Can anybody advise on the best places to go snorkeling and see rays?

Tori's Reef

Invisibles.

Great! Thanks! Happy New Year!

Lac Cai

We also saw a ray at Salt Pier in July...I think you're pretty much gauranteed to see them on the East side

Thanks Cynde, I'll add those to my list. But I understand that on the east side snorkeling isn't done very often because of the currents & waves - but maybe you can tell we otherwise?

Not Cynde but yes no snorkeling on the east side, unless you catch a wind reversal. Now inside Lac Bay is some great snorkeling although it will involve some long walks.

Alex, hook up with Renee, snorkel tours. She does east side snorkels that I've heard are fantastic. Hopefully Darlene and the others that have done the East side with Renee can chime in on the locations

Cynde, Cecil, thanks! Lac Bay was already on my list, as last time I didn't snorkel there due to adverse wind conditions on the days we went there. And I've already written down Renee's phone number and I will contact her when on island, as the info on this board has convinced me of her qualities.

we regularly saw eagle rays in the sand at invisibles about 930AM they were feeding and stirring up the sand so even from a distance we knew they were there.

Hi Pat, I'm certainly going to Invisibles now. Marcus already suggested going there, and thanks to you I now know the best time to go!

uh oh alex...now that i've even told you what time we've seen rays they'll probably leave bonaire waters never to be seen again. but 930AM seemed like a regular time to see them. we noticed at least two different ones there last year at that time of day. i say at least two because one had a crook in its tail so it was easy to identify...the others we saw looked to be about the same size so they could have been different ones or we saw the same one with the straight tail many times. one morning we did a dive from salt city and got into the water before 9AM. we swam south for a little over 30 minutes at 60 feet and came up to about 35 to go back north to the exit. as i looked into the shallows i saw a lot of sand in the water...we went up to about 25 feet and the eagle ray was there foraging in the sand. if you look in the sand at invisibles, just before the reef you'll see the marks from where they were digging.

Well Pat, with such precise directions I can't go wrong, thanks! But if I don't see "your" rays, I'll probably see something at least as interesting - you can hardly go wrong in Bonaire's waters. It's just that I love rays and failed to see one on Bonaire on my trip last year, while on a lot of posts people talk about having seen them - so frustrating!

I admit we saw this diving, not snorkeling...but WHAT A SHOW. We came upon 2 eagle rays, who came up and check us out, then decided we were worthy of a show. They were doing acrobatics and playing right in front of us for quite awhile, then casually swam off. It was very humbling, to say the least. Where? At Invisibles, one of our favorite spots.

Thanks everybody for the tips - unfortunately we didn't get to see rays. I guess we'll have to come back for those...