Best snorkeling in Southern Caribbean ?

[cruser2]

We will be cruising on AOS in November and interested in snorkeling on one of the islands (St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Aruba, & Curacao). Which port do you recommend and which excursion. Some of the reviews I have read say good and bad about taking the ships excursions and recommend going on your own. Any recommendations would be helpful. :)

[10X]

I've snorkelled at all of the above ports, some several times. Of those I would say Curacao is the best. Take a ship's excursion to Caracas Bay where you can snorkel over a sunken tugboat. Venture out from the tugboat a little and there are all sorts of great creatures to see. For pictures go to:

 

http://www.sunfield.smugmug.com/

 

Select "Cruise 2006"

Select "Curacao Snorkeling"

 

If you're in port on the right day you can also try:

 

http://www.bountyadventures.com/BountySailingTrips.html

 

I've never done this so I can't necessarily recommend it. It's just an option.

 

Denny

[golfer1966]

I cannot comment on Curacao, but I can on St John's - Trunk Bay. We went on the ships excusrion to St John when we were at St Thomas. This was a very good excursion. It only took about 40 mins to get there by boat and the snorkeling was very good. I am sure you will see other threads about Trunk Bay too, but IMO it was well worth the trip. We try and use the ships tours when possible. This way the ship wont leave with out you. I heard that if you use the ships tours they have you listed as missing and on thier tour so they will wait, but most tours are back in time anyway.

[Bigerr19]

I cruised that intinerary in May of this year and would recommend Curacao as well. I found the fish to be plentiful and the reefs were in pretty good shape, meaning they looked healthy. We did the sunken tugboat excursion and had a great time. I have some pictures from the excursion in my review of our cruise, there's a link in my signature below. Have a great time!