World's Best Snorkel Trips

Looking for a new kind of adventure? Our top picks for the world's best snorkeling adventures, including humpback whales, stingrays, manatees and whale sharks.

For more snorkeling fun, check out these awesome videos: Sailfish off Isla Mujeres | Manatees in Florida.

Snorkeling in Florida: Manatees in Crystal River

Thank goodness we don’t greet the unknown as baby manatees do. With poor eyesight and pectoral fins that don’t reach beyond the girth of their body, they rely on tac- tile hairs — mostly those on their snout — to investigate.

At Three Sisters Springs, I hop from my paddle board to snorkel. When I turn around, I find a calf smooshing its face against the board.

Paul Cross, manager at the Adventure Center at Plantation on Crystal River, tells me that manatees are especially drawn to bright colors like pink and orange. My paddle board is yellow.

But these gentle creatures let curiosity get the best of them only when they’re not scared — or overwhelmed.

“The bubbles that divers send out affect the manatees,” Cross says. “Even the sleeping ones feel it. The manatees wake up and have to process their surroundings to ensure there’s no threat.” Those hairs sense water movement and pressure changes. A giant-stride entry from a boat is just about the fastest way to clear a sanctuary of these guys.

“It hits them like a shockwave, scaring them to death,” Cross adds.

But they do come back. In the winter months — yes, Florida has a winter — they can’t help but huddle around the springs like cowboys ’round a campfire.

Manatees have no natural predators. Curiosity is their default setting. On snorkel, it’s easy to appreciate this. I fill my chest with air to float, watching three sleep. Then something nudges me.

For a full-grown manatee weighing half a ton, subtlety is impossible. A button eye is aimed at me. I can’t read the emotion, but the intent seems clear. I rub its back, scratching free the algae. In less than a minute, it rolls, presenting a belly. It’s thick and rubbery, like a tire.

If conditions align just so, a baby might approach, rolling the 2,000 whiskers of its face across your mask. Cross calls it a mask kiss. I don’t get one on this day, but there’s always tomorrow.
plantationoncrystalriver.com – By Brooke Morton

FACT: Manatees have about 2,000 whiskers on their faces making their "mask kisses" wet and tickly.
FACT: Manatees don't have any natural predators. Curiosity is their default setting, and on snorkel, it's easy to appreciate this.
FACT: Full-grown manatees can weigh half a ton — to see them in more than just photos look into the Adventure Center at Plantation on Crystal River.
TIP: Manatees are especially drawn to bright colors like pink and orange.
P.S.: Most of them love belly-rubs

BEHIND THE SCENES: Manatees in Crystal River, Florida
By Brooke Morton

Thank goodness we don’t greet the unknown as baby manatees do. With poor eyesight and pectoral fins that don’t reach beyond the girth of their body, they rely on tac- tile hairs — mostly those on their snout — to investigate.

At Three Sisters Springs, I hop from my paddle board to snorkel. When I turn around, I find a calf smooshing its face against the board.

Paul Cross, manager at the Adventure Center at Plantation on Crystal River, tells me that manatees are especially drawn to bright colors like pink and orange. My paddle board is yellow.

But these gentle creatures let curiosity get the best of them only when they’re not scared — or overwhelmed.

“The bubbles that divers send out affect the manatees,” Cross says. “Even the sleeping ones feel it. The manatees wake up and have to process their surroundings to ensure there’s no threat.” Those hairs sense water movement and pressure changes. A giant-stride entry from a boat is just about the fastest way to clear a sanctuary of these guys.

“It hits them like a shockwave, scaring them to death,” Cross adds.

But they do come back. In the winter months — yes, Florida has a winter — they can’t help but huddle around the springs like cowboys ’round a campfire.

Manatees have no natural predators. Curiosity is their default setting. On snorkel, it’s easy to appreciate this. I fill my chest with air to float, watching three sleep. Then something nudges me.

For a full-grown manatee weighing half a ton, subtlety is impossible. A button eye is aimed at me. I can’t read the emotion, but the intent seems clear. I rub its back, scratching free the algae. In less than a minute, it rolls, presenting a belly. It’s thick and rubbery, like a tire.

If conditions align just so, a baby might approach, rolling the 2,000 whiskers of its face across your mask. Cross calls it a mask kiss. I don’t get one on this day, but there’s always tomorrow. plantationoncrystalriver.com

DON'T MISS: You won’t need coffee the morning you dive Rainbow River in Dunnellon, Florida, about 20 minutes by car from Crystal River. The water is always 73 degrees — a brisk wake-up jolt for this Sunshine State resident. But the real fun is the current. It’s fast enough that if you must wait for a buddy, you plan ahead and find the right rock to hold onto. The rest of the river bottom waves with sea-grass beds, where alligator gar, carp and snapping turtles roam. This stretch of Florida is also the southern end of springs country. At Blue Grotto (divebluegrotto.com) and Devil’s Den (devilsden.com), treat the dives as caverns; no guide is required.

Snorkeling in the Dominican Republic: Humpback Whales in Silver Bank

The only guarantees in life are death, taxes and the humpbacks of the Dominican Republic. While Turks & Caicos Aggressor II’s second captain Rob Smith promises you’ll see these massive animals (if nothing else, breaching around the ship), you’d better not bring your dive gear; in-water encounters with the humpbacks of the Silver Bank, a marine-protected area nine hours off the coast of Puerto Plata, are strictly regulated. That means no scuba allowed.

“It took me the longest time to get down here because I was a snorkel snob,” says photographer Scott Johnson. Snorkeling’s something I might do on a dry day, or between dives, but not the focus of an entire weeklong trip. But here on the back deck of the _Turks & Caicos Aggressor II _— where I can see gas-fill stations and racks for tanks — as I’m preparing to board the tender for a day of snorkeling, I hardly give scuba another thought.

Scuba is banned because bubbles could scare or provoke the whales, but it’s also impractical. Humpbacks might be big — averaging 40 to 50 feet in length — but they’re also really fast. I discover this truth on an encounter with a “valentine.” A single male swims circles around the languorous female, performing pec slaps on the surface, blowing bubbles and standing on his head (literally). Even with the whales moving at a glacial pace, every 10 minutes we snorkelers need to be picked up and deposited ahead of the action. A few hundred yards away is a calmer encounter with a mother and calf. The mother surfaces every 15 minutes to breathe before settling back down on the reef bed 40 feet below. The weeks-old calf, smaller by two-thirds, rises every five minutes to take a breath and parade before us. If all snorkel experiences were like this, I might never want to dive again. aggressor.com – By David Espinosa

Don't Miss: Fort San Felipe in Puerto Plata Liveaboards remain at the bank for the duration of the week, so you eat, breathe and live humpbacks. Spend a few days before or after, and you’ll find a wealth of activities in the D.R., includ- ing diving on offshore reefs, river rafting and jungle trek- king. Cruise nearby Puerto Plata for deals on gold and amber, spend half an hour at tiny Fort San Felipe, or take the cable car 2,600 feet to the top of Mount Isabel de Torres (telefericopuertoplata .com) for a spectacular view of the coast.

Snorkeling in Mexico: Whale Sharks in La Paz, Mexico

Here in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez, you’ll lose any Jaws-fostered fear of sharks. When the massive fish comes into focus, you hear your breath quicken through your snorkel and feel your adrenaline pumping — whale shark! Luckily for snorkelers, it’s possible to have in-water encounters with Tiburónes ballena on the surface while they feed. A filter feeder, the ocean’s largest fish hungrily inhales clouds of fish eggs, plankton, small fish and squid. But you have nothing to fear: Everything on a whale shark’s menu is so small that you can barely see it, and its tiny rows of teeth play an almost nonexistent role in its feeding.

Boats that operate out of La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, have guides who are experts at spotting the sharks as they glide just beneath the gleaming surface of the water. Our guide from SunRider Tours is the first to spot the sharks on the horizon.

We slip into the water, and after a rigorous snorkel-swim, we find ourselves in the wake of a feeding frenzy. Just as I settle into lazily floating alongside one of these gentle giants, it gives a flick of its tail and is quickly out of reach, diving down into deeper water.

That’s when the dance begins. We take turns getting our one-on-one time as they appear and disappear. Below, I see one glide up from the depths.

Kicking with all of my might, I finally approach it. Within moments it is gone. Despite being built as big as a bus, the whale shark also was endowed by Mother Nature with speed. By the time we’re back on the boat, we’re breathless — from trying to keep up and from being blown away by the beauty of it all. sunridertours.com – By Tara Bradley

Don't Miss: Camp out on nearby deserted Ensenda Grande Beach. Operated by Fun Baja (funbaja.com), the campsite is more “glamping” than camping, with two-person tents outfitted with cots, plus outdoor showers, freshwater wash bins, über-clean bathrooms, and meals cooked family-style. Proven menu favorites include some of the world’s most delicious tortillas and made-from- scratch hot chocolate. Work off the carbs with a hike, snorkel or swim on your own nearly private beach. Come nightfall, go ahead and pop open your tent’s roof, so you can sleep under the stars and let the ocean lull you to sleep.

Snorkeling in Grand Cayman

I’m an East Coast native, and I love paddling out in the Atlantic Ocean to sandbars exposed at low tide (your own island!). But Grand Cayman’s North Sound site called Sandbar offers a singular experience you can’t get off Florida’s Atlantic coast. It’s where local operators offer snorkel encounters with southern stingrays — Dasyatis americana — in chest-deep water.

“Early morning is a great time to visit Sandbar, as the cruise-ship crowds are not there yet, and the wind and water conditions are normally perfect,” says Rod McDowall, operations manager of Red Sail Sports.

The dive operation runs a catamaran excursion called Breakfast with the Rays, which includes a light breakfast and coffee. “It’s very popular, since we’re back at the dock by 11:30 a.m., and guests have the whole afternoon to enjoy another island activity,” says McDowall.

We slip into the water, and the rays glide past us in small schools. The early hour offers the perfect mix of conditions for the photographers among us — early-morning light, an undisturbed sand bottom and photogenic subjects. As the rays get more active, be prepared for the stingray hickey: When you’ve got cut-up squid in your hand and the rays realize sushi is on the menu, these diamond-shaped vacuum cleaners sweep over various parts of your body in search of a handout. Although they don’t have teeth, they can latch on and leave their mark — probably the best pucker-up encounter you can have in the sea.redsailcayman.com – By Patricia Wuest

Snorkeling in Grand Cayman: Stingray City
Don't Miss: Dive with resident rays at Stingray City, a shallow site (12 feet) also in North Sound, explore the Kittiwake in 60 feet of water in West Bay, and fly with a scooter along any of the island’s walls, which plummet deeper than the Grand Canyon. Check out Amphitrite, the mermaid statue on Sunset House reef (sunsethouse.com) and Grand Cayman’s newest attraction, the 13-foot bronze Guardian of the Reef, placed in 65 feet of water off Lighthouse Point in April by Divetech owners Jay and Nancy Easterbrook (divetech.com).

Snorkeling in Palau: Jellyfish Lake

Editor's note: Jellyfish Lake in Palau reopened to the public in December 2018, after being closed for nearly two years due to a decline in the jellyfish population related to an El Niño event.

Swimming directly into a teeming nest of jellyfish is as counterintuitive an aquatic experience as you can find. At Palau’s Jellyfish Lake, it feels so wrong, but in reality, it’s so right. That’s just one of the reasons these famous genetic anomalies, the Mastigias cf. papua etpisoni, are such a draw — getting away with something you shouldn’t. (In this case, not receiving a painful sting.) For years curious travelers have been making the trip to snorkel in this isolated marine lake on Eil Malk — located in the achingly gorgeous Rock Islands — where millions of stingless jellies follow the sun from east to west each day through dark, brackish water. Evolved to lose their main defense after eons in a predator-free environment, golden jellies have developed a symbiotic relationship with a rare type of algae that feeds them — as long as they catch enough life-giving rays.

After you pay a required permit fee to the resident rangers who police this national treasure, a short but steep switchback trail over a limestone ridge reveals a black pool surrounded entirely by thick green jungle. Unless you’re in the first group to arrive, discovering where the jellies are located in the wide body of water is easy — just listen for laughter, giggles and squeals. From the dock it’s a short swim to the action. Even the stunning photos I’ve seen don’t do the scene justice. The jellies are more golden than I’d imagined, and swimming among them is more bizarre than I’d dreamed. Photographers and video shooters have a field day —snapping a selfie with a jellyfish is a must.I inhale a giant breath and dive deep into the darkness to hover for as long as my lungs allow — trust me, being surrounded in every possible direction by countless pulsing orbs in water as warm as a womb will change your perspective. sportdiver.com/palau – By Eric Michael

Don't Miss: For shark lovers, Blue Corner is tough to beat. After setting your reef hook, you’ll float in the current atop a plunging wall while countless fast-movers glide by among eagle rays, dogtooth tuna, Napoleon wrasse and other exciting species. Chandelier Cave offers an otherworldly cavern dive (no cave training necessary) with four chambers filled with massive towers and more-delicate formations above. For history buffs, the Helmet Wreck is one of dozens of remnants of Palau’s World War II heritage. The 189-foot submerged museum contains artifacts from giant sake bottles to gas masks to bullets of all sizes.