Snorkel in St. Maartan?

[JBeefy]

Will be in St. Maartan for the day and am looking for a great place to snorkel. We have our own snorkel gear, and are able to hike if needed. Looking for a place that has a nice beach to relax when tired, food/drinks a bonus, and obviously some fish to look at. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[savandbarb]

We went to St martin last year and loved the snorkeling from the golden Eagle Catamaran.We envy you.We just did the mexican riviera and it is not as good as the caribbean.have fun!

[10X]

St. Maarten is not known for it's snorkeling. The best spot I've heard of is Pinel Island, which you can do on your own. However, there is a problem with doing this, as we found out.

 

The ship's excursion gets you to the island around 8AM or so. This is not possible when doing it on your own. The water taxi to the island doesn't leave until 10AM, which is about the time the ship's excursion is leaving the island. Apparently they make a special run to get the ship's excursion there so early.

 

When you get to the island, the water and sand is now stirred up and snorkeling is not as good. If I ever decided to snorkel there again, I'd do a ship's excursion.

 

We will be there again in February 2006 on 14 night on the Sea Princess, but we do not plan to snorkel, even though we too own all of our own equipment and try to snorkel at almost every port, and I scuba dive as well. We've tried about 3 different excursions for snorkeling in St. Maarten and we did not like any of them.