Silk Caye Snorkeling: Explore a Tropical Island with Turtles, Rays, and Sharks

Experience the ultimate adventure at Silk Caye, a tropical island in Belize. Snorkel with turtles, rays, and sharks, and explore the vibrant coral reefs and diverse marine life.

Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Silk Cayes - Silk Cayes is our most popular snorkel destination, also offering fantastic snorkel and scuba diving opportunities on the nearby Barrier Reef. This idyllic getaway is perfect for the whole family and is part of a marine reserve established to protect the outer reef, teeming with marine life, tropical fish, and healthy corals. Your adventure begins with a briefing by park rangers before a licensed snorkel guide leads you into the water to meet the local residents. Whether you’re a seasoned snorkeler or a first-timer, our guides are ready to teach and guide you, pointing out fascinating coral formations and the diverse creatures that inhabit them, including lobsters, cleaner shrimp, arrow crabs, snapper, barracuda, and a plethora of reef fish.

Around midday, enjoy an authentic Belizean picnic lunch. Afterward, dive back into the water to explore more of the vibrant corals and marine life that call Silk Cayes home. The best part is yet to come! Turtle Alley, a spot just inside the barrier reef where local fishermen clean their catch, offering you the exciting opportunity for close encounters with huge turtles, rays, and nurse sharks.

What's Included
  • Lunch and Snacks
  • Licensed Snorkel Guide
  • Sunscreen at the Dive Shop
  • Use of snorkeling equipment
  • Towels
  • Water/ Fruit Punch
  • Use of Snorkel Vests or Life Jackets (available on request)
  • Park Fees
  • Pickup and Drop off along the main road in Placencia Village
  • Taxes
What's Not Included
  • Pickup and Drop off outside of Placencia Village (can arrange for US$ 10.00 per person)
  • Gratuities
  • Alcoholic beverages
Additional Information

Silk Cayes is a marine reserve consisting of 3 small islands formerly known as the Queen Cayes. This Marine Reserve hosts over 25 species of reef fish, with a variety of coral and other marine life! The Silk Caye is one of healthiest areas in the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System due to its location and protected status. It is a great destination to snorkel, scuba dive or simply spend a day on the island! Snorkelers explore the reefs surrounding the islands. Scuba Divers explore the the barrier reef wall and other dive sites the Silk Cayes have to offer. As a bonus just before returning to Placencia, everyone has an opportunity to snorkel with rays, sharks and (usually) huge turtles in an area where the local fishermen clean their catch - when the critters hear the boat engines, they think it is meal time and come to the dive boat.

  • Children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Infant meals not included.
Location
Splash Dive Centre
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.8
(86 Ratings)
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Sianrich68
Jul 27, 2024
Off Peak Snorkeling at Silk Caye - Great day out on the water. Ride to Silk Caye is over an hour so pack your sunscreen. Lovely ride through numerous cayes until you reach tiny silk caye. For those snorkeling, you go around the entire caye once and will see all sorts of corals and fish. When you come out, some pelicans are there to greet you and lunch is served. After lunch and when some time is passed, yoy swim out to another snorkeling area and see some more corals and fish. Then to i e final snorkel area for the last swim.. we saw a beautiful turtle out there. Splash are a nice bunch of people and the guys were great all day. Food was good too.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jenno410
Jul 7, 2024
Must-Book - This was way more than we expected. Incredibly nice guides, sea turtles and sharks, and relaxation. Definitely book this one.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Michelle_s
Jun 19, 2024
Exceeded expectations! - This experience exceeded my expectations! We saw turtles, rays, sharks, and more! Ulises, Marlena, and Justice were awesome and made sure we all had the best time!
Review provided by Viator
Viajeros9
Jun 2, 2024
Great snorkeling experience! Great all round seevice!!!! - We‘ve just spent 4 days doing activities we organized thru Splash Dive Center & they were all excellent! Not only did we do the snorkel experience on the reef w lunch on Silk Caye-which was just great and run beautifully for all our varying levels of swimmers- but we also went in search of Whale Sharks, saw huge bull sharks and turtles, nurse sharks etc and had an all ‚round stupendous time w Captain Randy, Dive instructor Omado and Dive Master /guide, Melvin. 👍 We felt we were in very good, knowledgeable, affable hands thruout the whole day! ALSO thru Splash, we did a very very cool nighttime river and Bioluminesence tour at Sittee Creek, -again excellent. They also organized our outings to Lubantuum and Nim Li Punit archaeollgical sites, where we lunched deliciously under their direction at typical Mayan roadside restaurants enroute. They provided topnotch, clean, ac cool van transport to all these activities, as well as picked us up (two separate parties!) at the airport and transported us to hotel. They capably got us TO all of the of the above activities. (If you’ve ever tried to orchestrate transport and activities for a family of 6, you know it ain’t easy… tho Splash made it LOOK easy!:)) The guide who was assigned to our motley crewe of 6 for all 4 days was Melvin-just great, very nice, informative , and accommodating, He really took us under his „wing“ as it were and saw that we had a super time. Hat tip, Melvin! Our guide at Lubantuum thru Splash was Lauro, also excellent. When our itinerary was threatened by a wildfire, Melvin and Lauro conferred, took all in stride and made alternative plans and routes for us. The Bioluminescence tour thru Splash was also just fabulous. Last but not least, the administrazive team at Splash really did a great job-its not easy orchestrating events for 6 opinionated people😃The Team at Splash was excellent and professional thruout. Big thanks to Miss Patti the owner, to Pamela and Torrie. All excellent. Thank you and ALL the team for making our Placencia stay so enjoyable and memorable!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ledbetmh
May 26, 2024
Amazing Experience - This snorkeling experience completely exceeded our expectations. We just snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef a few months back and this was 10 times better. Our guide, Ben, was fantastic, and he pointed out tons of different types of coral and fish. We loved the lunch that was served and that we got to spend some time at the island beach. The best part was swimming so close to reef sharks, sting rays and sea turtles! Out of the many excursions we've done around the world, this one is at the very top of our list. 10/10 recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lightpacker296587
Apr 27, 2024
Would do it again - Well organized, great staff and an overall great snorkeling experience. Everything is as described, the service was great, lunch was super easy and yummy....no complaints, only enjoyment
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Gina_w
Mar 30, 2024
Snorkeling with a sea turtle - Swimming with a giant sea turtle in its natural habitat was the highlight for me. Our guides, Ulysses and Ian were thoughtful and knowledgeable.
Review provided by Viator
Clayton_a
Mar 29, 2024
Great family adventure - Overall a great experience for our family. We were with three kids, 9, 6, and 2 and Tatiana and Brian were great with them. Our oldest was stung by fire coral and they were quick to treat her and get her back in the water. We Snorkeled Silke Caye first, then moved to a location to see various Rays, sharks and huge turtle. Finished the adventure in Ray Caye for a dip in a pool and opportunity for an adult beverage. Ulisis, the tour guide and Carlos the boat captain were very engaging and helpful. Would certainly book another trip with Splash again. (Apologies for any name misspelling)
Review provided by Viator
Andrea_s
Jun 5, 2024
Weather detour - The tour was great. The guides were amazing and well informed. Lunch was delicious. The weather was bad so we ended up at laughing bird caye instead. So We didn’t get to see all the things I had my heart set on but the coral reef conservation efforts are amazing and my husband and I will ALWAYS support that.!
Review provided by Viator
Roamingmenehune
Mar 27, 2024
Take care… - I would not use this company for your tours. They are disorganized and unsafe. To start, we waited over 45 minutes for them to get the boat for our snorkeling trip, with the only explanation being that the assistant didn’t know where the boat was or why it wasn’t there. Moments after we had finally set out, one of the guides noted that they’d forgotten 3 people so we went back to the first pier, and then a second pier bc they didn’t know where the people were. The seats were already full, and the addition of these three additional passengers required all of the Splash staff to sit on the edges of the boat bc there were no seats remaining inside the cabin. As they joined, one of the guests asked the captain if the boat was certified for this many passengers, and the captain said yes. However once the guest asked to see the licensing placard for the boat, we saw that the maximum capacity was 11 people, not the 24+ that were aboard the boat. The captain also agreed that the documentation said 11 people max. While the captain said there were 22 life jackets, they were all behind a closed cabinet, not on any of the passengers. Despite the guides & the captain being kind, this is dangerous and a clear violation of what the boat was licensed for, and a clear example of a company putting profits over passenger safety.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Select Date and Tickets
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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