Buck Island Sail and snorkel (RCI) v. St Thomas Scuba and Snorkel adventures v. Sapph

[jmcinnc]

Hi there, we head out on the adventure of the seas on August 12. We'd love to snorkel and see some sea turtles at our stop in st Thomas. We are considering the Royal Caribbean Buck Island sail and snorkel excursion. The alternatives we are considering are the private off beach snorkel tour with Saint Thomas scuba and snorkel adventures (great reviews but double the price) or just going to Sapphire Beach and snorkeling offshore ourselves (would be least expensive). Would welcome any thoughts or feedback on any of these. Thanks!!

 

 

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[Clarea]

My wife went snorkeling off Sapphire Beach. She says you have to go out quite a ways, but once she got there it was excellent and she got to see some turtles. Ask the workers at the beach the best location to see the turtles.

[LeeW]

Buck Island (maybe 10 mi SE of Charlotte Amalie) is used by a lot of the snorkel and scuba tours, including the pirate ship one. Bay is kind of empty and quite deep, and on our last tour not much to see (1 turtle, very little coral, some fish). With five boats there you were limited to the area around your boat. Been there twice and that is enough. If you are going to pay for a snorkel boat the area around St John is better, but these are longer trips.

 

A "beach" snorkel from an operator is going to avoid the sand areas, where there are few fish and visibility is poor. They will take you where the snorkeling is best that day with a smaller group than a ship excursion.