Snorkeling at Saona Island by speedboat: private tour with lunch

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/15

Duration8h

GroupUp to 32

LanguagesEN · ES

PickupAt your hotel

Eight hours on the water: speedboat, natural pool, snorkeling stops, and a beach lunch

A private speedboat tour to Saona Island, off the Dominican Republic's southern coast, where you snorkel at three named sites—Turtle Lagoon, Starfish Bay and the natural pool—with gear provided and a guide in English or Spanish. The day includes round-trip transfers from your hotel, lunch on a private beach and an open bar; you choose your beverages before departure. Sea turtles appear on roughly nine of ten trips; stingrays and manatees are less common. The eight-hour excursion is built around what you do in the water and on the sand, not what you watch from a boat.

Step-by-step itinerary

Full day at Saona Island

Travel by speedboat to Saona Island
Stop at natural pool for swimming
Relax on private beach area
Enjoy typical lunch buffet
Swim in calm turquoise waters
Visit open bar and drink beverages
Nap in beach hammock
Play volleyball on the beach
Walk along the coast

The Experience

You start with pickup from your hotel and a speedboat ride to the natural pool—a stop in the open sea where the water is so clear and shallow you can stand in the middle of it without touching bottom. From there the boat takes you to Saona Island itself, a 42-square-kilometer stretch of white sand and turquoise shallows that Christopher Columbus renamed in 1494. The snorkeling happens at three locations: Turtle Lagoon in the mangroves, Starfish Bay where you can touch the creatures on the seafloor, and the waters around Clearwater Beach. A guide in English or Spanish points out what lives there—sea turtles show up about 90 percent of the time, and stingrays and manatees are possible but not guaranteed, since they are wild animals.

Lunch is a typical Dominican buffet served on the private beach section, and the open bar runs all day; you pick your drink preferences when you book, so the boat carries what you want. Between the water and the food, the afternoon fills with swimming in the calm shallows, napping in a beach hammock, playing volleyball on the sand, or walking the coast. Most travelers do all of it. The boat leaves Saona in the late afternoon and stops again at the natural pool on the way back, so you get a second swim in that particular water before the ride home to your hotel.

What’s included

Round-trip hotel transfers.
snorkeling gear for all three sites.
lunch on the private beach.
open bar with your choice of beverages.
a professional guide in English or Spanish.
and access to the natural pool, Turtle Lagoon, Starfish Bay and Clearwater Beach.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Bia travels

Is this one for you?Book this private speedboat if you want to snorkel multiple island stops in one day with your own group—you'll move at your pace between the natural pool, mangroves, and starfish bay without syncing to other groups' schedules.