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Snorkel Park Bermuda
A Nice Snorkeling Beach
Snorkel Park is located at the western end of Bermuda in Sandy's parish and has a lovely beach with white sands. It's located within the dockyard complex and a short walk from the cruise terminal.
You will enter through a limestone tunnel to get to this beach venue that has been designed mainly for families and children.
Sunken cannons, many underwater features along with shallow waters really makes it an attractive snorkeling beach in Bermuda.
The water is calm. There are two slides into the water. Although I haven’t tried snorkeling here, my son has snorkeled at the Snorkel Park many times and came out saying that he saw lots of colorful fishes and corals.
Snorkel Park Bermuda
You can actually find parrotfish in the coral reefs, and also angelfish, doctor fish, blue tang, gray snappers, and many other types of fish. You can get snorkeling equipment, paddleboats, and kayaks on rent. If you plan to snorkel, try to get your own snorkel gears to save on the rental charges which is not a very small amount ($20 per day for the full set when we last rented).
Left: The Keep Fort at a distance / Right: Beach & Hammerhead restaurant
There are marked trails for snorkeling. You will find floating rest stations along the trail. There are also underwater signs so that you know what you are looking at. If you don't like to swim when snorkeling, you can rent an underwater scooter, which is a simple fan-propelled machine that you can use in place of swimming. While snorkeling is the most popular activity here, another highlight at Snorkel Park is the Jet Ski safari.
It's a great 90-minute electric scooter ride in the water that starts from here and takes you to various places in the western end including the world's smallest draw bridge - The Somerset Bridge, Ely's Harbor, Vixen Shipwreck and many other great places with excellent scenic views around. You will also see lots of fish, turtles and other marine life on the way.
At the Snorkel Park Beach, you can rent umbrellas, lounge chairs, regular chairs, cabanas and even ocean front beds for the whole day. There are bathrooms, changing rooms, and lockers available.
The Hammerheads Bar & Grill, a restaurant inside the Snorkel Park serves nice casual food and drinks. They have some unique menu items of tasty island style cuisine and snacks. You get some great cocktails like the "Shark Oil" which is supposed to be quite popular here. It's a strong drink though. They also serve Haagen Dazs ice creams and frozen drink specialties.
Island Beach Parties take place at the Snorkel Park Beach in the evenings on certain days of the week. It gives a great option for a high energy family nighttime entertainment in Bermuda. Other than beachside dinner, you can enjoy a lot of entertainment including dancing & singing contests, congo lines, limbo dancing, DJs, steel pan music etc. during the party.
Since Snorkel Park is part of the Dockyard complex, you will see a lot of things as you go around the dockyard. You will find art galleries that showcase the creative talents of local artists. Maritime Museum takes you through the early days of 17th century settlement in Bermuda to the modern era, glass blowing factory, pottery, craft market, great dolphin training & show center and much more. Check out Kings Wharf Dockyard to know about all the attractions and activities at the dockyard.
Admission, Hours and Activities at Snorkel Park
Following are the last published schedules for the summer season. Snorkel Park is usually closed during November through 1st week of April.
9am - 4pm (Monday - Friday)
There is an admission fee of $5. Children under 12 are free. The park offers free snorkeling lessons, sandcastle competitions, beach volleyball, pick up games, steel pan drum performances and other activities.
9am - 4pm (Saturday)
Admission is free for all. There are free beach activities organized by Bermuda's Department of Tourism.
11am - 7pm (Sunday)
Admission fee is $10. Children under 12 are free. It's a family fun day with live bands, guest performances, water sports, beach games etc.
Happy Hour: 4:30pm - 6:30 (Monday - Saturday) is the happy hour at the bar and the park entry is free for all during this time.
Island Beach Party: Monday, Thursday, Saturday (7pm - 10pm).
SPB Night Club: 10pm - 3.00am (Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat). Entry fee is $10 on weekdays. On Saturday, the entry fee varies depending on special events or concerts. You will need to show ID proof of your age above 18 years. The key attractions at the club includes enjoying a party under the starry sky, DJs & Live Bands, food available till late hours etc.
Location & Contacts
7 Maritime Lane, Royal Naval Dockyard, Sandys, Bermuda.
Snorkel Park is located at the north eastern end of Royal Naval Dockyard (in Sandys).
Phone: 441/234-6989
Email: info@snorkelparkbeach.com
There are regular Bus Services between Hamilton City and the dockyard. Bus #7 or #8 takes about 1 hour to reach dockyard from Hamilton city and the bus ride costs $4.50 per adult.
Ferry from the city of Hamilton to the dockyard is much faster. It takes about 20 minutes by a direct ferry to the dockyard ferry stop. Fare is $4 each way. On weekends and non-summer time, the ferry service is quite infrequent and all routes do not operate.
Related Articles
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Visitors' Reviews
Rebecca
6/11--Just returned from Bermuda. Decided to check out Snorkel Park because of its proximity to the ship. Reviews also sounded favorable and my daughter loves to snorkel. We paid the $5 cover charge for the adults but were sadly disappointed once we got down to the beach. There was glass everywhere...sand, water. I wouldn't let my kids take their shoes off. My son wanted to make a sand castle but every time he would dig in the sand, more glass surfaced. There is a sign about "No Bottles" on the beach but because Snorkel Park becomes a night club each evening, it is obvious this rule is not enforced. I would think twice about heading over and paying to visit this beach, especially if you have kids.
Cindi
We were in Bermuda on the NCL Spirit last week and were very dismayed to find that Snorkel Park is now charging a $5 per person cover charge. With this charge we expected better than average experience and what we found was broken glass (which we reported but never saw it cleaned up), slow service (had to wait over 15 minutes to rent a chair), broken water faucets (trying to clean off the sand as we made our way tot he exit) and attitudes that did not make us feel welcome but that made us feel taken advantage of.
The news of these new charges is making it's way to the cruise "boards" and people are not happy with the new policy - this may cause Snorkel Park to see quite a decline in business - instead of buying a cocktail or two as we planned, we spent our money on admission instead. And we do not understand why we were asked for our Cruise ID on admission - what reason was there for seeing our cruise card? Very disappointed in the new policy.
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