I believe the going rate for snorkel gear is $7/day. There a several places in STJ where you can rent. Low Key, Cruz Bay Water Sports (both in Cruz Bay) and Cabbies in Coral Bay. I'd personally want to buy my own snorkel tube but wouldn't have a problem renting the mask and fins for my first time. I'll bet you'll be hooked and want to buy your own set. Prices on the island actually aren't bad at all. Have fun!!

Oops! That's Crabby's in Coral Bay.

Most rental places have a weekly rate - so check on them first. As far as your 'own' snorkel, there isn't really a need. Any reputable shop disinfects and rinses everything before it goes back out...if for no other reason than to get the salt & sand off (in addition to disinfection, that is). Disinfection also limits the shop liability - which is always a BIG issue.

Have fun - and look out for those black spiky things (urchins). There is no treatment in general for them if you run into one.

-k

Brewmaster:

Last month I rented gear at Trunk Bay (STJ) for $5.00 (I forgot to bring mine).

Some resorts provide their guests snorkel gear free of charge. Check with your resort.

You can purchase a beginner's set at K-Mart (TuTu Mall - STT) for about $25.00

Cost U Less sells pro gear for about $50.

F.I.

Just another idea...you might want to go out on one of the smaller day sail boats early in the vacation. They are usually very good at teaching folks how to snorkel, helping with the gear, etc.

I'll add one more thing- if either of you is a lousy swimmer or likely to panic in the water, rent or invest in a snorkle vest or a swimmers belt. Yes, you float easily but there are those of us who will panic anyway and the vest takes all the anxiety away, despite its somewhat cumbersome feel. Well worth the investment to me, the lousy/panicky swimmer. you will LOVE snorkling off STJ!!!

karrieb - can you suggest a vest or belt to purchase. I'd like to get that for my fiance'. or do you think I could rent that in STJ for the time we are there (10 days).

thanks!

Depending on how much you want to snorkel - the rental gear is MUCH better than the stuff you can purchase at K-mart. It is K Mart gear, and although it may have a recognised brand, the equipment is seriously inferior - trust me...I am a dive instructor and see that gear fail at an astonishingly high rate.

One kicker with SOME resorts - you may have 'free' gear for the day, but may be required to return it before the end of business the same day - worth the question.

Mary Beth,
I just got a snrkel vest on e-bay for $26.95 plus shipping. I also bought my snorkel gear about 6 months ago from a company call Snorkel Mart. www.snorkel-mart.com I wear glasses and got a prescription mask from them and I love it. I can't wait to use the gear on STJ in March. Check both those sources out and see what you think. BTW... my only affiliation with Snorkel Mart is as a paying customer.

crickett : )

Great advise. Thank you. I think we'll be ok without a vest or a belt. I certainly wouldn't buy K-Mart/Wal-Mart type of stuff. If I find a good deal online for some quality stuff, I might go that route. Otherwise, $7/day isn't going to break the bank. We're staying at Concordia Studios, and I don't believe they offer free snorkel gear. I can't wait for this trip! Take care everybody.

Our first year in STJ we rented from Crabby's in Coral Bay. They took the time to make sure everything fit and gave us a great rate for, I think, a four day rental. All the equipment is washed and sterilized in bleach after every rental.

So, I did some shopping around here online and found these. Could I get some feedback from some of you who know about this stuff? Is it worth getting these?

http://www.onlinescuba.com/eshop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=4296

http://www.onlinescuba.com/eshop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=4465

I sent you a PM with more details but in case you have a spam blocker I thought I would give you my advise. We had a terrible experience on our honeymoon using the resorts snorkel gear. I think a proper fitting mask is very important. If you are going to order on line I suggest you first go to a local dive shop and try masks on. Each manufacturer has different names for different styles of masks and they all fit differently and have different viewing areas. Get the name of the mask you like and then try to find it on line for less. Might be a good idea to try fins on too as long as you are there. Our fins ended up being different sizes than our standard shoe size.

You can rent a swimmers belt (one of those white waist belts like you use in waterskiing) on STJ, I did through the Maho Bay camps when we stayed there. But I decided that we loved snorkling so much, I might as well invest in my own vest so I bought one for this past trip, at a local scuba shop for big bucks (about $60.00). I'll look at it tonight and will email tomorrow with the brand name. The only issue I had with the vest was that the mouthpiece you use to add or reduce the amount of air in the vest would kind of ride up and scrape the corner of my face while snorkling. I was always aware that I had it on. Not so with the belts but with those you might feel kind of unbalanced, hard to explain. I am a nervous, lousy, panicky swimmer so I do need something and have no regrets about the vest. I'll let you know tomrorow here what it is. There's gotta be a bunch through on line sources though?

Brewmaster, Concordia will send you to the sister camp Maho Bay to rent the equipment there which makes sense since they;re on the beach directly which as terrific snorkling. They have everything, including some prescription masks which my husband appreciated since as soon as we got to Concordia on this past trip in Nov, he took his expensive, but older, prescrip mask out and one of the lenses popped out, and wouldn't go back in!!!So he was really happy that Maho had some prescrp masks that worked for him. I forget what we rented it for, we had all our own equipment as we snorkle somewhere almost every vacation.

Hi, I promised I'd look on my vest but it must have been a tag that I cut off, can't find a name, sorry! But it shouldn't matter, there's got to be tons of these things available on line. Mine has a tube that you could slip into your mouth if needed to deflate or expand the air and has a belt that you fit around your waist and under your crotch. That inflation tube actually gets in the way, so to buy another one, I would find another model where the tube either tucked away or was lower on the vest. I'm fairly petite and bought a size small adult which was fine, but of course each model and maker may run differently. Enjoy whatever you decide to buy.