SG1

I'm looking to take a trip to the Caribbean in the next couple of months to relax & do some "serious" snorkeling. We have been to several islands of the Caribbean (Jamica, T&C, Bahamas, Cancun, Domician Rep)We love to snorkel, we carry our own gear. I'm looking for info. on resorts that have great snorkeling right off the beach ...any ideas.

A_Traveller

You'll find excellent off-beach snorkeling from any of the 7 beaches at Caneel Bay Resort on St. John. The island also boasts quite a few other beaches with great off-beach snorkeling. On this island you can snorkel a different beach every morning and every afternoon for 10 days and never visit the same area twice.

You'll find OK off beach snorkeling at Little Dix Bay Resort on Virgin Gorda and some excellent snorkeling on just about all of the islands other beaches, especially the Baths, Spring Bay, Savanah Bay, Mahoe Bay and Nail Bay.

SG1

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess you're speaking from experience? If so, how would you rate this resort.....rooms, service, food, pools (swim up bars?)etc.

A_Traveller

Caneel Bay is one of the top resorts in the Caribbean and much has been written about it and its sister resort, Little Dix Bay (Virgin Gorda) on this forum. If you use the searh feature (type "Caneel Bay" or "Little Dix Bay" in the box) you find hundreds of posts that will answer every conceivable question you could have. Personally, I prefer Little Dix Bay over Caneel Bay but both are great upscale resorts that won't disappoint even the most sophisticated traveller. Visit their respective web sites for more information:

www.littledixbay.com
www.caneelbay.com

poss

Just to say that if pools and swim up bars are fairly impt to you, Caneel won't be your cup of tea. I believe there's a pool, but it's way out of the way of the beach. I've literally never seen it though we've been to Caneel a number of times. LD has a lovely pool, but no swim up bar, and as Traveller said the snorkeling isn't great at LD. (At Caneel, it's way better than any of the places you've mentioned.) Also note: There are no tv's or radios at Caneel.

StanKase

The only critical comment on Caneel is the food. In the period 1975-1990 ( we went 5-6 times) when RockResorts managed it the food was very good to excellent. In the early 1990's we went and were somewhat disappointed and went off the meal plan and eat some dinners in Cruz Bay. I must admit we found 1 place in the late 1990's that was very good for dinner but that was 7-8 yrs. ago. We went back in 2002, I think, and the food was only "fair". A real big disappointment partially because of earlier trips. A number of travelers seem to agree that the food is average but the snorkeling and beaches are GRAND. The rooms in Hawks Nest and Turtle Bay are our favorites when we cannot get Cottage #7 rooms c, d or E.

Little Dix food is better based on a trips in 1998 and 2003 but the property is not as nice though the rooms are a bit nicer. The snorkel options are very good but Caneel has it beat, in my opinion.But, a day trip to Anegada from Little Dix is said to rival the best at Caneel. We will go there on our next trip to LD but that is a year away. We have Biras Creek and Andros Island, Bahamas before then.