5 days to go!!!
Does anybody know where the best place for us to snorkel off the beach?
Thanks in advance.
Kelly

The White House in Grace Bay

We are going in May and from our research, we've been told to go to Coral Gardens and to Smith Reef for good snorkeling off the beach.

Hopefully, the T & C experts will respond also.

Smith's reef is hard to find and very hard to get into. The reef is very close to the entrance of a marina. Make sure you get a flag from the diveshop at your hotel so the boats can see you snorkeling.

Finzup

sharkdiver and KVR are both correct - The White House reef outside the Coral gardens is the best (and easiest) place to snorkel.

Where are you staying?

We will be at Ocean Club.

Hmmm..

In that case Coral Gardens is a looooong walk along the beach (an hour???), I assume you're hiring a car.

We stayed at CG and I think the parking (a small parking lot) was for residents only although we didn't have to register our hire car with the hotel - so how would they know???

The road is good, they were working on it when we were there last year.

Have fun!

i haven't been there, but when i was thinking about going there, many helpful people here recommended coral gardens because of the reef right in front of the hotel...shallow snorkeling right off of the beach.

You can snorkel at Coral Gardens. You can park your car right outside CG and there is a path right there to the beach. Just look for the cars parked at the end of the road. You'll know you're in the right place.

That's good advice from greenie about a flag from the diveshop. It's definitely harder to find Smiths Reef as there are villas in front of it and you have to find the right path. Last time we tried to find it we ended up missing that path as one of the villas I guess put a pile of dirt by the entrance, so we ended up by the marina. It was unnerving when the boats were coming in.

Some photos of Coral Gardens here: http://www.mymoosie.net

Thanks for the pics, they are GREAT! I am so excited! Packing today!
What were your favorite restaurants?
I was thinking about Graces Cottage, Simba, Coyaba, Anacona, Baci?

skip baci. ok but not great italian. i would add aqua bar to your list. and mango reef used to do a pretty fair sunday brunch.

Mango Reef at Royal West Indies has the best fish and chips I have ever had. I also loved Coco Bistro, good food and a beautiful setting.
Sandy

Just know T&C is pretty good snorkeling but St. John, Virgin Gorda area, Tobago Cay are far superior.

Sorry, I have to disagree with StanKase. We've snorkeled Trunk Bay and Virgin Gorda and were not impressed. I may have missed the real good snorekling spots though. Grand Cayman and Cozumel were by far better. (IMHO) We are looking forward to our trip to T & C in May to make the determination for ourselves.

KVR,

I do think you missed the best snorkeling spots on St John. We have been snorkeling for a long time and so far STJ, BVI and Cozumel have been our best snorkeling experiences so far. STJ is in first place. I think TCI will be another great experience. I guess you will have to go back to STJ and try again (lol).

The spots in St.John are around Caneel Bay-Hawks Nest, Turtle Bay. Norman & Copper Island near Virgin Gorda are quite up there as well. Maybe the best is a day trip to Anegada.

Just got back from Turks and Caicos last night. Our first trip. We will be back!

Smith's Reef is a do not miss. The entry has been marked by stones, and if you go in at that point, it is a sand entry and not hard at all, in fact, a nice little swim area right beyond the sand entry. We had a local tell us how to look for the stones marking the way in, and were glad we did, we saw many trying to go in over the rock. OUCH.

I'll be posting a trip report, and posting our photo site once we get a little more clear headed [we got in at 2 a.m. last night, so we are a bit bleery eyed.]

Glad you had a great trip. Will be looking forward to your report and photos. We just purchased a Pentax Optio Waterproof digital camera for our trip in May and can't wait to use it snorekling.

We leave in 69 days.

The best snorkeling by far is in Bonaire. St. Johns is good too, but wasnt impressed with Trunk Bay for snorkeling.