Sublime Snorkeling Cape Town with a marine biologist: the RADD experience

Experience the depths of the ocean with a marine biologist! Recently, we decided to go try snorkeling Cape Town for science experience at the Cape Research and Diver Development (RADD) centre. You can watch what to expect here.

If you haven’t experienced snorkeling before, you are essentially floating on the ocean and have a breathing mask that allows you to see the marine life under the ocean bed – it’s the perfect intro to water experiences and allows you to see our beautiful ocean world and species. The experience starts with a quick briefing on the work at RADD, the marine ecosystem and conservation efforts.

Snorkeling Cape Town

You will also be shown pictures of different sharks and fish that you will be spotting during your experience – this plays a significant role in the conservation efforts as a global effort is made towards population estimation and movement tracking!

Once the briefing is done, you will be suited up – all equipment is provided but we recommend taking a swimming costume to wear underneath the gear, for hygiene purposes. Next, you will be driven to the beach shores where you will quickly clean your mask and set out to the ocean.

The snorkeling experience costs about R1200 per person and includes the gear, the ride to the beach and all the science knowledge that you learn! We booked through GetYourGuide because CPT weather is unpredictable and we wanted to have the flexibility to move our booking (which we actually ended up needing to 😂) The equipment is quite easy (unlike scuba diving), so even if you haven’t done this before, the learning curve is fairly easy.

The experience doesn’t go deep into the ocean so it’s beginner-friendly and there is a buoy that you can hold onto throughout your experience – but because of the suit material, we found ourselves floating so easily.

It was more difficult to swim down into the ocean if you spotted something as you had to hold on to the underwater foliage to swim downwards. The guide will try as much as possible though to show you everything they see, which is quite cool.

The experience itself was mind-blowing. We got to see a number of species and your guide, the marine biologist, will take quick breaks to explain what you are seeing or grab something from the ocean bed to show you before putting it back.

If you spot any species, a picture will be taken, which forms part of the database. We saw jellyfish, sharks (not the ones that can eat you), octopuses and a space called Narnia in the ocean where you will swim through.

Our entire experience in the ocean lasted about 1 hour. Once we were done, we swam back to the shore and were driven to the RADD offices to clean up and view the pictures of our adventures. When we spotted new species, we identified them and talked about them.

The entire experience added up to 3 hours – since RADD is located at Simons Town, and we took a train all the way there, which was an absolute jol. If you haven’t snorkeled before, then we’d recommend going to grab a bite after you’re done because it’s a lot of work walking around with those heavy wet suits haha. If you ask the team, they’ll have some nice recommendations for places nearby. Would you do this?

Bookmark this for your the next time you’re looking for something fun to do! Want more travel recommendations, both in and outside South Africa? Follow us @afor_adventures or subscribe to our food & travel blog – always honest, always helpful.