Mangel Halto Snorkeling Guide [Rated + Reviewed]

The hubby and I love to snorkel and have done numerous “snorkations.” I created a snorkel rating system to differentiate all the sites we have personally visited.

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!

If you want to discover my 4 FAVORITE Aruba snorkeling sites in ONE comprehensive list, click on the link below!

Mangel Halto is located towards the southern end of Aruba.

There are three sections to snorkel in Mangel Halto: beginner, advanced, and more advanced.

We’ll chat about how to get to all three. 

Put “Pos Chiquito Beach Park” in GoogleMaps.  You will be parking near a huge sign that says “Mangel Halto” in red letters (see photo above). You can’t miss it.

The beginner snorkel section is right next to that big sign in the bay.

Walk just a little further south to Mangel Halto Beach for the advanced snorkel. See the photo below.

The more advanced snorkel involves a drift snorkel from an entry point known as Puerto Chiquito.

This entry point is further south of the above two entry points. Shortly after the red Mangel Halto sign, you will see a 2-story house on the left that’s marked as #79.

Take the first road on the right towards the water.

Park in the dirt parking lot. 

For beginners, snorkel inside the bay,

For advanced snorkelers (and ONLY if the water is calm!), snorkel just outside the 2 cuts in the reef, past the sunken ship, and exit at the ladder in the bay. See the map above.

One of the cuts is marked with a buoy. This is where small boats come into the bay. If you choose to snorkel across that cut and explore that side of the reef, proceed with caution and watch for boats! I would strongly advise against that.

For more advanced snorkelers, start from #79 house and drift snorkel parallel to the shore, past the sunken ship, and exit at the ladder in the bay. See the map above.

For beginners, it is best to enter the water from the large wooden platform. 

There are also two ladders a little further down leading directly into the water. The bottom is sandy. Easy entry.

Walk past the Mangel Halto Beach sign and through the trees near the mangroves.

Once you reach the beach, you will see a few palapas and a wooden bridge to the right.

This entry point is tricky because the water is super shallow. You will have to walk out in the water towards the right along the rocks for a bit.

Kinda reminded me of the walking experience at Lac Bay in Bonaire.

Wear dive booties! When you finally can put your fins on to snorkel, your body will almost be touching the bottom below you as you do short quick kicks to get out to the reef.

I strongly recommend wearing snorkeling fins!

After you park in the dirt parking lot past the #79 house, walk towards the water.

When you look at the water, you’ll notice a rock wall with two clear cuts on the right and left. You can see the divers on the left.

You can enter at either point. If you choose the entry point on the right, it will involve a slightly longer swim.

The entry point on the left is slightly easier because you can walk down a pier and enter with ladder assistance. This shortens the swim a little bit. 

We were all excited to finally do the drift snorkel from Puerto Chiquito.

My husband and I popped into the water from the pier, and the visibility was HORRIBLE as you can see from the photo below.

We thought maybe it would get a little better once we swam out and past the rock wall on the right.

It did not.

I wasn’t sure how long you had to swim in poor visibility water to get out to the reef, so we turned back. I wasn’t going to chance it. We instead just did the “advanced snorkel” described above instead of the “more advanced.”

Personal story.

We were in Taha’a in French Polynesia earlier this year snorkeling along the reef near our Airbnb, where visibility wasn’t ideal.

My husband had a scary encounter where a reef shark turned around and quickly accelerated at him from the depths. When the shark realized my husband was not what he thought, he veered off.

But lesson learned. I will never snorkel in water where visibility is compromised.

As we snorkeled back to shore at Puerto Chiquito, we encountered a mother and father and their two kids. We explained we turned back because of the visibility. They decided to still go out.

We happened to encounter them again in the Mangel Halto parking lot after we both snorkeled.

They said you had to swim about 40-50 more yards past where we were near the rock wall, and then the visibility was great. But the waves did knock them around a little getting out there.

I would love to hear from someone who has done this drift snorkel several times.

Is the visibility always poor until you get out to the reef? Or maybe it was because we went in the afternoon when the sand was kicked up more?

We decided to just do the “advanced snorkel” section of the reef, which was beautiful. It was clear, and we snorkeled over to the sunken ship.

I would still love to see the “more advanced” section at some point.  Hopefully next time!

You will need fins for these longer snorkels. Here are my favorite travel snorkeling fins.

Also, for more advanced snorkels, I love wearing my snorkel vest in case I get tired.

We saw schools of blue tang, parrotfish, trumpetfish, blue-striped and French grunt, damselfish, and 2 eels!

We also saw a sunken tugboat called the Kappel in about 45 feet of water near the first cut in the reef. The JADS Dive Center sunk it in 2010. We saw a few divers while we were there checking it out.

Also expect some beautiful brain coral, massive starlet coral, lettuce coral, and soft coral.

If you have some snorkeling skills, Mangel Halto is definitely worth a visit! Only attempt the advanced sections when the water is calm. It is one of my favorite Aruba snorkeling sites. Tres Trapi is another solid favorite because of all the cute turtles!

If you have never snorkeled before, I would not advise Mangel Halto. Great options for beginners would be Boca Catalina and Arashi Beach.

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Questions about our Mangel Halto snorkeling experience?

Let me know in the comments below!