Tag: destination

If you’ve ever booked — or even just dreamed about — a Snorkel Venture tour, chances are you’ve already crossed paths with one of our travel experts: Bernita, Crystal, Graham, or Kelly.  They’re the people behind the scenes bringing each journey to life, overseeing everything from the moment a tour is conceived to the final details before our travelers meet their tour leader at the destination.  Let’s catch up with the Snorkel Venture travel team and take a look at where their adventures have taken them in 2025. Bernita in the Dominican Republic I was fortunate enough to tick off a bucket list trip in early 2025... a trip to the Dominican Republic to snorkel with the humpback whales that go there to breed and/birth their babies. The trip was liveaboard based. The Silverbank, the Marine Mammal Sanctuary where the humpbacks can be seen, is 80 nautical miles from Puerto Plata. Only 3 boats have permits to enter the sanctuary, each carrying up to 20 guests, so I felt very privileged to be there.  The encounters are regulated to protect the humpbacks; much of the day is spent on the small tender boats looking for whales. They can be seen spy hopping, breaching, tail lobbing and sleeping. We also saw groups of males chasing females trying to mate or fighting amongst themselves.  The area is a shallow underwater plateau with coral formations coming up to the surface, but the trip is not about the coral and no time is spent snorkeling around the coral heads, unless there is a whale there to see. When we find a whale/whales that are slow moving or sleeping, we quietly enter the water and watch them. The moms are mostly relaxed and the babies are quite curious.  The sleeping whales come up to breathe