Dive, Snorkel, The Bahamas

One of the best places to snorkle off of Abaco is the easily accessable Mermaid Cove.

The wave action can be impressive at times so it is not recommended for weak swimmers.

But once you move a little away from the shoreline, you will soon discover a nice bit of reef with a great collection of marine wildlife.

Please avoid stepping on the coral as that will kill it.

Remember, only boobs feed the fish!

There's very little good information about snorkeling around Nassau/New Providence, so I thought I'd write a page about it. Actually, the few references to snorkeling one finds about Nassau frequently mention Love Beach, but they don't really give you any details. Well, here are some details.

For starters, although some references to Love Beach mention that the best spots are about a mile offshore, I don't have a boat and I haven't felt like swimming quite that far, so my notes are all for pretty near-shore excursions. Which hopefully is a plus because you can literally walk into the water and be seeing the fishies in about 10 seconds. And so, it's also totally free (assuming you can find a way to access the beach, which is the biggest challenge!).

Follow this link for maps, directions on how to get there, best places to snorkel around in, and what sorts of fish you might see.

http://kenthompson.blogs.com/loquacious/2008/05/snorkeling-guid.html

If you have time make the drive to Paradise cove. It was beautiful. The snorkeling was very clear and we saw lots of fish and barracudda. The food was cheap and they have gear and stuff to rent also. You don't want to miss this snorkel experience!

We went on an "all day excursion" which was really only about 4 hours. . .
we booked through majestic tours. it was called the Sea Island Tour. They pick you up at your hotel and take you to the docks to catch a catamaran and take you to rose Island. There is a little "camp" there. you can snorkle (i reccommend bringing your own gear) get a paddleboat, kayak, play volleyball, lay out or catcha hammock. it was sooo much fun. it was kinda pricey-$70 a person, but I had a lot of fun. you can get the jet ski guys on the beach to take you somewhere to go snorkling for much less, but I reccommend doing this one.

DEFINATELY visit the sea garden. . The best way to do this is to bring your own snorkling gear.
We got some ricecripies at breakfast and put it in a little baggie. . .
We got our gear and went to talk to the jet ski rental guys-They SWARM the beach. you can't walk the beach ANYWHERE on paradise island without SOMEONE asking you if you want to rent a jetski-it's pretty steep too-$60 for a half hour-just remember EVERYTHING down there is negotiable.
Anyway, we got one of the jetski guys-his name was Patrick from Patricks Motorsports-awesome guy-he took us to a snorkling site and waited for us to finish snorkling and then took us to the sea garden-it's beautiful-I'll put some pictures on here-anyway, you open your little baggie underwater and the fish just pack against you to get at the cereal. you can feel them pressing against you-they aren't scared at all!! it was awesome...He took us there and back for $40. it was a GREAT DEAL!

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Unbelieveble! 50 meters from the beach you can find all kind of exotic fish there. Tiny yellow with bright blue stripes, bigger yellow with polka dots, small gray with stripes, sea weed, corals, sea urchin! The water was cold in April, we could not stay in the ocean more that 45 min.

I've been to the Bahamas many times but this last time I decided to sign up for a snorkel trip. I booked through Stuart Coves dive shop who came and picked us up in Nassau (we had taken a cruise ship over) and drove us to the marina. The snorkeling was excellent and the boats and equipment were very well maintained. They took us to 3 dive sites. Two of the sites were just phenomenal for snorkeling. Clear blue water, colorful fish and diverse reefs. The last dive was thrilling as they lowered a bucket of chum into the water and the sharks appeared from all over. We all got into the water careful not to splash around too much but the sharks could have cared less about us as they were much more interested in the chum. I have to say that was one of the best times I've ever had in the Bahamas.

You have to try this it was amazing! Your deep in water as if you were diving but on an underwater motorcycle with a bubble dome over your head, you don't even have to get your hair wet! It was such a cool experience!
http://www.dive-bahamas.com/
Plus you get to go snorkeling