Help! Looking for budget priced snorkel trip

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Check out Little Corn Island off of Nicaragua. My girlfriend and I went last year. The snorkeling at the North End of the island by Farm Peace & Love is spectacular and its well worth it on the windward side down by Casa Iguana. I think the Grand Casita at Casa Iguana (you said you would have kids with you) was like $75 a night. We stayed in a smaller one for $50 a night. That is where I would recommend staying as they are on the windward side and the breeze is essential. The island is really cheap as well and there are no cars. We loved it. The diving was pretty great as well if any of you are into it. Saw a great hammerhead on my last dive (intentionally) and I'll never forget it. The dive was Tarpon Channel and he's somewhat of a resident from what I was told. Definitely check it out.
 
Leo,
Thanks for the great run-down on locations & snorkeling opportunities! I'm wondering about Puerto Rico right now too. We can get there pretty inexpensively & I've read that the snorkeling on Culebra is great.

Cindy
 
Shaka-Zulu--
Getting the kid a loan sounds great, except that she has a terminal genetic disease & her health is very fragile, so she might not ever have a way to repay a loan. She doesn't work because we're trying to keep her alive as long as possible. And she's willing to babysit our 5 younger children while we go on said trip, which will save us quite a bit of money...

Cindy
 
Jamaica has some excellent shore snorkeling, especially near Negril and Port Antonio. Inexpensive accomodations are numerous, and the inshore corals and cliffs can be delightful, nicer than Culebra, in my experience. Culebra is ok, but close inshore coral structures are few, and it gets a little dirty and crowded there, especially on weekends.

The inshore small fish and macro life in some areas of Jamaica are spectacular, and no boat trips are needed, unless you want to visit the outer reefs. Very cheap airfares are often available. Do not even think about staying in Ocho Rios or Montego Bay. Don't go near either place, excepting the airport.

If I were booking an inexpensive as possible snorkeling trip, with abundant shore snorkeling making costly boat trips unnecessary, Jamaica, with its clear warm water and rocky coral gardens would be very high on my list. If you want some specific suggestions, email me. I wish you and your daughter all the best, and I hope you have a great vacation wherever you decide to go.
 
Hmmm, great info on Jamaica - but what if we add another variable... a desire for snorkeling that includes both large animals (e.g. turtles, eels, rays, etc.) to go along with macro life and varied small fish varieties?

NYCDive, Little Corn Island sounds just like the kind of place I'd like... sounds like San Andres but with snorkeling maybe.
 
I've never been to Little Corn Island, so I can't compare it to Jamaica. My first question about it would be: how and how much to get there? It is one of the places I have on my list to someday visit, though, along with a few other islands off Colombia and Venezuela. I snorkel and scuba dive, and much prefer to visit places that I can snorkel from shore whenever the mood strikes me. My favorite these days is Dominica, but it requires a couple of air connections to get there, and it has no beaches in the usual sense. Great rivers, mountains, and rainforest, but almost no tourism infrastructure.

Jamaica has some turtles; I've seen small Hawksbills early in the morning only a few feet from shore. They are fairly common along Negril's cliffs, at dawn. There are loads of Morays everywhere there is cover for them. Rays are also abundant. Rays come inshore over sandy bottoms at dusk to hunt for shellfish, etc. Some are huge. What you will not see in Jamaica are bigger fish that are caught by fisherman in fishtraps. Rays and Morays are not sought as food, and usually cannot be trapped, so they are common.

Generally speaking, anyplace you go, big beautiful sandy beaches will tend to have limited or no inshore snorkeling. Look for rocky areas, cliffs, projecting headlands and points, shallow water, moderate currents and light wave action on an island's lee side. In many popular beach destinations shallow inshore coral structures are deliberately destroyed to eliminate urchins that might discourage tourists. Some places, like many of the Bahama Islands, Turks and Caicos, etc., have very few coral reefs that are easily reached from shore, just like in the Keys.
 
Welcome aboard and Happy Anniversary!

Cozumel is a great option for cheaper travel, but I'm not too sure about the shallow coral for snorkeling since the hurricane. I'd check on the Cozumel board. One of my instructors has been to Cozumel several times and he said the shallow corals are not what they used to be. The deeper corals are great for divers though. They're still in great shape, but that doesn't help you any.

Check out www.shorediving.com also, they have a lot of snorkeling sites as well as diving sites listed.

Roatan, Honduras is fabulous for diving and snorkeling. I'm not sure how cheap it would be for you, it depends on where you'd be flying from. We have an all-inclusive going to Roatan from DFW for $1926pp in February and they have 24 hour a day snorkeling and diving because it's just that good. Check out www.bibr.com for Bay Island Beach Resort. They are home of the "Natural Aquarium" snorkel trail and Spooky Channel. It's cheaper if you don't want boat snorkeling too.

There is some snorkeling on St. croix but I talked with some people that recently went (a couple months ago) and they were disappointed in the snorkeling. Of course I've talked with others that really like it, it's all perception.

Good luck and Happy Anniversary!

Britt :fish:
:fish:
 

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