We are Martin and Kaya, a couple from the Netherlands. We first met in 2009 and have been together ever since. We both have a day job, but we save up for holidays and try to go abroad 3-4 times per year. In february we usually go skiing, but the other trips we make should always include a place to snorkel. Here in the Netherlands we are quite limited to explore the marine life. Usually the water is cold and turbid. Besides that, in summer, beaches are very crowded. There are a few lakes though, but still, they’re not ideal for snorkeling.
In 2011 we both got our Padi dive certificate in Koh Tao, Thailand. This allows us to combine both snorkeling and diving whenever we are abroad. We went diving and snorkeling in different parts of the world, like Australia, Bonaire (one of our favorites), Spain, just to name a few. Overall, however, depending on the location, we started to enjoy snorkeling more. Especially since often there’s direct access off the beach. We can be lazy from time to time 🙂 These days, we usually go diving once or twice whenever we go on a holiday. Snorkeling and chilling on the beach suits us way better. Especially since we both have a busy job.
In 2013 our daughter was born. She is our first and only child. And yes, she’s been snorkeling a good amount of times over the past few years. She loves it, however, for us, it also means keeping an eye on her 24/7.
In 2018 we visited some of the Hawaiian islands and stayed at a few resorts to celebrate our honeymoon. That trip, we didn’t go scuba diving at all. Most resorts have such a beautiful marine life you can already see when snorkeling, and besides, we didn’t feel like getting sea sick aboard a divers boat. The ocean can be rough there, at least when we visited. So we ended up only snorkeling, almost every day a few times, and it was amazing. We had rain for 3 days pretty much straight, but the other days were nice. If only we had brought a waterproof camera back then. There are many snorkelers in Hawaii, and we tried to stay close to the reefs, where turtles often like to relax. It was so amazing.
Bonaire we have been visiting a couple of times now, and there we usually only go snorkeling. For us it’s not only the sea life and the corals, but also the fun fact that people there speak dutch, which is our mother tongue. We think this is one of the greatest snorkel places for us, it’s really beautiful and the climate is excellent. Sometimes we even spend New Years there, because here in the Netherlands it’s cold and rainy.
Over the years we have been snorkeling in many different locations, always involving a sunny climate, and we’re definitely going to continue on that journey. If we’re not on a holiday, we’re often doing research on where to go next. We plan to visit Florida as one of our next stops, but also a few European countries are on our to do list. Everything we learn, and everything we find interesting, is documented. First on our own computer, but nowadays on this website. We use it as a resource, because learning about snorkel locations and corresponding marine life simply is too much information to keep by memory. Also, the places we have been visiting, together with the pictures we made, are easy to share with friends and family when they are online. And it helps out others in the meantime.
Currently we’re working on a few reviews about snorkel gear. We’ve tried a good amount of both necessary and luxury gear, and we believe it’s a good thing to share it with any newbies or other snorkel fanatics. Not only does our website motivate us to spend a saturday evening on the internet, it also excites us to share our knowledge. Why not help others out by sharing our experiences, right?
We hope you enjoy Snorkel Planet! We’ll continue to add new information regularly and whenever we visit a new snorkel location we’ll add it to our list. Feel free to share our information with friends and family, it’s always good to spread the word. And it helps us to attract new visitors as well. The more people we help, the better we feel about it. Also, it’s the best motivation to keep on going. We’re on LinkedIn and share some of our pictures on Pinterest.
Thank you for stopping by! And, in case you go snorkeling, we wish you a lovely experience and an adventure of a lifetime.
Much Love,
Martin & Kaya
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Update: We started to make some videos and share them on our Youtube channel.
Update 2: We joined Instagram!
Update 3: You can now find us on Twitter.
Update 4: We’re finally on Facebook.