St. Marteen Dive/Snorkel Trip

[jphelps9196]

Is anyone aware of a dive operator in St Maarten that will book a combined dive/snorkel trip? Neither my wife or daughter dive, and I'm trying to find a dive trip that they could join me on (have my cake and eat it too, if you will).

Thanks in advance,

-J.

 

[Jersey]

J:
Not aware of any, of course that doesn't mean they don't exist. Most of the boat diving is offshore, starting around 40+ so not really conducive to snorkeling - no shallow reefs or rock piles. I had a dive where the mate was free diving with us at 60 feet.... There are snorkeling trips but there the sites are shallow. Prickly Pear has some good snorkeling. There is always the option that you beach dive & they snorkel. I've dove &/or snorkeled a few of the beaches though you get some funny looks when beach diving SXM.

On St. Thomas we dove a site where diving & snorkeling co-existed, though I'm not sure from the same boat.

Good Luck ~ Lin

 

[jphelps9196]

Thanks. I've contacted a few operations about a dual trip and so far most of them are more than happy to put me on one boat and the snorkelers on another. Still looking though.

-J.

 

[divingyogini]

I would instead go over to Saba for the day and hook up with one of the dive shops there. There's some decent snorkeling (we snorkeled off Orient Beach) but the diving is better at Saba because it's one big volcanic mountain that shoots straight up--hence good wall-diving.

You can do a day trip from St. Martin, which I highly recommend. Saba is neat to see and it's the antithesis of St. Martin. Don't get me wrong, Club Orient is one of my favorite resorts in the world, but St. Martin is like Vegas only with beautiful beaches in some ways.

Saba

 

[NeurosurgeryNP]

Did you try Dive Safaris? I think we had "bubble watchers/snorkelers" on our trip when we dove with them through a crusie ship in January. They have a web site www.divesafaris.com

 

[knucklebusted]

Is anyone aware of a dive operator in St Maarten that will book a combined dive/snorkel trip? Neither my wife or daughter dive, and I'm trying to find a dive trip that they could join me on (have my cake and eat it too, if you will).

Thanks in advance,

-J.

This is probably too late but what the heck!

While nobody in my party was snorkeling, we dove with Aqua Mania out of the Pelican Resort on Simpson Bay and they took us divers to Creole Rock and some of the same people we had seen on the dock were there with snorkeling gear when he arrived. It was only 20ft deep between the reefs so the snorkelers had a good time. The diving is OK but not great there but it is a trade-off if you want everyone to be together.