Sjnorkelling for Beginner in Grand Turk Next Month

[moondoggie]

My DS and I are cruising next month, and she wants to snorkel--she is a beginner, and just learned how to swim (at age 55!). I'm a long-time snorkeler, and usually join a charter day sail which includes great snorkeling, but I know she is not keen on the sailboat aspect, so this is not an option.

 

We'd like your recommendations for a beach or non-ship's excursion where we can enjoy good snorkelling on Grand Turk. Or, as a last resort, we'll consider a ship's excursion (a VERY last resort:)

 

Thanks!

[K&RCurt]

My DS and I are cruising next month, and she wants to snorkel--she is a beginner, and just learned how to swim (at age 55!). I'm a long-time snorkeler, and usually join a charter day sail which includes great snorkeling, but I know she is not keen on the sailboat aspect, so this is not an option.

 

We'd like your recommendations for a beach or non-ship's excursion where we can enjoy good snorkelling on Grand Turk. Or, as a last resort, we'll consider a ship's excursion (a VERY last resort:)

 

Thanks!

 

I'm not sure why the ship's excurion is a "Very last resort", but DW and I though strong swimmers had never snorkeled in a natural environment before. (Meaning as kids we had masks and snorkels but only used them in a swimming pool.)

 

We did the "Ultimate Snorkel Adventure" on HAL, I am sure any of the Carnival owned lines has the same excursion. It was provided by Oasis Divers and we had Captain Dan on our boat. The cost was $49.00pp.

 

The Captain remained on the boat but there were two crew members who got in the water with the group. They provided adequate instructions that DW and I jumped right in and got to "snorkeling". There were several folks who were not as confident and the crew spent all the time necessary to get these folk comfortable and enjoying themselves.

 

We saw barracuda, Jacks, Sting Rays and multitudes of other fish and plant life on the two reef areas we went to.

 

I can highly recommend this excursion.

 

I'm not sure why you wish to avoid a Ship Excursion, but if it's primarily $ I think that this trip was a very good value.

[moondoggie]

We try to avoid ship's excursions because we have found most of them to be cattle calls, and prefer to schedule an excursion either with a private company or do them on our own.

 

$$$ is a consideration, as the ship's tours are very often price inflated, meaning we could book privately with a smaller group, or just set our own schedule and take local transportation when we want to do simple land trips, i.e. to beaches or shopping. We prefer interacting with locals and visiting places that are slightly off the beaten path, many of which have been suggested on CC and other travel forums.

 

Even when doing vacations overseas I research and usually plan our outings, which allow us to enjoy our time even more.

 

And yes, we always tip rather generously, onboard or on land.

[pandorasays]

Why does everyone on this board say DH, DW, DS, etc? Does it mean Dear Husband, wife, Spouse, etc? I've really never seen it except here.

 

Thanks.:cool:

[topspot]

Blue Water Divers also does snorkeling trips. You have to take a cab to their shop. We did a dive with them, but there was a boat of snorkelers that were getting started when we left. They limit their dive and snorkel boats. It's 8 for divers and I think 16 for snorkelers. We had five in our dive group and the snorkle group had two families, about 8 or 9.

[loopdloops]

If DW is not a very strong swimmer i would not recommend the ultimate. I did it last week and had a very rough time, the water was ver choppy and made it hard to swim back to the boat.