Snorkling Destinations

Hey everyone.

I'm guessing there are hundreds of top places to snorkel in the world, but I'd be interested to know what everyone's top 3 would be? I guess people think differently, or is it a no brainer where the best places are?

Thanks

I can only go with places I have been and would return to when possible:
Palau - best snorkeling is well offshore by boat.
The Great Barrier Reef - same conditions as above
Maui - not the best snorkeling but so many good sites that can be accessed from shore - all be it some are more difficult to get to than others.

My bucket list includes The Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia and the Red Sea - hoping to get to these in the next couple of years.

You will probably get as many different answers as there are people who will reply!

Of the places I've actually been to:

1. Belize - snorkeling with whale sharks. Although there are other places where you have better odds of seeing the whale shark, I'm not sure if there is any other place where the chase of finding the whale shark is quite like Belize. I also liked shark ray alley. Snorkeled with 2 pods of dolphins too and in general good variety of underwater life.

2. Aruba - liked the millions of tiny fish surrounding me near the shipwreck.

3. South Africa - cage diving with great whites (guess not officially snorkeling but cage "diving" is really with a snorkel)

I'll have to say, fish just don't excite me anymore so I prefer seeing other animals as well. I'd like to go to the phillipines to go camping/boating/snorkeling plus see the whale sharks there too, to tonga to snorkel with the humpback whales, to new zealand to snorkel with dolphin pods that range from 100-1000 dolphins, to churchill canada to swim with the beluga whales, and florida to swim with the manatee. Why I'd like to go everywhere the other poster mentioned too. Too many places I want to visit.

are the 3 places you mentioned above the only places you have been? any below par experiences?

that question is for both of you!?

I have been snorkeling since I retired in 94 - started out in the Caribbean(the US and British VI's, St Martin, Anguilla, St. Barts, the Bahamas, Cuba, Columbia), added Mexico, Hawaii(5 different islands), Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The thing with snorkeling is the timing and knowing just where to find the right spots - go the right time of the year and it is great - go the wrong time and you will wonder what people are raving about. We snorkeled in Jibacoa, Cuba in January and thought it was the best we had seen in the Caribbean, decided to go back in June and it was like a whole different place - the water had been stirred up by storms and visibility was awful and the coral covered with sand. We found the best snorkeling in the SP and Asia although we were not too impressed with the Cook Islands. There are many other great spots I would like to explore but time and money keep getting in the way!! Hope this helps.