Need advice-Snorkeling or beach?

[ashton57]

We will be sailing on Horizon in December and 2 of our ports are in St. Maarten and Grand Turk. We want to book a snorkeling excursion at one and the other just a beach day at a beach close to the port. I know there is a beach right at Grand Turk port and I heard there is also Great Bay beach right at the St. Maaraten port. My question is which would be the better port to do a snorkeling excursion and which to do just a beach day? Would love some advice from those who have visited both locations. Thanks in advance for the help :)

[kcdancerkc]

Hands down better snorkeling at Grand Turk.  We are flabbergasted at those who stop there and sit at margaritaville by the ship!

 

 The beach at St Martin near the pier (which in real time, takes forever...you can walk half of it then get a water taxi the rest of the way) is okay. Any beach is a good beach away from Missouri. Lol

 But better beaches on the dutch side

 Oyster bay comes to mind

[A&Jfamily]

St. Martin is still pretty much a disaster zone.  There are few beaches open with facilities which forces everyone to Great Bay and Maho which, IMHO makes for a crowded, unpleasant experience.  For that reason, we had opted for a private catamaran sail and snorkel - which not much optimism that that snorkeling would be good as hurricanes can destroy reefs for decades.  Unfortunately, tourism is so low on the island, the company was not able to find another family to join us and they canceled it.  We ended up renting a cab for a day and touring the island to see the devastation and to do our small part to put some money into their economy.  I would highly recommend booking something through Carnival to maximize your experience here.

 

Grand Turk is one of the best places for snorkeling as just off shore there is a 4-7,000 foot drop known as the wall.  I would look into setting up a private tour here - the Carnival boats are packed, with many that have never snorkeled and it is a bit of a cluster as there is no real personal attention to get newbies up to speed.

[K&RCurt]

As the others have said Grand Turk is a world class destination for snorkeling and diving due to the great reefs and the Wall.  If you have one place to go snorkel that is THE place.

 

Beach options are limited on St. Martin now as the French side is really struggling after the Hurricane.  But any beach there is a better option than we have here in PA in December.  If we were going we would still go to Orient Beach despite the lack of facilities there as compared to what it was before the hurricanes of last year.