Help! Looking for budget priced snorkel trip

My husband and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary next spring. We both love snorkeling and had been planning a trip to Bonaire, where we hear that the shore snorkeling is great. Unfortunately our oldest child's first year of college is proving more expensive than we'd expected and we find ourselves with less money to spend on our trip than we'd hoped. We were considering going to Grand Caymen instead, since we would save about $300 each on flights that way. Then we thought the Keys might be the answer, since we can fly to Miami for less than $200 each. But I've realized after reading about the Keys some more today that there isn't much shore snorkeling available in the keys. I'm concerned that if we want to snorkel every day (and who wouldn't!) that paying for that would offset any savings from the cheaper airfare. So we're wondering--does anyone have recommendations for "economy" snorkel vacations? We're flying from the southeast.

thanks,
Cindy

Congrats on the anniverary!
My wife and I are looking closely at little cayman... looks good to us. We've been to bonaire and that was great but I know some snorkelers/freedivers that were to little cayman and they say that was better than bonaire... they mostly freedive though so weren't limited to shallow water. Their videos and pictures looked great.
Still, for "economy" I think the yucatan, cozumel or a place like akumal are pretty tough to beat if you just want warm, clear water, not toooo bad of corals, and a beach. And the cenotes are nearby too. You can always tent it at Paamul... been there, done that.

Cancun? The Westin Regina is next door to Club Med, in front of Club Med is the Punta Nizuc Reef. It is the northern tip of the worlds second largest barrier reef. The Westin is a fantastic place. You could get a promotional deal if you listen to a timeshare presentation.
My wife and I are members and they have places all over coastal Mexico plus more.


And btw, welcome to :sblogo:

If you want to go to Bonaire, try spirit air to san juan then American to Bonaire. We got an amazing fare from San Juan to orlando then it was about $200 RT on American to Bonaire. Best of Luck

Welcome to the board.
Something to consider is the cost of snorkeling itself. Most places you will have to hire a boat to take you to the site and you will be limited to time, maybe 1 or 2 hrs per trip. At $30 or $40 per person per trip that adds up to a fair amount of cash. On Bonaire you can snorkel for free 24/7 if you like. Another alternative is Curacao. It has some very good inexpensive shore snorkeling like Bonaire but is sometime less expensive/easier to get to.
Before giving up on Bonaire, drop Liz (above post) an email and see what she can do for you.

I would also suggest Cozumel. They have boats that will take you out to several different places to snorkel. Plus, you can snorkel right off your hotel if you pick a good one. Cozumel is the cheapest place you can go, and the most bang for your buck. Lastly, I would strongly discourage Cancun, the snorkeling there is minimal.

We went to Curacao last year and I really enjoyed the snorkeling. If you rent a car you can spend your time exploring sites along the west coast which are almost unlimited. We went to Grote Knip and Porto Marie on a day trip and really enjoyed both. Driving there is safe and easy. We stayed at the Hilton and even there I would snorkel multiple times every day and always saw smooth trunkfisk(my favorite-K'ai Morto), lots of Stoplight Parrotfish and many others. I love snorkeling and I have been to Mexico (Bahia Principe Akumel and Barcelo Maya in Mexico), St. Martin (Great Bay), and (Playa Ocatol) in Costa Rica and the best snorkeling I have had on the resort was in Curacao.

I don't know Bonaire nor Curacão... but I also would like to hear more on where there is a good, cheap snorkel trip. By cheap thus I'm saying shore snorkeling - if one takes a boat it's no longer "cheap".

As far as snorkeling is concerned, IMO:

Aruba only offers the Baby Beach area, which is far form the hotels... the rest of the island I found no good snorkeling at all (again, not considering a boat to the small day island).

DR I found no worthy shore snorkelling.

Cayman is NOT for snorkelling. There is the one shore dive entry site on the NW corner (at the turtle farm, there's a dive op there) that one could snorkel, and one might snorkel close to the SE corner (seasonal) - but I never found anything worthy of making a snorkel trip (if diving isn't one's primary motive). Does anyone know of something I missed?

Hawaii is of course awesome, a killer, fantastic shore snorkelling destination... but the accomodation costs likely make it impossible to call 'cheap'.

Bahamas I don't know all that well - I've dove the SW Nassau (Stuart's Cove - great sharks) and Abacos - but I haven't found any great snorkelling, and the spots we snorkelled from our boat while doing regatta in Abacos was less than average. I suspect I don't know the right spots and there are good ones??

Keys - well, I live here, have a boat, and I am not aware of ANY shore snorkelling.

Mexico
Cozumel - not great for snorkelling if diving isn't you main focus (diving is spectacular).
Cancun - I don't know it, but I haven't read anything to make me think if offers a worthy snorkel trip.
Akumal - Very nice bay to snorkel, I also stayed at Bahia something... and I saw turtles and rays (common or eagle) on every single entry!
Other south of Cancun to end of Riviera - I don't know, but I hope to learn something here!

Jamaica - Never been, but it is cheap for air and accomodations.

PR - Never been, but I do wonder about it as there is cheap air.

San Andres and Providencia - No worthy snorkelling but nice diving.


So, where are the best CHEAP/shore snorkel trip options?
Bay Islands (Honduras)? CR Caribbean? Turks and Caicos? Santa Marta (Colombia)? Ft. Lauderdale?

Let the kid get a study loan, like the rest of us.....take the money you are spending on him, and get certified. Go to remote locations and enjoy diving.....or come to my house, I can always throw a couple of Garribaldi's in my pool.....or, ask the guy who posted befor me for some money, seems like he has too much

That's great, I post about CHEAP snorkelling options - no boats, not necessarily diving - and even say that some of the locations I don't know all that well or haven't been to and I'm labelled as having too much money

Travel AND diving (and snorkelling, too) are passions for me - it's great when they come together!