pod of dolphins swimming along. Fantastic!

[scubacruiserx2]

We used Blue Water Divers. They are fantastic ! The blue horizon is the wall.

 

 

 

 

Beached Whales ?

 

 

[cheyenna]

The whale watching sounds wonderful. What kind of whales usually?

 

Two weeks ago we were just motoring to our 1st snorkel spot, and found a pod of dolphins swimming along. Fantastic!

 

 

the big humpback whales and their babies!!!:)

[moondoggie]

My sister and I chartered the boat from BWD in November because we couldn't find anyone else to snorkel with us the day we were in Grand Turk--worth the $$$. Even though the water was a bit cloudy from rough seas, our guide (I think his name was Nick) was excellent--showed us stuff I had never seen before.

They are very nice, and very professional--highly recommend them!

[cheyenna]

The whale watching sounds wonderful. What kind of whales usually?

 

Two weeks ago we were just motoring to our 1st snorkel spot, and found a pod of dolphins swimming along. Fantastic!

 

:D

I just booked with papa j tours for whale watching.in Grand Turk.and believe he has some opening left ...you can reach them via website or by phone 649-231-0400...his name is Dwight..his wife is Jolene,,or 649-231-6975...may call you back later in the day as they are out running tours in the day....BRING ON THE WHALES!!!!

[traveling is cool]

HI, We are cruising in November HAL...to the Turks N Cacois and would like to just sit on beach with chairs/umbrellas and maybe wade in for a little light snorkeling for a few seniors :-)

Any reccomendations for a day pass or beach, easy to get to from our ship?

thanks and counting the days :-):)

[sharks48]

Just returned from a cruise that included GT.

 

We had gone with Blue Water Divers previously and absolutely would recommend them. Had a great time, with only four snorkelers in the boat.

 

This time we wanted to try snorkeling from shore and didn't want to go far, so we went South from the pier. We went as far as the rocks sticking out of the water, when we met some snorkelers returning toward the ship. They said it was too rough beyond the rocks [and around the point to where White Sands is, which we'd read here on CC was much rougher than the area on the pier-side of the island]. We decided to just get in before the rocks, seeing other snorkelers out there. There really was nothing to see, unfortunately. We had also read here that snorkeling from shore in GT isn't great, which is what we found to be the case.

 

Next time, I would again go with BWD or perhaps Papa John, which might be easier, given no taxi is required, and they have good reviews here on CC, too.

[flygirl2]

Check out White Sands Beach Resort in Grand Turk. We booked massages with Oceanscapes Spa that's located there and can use their beach, chairs, ect...afterwards. The website says it's just past Margaritaville. I'm not sure if there's a charge to use their chairs without a massage but you may check it out. Hope to meet you on the ship! Rita