St. Kitts Snorkeling Trip

St. Kitts may be the most quiet and peaceful island we have ever visited in the Caribbean. Even simple excursions such as snorkeling can be quiet experiences.

Relatively few planes seem to land at the small St. Kitts airport. Those planes that do land tend to be somewhat small and have fewer passengers.

Driving in a taxi from the airport to the mammoth St. Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino took us through parts of the quiet capital city of Basseterre and even quieter neighborhoods of large vacation homes. Even the Marriott resort seemed peaceful compared to other Caribbean hotels and resorts.

This certainly is the place for rest and relaxation. It draws that kind of crowd, and it mostly drew the same type on our catamaran snorkeling excursion.

Our genial Caribbean crew of four, who seemed to come from several islands, took us out of Basseterre harbor by motor and on a 30-minute ride southeast in the direction of Friar's Bay Beach. The weather was hot and the breeze typical of the open water -- steady and soothing. We soon dropped anchor and likewise dropped into the water.

Success at snorkeling and diving are part location and part luck of the day. In this case, we didn't have much of either.

Floating on top of the water and looking down is almost like going to a movie or an art museum. It is escapism with a view.

In this case, the coral lacked the unique colors and shapes that make a good snorkeling trip an exciting one.

Likewise, the fish were fairly few and also lacked distinct colors and shapes. Regardless, we enjoyed an hour of leisurely swimming, joking around and simply relaxing.

Forty five minutes to an hour seems to be the ideal amount of time in the water for a snorkeling trip, especially when the views are routine.

Even when they aren't routine, such as swimming with turtles, sting ray or barracudas, we often have noticed that people tend to start getting out of the water by the time 45 minutes have passed.

The crew, however, livened up the trip after we got out of the water.

The crews of these boats throughout the Caribbean seem to follow the same guidelines -- crank up the music, pass out the rum punch, chat it up with the guests, refill their glasses as often as possible, and get anyone rowdy who is in the mood to get rowdy.

Our crew followed the rules and charmed everyone with their good humor and spirits.

No one can easily say one Caribbean island is better than another based on one snorkeling trip.

We assume the boat owners and crews take us to some of the better locations of an island within a reasonable distance from the dock.

At least in the case of this trip, the snorkeling at St. Kitts did not impress us.

But for some people, a snorkeling excursion on any Caribbean trip is worth the time and money for folks we meet and for the sake of something fun to do.