Coki or Sapphire Beach

[lawtyger]

I'm looking for opinions from experienced snorkelers (or divers) who have been to both beaches. My wife and I love to snorkel and consider good snorkeling to be snorkeling around reef or structure with plenty of fish (for example, Tabyana Beach in Roatan, the various spots at Grand Cayman such as Eden Rock, Cemetery Reef, etc.).

 

Which location, Coki or Sapphire, did you feel offered the best from shore snorkeling and why?

 

Thanks for any opinions.

[The Islander]

Coki has good snorkeling for beginners; the fish are used to being fed (which isn't necessary since they are used to it and will come around anyway and also feeding marine life food not usually in their diet like dog biscuits and bread can be harmful to them). Since they are used to being fed they come right up by the shore basically - so quite easy to see a bunch of fish without leaving the comfort zone of being very close to shore. Swim out toward/around the rocks on the right side and it's still pretty shallow and more fish to see. Not a huge assortment of types of fish and very little coral. Water is generally calm so another plus for beginner. Sapphire has a larger area for snorkeling and more diversity in what you see - there are sea grass beds on the left side (when facing the water) and there are fish in there and the possibility of seeing marine life that like sea grass such as conch, also turtles - but neither is a guarantee. On the right side there are rocky outcrops and also a large shallow rock/reef area with a lot of juvenile fish and further out deeper areas with coral, seafans and various fish. The closer snorkeling around the rocks and over sea grass beds are good for beginner adult and kids with assistance from adult. The very shallow areas should be avoided if you aren't very comfortable snorkeling and are not a very good swimmer because it is quite shallow and you need to stay floating/swimming parallel to the rocks to avoid possibly hurting yourself on the rocks and damaging coral and marine life by bumping or standing on them. You can snorkel around the ledges of the shallow area and stay in a regular depth of water; you'll see fish along the ledges and under them. You can go out toward and around the point of the peninsula; very good snorkeling out there, deeper water and there is a current once out by the point so keep that in mind.

 

--Islander

[lawtyger]

We are definitely experienced and not afraid to venture out to deeper water. Coki does not sound like something we would enjoy. The point of the peninsula at Sapphire sounds like something interesting to explore.

 

Right now, Sapphire sounds more like our cup of tea. I got this picture from google images. . . I assume this is the peninsula you were referring to?

 

[The Islander]

Bottom, right corner of the photograph; yes that's it.

 

--Islander

[lawtyger]

Thanks. We are experienced snorkelers who would love to snorkel around the Pennisula.

Would you say Sapphire is the best "from shore" snorkeling in St. Thomas? If not, what would you suggest?

 

Trying to find a great snorkeling experience in St. Thomas without doing a boating excursion.

[MTV43]

Thanks. We are experienced snorkelers who would love to snorkel around the Pennisula.

Would you say Sapphire is the best "from shore" snorkeling in St. Thomas? If not, what would you suggest?

 

Trying to find a great snorkeling experience in St. Thomas without doing a boating excursion.

 

It is me again MTV, I think that you would be more happy with Sapphire than Coki. If you are on the same itinerary we were past June, then my rating would be as follows:

Jalousie beach - St. Lucia

Sapphire - st. Thomas

Folkstone - Barbados

Cockleshell - St. Kitts

Long Bay beach - Antiqua

 

MTV

[Jan_In_Maine]

First time in St Thomas we did a tour with Sunny and enjoyed it. We stopped at Sapphire beach. Second time we went to St. John through RCCL .. as pretty as St. John was, it reminded me why we don't do ship excursions.

 

We are headed back to St. Thomas next year ... (Islander ... I still have all the info you supplied a few years back on walking around town and things to see) This time we are actually going to do that, and go back to Sapphire.

 

Long winded post for a short question ... there were a lot of ducks at Sapphire the last time we were there ... are they still there? Thanks, Jan

[harry0]

The Islander said it perfect. We saw Octopus, Sting Rays, Turtles. The turtles and rays were in the grass. The coral is mainly dead looking until you go out pretty far by the Penninsula. I will be there in three weeks!

[lawtyger]

The Islander said it perfect. We saw Octopus, Sting Rays, Turtles. The turtles and rays were in the grass. The coral is mainly dead looking until you go out pretty far by the Penninsula. I will be there in three weeks!

 

I'm jealous, have a great time and if you remember, please come back to the thread and let us know how it was. We don't cruise until the week of 11/9. Have a great time!

[lawtyger]

It is me again MTV, I think that you would be more happy with Sapphire than Coki. If you are on the same itinerary we were past June, then my rating would be as follows:

 

Jalousie beach - St. Lucia

Sapphire - st. Thomas

Folkstone - Barbados

Cockleshell - St. Kitts

Long Bay beach - Antiqua

 

MTV

 

Nice to see we are on the right page based on your rankings.

 

- Jalousie beach - We'll hit this for an hour on our Consol excursion. Difficult decision whether to just skip an excursion and spend the day at Jalousie, but we figure we'll get a sample of St. Lucie as a whole and next cruise spend the day at Jalousie or Anse Chastanet.

 

- Sapphire Beach - We will be going here, can't wait.

 

- Folkstone - We'll go here for sure if we don't do the Thriller excursion.

 

- Cockleshell - Looks like this is where we'll be heading although I haven't had time to do any independent research on snorkeling at St. Kitts.

 

- Long Bay beach - Was strongly leaning to going here to snorkel while in Antigua. However, somewhat disappointed that it made the bottom of your snorkeling ranking. This picture from LiveMaps looked promising with a lot of rock/reef/coral in the water to explore - http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=17.100541~-61.689681&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1). I'll continue my research on Antigua.

[MTV43]

Nice to see we are on the right page based on your rankings.

 

- Jalousie beach - We'll hit this for an hour on our Consol excursion. Difficult decision whether to just skip an excursion and spend the day at Jalousie, but we figure we'll get a sample of St. Lucie as a whole and next cruise spend the day at Jalousie or Anse Chastanet.

 

- Sapphire Beach - We will be going here, can't wait.

 

- Folkstone - We'll go here for sure if we don't do the Thriller excursion.

 

- Cockleshell - Looks like this is where we'll be heading although I haven't had time to do any independent research on snorkeling at St. Kitts.

 

- Long Bay beach - Was strongly leaning to going here to snorkel while in Antigua. However, somewhat disappointed that it made the bottom of your snorkeling ranking. This picture from LiveMaps looked promising with a lot of rock/reef/coral in the water to explore - http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=17.100541~-61.689681&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1). I'll continue my research on Antigua.

 

 

I apologize for disappointing you about Long Bay beach. As being said on my previous posts. Weather/sea condition plays important factor to snorkeling experience. We woke up with a stormy weather the day we docked at Antigua. It poured down the entire morning, stopped by afternoon but it still overcasted, that why I did not venture out. By contrary, the following day at St.Kitts, sea was calm, visibility was great, I was able to spot great species.

MTV

[LEtue]

Great thread! We have been trying to decide between Coki and Sapphire Beach too for snorkeling from the beach. Looks like Sapphire for us too :D

[Darkwolfe]

On the other side of the coin, my little group of 4 has all inexperienced people so we're heading to Coki. I guess the next trip out after that will see us head to new sights.

 

*sigh* January can't get here soon enough!

[CaribbeanBound]

I vote for Sapphire, and you can easily get there on your own.

 

Despite what everyone at the pier will tell you at the Havensight Pier (and they will lie to you), you can get local transportation for $2 per person in an open-air taxi to Sapphire Beach. Simply walk out of the Havensight pier main gate, cross the street, turn left and walk until you get to the Bus Stop (there is a pullover area) across from K-Mart and cross the street so that you are standing on the K-Mart side of the street. It is a leisurely 10 to 15-minute level walk. When you see an open-air taxi drive up, flag him down, tell him where you wish to go and enjoy the trip. The drive takes about 20 to 30 minutes each way to Sapphire Beach depending upon traffic. Pay upon exiting the taxi.

 

If you are going to Sapphire Beach, you will be dropped off at the entrance to the Sapphire Beach hotels which is at the top of a hill. A short 5-minute walk will get you on the beach. Sapphire Beach is a gorgeous white sand beach with lots of shade trees and awesome views of several nearby islands including St. John. The snorkeling is good. We saw several schools of fish (previously unknown to us), an eel, and a small stingray. Unpadded beach lounge chairs are $5 each if you want to rent one, or free if you just occupy one of the many chairs abandoned by their previous inhabitants. A dive shop, bar and grill, and restrooms are available. Some water sports are also available. Pick up the taxi again where it dropped you off.

 

Here are more of our Secrets of the Caribbean!

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

These are our very detailed personal reviews, hints, and tips for ports of call that you will be visiting.

[lawtyger]

MTV, thanks for the explanation about LB. Jessie and I feel that given your experiences with West End Roatan snorkeling, you recommendations carry some weight with us since Tabyana beach has been our snorkeling highlight so far (twice). We are actually looking forward to LB and will simply hope for great weather on our entire cruise.

 

CaribbeanBound, thanks for the tip on transportation. We will give that a try. On our previous trip to St. Thomas we caught transportation right out of the port's gate to the Red Hook and then off to Trunk Bay. Ended up being quite expensive. We'd like to get off cheaper going to Sapphire (and of course won't need to do the Red Hook thing this time).

 

Your link to Caribbean tips is something we want to read in more detail as it looks very helpful. We quickly read a couple of your suggestions on ports we were going to. Look forward to reading the rest in detail. The one thing we noticed was that in your description of Trunk Bay you indicated - "The snorkeling is very good." My wife and I kind of looked at each other and said "I wonder how long ago CaribbeanBound was there?" The beach, and clarity of the water was truly beautiful, but from a snorkeling standpoint it hardly compares to what other ports offer and in our opinion is about a 3 on a scale of 10 when compared to from shore snorkeling in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Roatan, St. Martin, etc. Perhaps you were there at a time before the coral along the snorkel trail became damaged?

[MTV43]

Caribbeanbound is right about the transportation. I frequently saw buses on the way to Sapphire ($2 vs. $8 pp one way is good saving for family of 4). However, bus isn't for everyone, specially we have limit time in port. If you can spot it right away, perhaps it would still take at least 1 hour extra for round trip vs. taxi.

 

My first shore snorkeling was at Trunk Bay back in 2002. It was OK, my kids did not like it; current at Cozumel was too strong for them, but after W. End, they said it was cool.

 

 

MTV

[CaribbeanBound]

Trunk Bay was in late 2006. Frankly we couldn't find the marked trail until we were almost finished. As it turned out, we snorkeled closer to the island (as the trail was further off to our right) and joined the trail on the far side of the island. The coral was beautiful and varied. One of the coolest things that happened to me on the left side of the island (as you face the ocean) was being absolutely surrounded by a school of fish running circles around me. The fish were maybe 3 to 4 inches in length, but the school was probably a foot thick en mass and two feet high and stayed 6 inches away from me in a giant 8-foot circle. I sort of felt like a shark in a school of anchovies. And yes, the beach view is breathtaking.