Watersports and Snorkeling

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

We will be stopping at St. Thomas, St. Martin and St. Kitts in January and I would like to do a jet skiing or aqua boat tour on one of the islands and a snorkeling tour on one of the islands. I would also like to know which island would be best for a beach break.

 

Can anyone tell me what's the best type of activity for each island? My kids are 11 and 16 so they get bored with island "history" type tours and just sitting on the beach for too long without anything else to do.

 

I'll post this in the St. Kitt's and St. Martin forum too since it applies to all three islands.

 

Thanks so much!!:D

[Lsimon]

St. Thomas has great snorkeling and the best we've done there is on a day sail tour. There are several operators of small sail boats that do private day sails for groups of 6 or less. Google St. Thomas day sails or Virgin Islands Day sails to find them. St. Thomas also has great beaches but they get very busy when there are lot of ships in port. The private day sail tours in St. Thomas usually start from Red Hook, a 20 min taxi ride at $10/pp, and sail either to St. John or another area depending on conditions that day.

 

St. Marten, in my opinion, has the best beaches. Orient beach is our favorite but there are several other nice beaches and most will have jet ski rentals and other fun activities for the kids (torpedo rides or large inflatable water slides and such).

 

I'm less familiar with the beaches in St. Kitts. When we've gone there we've either taken a cruise line catamaran tour which included snorkeling then lunch on the beach on Nevis, or just done some general touring with a friend who moved to the island a few years back.

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

Thanks!!!

 

I appreciate your feedback :)

[Eng23]

In St. Thomas I can recommend 340 Watersports for a jetski tour. 340 Watersports is located at the Bolongo Bay Resort.

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

In St. Thomas I can recommend 340 Watersports for a jetski tour. 340 Watersports is located at the Bolongo Bay Resort.

 

Thanks!

[blue_water]

All 3 islands offer nice beaches, St Thomas offers the best off the beach snorkeling at Sapphire Beach, and off the boat snorkeling around the cays of St John via a daysail. Or the jet ski idea is excellent, you could include shopping since STT is the duty free capital. And if course the new zip line would be great with the kids.

 

Do you want to take a daysail from St Kitt's to Pinneys Beach on Nevis for a BBQ? St Kitt's is mainly an island tour and a beach so I would choose a beach or the daysail to Nevis for that port.

 

St Maarten could be strolling Philipsburg and then hitting nearby Maho Beach to watch the jets land and take-off, the kids would eat that up.

 

So with the kids my thought would be the zip line or jet skis for St Thomas, the daysail/BBQ for St Kitts, and Some time at Maho on St Maarten. If snorkeling is something you'd like look at Sapphire Beach on STT, 30 min taxi @ $20pp roundtrip and has all the amenities you need on a gorgeous beach.

 

Enjoy!

[blue_water]

One more note on St Thomas, Sapphire is usually calm but as with any beach can get rougher if there's a sea swell. And we rent a condo there and it is usually very comfortable there even on heavy ship days. We were there with 20,000+ cruisers on the island and it didn't feel crowded at all while Magens, Coki, and the beachescloser to port were swamped. The dive center at Sapphire rents stand-up paddle boards, snorkel gear, kayaks and lounges and floats. Great island views and food and drinks and plenty of natural shade.

For a daysail to St John look at vinowdotcom, we enjoyed New Horizons which stopped off Honeymoon Beach and then St James with an excellent Italian lunch. Yacht Nightwind and High Pockets are also very popular.

There is also a speedboat excursion that would be a thrill for the kids.

 

We love the Golden Eagle on St Maarten, their site is sxmsailing dot com. But the snorkeling on STT is better in our humble opinion.

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

Has anyone done the 1/2 day tour on St. Kitts vs. the full day tour with the BBQ lunch?

[Lsimon]

Has anyone done the 1/2 day tour on St. Kitts vs. the full day tour with the BBQ lunch?

 

First: You've posted this in the St. Thomas forum. If you post in the St. Kitts forum you're likely to get a much better response.

That forum is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=428

 

Second: The 1/2 day tour of what and offered by whom? Is this a cruise line tour and if so then what cruise line. Are you looking at a beach tour, snorkeling, day sail or something else all together?

When you re-post your question in the St. Kitts forum you'll get better responses if you are more specific. Include the names of the tours and who is selling them if you can.

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

First: You've posted this in the St. Thomas forum. If you post in the St. Kitts forum you're likely to get a much better response.

That forum is here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=428

 

Second: The 1/2 day tour of what and offered by whom? Is this a cruise line tour and if so then what cruise line. Are you looking at a beach tour, snorkeling, day sail or something else all together?

When you re-post your question in the St. Kitts forum you'll get better responses if you are more specific. Include the names of the tours and who is selling them if you can.

 

Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to the catamaran cruises mentioned in your post and the post by blue-water above. I will repost in the St. Kitts forum.

[Lsimon]

Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to the catamaran cruises mentioned in your post and the post by blue-water above. I will repost in the St. Kitts forum.

 

I've only done the "full day" day sails in St. Thomas. The timing of these works out pretty good for cruises and they'll adjust the times slightly to make it work for your cruise schedule if it is too tight as long as you let them know your arrival and departure times and ask about this when you book. Besides, our favorite day sail in St. Thomas has been the Rumbaba which has an absolutely fantastic lunch (grilled fresh on board) and the half day version of their day sail, if offered, wouldn't include that. We are trying a different one this year - the Scubadu catamaran - which does a similar itinerary but on a cat instead of a sail boat.

 

While it's off subject of this thread, the St. Kitts day sail we've taken has been the ship's excursion and a full day tour with lunch as well.

 

Personally, the only half day tour I'd bother with would be one leaving late as opposed to one leaving early. As long as I have to get up early to do an excursion I may as well due a full day one, but if I can sleep in and still have a nice excursion then that's a different story :D. Unfortunately, just about all the day sail excursions we've run into at different islands start early.

[blue_water]

You'll find when you post on the St Kitt's forum there will be both a Nevis sail and another St Kitts sail option offered through independents like Viator and through the ship.

[1stTimeCruiser2008]

Thank you lsimon and blue_water!

 

I'm looking at the 1/2 day cruises because I'm afraid the kids won't make it the whole day. They are usually ready to head back to the ship after a couple of hours at the beach. But maybe that's because they are just bored with the beach:cool: The cruises would be a lot more entertaining:D

[Ms411]

They would probably love anything with a fast boat like the Screaming Eagle. St Thomas and St Martin offer mini boat tour with snorkeling, but not sure of minimum age.

[okiehawk]

340 water sports jet ski tour---anyone have any idea on cost for this company or another? Someone told me that there is often people that are not associated with a company on the beach and you can ride their jet skis/sea doos much cheaper than the excursion companies. Say $30-50 per hour verses $170 and up through an excursion company.

 

Anyone have any leads with prices on this subject? Thank you

[O2B@Cagain]

okie: In general, the excursion companies package activities for the cruise lines and add on a percentage for their trouble. That means they are always more expensive than arranging the activity yourself...

[Lsimon]

340 water sports jet ski tour---anyone have any idea on cost for this company or another? Someone told me that there is often people that are not associated with a company on the beach and you can ride their jet skis/sea doos much cheaper than the excursion companies. Say $30-50 per hour verses $170 and up through an excursion company.

 

Anyone have any leads with prices on this subject? Thank you

 

Your best bet is to enquire about beaches with jet ski rental, and related prices, on the St. Thomas forum in the Cruise Critic's port of call area. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=133 or even by doing an internet search for St. Thomas Jet Ski Rental.

I'm sure you can rent jet skis for a lot less than $170 but you have to consider what is included in the ship's tour in terms of organization, transportation, length of the tour and what the tour guide (if there is one) will do to show you around or provide assistance.

 

A lot of the beaches in St. Thomas don't have jet ski rentals since a good number of them are public park areas. But some of the hotel beaches will have the rentals available. You might do better at other islands where the beaches are not the same type of park areas and where they are not quite as crowded as a typical port day in St. Thomas.

[Eng23]

340 water sports jet ski tour---anyone have any idea on cost for this company or another? Someone told me that there is often people that are not associated with a company on the beach and you can ride their jet skis/sea doos much cheaper than the excursion companies. Say $30-50 per hour verses $170 and up through an excursion company.

 

Anyone have any leads with prices on this subject? Thank you

340Watersports has a website you could check.

 

Here's the page with their packages and prices:

http://340watersports.com/packages-rates/

 

One comment I will make in regard to the pricing, 340Watersports had brand new Waverunners last year and they give you good instruction on safety and the use of the Waverunners and have lots of info on the tour you take. So I thought the product that was provided was worth the price. Alot of those other vendors that are charging less like you mentioned have had issues with safety and equipment being in good condition.