Staying in Aruba in June and thought about taking a day trip to either Bonaire or Curacao. Would either of these two places be worth spending the money to visit or possibly snorkel? I have been reading the snorkeling in Aruba is just ok nothing too special...please give me your opinion/suggestions regarding the two sister islands.

If you are an avid snorkeler thoiugh both islands have snorkeling the easiest access to snorkeling would be to go to Bonaire. In fact there are 1 day packages that will fly you over and offer you snorkeling opportunities. Just make sure that they are going to take you out on a boat for 2+ hours and not just offering you off-the- beach snorkeling. If not I would not bother going.

Bonaire best prettier more natural better for snorkel/scuba

of all the ABC islands recent excellent article on the

Blue Sky Isles cntraveler.com latest issue.

Happy Planning,

We did a beach hopping tour in Curacao that I would recommend if you are only going to be there for a day. Curacao beaches are mainly on the West side and are little coves that are spread out. Not a long stretch of beach like will find in Aruba. Here's the tour we did. We did the full day.

http://www.curacao-actief.com/index.php?id=1079

You may also consider taking a tour on the catamaran that goes to the tug boat for snorkeling. I understand the snorkeling there is great. We had booked jet skies to go there, but the operator was not all that honest and we didn't get there.

We booked a flight on Insel air from Aruba to Curacao. It's about a 30 minutes flight on a tiny puddle jumper. We stayed a week in Curacao though.

We also did an dive at the Sea Aquairum. No certification is required. It's called the animal encounter. You do need to book in advance to get a spot.

If you plan on a day trip, just have something pre-planned to do or a tour company to pick you up so you'll have plently of time.

If your interested our pictures are at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/kvrlvn

There are 2 books. One for Curacao and one for the dive.

PS. We found decent snorkeling on Aruba. The water is just not as clear. We went with the MiDushi and snorkeled the Antilla ship wreck and Arashi beach. We also did a beach hopping tour with DePalm and went to DePalm Island. Huge parrot fish there. Look at the Tranquillo also. They take their guests to another area for snorkeling. We loved just sailing in Aruba. We actually liked Aruba better than Curacao. Two totally different types of Islands, but glad we experienced both of them. We went to Aruba about 3 years before we went to Curacao. Our Aruba pictures our posted on that site also.

Bonaire is lovely if your planning to take a look below the waves. Other than that there is not much to do... the island doesn't even have one traffic light!

For ideas on what to do in Curacao for a day you can also check www.curacao-vacation.com. There they offer lot's of water activities and also some nice guided tours, incl. a beach hopping tour to the west like KVR did when he went to the island.