BEST SNORKELING SPOTS?

[Anne F.]

Hi Everybody: This is my first post, but I have been reading this great site for months. Good job Steve! We will be in Castara for 2 weeks in April and any advice about good snorkeling spots would be appreciated. We are avid snorkelers and normally spend most of our vacation in the water. We will be renting a car so we will not be limited to one area. We are very excited about our first trip to Tobago. I'm sure we'll be hooked! Thanks, Anne F.

[Douglas R]

If youget to Stonehaven Bay try the rocks on the right hand side of the beach. There are many small inlets and rock channels which are a haven for both shoals of small fish and coral eaters. If you are lucky you will see some small squid. Be careful if the seas are rough as the swell is quite strong.

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Anne,
Steve has put together a good list of snorkelling sites in his diving section look in Out&About / Activities / Diving.

There is also a very comprehensive list of snorkelling sites in the General Forum page towards the bottom of page 3, I put it together last year for another query before Steve had a diving section.

If you are in to snorkelling you must try one of the boat trips from Bluewaters Inn in Speyside and snorkel off Angel Reef

My top 3 would be Pirates Bay, Angel Reef, and Mount Irvin Wall.

Regards
Kevin

[Anne F.]

Dear Douglas and Kevin: Thanks for your suggestions, very helpful. Anne

[David Watkins]

Anne,as you are in Castara,the right hand side of Little Bay has some good snorkelling over a small reef.(and it's close to the bar!)
David

[Paul Tallet]

I am interested in Kevin's recommendation for Pirates Bay as I have never had much luck there with cloudy waters ... but his recommendation has prompted me to give it another bash this year. Also going to try out some other sites around Charlottesville on a Sea Kayaking tour.

David's recommendation of Castara I can certainly endorse, although I do worry about the reef's proximity to the beach ... very good for snorkelling but some areas are a bit risky for swimmers that cannot see the coral beneath their feet ... plus I have seen a few stinging sea urchins there ... so take care, probably wise to put some protection on your feet.

If you can tear yourself away fron the close proximity of the bar you can swim further out from Castara ... there is some beautiful snorkelling further along the headland ... plus the sight of some of the large sting rays that swoop along the main part of the beach.

Mount Irvines and Arnos Vale are beautiful and Englishmans is good too ... Englishmans always springs the occasional surprise such as an enormous Barracuda I once met there a few years ago.

Regards

[Anne F.]

I can see that we will have plenty of places to explore, especially the bar! Great place to spend the hottest part of the day. Thanks for your help everyone. 38 days to go ......

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Paul,
The two good bits at Pirates Bay were the two rocky bits at each end last October when the vis was pretty bad at Speyside I had around 15m + vis with loads of fish. The same day I was at Englishmans and the vis was only about 5m.

I have a had a few good sessions at Pirates but mostly when the tide is almost in, at low tide the water round the rocks is not so deep (states the obvious) and this tends to stir the sand a bit and the vis drops.

Regard
Kevin

[Paul Tallet]

Kevin

Some have told me to go to the left, others to the right ... so you are saying it is OK at both ends.

OK will do and will check the tides.

Going there on a Kayak trip so no doubt I will get advice when there ... we are also trying Cambleton and Hermitage on the same trip.

Thanks for the tips.

Cheers

Paul

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Paul

I haven't snorkelled in Pirate's Bay for nearly 40 years, but there was a time when I knew every nook and cranny of that reef. All the land on that hillside behind the bay, right up and over the ridge at Flagstaff Hill, and in fact pretty much all the land that you can see in Charlotteville belonged (belongs?) to the Turpin family, who used to be our hosts. They effectively owned Pirates Bay because the only way into it was by boat. As a 10-15 year old kid, I learned to snorkel there, rowing out from the village in a rowing boat. It was magic.

Anyway, the reef crosses the mouth of Pirate's Bay. In fact it extends down almost to the pier, but damage by the fishing boats has rendered much of it pretty useless from a snorkelling point of view. I think the same has happened to some degree in the centre of the reef, but the left-hand side (viewed from the beach) always used to be the slightly better side. Could have changed in recent years of course.

You've made the right decision to go out with Clarke Weissinger in one of his kayak trips. Jill went out with him last year and has been pestering me to take her up there this year so she can repeat the experience. We bumbed into Clarke in Scarborough a few weeks ago. He says he's now offering similar trips from Pigeon Point, by reservation. I believe that's where he started out, a few years ago, before moving to Charlotteville. Anybody interested in a kayak tour in the Pigeon Point area are strongly recommended to contact him and see if he can put something together. He's a really nice guy and knows his stuff and everyone raves about his service. He'll know the best current snorkelling spots in Man 'O War Bay, Paul, so just rely on him. Jill said the snorkelling off Hermitage Bay was very good.

[Paul Tallet]

Thank you Steve

Judging from my recent correspondence with Clarke, he has a sense of humour too ... so, if you are reading Clarke, the Tallets will be standing to attention and ready for inspection as instructed on the 30th March at 0830.

Cheers

[Paul Williams]

Hello Paul
During our stay in Charlotteville last October we went out for a trip with Clark and we had the best snorkelling of the whole holiday in a bay called Lovers Bay (because you can only reach it by boat or kayak) which is only a 5 minute paddle passed Cambleton.
We were unlucky on this trip in that a very heavy thunderstorm hit us and we had to abort early, maybe this was because you had not started Liquid News then.
You will have a great time due to the trip being in a lovely location and also that Clark is really good company.
Regards

[Kitty Hibben]

Hello

Arnos Vale is the most spectacular place to snorkel. The reef comes right up to the sand so you just snorkle straight of the beach. Its really safe for children and it is full of marine life, I have seen so many things there, squid, clown fish, lobster, trigger fish, even a turtle once. The beach is accessible through the Arnos Vale hotel.

We usually take a whole afternoon, snorkel for a couple of hours, sunbath for a bit, then at 4pm we take 'tea on the terrace' and birdwatch until the sun sets. It is usually best to ring in advance and let the hotel know if you are coming for tea so that they can prepare cake etc. The terrace views are breathtaking, and even if you are not a bird fan its just beautiful sitting there in the sun watching all the wildlife activity. The terrace has nectar feeders which they fill to attract the humming birds and its amazing watching these tiny birds flitting around.

Arnos Vale is somewhere I always go to when I come to Tobago (7th year this year!) i think it one of the most tranquil places on the whole island!

Hope this helps
Enjoy your holiday
Kitty

P.S the Beatles stayed at Arnos Vale several times, apparantly it was the one place they could go, where the papers never found them!

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Kitty

I have arranged a day at Arnos Vale tomorrow (Sunday).

It is one of the best 'surviving' snorkelling sites I have so far seen.

I was very sad to visit Charlottesville yesterday to see the reef on the main beach that I have, in the past, found to be one of the most colourful.

It has completely gone (or is covered), thousands of years of natural development wiped out in a mere 16 hours by the devastating landslides from November 2004.

A few locals confirmed this and we were very depressed ... a tragic loss.

I hope that when I go back on Wednesday to see the reefs at Pirates Bay and Cambleton I will see that these reefs will still be intact.

Regards

[Ken Luthy]

How does one go about contacting Clarke Weissinger for a kayak trip? and Newton for a birding tour? We will be in Tobago beginning on 7 April.

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Ken

Welcome aboard!

Sorry if its a bit obvious, but you could either try the Search box at the top of the page, or navigate to our Bird Watching or Sailing article (Out & About/Activities) - or even our Reviews pages.

[Kitty Hibben]

HI Paul,

It so sad to hear about Charlottesville bay, hope Arnos Vale was looking beautiful though! Don't you just feel so helpless when reefs are being damaged by nature its self!

Hope you are enjoying your trip! I'm counting down the days until I am back there!


Kitty

[Alan Davies]

Just returned from a fortnight in Tobago.

Agree with other posts that Arnos Vale is a good site, easy to access with good variety of coral and fish. We saw several turtles there.

Mount Irvine Beach is also good, with a variety of coral and fish - even saw a stingray there.

The artificial reef at Coco Reef resort is also good with very calm water and a hugh variety of fish in a relatively small area. If you can't access the resort park on Pidgeon Point Road by the Pidgeon Point Club sign and swim in although the currents near the entrance to Coco Reef can be strong.

All of these sites are easy shore snorkelling and all have facilities to eat and drink although Coco Reef is pricey.

[Kristine White]

Hey,
I read about the reef being damaged...just wondering if you would still recommend staying in this area--or if the hurricanes really did a lot of damage. Has anything else changed besides the reef??

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Kristine

If you haven't been to Tobago before, you won't notice the difference. The island was only brushed by the hurricane and suffered very little damage. Yes, a few trees are down but vegetation grows very, very quickly in the tropics so now, eight months later, the gaps created by falling trees are all grown over and even the fallen trunks and branches are missing under all the ground cover. You really have to look hard to notice the damage and visitors not really familiar with the island and not specifically looking for signs of damage will never notice anything.

The reef damage is largely caused by soil run-off from the landslides caused during torrential rainfall back in late November and through continued heavy rainfall during the last wet season.