Where to see the most sea turtles?

[scrane]

That's kind of far for a 4 day trip from the US...

Yes, but for future reference and the interest of others. Bunaken has a LOT of turtles. They zoom into the wall and find a niche to sleep. As soon as one leaves another takes its place.

 

[scubadada]

At Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, I see hawksbills pretty often. It used to be about every other dive. As of late, about every fourth dive. The turtles are often pretty used to divers and will ignore them. In the spring, you have a good chance of seeing loggerhead turtles. You can contact reef divers for the peak time. I have seen green turtles but not often. They tend to take off when they see divers.

Luck of the draw. I visited Little Cayman in 2010, 2014, and on the Aggressor in 2018, saw a few turtles on each visit. Spent a week on Cayman Brac in 2017, did not see any turtles.

 

[mbs]

East side of Bonaire for sure! We had a relatively calm day which I guess is unusual. We did a "drift" dive from White hole to Turtle city. What a blast. Turtles everywhere!

 

[mbs]

Oh and we spotted a loggerhead at Klein Bonaire as well!!!

 

[dmaziuk]

There's so many in Playa Grandi in Curacao (scraps from the fishing pier) that they're bringing in the teletubby snorkelers by the busload from all over the island. P*ss*ng off the fishermen who now can't get to or from the pier without running over at least 5 snorkelers.

"They" being resorts, tours, cruises...

 

[mbs]

There's so many in Playa Grandi in Curacao (scraps from the fishing pier) that they're bringing in the teletubby snorkelers by the busload from all over the island. P*ss*ng off the fishermen who now can't get to or from the pier without running over at least 5 snorkelers.

"They" being resorts, tours, cruises...

Oh that's a great idea for snorkelers!!! We stayed at AllWest and its a short shore dive to that "site." I suppose you could snorkel over to it as well, but I don't know about fishing boat traffic? Otherwise short drive or walk. I wonder if Alice in Wonderland is a good snorkel as well? Certainly an outstanding shore dive!!!!! Here's a pic of turtle feeding frenzy.

 

[nippurmagnum]

+ 1 for East Coast of Bonaire.

I've done a lot of diving in Hawaii, and you will definitely see turtles there, but nothing like the East Coast of Bonaire. You get bored of seeing turtles there, and sometimes you'll see 10-15 turtles just in your field of vision. It's a nursing ground.

This video is fairly typical of East Coast turtle action: New video by Gabriel Adler

By the way, that's only true of the East side of Bonaire. On the west side you'll definitely see turtles during a week's diving, but it might be just 4-5.

East Coast of Bonaire, at Turtle City. Seeing 60+ sea turtles on a single dive is not uncommon.

 

[Spizeck]

You will see turtles at Saba. They come close and there are a lot of them.

 

[BigDaddyGlad]

I've got 4 dives in my log in Aruba and I've seen at least 1 turtle every one of those dives.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

For a 4 day trip coming out of the US, and you're snorkeling, Caymans (GC, LC, CB) are going to be your best bet for turtles.