St. Thomas snorkeling tours

Which dock St. Thomas snorkel trips leave from

The shared boats sail from two shores. Near town on the south side, The VI Cat leaves Marriott's Frenchman's Cove dock and Cruz Bay Watersports boards at The Westin Beach Resort & Spa at Frenchman's Reef. On the East End, Ocean Surfari leaves the American Yacht Harbor dock in Red Hook, Aqua Marine runs from Saga Haven Marina, and Cruz Bay Watersports also picks up at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas. The kayak trip starts in Mangrove Lagoon, and the guided swims start on the sand.

Pick by the dock nearest your villa before you pick by the reef: a three-hour trip turns into most of a day once a cross-island drive is in it.

A cruise day changes the choice. From the Havensight pier, Frenchman's Reef and Limetree are a short taxi south, so The VI Cat's three-hour sail or the shorter swim off Limetree leaves time in hand. From Crown Bay, Brewers Bay is just past the airport, and the two-hour turtle snorkel that usually starts there is the easy fit. St. Thomas Scuba and Snorkel Adventures collects you at the ship. Red Hook is across the island from either pier, and the five-hour Buck Island sail fills most of a port call, so give either a wide margin before an all-aboard. The cruise port guide has the taxis from each pier.

Which St. Thomas snorkel trip suits your day

Turtles are the usual reason, and two trips are built around them. The VI Cat sails three hours to Turtle Cove off Little Buck Island, where the snorkel is in the water beside a refuge nobody lands on. Virgin Islands Ecotours guides you to the same animals from the sand at Brewers Bay, the shorter outing and the gentler one for a nervous swimmer. For coral rather than turtles, Ocean Surfari crosses from Red Hook into Virgin Islands National Park off St. John.

With children, the Cas Cay kayak trip takes them from seven, Coral World's Snuba from eight, and Ocean Surfari prices a child from three. A first-timer does well on Aqua Marine's swim off Limetree, the least expensive trip in the table: an hour and a quarter from the beach with a guide and a flotation device. Aqua Action at Secret Harbour and the Hull Bay shop both take swimmers out after dark for a night snorkel. And a party of four that wants its own guide and its own clock can hire St. Thomas Scuba and Snorkel Adventures, which drives a Jeep from beach to beach for four or five hours.

St. Thomas snorkeling excursions: what the fare leaves out

The headline price is rarely the price paid. Ocean Surfari lists $75 an adult, then adds a $5 fuel surcharge and a $4 National Park entry fee a person, and a 20% gratuity for parties of six or more. Cruz Bay Watersports' $99 Buck Island sail is a sale price on a $159 list, runs only once enough people book, and stops on Water Island for a lunch you buy yourself.

None of the Buck Island trips go ashore. The island is a national wildlife refuge closed to the public, so the snorkel is in the water off it, which is where the turtles are in any case.

Snorkeling Mangrove Lagoon and the St. James islands

Two trips stay inside the marine reserves at the island's southeast end. Virgin Islands Ecotours paddles kayaks from Mangrove Lagoon to Cas Cay, a three-hour outing: the paddle out through the mangroves, a walk on the cay and a snorkel in water calm enough for a young child, with no open-water crossing. Ocean Surfari's Friday-morning trip goes the other way, out to Little and Great St. James, at the same price as its park trip and with pizza aboard.

Beach snorkeling on St. Thomas, free from the sand

Several St. Thomas beaches have snorkeling off the sand for nothing. Coki Beach, beside Coral World, has reef fish a short swim out; vendors rent gear and parking is charged. At Brewers Bay the turtles graze the seagrass a few strokes off the beach, tagged by the University of the Virgin Islands since 2014, and nothing is rented there, so bring a mask. Sapphire Beach has a shallow reef entered from the shore, and Secret Harbour, open with no day pass, has Aqua Action on the beach renting snorkel sets by the day.

Virgin Islands Ecotours' turtle snorkel usually starts at Brewers Bay, so its fee buys a guide, the gear and a lesson, not the turtles. Where to see sea turtles on St. Thomas has the free version, and the St. Thomas snorkeling guide ranks every spot from the beach and by boat.