The reef is the easy part. Picking the boat is not.
Which Molokini boat leaves early enough to beat the chop. What a manta night off Kona costs. Whether the Silfra drysuit earns its price. Reviews of snorkelling trips you can book around the world.
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San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Puerto Rico · from $42
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Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits Included
Canary Islands · from $35
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Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel
Big Island · from $84
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Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on Location
Iceland · from $154
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Ocean Rafting: Whitehaven Beach, Snorkelling & Hill Inlet Lookout
Whitsundays · from $149
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3 Islands, Dolphins & Snorkel Yacht Trip w/ Lunch
Red Sea · from $47
Four snorkelling days that decide the rest of the trip.
A turtle bay off Waikiki, mantas at Nusa Penida, manatees in a Florida spring and the outer Great Barrier Reef. What each costs, and what the water is actually like.
01The Hawaii dayOahu Circle Island Tour with Turtle Snorkeling— Small-GroupsTurtle Canyon and the north shore on one loop out of Waikiki. Small groups, so the reef stop is not shared with four other boats.
02The manta day️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land TourA private boat around Nusa Penida with four stops. Manta Point is the reason you book it. The drift at Crystal Bay is the surprise.
03The freshwater oneThe ‘OG’ Manatee Snorkel Tour with In-Water Guide/PhotographerManatees in a Crystal River spring, 22C all year. No reef, no swell, and nothing else in snorkelling feels remotely like it.
04The reef dayOuter and Coral Cay Snorkel and Dive CruiseOut to the coral cay off Cairns for a full day on the outer reef, with the dive option when the shallows stop being enough.
Six countries carry most of the world’s snorkelling.
The Yucatan reef and the cenotes behind it, Hawaii and the Florida Keys, Canary turtles and Balearic caves, the Andaman limestone, the Red Sea, and the strait between Bali and Nusa Penida.
Three animals worth building a snorkelling trip around.
Coral is everywhere. A green turtle grazing at arm’s length, a spinner pod passing underneath you and an eight-metre manta lifting out of the dark are not.
Turtles
Green turtles graze seagrass in the shallows, so the reliable places are meadow bays rather than coral walls: Turtle Canyon off Waikiki, the beach at Gili Air, El Puertito on Tenerife. They surface every few minutes to breathe, which is why a good guide watches the surface and not the bottom. Three metres is the rule almost everywhere, and the operators worth booking brief it twice.
- 1San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $42
- 2Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits Included★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · from $35
- 3Oahu’s Ultimate Tour: Dole, Turtle Snorkel, Pali Lookout & More★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $108
Dolphins
Spinner pods rest in shallow sandy bays through the morning and hunt offshore at night, so a dawn departure is not an operator preference, it is the only window. Hawaii now holds swimmers 45 metres off spinners, which turns most Kona trips into a boat-rail watch rather than a swim. Egypt, the Canaries and north Bali still put you in the water.
- 1Catamaran Dolphin Watch Cruise with Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · from $44
- 23 Islands, Dolphins & Snorkel Yacht Trip w/ Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · from $47
- 3Shell Island Snorkel and Dolphin Catamaran Cruise with Island Time★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $57
Mantas and whale sharks
The Kona manta night works because the boats hang lights that pull plankton into a column and the rays come up to feed under it. Nusa Penida is the daylight version, a cleaning station where mantas queue over the reef. Whale sharks are a season rather than a place: Isla Mujeres runs roughly June to September, under permit, with a handful of swimmers in at a time.
- 1️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $100
- 2Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $84
- 3Kona Manta Ray Snorkel Tour in Keauhou Harbor★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $25
What you snorkel from matters more than where you snorkel.
A big catamaran buys shade, a ladder and a hundred people at the same reef stop. A speedboat buys three stops and a wet ride out. A private charter buys the reef after the tour fleet has gone home. Same water, completely different day.
Hawaii, the Keys and one Florida spring: US snorkelling, sorted.
Five American places carry the rest of the country. Molokini and Turtle Town off Maui, the manta night on the Big Island, Turtle Canyon twenty minutes out of Waikiki, a reef sail from Key West, and the one that is not the sea at all.
The most-booked snorkelling trips on the site.
Every snorkelling trip →More travellers take these than anything else in the water. The reason is usually visibility, a short ride out, or an animal that reliably turns up.
1
San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Snorkel with turtles and tropical fish near San Juan for $42.30, with gear, instruction, a guide, and GoPro video included.
From · $42
Read our review →
2
Grand Tour Around Island 16 Locations plus Snorkeling
from $109
3
Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits Included
from $35
4
️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tour
from $100
5
Big Island Manta Ray Night Snorkel
from $84
6
Oahu’s Ultimate Tour: Dole, Turtle Snorkel, Pali Lookout & More
from $108
7
Oahu Circle Island Tour with Turtle Snorkeling— Small-Groups
from $149
8
Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on Location
from $154
What actually stops people snorkelling.
Almost nothing here needs a licence, and that is the trap: the boat will hand you a mask whether or not you can swim. Most operators will put a float, a vest and a guide on the water for anyone who asks, and it is worth asking at the counter rather than at the ladder. Water under 22C wants a wetsuit, and the tropical trips supply one. Hawaii and several Mexican parks allow mineral sunscreen only, so bring zinc or buy it at the dock. And the swell that makes the crossing rough is the same swell that turns the reef to soup, which is why the good boats leave early.
What a morning of snorkelling costs, band by band.
Every priced trip on the site, grouped by what one person pays. The Red Sea and Indonesia sit at the bottom, Hawaii and Iceland at the top, and most of the gap is boat fuel.
Red Sea day boats, Gili island hops, Thai long-tails, and anything you walk into from a beach.
The standard reef day: catamaran, ladder, lunch, two stops. Most of Hawaii and the Caribbean lands here.
The outer Great Barrier Reef, Molokini on a small boat, Silfra drysuits, and private charters.
Mexico snorkels twice: the reef outside, the cenote inland.
The Mesoamerican reef runs the length of the Riviera Maya, close enough to reach on a twenty-minute boat. Then you drive inland and drop into a flooded limestone shaft with no fish, no swell and a shaft of light coming through the roof. Doing both in one day is the standard Tulum booking.
Every Mexican snorkelling day →
Four snorkelling trips that will not wait for you.
Most snorkelling can be arranged the night before from a beach bar. These four run on permits, seasons, drysuit fittings and a boat that goes out once a day.
- 01Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on LocationIceland fits one set of drysuits per departure and the fissure takes a fixed number of snorkellers a day. Winter dates go months out.
- 02Big Island Manta Ray Night SnorkelThe Kona boats only run at dusk, and the lights only work with a small group on the float line. Weekend slots go first.
- 03Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownThe crater is a marine reserve with a permitted boat list. The early departures get the flat water; by mid-morning the trade wind is in and the visibility drops.
- 04La Paz Whale Shark Snorkeling Tour and Lunch From Los CabosA season rather than a place. The Isla Mujeres boats run roughly June to September under permit, a few swimmers in the water at a time.
By kind of day
The newest snorkelling reviews.
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Akumal: Snorkel with Marine Fauna and an Expert Guide
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Agnes/1770: Southern Great Barrier Reef Snorkelling Day Trip
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Emerald Coast: Afternoon Snorkel & Dolphin Tour
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Abades: Tenerife Turtles and Rays Snorkeling Trip
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