Snorkeling locations? About This Page:

[ClaySmith]

DW & I are heading back to the Orlando area in early June ! We'll be staying off site & hitting AK on the 5th. DW has never been snorkeling & really, really wants to try it. Could someone please recommend someplace, probably on the Gulf Coast, where we could initiate her? TIA for any and all advice.

-Clay

[TheMadonna3]

Gulf Coast, eh?

Well, honestly, the best place with the tropical fish and corals would be Vero Beach. That's as far north that you can get and still have the "tropical" scenery. That's on the Atlantic side where the Caribbean starts to mix with the Atlantic. It's a straight shot down 95 for you from Disney.

However, if you REALLY wanna make the trek over here to the Gulf Coast you're looking at Venice. There is an excellent beach in Englewood called Stump Pass Beach. About 20 ft off of the beach is a large sand bar. It is famous for finding Sand Dollars and Mastadon shark teeth. I take my little guy snorkeling there. The water is very clear and pretty shallow. But, there's nothing of interest to really look at in terms of fish or corals.

Otherwise, as far as west coast snorkeling, it's not that great over here until you get down toward Key Largo. For perspective, I live off the west coast and it takes me 2 hours to get to Disney and it's about 3 hours to Key Largo. So, that's quite a drive.

I'd suggest to go to Siesta Key as their beach sand has one of the highest levels of quartz in the world and is "WHITE". I don't think it's that great for snorkeling, but it's an awesome beach with a lot of happenings such as restaurants, clubs, bars, etc. I'm sure you could snorkel off of it, but the sand would reflect a lot and I'm not sure what you'd see.

[ClaySmith]

Thanks, TM! This is a great help. & thanx for the pm to point me back to here. I get sooo confused sometimes;-)

-CS