Snorkel the tiny islands in Belize known as Silk Cayes or Queen Cayes on the Barrier Reef. Here is where you find the best snorkeling and diving sites on a tour from Placencia. We are sure you have read about snorkeling at Silk Cayes and Turtle Alley on Trip Advisor, Blogs, and Guide Books. Take a trip with us for an epic time!

Included in silk cayes TRIP
Park entrance fees, Lunch (Beach Bar-be-cue), Water, Sodas or juice, Local Guide and Snorkel Gears (mask, fins, snorkel).

What to bring: Underwater camera, Sunscreen, and towels.

Tour departs: 9 a.m from our dock on the lagoon side of Placencia

Travel time: 1-hour boat ride to the Marine Reserve
High possibility of seeing: turtles, eagle rays, nurse shark, rough-tail stingrays.

*Ranger briefing of the Parks do’s and don’ts upon arrival.

silk cayes and turtle alley snorkeling adventure
You will be snorkeling in a Marine Reserve so a park ranger will brief us on the dos and don’ts. Your snorkel guide will also brief you on snorkeling and how to approach the marine life. The first snorkel session starts by swimming off the beach.

After the briefings, we begin our tour by snorkeling around the reef system. Your guide will assist you around the reef while pointing out various creatures. This is an easy snorkel for about an hour and a half (1h:30min). Pay close attention to the guide as he points out colorful fishes, corals, and other marine life.

Once back on the beach, enjoy a freshly prepared meal (can be a packed lunch or a beach bar-be-cue, depends on the day). After lunchtime, you can swim or relax on the beach until you are ready for the next snorkel adventure.

When you’re ready, we will board the boat and go over to a nearby patch reef. There you will enter the water from the boat, and the guide will take you along the patch reef.

As you go along, you will end up at the place we call “Turtle Alley”. Here you will have a 90% chance of a close encounter with huge loggerhead turtles and/or rough-tail stingrays, snappers, barracudas, nurse sharks and eagle rays that frequent the area. Don’t worry, they are all Harmless. Keep your hands to yourselves and enjoy the encounter.

Once that is done, we load up and take a boat ride back to Placencia, all in a fantastic day of fun.

Silk Cayes Marine Reserve
Silk Caye Marine Reserve is located 36 kilometers. East of Placencia Village, Belize. Silk Caye makes up only part of the attraction of this region known as Silk Caye and Gladden Spit Marine Reserve. The reserve was established in 2003. It protects the wonderland of the marine ecosystem, home to many endangered species of corals, turtles, and fishes.

One of which can be spotted by your licensed tour guide during your snorkel! Many tour guides and captains have spotted the loggerhead turtle, measuring about four (4) feet in length, swimming along the cayes. Tour guide’s suspects these turtle’s to age at 45, in human-years!

Protected Marine Life includes:

Green Turtle
Loggerhead Turtle
Hawksbill Turtle
Goliath Grouper
Nassau Grouper
Great Hammerhead
Also Different Corals:

Staghorn Coral
Fire Coral
Star Coral
From schools of permits, tropical fishes to the docile nurse and lemon sharks every second of our circular tour of picturesque islands of the Silk Cayes is filled with epic discoveries.

Go scuba Diving the Silks Cayes canyon with us or any of the tour companies and dive shops in Placencia.

Whale Shark in the Area
(The gentle Whale Sharks, a filter eater, is a seasonal attraction for divers just outside of the Belize Barrier Reef, in the Gladden Spit Marine Reserve.)

FYI: Are nurse sharks dangerous?
Nurse sharks may seem to be a docile creature but they are not. If they are provoke or accidentally stepped on, they will defend themselves. Other than that, they pose no threat and are harmless to people. There is still a need to be careful as the can grow up to 14 ft, and have hundreds of tiny serrated teeth in their mouth.