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Apr 30th, 2010, 06:29 PM
#1
chellyroo
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Best Snorkeling in Caribbean or Mexico/Central America w/o Breaking Bank
Hi! My husband and I went to Grand Cayman in May 2007, which was our first experience with snorkeling. We were blown away, never having seen the kinds of fish and other marine life as we did right outside our inn's door. We are trying to plan for a week long trip in or around Feb. 2011 to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary (actually in Nov. 2010!). We are not looking for luxury accomadations, or a place with night life. Here's a list of "if we could have exactly what we want":
- Good snorkeing right off beach (smoother waters preferred!), with a reef or better snorkeling by chartered trip for at least one day of trip, clear waters a must (as a rule, not asking for weather control, here!)
- Accomodations with A/C, quiet, safe, cable TV, kitchen
- Good places to eat!
- Maybe some kind of land day trip, like ruins?
- Not too hard to get to from Atlanta, GA
- Not too expensive (less than $5000) for everything
- Locals able to understand English...my Espanol is muy poquito (spelling?)!
Thanks, more may come to me as I think on this!
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Apr 30th, 2010, 06:45 PM
#2
DebitNM
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Not on your list, but we love the Coral Bay area of St John, USVI. Great beaches, snorkeling, great local restaurants, day trips on the island to old sugar plantations or to nearby islands and so much more. Oh, everyone speaks English!
Here's a cottage,Palm Cottage in Coral Bay. It is a delight!
It is a beautiful, new cottage with a spectacular view of the harbor. It is self-contained, stand alone and has everything you would want from outdoor shower, to a bbq grill, beach chairs, coolers, and on and on.
I read through the guest book and all of the comments have been so positive on all aspects of their stay.
For the record - While I have no financial interest in the property, the owner's are personal friends. Barry & Diane are gracious hosts and great people.
Here are some pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/PalmCottage
Be sure to tell them Deb from Colorado sent you!
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Apr 30th, 2010, 06:57 PM
#3
KVR
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Best snorkeling was Grand Cayman for us. Second was Cozumel. We also enjoyed Turks and Caicos and Aruba. Most people love St. John, USVI.
Mexico has Mayan Ruins and St. John has the sugar planation ruins. We've never had any problems communicating with people in Mexico.
February will be high season, so expect to pay more than other times of the year like May and August to the first two weeks in November and the the first 2 weeks of December.
We did not like the beaches in Curacao. They are made up of crushed coral and are inlest/coves. The snorkeling was just as good as some of the other places we've been.
The water color in St.Lucia is quite deep blue. The clarity is not great. Though it is a beautiful Island, and if interested in culture, waterfalls and mountians, a great place to vacation.
Atlana, GA is Delta's hub, (I think) so look to where Delta flies to easily. I beleive AA will have a few direct flights also.
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May 1st, 2010, 04:10 AM
#4
chellyroo
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Thanks, guys! I will look at the St. John USVI info--I just couldn't put every place we ill consider in the title or tags!
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May 1st, 2010, 08:17 AM
#5
fishee
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Cozumel would be inexpensive and very good snorkeling and diving. Very good and affordable seafood and Mexican. You can fly into CUN if you don't wish to connect to get to CZM. (Getting from CUN to Playa Del Carmen is easier for me than doing a non-stop flight and waiting around Dallas to fly into CZM)
There are lots of vrbo accommodations on Coz I believe. I've stayed 2 places, Condumel and Miramar condos, both were 99/night.
http://www.cozumelvillas.com/condumel.html
Easy direct water access (I could go from bed to snorkeling in front in around 4 minutes) although the most impressive reefs are going to require a charter out to a nearby reef.
i remember my first time snorkeling too -- it was one of the most relaxing and beautiful experiences of my life....
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May 1st, 2010, 08:20 AM
#6
fishee
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Oh, I just saw your budget - $5000! You can go anywhere you want... Cozumel is around 2000/week.
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May 1st, 2010, 08:38 AM
#7
chellyroo
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Fishee, this sounds good! gonna look into Coz. Oh and the $5k is just the MAX we could spend, we def prefer staying well below! What kinds of fish/marine life do you see in Coz? How is it different than say Belize?
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May 1st, 2010, 12:40 PM
#8
StanKase
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If you will eliminate off the beach snorkeling for a resort that will take you once a day to the second largest barrier reef in the world go to Belize. One very nice place is Turneffe Island Lodge. It is off the mainland but they offer a a 1 week package including taking you to the mainland to visit a Mayan ruin 1 day if you wish or a jungle preserve. Grand Cayman is a 4-5 and Belize is a 7-8 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of snorkeling from the vantage point of heathy corol, variety of fish, sponges, sea anemomies and sea fans. This resort even goes once a week to the famous Blue Hole where the snorkeling is as good as Tobago Caye in the Grenadines or even better. A land based resort that is slightly more expensive but gives you 3 land based outings if you want in 7 days but again no off the beach snorkeling is Hamanasi Resort. Here the food is more upscale and the pool complex is quite a bit nicer. Both are far better than the big hotels you find in Cozemal and the snorkeling is far better except they take you out. But, they really make it easy going out at about 9-9:30 and in fact at Turneffe they took us out twice on a few days back a few years ago. You can Google both to check the rates because you are going at the high season but the flight from Atlanta would be through miami or Houston and you could arrive at either resort by 3 PM.
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May 1st, 2010, 01:07 PM
#9
markrosy
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The Bahamas have the clearest water due to the flow of the cold water. Stay away from Nassau and you will see incredible sea life.
The Out Islands usually involve one change in Nassau/ Miami from Atlanta.
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May 1st, 2010, 03:20 PM
#10
chellyroo
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StanKase, I am so happy to see a response from you! I had come across your posts several times when doing a search on Fodor's about snorkeling & was so impressed with your experience & knowledge. This sounds perfect (what you've described). Thank you SO much! Do you have any photos posted on this area?
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May 1st, 2010, 03:55 PM
#11
chellyroo
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Oh, and we've never stayed at a resort before; even tho it's "all inclusive" are there other costs we need to consider? Thanks!
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May 2nd, 2010, 05:59 AM
#12
chellyroo
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Another question; looking on the website for Turneffe Island Resort I see it has the trip to Blue Hole on Tues. weather permitting. So if the weather is bad, can you take the trip on another day? For us seeing the Blue Hole would be the highlight of the trip.
Also, I noticed there is only internet service at the gift shop and you pay for it; just wondering, is there a website where you can plug in the features you want in a room/resort and find different ones? The TIR was acutally reasonable on price & looks wonderful, but we would prefer knowing we absolutley can visit the Blue Hole even if the deignated day is cancelled, have in-room internet (WIFI if possible) and a TV would be nice 
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May 2nd, 2010, 07:07 AM
#13
StanKase
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chellyroo; They used to work in another day to the Blue Hole but NO guarantee, I suppose. It is a 90 minute trip and the weather conditions really dictate. You can contact them through their website which is a FLorida reservation center. they may now have a larger boat that can 90% assure you of getting to the Blue Hole.There is no hook-up in the room or Wi-fi.No other resort can guarantee it either. We stayed at a resort three times that was 30 minutes from the Blue Hole that was a terrific but now closed, Lighthouse Reef Resort, and they even on a heavy sea day might postpone even though right at the Hole it might be calm. I would go for it if they say they will make a second attempt in a 7 day stay, for sure. The more expensive accommodation was worth the difference on our opinion.
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May 2nd, 2010, 09:19 AM
#14
StanKase
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I should add the Superior room is worth the extra $500 for the week (it's only $70/day) and a lot more room, some more privacy and better equipped. If you are not adverse to walking to meals even if it might rain, but I once asked them "if we do not show-up for dinner by 7 please come in a golf cart to get us" and they did then ask for the most isolated, farthest apart from the others. They will 99% guarantee it after they have received your deposit. Jason if he is still at the Ft. Lauderdale office was very helpful. He has to contact the resort for answers to questions so allow 48 hours for a response.
I should tell you it is rustic but well maintained and when we were there at least whistle clean. Enjoy.
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May 2nd, 2010, 09:52 PM
#15
fishee
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Oooh - I really loved Belize! OK -- I was quite concerned about not having direct water access but we stayed where they had a sailboat that was unbelievably cheap at $150 for 5 hrs (may have gone up) and some of the days we split it with another couple who we enjoyed hanging out with. Loved being on a boat for the first time where it was quiet and no gas fumes.
http://www.cayecasa.com/ - we stayed at these charming ocean-front casitas with kitchnettes. They were only $85/night although looks like they've gone up....
Blue hole was quite far from Ambergris (and an advanced dive which we just started doing) so we didn't end up going there but the marine life was *so* amazing just a short trip away on the sailboat. The nice thing for snorkelers is that the water is relatively shallow so you can really get down near all the marine life and reef -- we were swimming through huge schools of fish (and some giant, tasty looking grouper) and even small sharks -- it was really beautiful.
One thing was that food wasn't as great on Ambergris compared to Jamaica and Cozumel. We did enjoy some good meals but only when Captain Boxer (who was on-site) would make a food run and ask if we'd like anything. (he did this on almost a daily basis). Many of the sit-down restaurants were average but we were able to try some Garifuna (sp?) dishes made by a local cook which were amazing -- stewed red snapper in coconut milk with pounded plantain, etc. which were ordered and picked up by Boxer. We'd eat these meals out on our balcony which was really lovely. We loved Ambergris and it's mellow atmosphere -- only a handful of cars on the Caye, most get around by golfcart.
This was a more expensive trip for us than Cozumel mostly due to airfare. Fares a bit higher to Belize City and then you need to charter another plane to get out to the little islands but the plane rides are so fun! I keep telling my friends that the little charters felt like an activity rather than transportation so I felt it was well worth the money.
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May 3rd, 2010, 03:44 AM
#16
chellyroo
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Fishee, that sounds like a fantastic trip! Neither my husband nor I know how to sail (tho we'd both love to go sailing) so that part would be out for us. I've emailed the staff at the TIR to ask about the trip out to the Blue Hole, so if they say we can go another day I think that's going to be it for us. I also looked at a place called Hamanasi Resort, which looked interesting, and it offered 4 trips during a one week stay for about $400 more than TIR, but there weren't 4 in the choices we'd be really excited about (at least from reading about). I wish we knew more about the area so I could go on VRBO.com & see what's avaiable that's accesible to the Blue Hole and daily snorkeling. Can anyone give any siggestions on that?
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May 3rd, 2010, 07:40 AM
#17
fishee
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Wow -- TIR looks very cool and the price is so reasonable. I tried to get my friend to go to a place like this in the Caymans last year and he thought it was too isolated so that's how we ended up in Ambergris Caye. If you're trying to decide between all inclusives I'd prioritize good food reviews since you'll be eating 20 meals there. Food is the other part of my vacation priorities -- the other is snorkeling/diving.
BTW -- I can't sail either!! Boxer takes guests out everyday -- I'd be terrified of sailing myself... This looks cool -- look forward to hearing how you like it. I'm drawn to this idea of being on an isolated island.
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May 6th, 2010, 06:49 PM
#18
chellyroo
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Yeah, we are getting stoked about it, and there are, what--9 months to go?!?! Lots of time to build anticipation! Now we're trying to find a place that will rent underwater cameras. We're photographers but both our camera are the above water sort. No way we can go on a trip like this & not take photos of what's in the water!
There will be a big post when we get back!
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May 6th, 2010, 09:02 PM
#19
StanKase
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xhellyroo; Maybe i should get a fee for serice, only kidding but don't rent a camera.
Buy the Vanon D10 . It is the best underwaer Point and Shoot underwater camera and obviously can be used above ground. as well. it cost $330. Buy it through the Internet like from ButDig and mage sure yiu buy an extra 4G card an call to confirm it comes with a charger, Don't let them sell you a better one charger. It takes great pictures even when diving.
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May 7th, 2010, 04:34 AM
#20
blamona
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I got my Canon D10 thru Amazon. It's an amazing point and shoot camera, and the underwater setting brings out all the great colors of fish, it doesn't wash out and make everything blue and yellow. Above water is pretty decent too-it's a great little camera. All you do is rinse it off, no o-rings or fancy pieces. I cannot stress enough how awesome this little camera is! The only negative, in todays world where everything gets smaller and smaller, this one is a tiny bit bulkier-which actually is not a negative for me! You can view the screen while underwater, so excellent in that department, and even take underwater video! (although the video is just standard setting)
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