Snorkeling

[yacker01]

We are going on a cruise that will take us to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. We would like to spend on port day snorkeling. We don't book any excursions through the cruise ship so we are looking for advice on which island would be the best for snorkeling Thanks

[janetz]

We loved this trip in St Thomas. Not crowded and the captain and crew mate were great. We saw so much. :) I think there were 8 of us.

 

http://www.usvisailing.com/daysails.html

[Nic6318]

Hi there

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

You can find good snorkeling at each of the islands you are stopping at.

 

If you go to the main forum page on this site, you will see a section called Port of Calls. Click on the "Caribbean" link and you will see links for of all the Caribbean islands. You can now go though each of your islands and with some reading you should be able to get an idea of which beaches might be best as well as information about pricing, transportation, dining, etc...

 

If you find you have questions about any given island you can ask on those threads. Combined with research on the internet you should be able to narrow down what you are able to do on each island as well as the time you should allocate and costs involved.

 

Be sure to look at the threads devoted to the cruise line you will be sailing on.

 

Also, for your information, each thread has a search function at the top of the page. Many questions are asked often so look at questions that have been asked in the past week or so, and if you don't see what you are looking for, use the search function, it will likely give you answers right away.

 

hope this helps you get started on this site

have a great cruise

[wwcruisers]

We are going on a cruise that will take us to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. We would like to spend on port day snorkeling. We don't book any excursions through the cruise ship so we are looking for advice on which island would be the best for snorkeling Thanks

 

I would highly recommend Silvermoon Catamarans in Barbados. Their snorkeling areas include both a shipwreck and sea turtle experience! They strictly limit their boats to 12 or 24 passengers, so reservations are a must. :cool:

[ColoradoGurl]

Barbados would be the easiest to snorkel at without needing an excursion, or even really needing a ride to the beach. There is a beach close to the port where you can see lots of fish and even turtles by snorkeling from the beach (meaning you don't need a boat to take you out to deeper water).

 

We went to The Boatyard, which is a beach bar that requires a $15 entry fee, but you get loungers and umbrellas and a free drink, plus a shuttle ride back to the ship for that fee. It costs $5/person for a taxi to get there in the first place, but people have said that they just walk there, and it didn't seem very far away. You can also enter the beach a little further down where it has free access. We did the boatyard just because we read reviews and it seemed easy, and the people we traveled with like to have umbrella shade, plus we had kids with us who had fun on the water trampoline and the rope swing, but if I went back I'd be fine walking there and going to the free part of the beach.

 

 

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[cb at sea]

Get a guidebook...there is usually NO reason to have to do a tour or excursion! Get info on your ports (libraries have guidebooks!), and do your own thing.

[CanadaDeb]

We always book with Calabaza in Barbados. Great crew, greats food and drinks, and most of all, great experience! No more than 12 people on the catamaran. Snorkel over a shipwreck and also with turtles. Gina is a great hostess.

[OCruisers]

Barbados and St. Thomas (especially going to St. John) offer better snorkel options than the others. ;)