Swimming with turtles is on many traveller’s bucket list. Whether you are backpacking in South East Asia, or going on a 2 week holiday, these are my personal recommendations on the best places to swim with sea turtles.
Gili Trawangan, Indonesia
Also known as “Gili T”, is on of the group of Gili Islands which you can access from a ferry from Bali or Lombok. If you’re visiting Indonesia I definitely recommend you spend a few days on these beautiful islands. Gili T has more nightlife, if you want to avoid that then best to stay on Gili Air or Gili Meno. Whichever island you stay on, you’ll be able to do a Gili Islands snorkelling tour. Many see turtles snorkelling on their own not far from the shore but to ensure you see them I think it’s best to go with a guide. These guides know tourists want to see turtles and will know the best places to spot them.
While you can book through your hostel or hotel I booked my tour through Viator as when I visited this was my first time backpacking and I had booked all my trips months in advance as I was so excited!
As well as swimming with turtles, on this tour we saw beautiful colourful parrot fish and swam around sunken statues. It was a highlight of my trip to Bali.
Similan Islands, Thailand
The Similan Islands in Thailand is a National Park where no guests can stay overnight so the water and beaches are absolutely pristine. This is still my favourite beach in the world. Not only does it offer a great hiking viewpoint, crystal clear water, powder sand beaches but we also saw a turtle on our snorkelling trip.
I hadn’t originally booked this tour to see turtles (I wanted to see the beach that looked like the Seychelles!) so this was an extra highlight.
These islands are also known for their scuba diving where you can stay on a Liveboard (as there are no hotels on the island itself).
Compared to the Phi Phi Islands which is beautiful but over-run this tourists, this national park with a limit on daily visitors is pure paradise.
Due to the limit in visitors I highly recommend you book your tour before you arrive. I booked with Viator, it is quite expensive for a Thailand day trip but I could not find any other suppliers doing this trip from Phuket.
Although it’s a fairly long journey to and from the island, the staff are great and our guide Jackie Thailand was brilliant. Have to mention his YouTube channel which I promised to share with family and friends when I got back home!
Nadi, Fiji
Again, this was another slightly rogue encounter with a sea turtle. While Fiji offers many snorkelling opportunities to swim with turtles, mine was when I had had a few wines and jumped off the top of a floating club. I totally recommend a visit to Cloud 9 to anyone visiting Nadi in Fiji. Your ticket includes transport there and back and an amount to spend on food and drink (their wood fired pizzas and cocktails are amazing).
On another trip island hopping the Mamanuca Islands (where they filmed the Tom Hanks movie Castaway) I saw the most impressive coral I have ever seen.
As with most of my recommendations I think the best turtle swimming spots offer more than just seeing turtles. As they are wild animals you can never 100% guarantee seeing one so ensuring there is more to your trip means you won’t be disappointed.
Cano Island, Costa Rica
This is the first time I swam with a turtle and it was amazing. The Osa Peninsula was my favourite part of Costa Rica, the Corcovado Rainforest being one of the most biologically diverse places int he world. Whereas other parts of the country like Manuel Antonia are super busy, this part of Costa Rica still feels very protected. I visited the island as part of a package holiday with Anywhere.com but there is a variety of tours online if you want to arrange yourself.
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Now, I was unsure whether to recommend this as I personally did not see a turtle on both my excursions but other people with me did. Reason being is instead I saw sharks both in the Great Barrier Reef Scuba Diving Tour and at Fitzroy Island (no Great Whites thankfully!). And this is because you never see a turtle and a shark in the same place. So while I was disappointed I didn’t see a turtle, the others who did see them thought it was very cool that I got to swim with sharks.
I totally recommend Passions of Paradise if you want to try scuba diving for the first time. I was so nervous but my instructor held my hand the whole time and what an experience to scuba dive in The Great Barrier Reef!
If your visiting Cairns and have a spare morning or afternoon then get the ferry to Fitzroy Island and check out Nudey Beach, Australia’s most beautiful beach. If you want to swim you’ll need a stinger suit which you can rent on the island. On my side I saw little black tip sharks coming up to the shore line whereas my friends walked only to the other side of the small beach and swam with turtles.
Tips
As mentioned before, sea turtles are wild animals and it can never be 100% guaranteed you’ll see one (even though it’s very likely with these list of recommendations). So book a trip that is more than just seeing them, whether it’s amazing coral, beautiful beach, other fish to sea.
Also, while it’s fun to get a picture swimming alongside remember to never touch a sea turtle. The acidity on our hands can really damage their shells and also it might just freak them out and make them feel anxious.
Lastly, if you want to take a photo I can’t recommend a GO PRO enough. While you can get cheaper waterproof cameras on Amazon I think GO PRO is worth the investment and is the best at capturing amazing moments (like swimming with turtles).