Top St. Martin/St. Maarten Snorkeling Sites: A Snorkeler’s Review

If you read any of my snorkeling guides, you will find I rate all the sites we check out using my snorkel rating key. Hopefully, these ratings are helpful when you are trying to figure out what sites to prioritize especially if you have limited time.

Please see the rating key below.

OVERALL SNORKEL RATING KEY

🤿 🤿 🤿 🤿 🤿   =   World-class snorkeling and worth traveling just for the snorkeling alone!

🤿 🤿 🤿 🤿   =   Incredible snorkeling and should be on your list of top things to do!

🤿 🤿 🤿   =   Decent snorkeling and worth the effort!

🤿 🤿   =   Worth consideration if you are running out of things to do!

🤿   =   Not worth it!

We snorkeled 3 different sites while visiting Saint Martin (Pinel Island, Petite Clef, Divi Little Bay).

There were a few other snorkeling spots (Baie Rouge, Creole Rock, Dawn Beach) that were also recommended. We are hoping to explore those on a return trip.

We did attempt Baie Rouge, but the waves were too rough when we went. We eventually turned around due to poor visibility, but I would love to snorkel here again on a calm day.

If any of these snorkeling spots catch your interest, click on the Mini Guide beneath the site name to learn how to get there, view the snorkeling map, and see cool fish photos.

The beautiful Pinel Island lies off the eastern coast of the French side of Saint Martin.

You can get there by ferry, kayak, or private boat.

We stayed at this adorable boutique hotel that offered free private boat transfer to Pinel Island.

The most common method of transfer though is by ferry.

Once you are on Pinel Island, there are plenty of fun things to do such as hike, snorkel, swim, and relax on the beach. There are two restaurants where you can order cocktails and lunch.

After a short hike, my husband and I found a nice spot on the northeastern end of the island to pop in for a quick snorkel.

Highlights included seeing several lobsters, a large pufferfish (love those big puppy dog eyes!), a school of blue tang, and some shrimp.

All the details on how to get there and my very detailed snorkeling map can be found below in my Mini Guide.

Petite Clef is an island sandwiched between the eastern coast of the French side of Saint Martin and Pinel Island. The only way to get there is by kayak.

Because we stayed at my favorite St. Martin hotel, we were provided free kayaks to access this island.

After securing our kayaks on the shore, we snorkeled clockwise around the island. The western side is calm, and the eastern side is a little rough.

There was not a lot of marine life to see, but we did spot some blue tang and quite a few large beautiful waving sea fans.

Check out my Mini Guide below for a detailed snorkeling map and fish photos.

You can access this snorkeling site at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort.

Snorkel to the left of the rock wall and make sure to check out all the little crevices.

Eels love to pop in and out. We also saw some sergeant majors and even a turtle on the seagrass floor.

The other interesting part of this snorkeling adventure is swimming over a sunken airplane, submarine, helicopter, and canons.

A little spooky but fun. It reminded me of our experience snorkeling over a sunken ship at Mangel Halto in Aruba.

I’ve only snorkeled, but I recently found out you can try SNUBA with this highly-rated company at Little Divi Bay.

If you’ve tried it, let me know what you think!

See my Mini Guide below If you want to see photos of the sunken vessels plus a detailed snorkeling map on how to get there.

Baie Rouge is a gorgeous beach on the French side.

There is plenty of parking. We parked and attempted to snorkel here.

My husband and I snorkeled to the far right side of the beach and snorkeled around the rocky point. We snorkeled as far as the big arch seen in the photo below.

Visibility was poor due to the kicked-up sand from the waves, so we had to turn around.

Hoping for a calmer day in the future!

Creole Rock is best accessed by an organized boat tour from Grand Case. I have read the reef has supposedly seen better days, but the marine life is still beautiful.

Dawn Beach is also supposed to have great snorkeling when the current is calm.

Another recommended snorkeling site is Tintamare, where you can possibly see turtles.

My favorite places in the Caribbean to snorkel with turtles are Tres Trapi (Aruba), Salt Pier (Bonaire), 1000 Steps (Bonaire), Maho Bay (St. John), and Francis Bay (St. John).

Prefer to skip the guesswork when it comes to finding the best snorkeling spots?

Consider joining a highly rated small-group tour that takes you straight to the top sites.

While we haven’t personally done this tour ourselves, Captain Bob’s 6-hour snorkeling trip came highly recommended (over 4,000+ incredible reviews!).

It includes boat-access-only locations like Tintamarre Island and Creole Rock, which are known for offering some good snorkeling.

→   Group snorkeling option: Captain Bob’s Snorkeling Tour

Bring your own gear!

If you love snorkeling, having properly fitted gear is so important. It’s the difference between a subpar experience and a spectacular one.

If you want to know what travel snorkeling gear I bring on all of our “snorkations,” check out my snorkeling gear review below! 

While St. Martin may not be famous for its snorkeling, there are still a few hidden gems that make it worth getting in the water, especially if you’re always up for a little underwater adventure.

I hope this snorkeling guide helps you make the most of it.

Of all the spots we explored, Pinel Island was our favorite!

And if you’re a turtle lover, consider adding an unforgettable side trip: take the thrilling 12-minute flight from St. Maarten to Saba and snorkel at Tent Reef. So many turtles!

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Have you visited any of the St. Martin or St. Maarten snorkeling sites? What were your favorites?

Let me know in the comments below!