Eli's Eco Tour/Turtles Question

[Racefan9]

Hello,

 

We will be in Antigua next summer. We are considering booking one of Eli's tours. I see several people have mentioned seeing sea turtles on the Eco Tour. Was this a snorkel with turtles experience like you see in Barbados or St. Thomas, or were the turtles just observed from a distance? Our itinerary, sadly, does not include Barbados this cruise, so we ae hoping to see some turtles somewhere....

 

Thank you!

[babybluepinkgem]

We went on elis eco tour last week. We didn't see any turtles,but lots of birds at bird island! There was snorkeling on this tour,but no turtles.

[Miss Vickie]

Hello,

 

We will be in Antigua next summer. We are considering booking one of Eli's tours. I see several people have mentioned seeing sea turtles on the Eco Tour. Was this a snorkel with turtles experience like you see in Barbados or St. Thomas, or were the turtles just observed from a distance? Our itinerary, sadly, does not include Barbados this cruise, so we ae hoping to see some turtles somewhere....

 

Thank you!

 

There are no swim with the turtles opportunities in Antigua. Sometimes you can see a turtle, if they happen to be where you are and happen to pop up for air. I've never seen one while snorkeling in Antigua. In Barbados, they hang out by Paynes Bay, because they get fed. It's a big draw for the tour operators. In Antigua they don't get fed.

[skittl1321]

The eco tour talks a lot about how the turtle project works, but unless you are lucky, you won't see one. We had one pop up out of the water almost on cue- they joked about having him on a string. But you have to have a good eye.

 

My husband and I laughed that they were making up the sea life. At one point we went very slowly through mangrove (?) trees and the guide was pointing out all kinds of stuff, but we could only see maybe 1 our of 5 things he said. You have to know what you are looking for.

 

The tour was incredible though. A highlight of our cruise.

[NakedBeancounter]

We didn't get to see a sea turtle...one of the crew said one had popped his head out of the water but we didn't get to see it.

 

We did the Eco Tour on 23 February and it was a great day out. There were more people on the boat than I thought there was going to be (about 30 guests) but that didn't take the edge off our day at all, it was great fun.

 

Snorkelling was good at the end of the day, and the guide pointed out a southern stingray on the sea bed. Climbing Hell's Gate Island was a challenge but well worth it. My wife didn't do that as she doesn't really swim, so she stayed on the catamaran and filmed me and took photos.

 

Lunch stop was really peaceful, near a colony of nesting brown pelicans. The keen wind did blow the salad around a bit though, but the deck got hosed down when the group did the snorkelling after lunch. Bird Island lived up to its name and the hike to the top was well worth it for the wildlife andthe great views.

 

Overall, despite not seeing any turtles or dolphins, we loved the Eco Tour...it was one of our cruise highlights.