Baths by boat vs bus - just my opinion

[NOVACruisers]

We just got back from a cruise that stopped at Tortola. We booked the tour that took you to the Baths by boat. If you are more into snorkeling than touring the Baths, take this tour. Next time we will definitely take the bus instead. Way too much snorkeling (and there really aren't that many fish to see) vs having time to wander around the really cool Baths! Just my opinion!

[smeyer418]

We just got back from a cruise that stopped at Tortola. We booked the tour that took you to the Baths by boat. If you are more into snorkeling than touring the Baths, take this tour. Next time we will definitely take the bus instead. Way too much snorkeling (and there really aren't that many fish to see) vs having time to wander around the really cool Baths! Just my opinion!

I took the bus tour. Did they also make you walk back to the ship on the snorkle tour? The Bus tour was ok(a ferry to a taxi, a walk down a couple of hours at the Baths a walk up a taxi back and the ferry took uis right back to the ship...) The Baths are in the 1000 things to do before you kick the bucket...

[excitedtocruise]

Could you explain more on the tour by boat to the Baths. We would like to go there by boat and bypass the bus thing. I thought you just jump off the boat and swim to the Baths and walk around? I would like to do the NCL tour, and I thought that is all that it does, it sounds like maybe your excursion was different????

[TravelWorks]

Who did you book this tour through?

How far of a swim was it from the boat to the beach?

 

How long were you there for?

 

What did you pay?

 

Did you not have enough time to get out of the water?

 

Thanks in advance.

[NOVACruisers]

We booked the tour through NCL. It was $52 p/p. The tour is advertised as 3 hours - but ours was closer to 3.5 hours. It is the same Patouche tour you've read about on this board on Extreme Machine. They pulled up right next to the NCL Dawn and we boarded their boat from the ship's gangway (very convenient). They returned us to the Ferry dock which is a short (10-15 min) walk back to the ship.

 

The boat takes you to Virgin Gorda (about 45 min ride each way). They grab the closest mooring bouy and that is where you start your snorkeling. Our tour was early (we got to the Baths at about 9:00 am) so we got a close bouy (about 75 yards from the beach where the tour ends).

 

The tour guides from the ship and Patouche took us snorkling around sunken boulders and up to the first, larger beach (if you peruse this board you'll see that there are two beaches). After snorkeling for about 30-45 mins you come up on the first beach. They walk you through a small portion of the Baths. You had to carry your fins, mask and snorkel while taversing the Baths. Then we had about 45 mins to hang-out on the beach (you could pick either one, they're actually pretty close together.

 

The shore excursion guy from the ship spent a lot of time trying to weed folks out from the tour who might not be real strong swimmers. He recommended they take the bus tour which costs about the same. If your tour is later in the day, your boat might be as much as 300 yards from the beach. There are mild-to-moderate currents that can pull you towards the boulders while swimming. Not a problem for us, but two folks had trouble and the guides had to help them around the rocks.

 

I guess my opinion is largly based on the fact that I'd have rather spent the time wandering through the Baths on my own. They're are really pretty cool - little hidy holes and pools to explore. I also wanted to check out the whole place (top-to-bottom) as others have described it on this board. The previous poster said they had two hours exploring on the bus tour - we only had about 1/2 hour - so that would be the difference. The time spent snorkeling was quite boring and walking barefoot throught the rocks was a little tough (on the bus tour I could have worn my swim shoes and been much happier). These are the only two tours I know of offered by NCL to the Baths. There is always the option of going on your own, but I think the experience will be the same either way.

[smeyer418]

Unless you rent a boat its hard to do it on your own. Some of the people on the same snorkle tour complained about the walk back since they hadn't brought shoes....The "bus" tour is about 10.00 more....sounds like the snorkling was not very good....