Where is the Best Snorkeling?
 

Hi, <BR> <BR>Our family of 5 went to St John USVI last April and loved it. We really enjoyed the snorkeling and many nice beaches. IS there any better place for beaches and snorkeling or did we luck out and get it right the first time? Your advise will be greatly appreciated. <BR>

Have snorkeled all over the Caribbean and Hawaii. You can't beat Bonaire. Most of the island can be snorkeled right from shore, the marine life is more abundant and larger than anywhere else and the coral was wonderful. The only negative, and it's a small negative is the beaches aren't as large and quite as nice as some of the other islands. By nice, I mean nice soft sand...it's rather coarse and corally.

Anguilla is pretty incredible. Almost too many spots to identify. Shoal Bay is just about ideal for everything (unless you need heavy duty casino/entertainment type activities).

Diane, we have been to Anguilla twice and snorkeled all over and have never seen anything remarkable. It was probably the worst next to Margarita that we have ever seen. We have done it at different times of the year and it was the same in the spring as it was in winter. <BR> <BR>On the other hand, you simply can't beat the beaches and the people of Anguilla.

I have snorkelled and scuba dived in Belize, Cozumel, and Cancun (near the Club med) and must say the snorkelling at Cancun was THE best, it was incredible!

I think there is a point where what good snorkeling is should be defined. I think most define it based on their past experiences which are very subjective and have great variations. For over 35 years we have snorkeled in many locations in the Bahamas, Caribbean, Yucatan, Belize, Honduras, West Coast California, Baja California, South Pacific and Hawaiian islands and our snorkeling impressions do not jibe with many. I agree with Cheri about Anguilla. We spent a week in Anguilla and drove all around the island looking for good snorkeling. We found nothing that would cause us to return. This included a trip to Sandy Cay (I think it was called that). From our viewpoint Shoal Bay was a dud. <BR> <BR>We have ths same problem with Bonaire. Cheri feels that it is the best for snorkeling and others do also. Here also we drove all around the Island and did not find anything of interest. It was very hard to get into the water from shore if you did not have dive boots. If you wear shoe fins you are sort of out of luck. Once I e-mailed one person from this forum about bonaire snorkeling and he agreed that snorkeling from the shore was not very good. Last night I talked to a diver in our family that goes to bonaire. He indicated it is a divers island and the only good snorkeling was from Klien Bonaire. This was also indicated by the other person that I had e-mailed. Unfortunately we had not gone there. <BR> <BR>One thing we have noted over the years is that the amount of sea life has diminished and the ocean is more polluted as we return to the same locations. It is getting difficult to find adult sea life near the shore in populated areas as they are being fished out. I don't blame the native population for wanting to eat however. Also conditon vary considerably over the year. When sea conditions are not good snorkeling is not good. <BR> <BR>There are a lot of places that we have not been and we tend to avoid snorkeling from boats. We like to snorkel from the shoreline from where we are staying or within reasonable walking distance such as walking across Harbor Island. We are still looking for great snorkling today or we would be happy to have conditions at least equal to what we saw 30 years ago. <BR> <BR>Based our choice we would chose Anagada in the BVI as being about the best we have seen recently. I am not certain that we have given the Turks and Caicos a good chance as we have only been on Salt Cay there. <BR> <BR>However, as my wife says, big is not better. We take what there is where we are and have always found a way to enjoy ourselves both on the land and in the sea. <BR> <BR>It would be nice if people would describe snorkeling destinations by the bottom conditions, clarity, sea life, water temperature, currents, problems in getting into the water, and how far to swim to the reef. <BR> <BR>In Anagada, you need to rent a car or have somebody take you across the island. It is an easy entry from shore with little surf and you get to reefs withing 50 yards. In August the water temperature is around 84F. This is no off shore current. You find large coral formations with canyons going down 20 to 40 feet. Depth at their tops are around 5 feet. Water is clear to the bottom. You can expect both schooling and territorial sea life. Turtles, rays and eels should be about. You might we lucky to see a 5 foot barricuda or a reef shark. Spiny lobsters should be about. You can swim in and through the canyons which are beautiful countrysides. Lord knows what the last few hurricanes did to this area. We have not been there for about 4 years. You can rent a villa on shore. This is a very basic island however with a population of about 500 people. <BR> <BR>Years ago we felt the snorkeling off of Akumal, Mexico was also in the top catagory. We have not been back after sever bad hurricanes and the area is getting over developed for us.

Guess we just lucked out on our Anguilla trip! (And I must mean luck, we went in October '97 and there were no hurricanes anywhere nearby). I can't recall the name of the beach the cat trip took us to (It was not Sandy Cay because that side of the island was too choppy) but the visibility was super, and there were more rays and a greater variety of coral than we'd seen the year before off Akumal, as well as the expected multi-colored fish. We also had good luck from a boat when we visited Isla Mujeres, but that may have been because the boatman really wanted to impress our 19 year old daughter. He took us to places none of the other boats visited with other tourists.