Bahamas Snorkeling Tips

A week out, the night before, the morning of, and once you are in the water. Everything that goes wrong on a reef trip is on this list.

A week out: what to book and what to buy

Two things are worth doing early and nothing else is urgent. Book the small-capacity trips first — anything capped at ten travellers or fewer fills days ahead in the winter season, and a full refund up to 24 hours before departure means holding a place costs nothing. Buy reef-safe sunscreen at home, because the mineral kind is harder to find and dearer once you land.

If anyone in the party wears glasses, this is also the week to order a prescription mask or pack daily disposable lenses. Nobody enjoys a reef they cannot focus on.

The night before: sunscreen, and the things that get turned away

Mineral sunscreen goes on at the hotel, twenty minutes before you leave. Zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, not oxybenzone or octinoxate. Applied on the boat it washes straight off you and onto the coral; applied early it has bonded to your skin before you get in.

Then pack the bag and take out what will be refused. Several operators turn away oversized luggage, coolers and large bags outright, and one lists baby strollers and electric wheelchairs among things it cannot carry. A small dry bag with a towel, a shirt, sunscreen, cash and a phone is the whole kit.

The morning of: eat, arrive early, bring ID

Eat breakfast. One operator asks you to in writing, and it is the single most effective thing you can do about seasickness. Something plain and solid, not just coffee.

Swimwear goes on under your clothes at the hotel. Most departure points have no changing room worth the name. Arrive thirty minutes early — several listings ask for it, and a boat that leaves on time leaves without you. Carry photo ID: waivers are signed on several trips and the fly-in day requires it at the airport.

On the boat: seasickness, waivers and where your bag goes

Take a seasickness tablet an hour before you board rather than when you start to feel unwell — after the fact it does very little. On deck, in the air, eyes on the horizon is the position that helps; below deck staring at a phone is the one that does not. A wide catamaran moves far less than a fast powerboat, so if you know you are sensitive, that is the boat to choose.

Bags go in a dry area the crew will point out. There are no lockers at most departure points and few boats carry a safe, so leave anything you would hate to lose at the hotel. Waivers are signed before boarding on several trips, and one states that anyone with an open wound cannot enter the water for safety reasons.

In the water for the first time

None of this is difficult and every crew here has taught it a thousand times. Spit in the mask, rub it round the glass, rinse in seawater — that is what stops it fogging, and it works better than anything sold in a bottle. Tighten the strap high on the back of your head, not on your neck.

Then float. The vest holds you up, so you do not need to swim, only to look down and breathe slowly through the tube. If water gets in, lift your head, blow once hard, and carry on. Ask the crew to stay near you — on the small-group trips one of them will get in beside you, and on the bigger boats they will if you say so.

Cameras, glasses and contact lenses

A phone survives the day in a proper waterproof pouch on a lanyard and nowhere else. Cheap cases fail, and a phone dropped over a reef is gone. One small-group trip takes photographs and video for you and sends them afterwards, which is the no-risk option.

Glasses cannot be worn under a mask. Contact lenses can, as long as you close your eyes whenever you clear the mask — daily disposables are the low-risk choice because losing one costs nothing. A prescription mask is better than both if you snorkel often.

Cash, tipping and what is sold on the beach

Gratuities are excluded from almost every fare here, and crews work for them. Ten to fifteen per cent in small US notes is normal for a half-day boat. Cash is also easier than a card at a beach bar, and two trips sell food and drink at the stop rather than including it.

The Bahamian dollar runs at parity with the US dollar and American notes are accepted everywhere, so there is no need to change money for a day out. Bring small denominations: nobody at a beach bar wants to break a fifty.

For the docks and the timings see Plan Your Trip, and for what is swimming past you, marine life. The Bahamas Snorkeling Tours comparison table shows which fares already include lunch, drinks and transfers, and Bahamas snorkeling guided tours all supply the gear.