Best Place To Snorkel???

[momofslg]

We are going on The Adventure in October 2006, Our islands are Aruba, Curacao, ST.Maarten, and St.Thomas. We would like to snorkel as much as possible (hopefully every island).If there is no good snorkeling on a particular island please let me know (don't want to waste time). Does anyone have any recomendations for private tours on any of these islands? We would like to get away from the big crowds. Thanks for your help.

[swkittrell]

We snorkled at Baby Beach on Aruba and had a ball. It is a man made area I think it was Shell while they were there that was made for families of workers. Scuba divers went through an opening where it was deeper and saw and octopus and a babcuda while we were snorkling. This was my first time snorkling and we saw a lot of very petty fish. There wasn't any waves it was calm like a pool. We took a cab and ended up taking a city bus back. We felt very safe on the bus we sat behind the bus driver and he helped us make our connections. If you take a cab you can tell him when you want to be picked up. Our cab driver told us there would be cabs to take us back and we did not see any. You can rent your snorkle equipment at a snack bar. They had little hut type shelters on the beach if you wanted to get out of the sun for a while.

[10X]

Our favorite spot in Aruba is DePalm Island. Be sure to place a bet on the crab race, you might win a T-shirt.

 

In Curacao, it's Caracas Bay. It isn't always called that on tour descriptions, but they generally refer to a sunken tugboat, and that's it. I've also heard good reports from people sailing and snorkeling on the "Bounty".

 

Sr. Maarten isn't known for its snorkeling, but the best is probably at Pinel Island.

 

There are two great spots on St. Thomas; Buck Island and Coki Beach, of which I prefer Buck Island. A lot of people rave about Trunk Bay on St. John, but I thought the snorkeling was poor at best.

[AlexsDogPound]

Just went to Coki Beach three weeks ago. It was awesome, there are nice rock formations on both sides of the beach and be sure to go around to the other side near Coral World. There were very nice vendors right there for chairs, umbrellas, and snorkeling equipment if you need that. If you are into Scuba, they have equipment there also. Fresh water showers are also available if you want to snorkel first then go shopping. We arrived around 8:30 a.m and had the beach to ourselves. Definitely will return again.

[techdiver]

If you've got an excursion in St. Thomas to St. John take it for snorkeling. Best snorkeling we've had anywhere. Took a boat called "Doubloon" and saw more fish than anywhere.

[jagoffee]

I have snorkeled on all the islands that you mentioned except Curacao. They were all very good. My order would be Aruba (took an excursion to several shipwrecks), St. Maarten (excursion to some kind of national park, and St. Thomas (sailboat to Turtle bay). We skipped Curacao because my research indicated that it was not very good, but I have not direct experience.

 

Have a good time. If you every get an opportunity, try French Polyensia (sp). It was by far the best.

 

Have a good time.

[captNcrunch]

In St. Thomas I would recommend captian nautica tour, it is booked from the ship, they pick you up at the dock, our tour lasted 4 hours we went to 3 different spots and were in the water for most of the time. They only take a minimum number of passengers and everyone has direct access to the water so there is no waiting. This is one of the best snorkel excursions I have ever been on. You can check them out on-line.

[Pilot70D]

Our islands are Aruba, Curacao, ST.Maarten, and St.Thomas...

 

We just returned from a fourteen day cruise throughout the eastern and southern Caribbean. We snorkeled at every stop (ten of them). On Aruba we went with Jolly Pirates. They offer three different snorkel trips per day and did a really great job.

 

They take you out on a 70 ton gaff-rigged barq which is in itself a blast. They have a rope swing mounted on the starboard side and swimmers can swing off this rope after the lunch stop. Incidentally the lunch they served us was excellent. Booze and soft drinks were included in the price as is the snorkel equipment. We have our own snorkel & dive equipment so we didn't use theirs. Their provided equipment did look pretty good though.

 

Hope this is helpful.

[tpwolfe]

We snorkled at Arashi in Aruba (it is out by the California Lighthouse). There are rocks formations in the water to the left of the beach when you are facing the water. That is the best area to snorkle. If you want to save some money you can catch the public bus just outside the dock in town and get on bus 10L and it will take you out to it for $1.15 US one way or $2.00 US each round trip. This is the same place a lot of Snorkle boats drop people off at to Snorkle. The bus runs about every 1/2 hour and was very clean. They also take US dollars. We got there about 9:00 am and there was 1 other person snorkling and when we left about 11:30 am that's when all the Snorkling boat started dropping off their clients and it looked busy then. We were also on the 14 day Veendam cruise in Nov and we ranked this the third best snorkling behind Bonaire and Grand Caymans.

[DonahCBrown]

Anyone with experience diving/snorkeling on the "Islands of the Pacific Theater" cruise?

 

We are going to Guadalcanal, Rabaul, Truk, Guam, Saipan, and have a shore tour in Guadalcanal, but are looking for dive operators or snorkel day trips in the other locations. Any experiences positive or negative would be welcome!

 

Donna