These 14 U.S. Destinations Are Just Right for Snorkeling
Snorkeling is great because, unlike scuba diving, you don’t need much equipment or training and there’s comparatively less risk. And while you can’t go everywhere the scuba divers go, there’s no shortage of places to snorkel, not only along the United States’ 95,471 miles coast and shoreline, but also in lakes, rivers, and even flooded volcanic calderas and craters. Not to mention, it’s not hard to rent this gear when you’re traveling.
We’ve rounded up 14 of the best places to snorkel in the United States where you can bring those Little Mermaid fantasies to life and check out first hand what’s under the sea:
1. Dry Tortugas National Park – Florida
From old pier pilings to the ruins of past military fortifications, there’s plenty of manmade infrastructure that’s become a haven for sea life, and a fun place to start your underwater adventure. The Moat Wall and a shallow shipwreck dating back to the early 1900s are other fun attractions that make this one of the best places to snorkel not just in the U.S., but all of Florida. However, the real magic at Dry Tortugas are on the natural reefs, some nearly 12,000 years old, formed by the hard work of 30 coral species, including two rare and endangered corals— the Elkhorn and Staghorn varieties.
2. Navarre Beach — Florida
For a few brief months during the summer of 2004, Navarre Beach was a state park, Florida’s answer to Mississippi’s Gulf Island National Seashore. Then Hurricane Ivan blew through, and Hurricane Dennis the following year. The destruction from those storms gave the county a chance to take control of Navarre Beach, and invest heavily in artificial reef building and marine ecosystem restoration.
There is also a massive “super reef” one mile out that was constructed using a $1.22 million grant from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) program following the 2011 Deep Horizon oil spill. Today, Navarre Beach is home to a total of three public reefs easily reached from shore, making this one of the best places to snorkel near a metro area. In order to increase access to the public, Navarre Beach has permanent beach wheelchair access, too, for outdoor enthusiasts with disabilities.
3. Cinnamon Bay — Virgin Islands
4. Anacapa Island — California
California has a reputation as a surf destination, but is less lauded for it’s snorkeling. That’s a shame, especially with spots like Anacapa Island, whose wild kelp forests make this one of the best places to snorkel on the west coast. While Anacapa itself is lonesome, remote, and occupied mostly by seabirds, the tidepools and surrounding ocean are filled with seeing-bright sea stars, spiny sea urchins, and day-glo orange Garibaldi.
5. Bahia Honda State Park — Florida
6. Ho’okena Beach Park — Hawaii
It’s also not terribly surprising that Hawaii is yet another state with more than its fair share of the best places to snorkel. Hookena Beach on the Big Island isn’t as crowded as some of the other favorite surf and snorkel spots on the island, and there’s a place to rent snorkel equipment right on the beach if you didn’t bring your own. Proceeds from the rentals go to the Friends of Ho’okena Beach Park to fund preservation efforts.
Dolphins and sea turtles frequent the area, as does Hawaii’s state fish, the epically-named Humuhumunukunukuapua’a. There are so much marine life here that it is still a site where Hawaiian natives still practice traditional canoe fishing techniques from this site. Be respectful of what this place means to indigenous peoples, especially the cliffs at the south end of the beach, which are especially sacred ground.
7. Laguna Madre Estuary — Texas
Texas is better known for desert art installations and glamping in Marfa, backcountry desert camping, and Big Bend wildflower booms than snorkeling. But with 367 miles of coastline and plenty of oil rig infrastructure that marine life have adopted as habitat, there’s actually some pretty good opportunities to slip on your fins and mask in the Lone Star State. Head to South Padre Island near Corpus Christi for one of the best places to snorkel in Texas.
Laguna Madre Estuary, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico, is a hypersaline lagoon packed with tropical fish like pinfish, smooth butterfly rays, houndfish, and sleeper gobies. On shore, there’s even more to see, with an abundance of sea and songbirds that call the estuary home. Off-roading is popular here, though even robust 4x4s can easily get in trouble in the soft sand, and you should be mindful of sea turtle nests in the area.
8. Papalaua Wayside Park — Hawaii
Back in Hawaii, Papalaua Wayside Park gives you something a little different from some of the other contenders for the best places to snorkel in the Aloha State. In addition to clear waters that let you spy on sea turtles and tropical fish, you might even see whales go by. But the real secret to Papalaua isn’t the snorkeling directly from the beach, but forty minutes south if you head out to Molokini.
This sunken volcanic crater sits two miles offshore from Makena State Park, a day-use beach where you might encounter a handful of nudist outdoor enthusiasts. Once you boat out to Molokini, there’s a wealth of reef to explore and visibility up to 150 feet, giving you a lot of opportunities to peep the 200 species of fish endemic to the crater. And thanks to the extensive curve of the caldera, you’ll be protected from the rougher currents and waves you find this far from shore.
9. Elliot Key — Florida
10. Laguna Grande and Faro Las Cabezas De San Juan — Puerto Rico
The Virgin Islands don’t have a monopoly on the best places to snorkel in the Caribean. Puerto Rico, for all its struggles since Hurricanes Irma and Maria slammed into the island, remains a tropical paradise well worth exploring. Laguna Grande and Faro Las Cabezas De San Juan are two stunning aquatic destinations that offer very different experiences.
The former is a bioluminescent lagoon popular with nighttime kayakers. The latter is home to a picturesque lighthouse and excellent snorkeling. The lighthouse at Faro Las Cabezas itself is closed for repairs after Irma and Maria wreaked havoc. That said, tour companies and outfitters are still offering snorkel gear rentals and excursions into the bay, and the local economy could definitely use tourist dollars. Guided tours of Laguna Grande in particular help you learn about the landscape while also protecting it from overuse and harm.
11. Punalu’u Beach State Park — Hawaii
Just southwest of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Parkis Punaluu Beach, one of Hawaii’s famous black sand beaches that is home to hawksbill sea turtles the size of your coffee table. Not only is the beach beautiful in its own right, and close to the fabulous restaurants and farmers markets of Hilo, Hawaii, it’s also one of the best places to snorkel on the Big Island. Ninole Cove provides a safe, gentle place to ease into the water before your flip your fins in search of coral, fish, and more turtles.
12. Possum Kingdom State Park — Texas
You don’t have to be by the ocean to enjoy some great snorkeling— just ask anyone who’s slipped on some fins to try river snorkeling in streams across the country, or who has ever taken a dive in the much-beloved lake at Possum Kingdom State Park. Once immortalized in a song by Texas rock favorites The Toadies, Possum Kingdom was also the site of the first annual Toadies-run music festival, an event known as Dia De Los Toadies. But Possum Kingdom is a year-round playground for anyone near Fort Worth, where the lake provides a much-needed place to cool off.
13. Gulf Islands National Seashore — Mississippi
Like Texas and California, Mississippii is another state that doesn’t exactly come to mind when you’re trying to name the best places to snorkel. That’s too bad, since the Gulf Islands National Seashore is full of things to explore, from sea grass beds full of tropical fish to sunken shipwrecks. The bay side of Santa Rosa Island is one of the best places to snorkel in the Gulf Islands, with clouds of pinfish, pipefish, and seahorses hiding amongst underwater vegetation. You can also see a drowned tugboat on the bay side, while 1.5 miles outside Pensacola Pass divers can check out the remains of the USS Massachusetts battleship.
14. Homestead Crater, Utah
Like Mississippi and Texas, land-locked Utah is rarely associated with underwater sports. But Homestead Crater isn’t any ordinary contender for one of the best places to snorkel, either. For one, it’s not actually a crater. Instead, its the strange product of thousands of years of snowmelt from the Wasatch Mountains heating deep within the earth, swirling minerals around the swimming hole until they’ve formed a beehive-shaped mass on the surface, concealing the pool within.
Unlike other caves popular with divers or cenotes further south, you don’t need any canyoneering or rappelling skills to get into Homestead Crater, either. Instead, there’s a tunnel through the side of the beehive that lets visitors access the water, which is a constant 90 degrees— just shy of hot tub temperature. And how often can you say that you went snorkeling or stand up paddleboarding in a secret underground hot spring in Utah?