Cruising...need advice on snorkeling/freediving locations...

Hi all. I'm relatively new to freediving and have found this forum to be a great source of information.

We're cruising in December to the following locations:

San Juan, Puerto Rico
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Casa De Campo, Dominican Republic
Labadee, Haiti (Royal Caribbean's private port)

I'm looking for snorkeling/freediving location recommendation for these ports. Any recommendations on beaches or charters would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

go to

spearboard.com

theyll have some info for you

A few years ago I did a shore excursion with Royal Caribbean. I believe it was in St. Thomas.
I had a blast interacting with all the fish and plan to dive there soon. It was my first salt water exposure!

I just so happened to work on a day sail boat that took snorkelers off Royal Caribbean ships to a great snorkel spot on St. Thomas. Check out The Doubloon or Dancing Dolphin (same company) - you'll have an absolute blast. I worked on both boats for a little over a year and still fill in during my off time inbetween charters (I know work on a charter sail boat). They go out to a small island just south of St. Thomas called Buck Island to an area called Turtle Cove. I must have been to this spot well over 500 times and have always seen at least one sea turtle. There's also a pretty decent reef there, as well.

As for free diving, that's going to be a little tougher for you. Turtle Cove only gets down to 25' or so. If you're interested in some deeper snorkeling, try Coki Beach on the northeast corner of the island. It gets down to 40'ish.

If you have any more questions about St. Thomas, feel free to ask. I've been here for a year and a half now and when you live on island this small, you tend to learn everything pretty quick!

~Tom~

Thanks for the responses.

Tom...My wife did some digging and came across Rumbada Charters http://www.rumbabacharters.com/. I certainly appreciate your recommedation of Dancing Dolphin and will likely go that route, but I am curious if you have any information/opinion on these guys. My wife said that there were quite a few positive posts on the cruise forums so I figured I'd check from a resident of the area. :14:

Dave

Wojo,

WWW.SPEARBOARD.COM YOU REALLY NEED TO VISIT THIS SITE THEY CAN HELP YOU.

speargirl:

Wojo,

WWW.SPEARBOARD.COM YOU REALLY NEED TO VISIT THIS SITE THEY CAN HELP YOU.

Click to expand...

That must be one great site. Two people telling me to check it out, and one is shouting at me. :14: I'll check it out. Thanks.

I posted on spearboard.com and have received some very good responses. Thanks to eyt@nnah and speargirl for the direction. Much appreciated.

Dave