We live just north of Baltimore and are looking at checking out the Outer Banks or Cape Cod with our 14 year old son, and maybe one of his friends. I've seen some mentions of snorkeling which we all enjoy - but no specifics. Any recommendations?

I've never heard of anyone snorkeling at the Outer Banks.

...or on the Cape for that matter...

I have heard of snorkeling at the Outer Banks. There are several shipwrecks along the coast that you can snorkel to. Still, they are at least 100 yards or more off the beach. There are no coral reefs. I would imagine you would have to wait for a very calm day so you can see anything. Also, you want to be careful of rip currents. I would wear a flotation device like a life jacket to be safe. I found a brochure about wrecks that you can snorkel to, but it is not very specific.

Unless you are on the sound-side of the OBX, the water's rarely calm enough for decent snorkling. The sound-side is likely to be murky with silt. If there are wrecks to check out, great, but I'm wondering about the depth around them.

There's plenty else to do out there, of course, but few would list snorkeling at the top of the activities list for the OBX.

I have never tried it. I want to. Since, I am a repeat traveling and trying to find new things to do. I think most of them are in 30 feet of water. I have seen days in the summer-time probably calm enough to see something and the water is almost a turquiose like the carribbean. When, the winds are from the South-west and calm.

A couple of the charter boats offer snorkelling options mostly in the area of the shipwrecks around Hatteras and Nags Head. I'd check out those possibilities first. Between the rip tides you mentioned and the sharks, I wouldn't go out on my own.

if you do end up going I hope you post back here about your experiences.

I might have been tempted to snorkel in the sound at outer banks, until I saw all the eels in there (a fisherman pulled up his trap) and then the time I was bird watching along there and a snake was swimming through the water...LOL

There is a ton of jellyfish in the sound. I would just wait for a really calm day on the ocean. There are a couple articles I have read about swimming/snorkeling out to shipwrecks off the beach. I think there is one in Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills or maybe even Kitty Hawk. I read that there are buoys where it is. That would probably be your best bet because you know where it is. Sharks are not that dangerous unless you are bleeding or have food or otherwise aggravate them. Most Shark attacks also happen where you are wadding and not out in deep water. People go wreck diving off the Carolina coast in 100-200 feet of water and are swimming with the sharks. No problem.

My husband scuba dives around Massachusetts coast - he has also never heard of Cape Cod as a snorkeling place - sure you could snorkle, but not much to see.

I had seen snorkeling mentioned in a brochure for OBX, but no good details there either. We were down in Curacao and had such a great time snorkeling, we wanted to try to find something a little closer to home even though we knew it wouldn't be as clear as in the Caribbean. We are hoping to rent one of the large houses (4-5 bedrooms) on the beach down in the OBX and coordinating a trip with friends/family.

I've snorkeled a lot and you can put your face in the water ANYWHERE and just start swimming, BUT if you want to see anything along the lines of what you saw in Curacao you need to put your face in water that also has coral reefs and the pretty fishies that live in that habitat. Neither of your locations are tropical and warm enough for that

It's pretty shallow water for a ways out at the Outer Banks, so it's not like the Caribbean with a reef just offshore. I've been on dive trips out there and it usually involved a pretty long boat ride to the dive site.

The sound side will be much calmer, but once again rather shallow and not that much to see underwater.

Would you son like to go kayaking? A good number of outfitters can arrange that in one of the refuges in the area.

Time for the kid to learn how to hang glide!!