Snorkeling With Sea Turtles in Okinawa

The place to swim with sea turtles from Naha is the Keramas, a group of islands just west of the city. Green sea turtles live off the beaches of Tokashiki and Zamami, and day trips leave from Tomari Port in Naha. Ishigaki, about 400 km south-west of Naha in a straight line and reached by plane, is the other place where trips are built around turtles. The Blue Cave at Cape Maeda is not a turtle trip: none of the ten Cape Maeda trips on this site mentions turtles in its listing.

The short answer

For a turtle day from Naha with the least to arrange, book Marine House Aharen’s From Naha: Tokashiki Island Turtle Snorkeling Tour on GetYourGuide. The return ferry tickets from Tomari Port are included. On Tokashiki a bus takes you about 15 minutes to Tokashiku Beach, a banana boat runs you out to the snorkel spot, and an instructor leads about an hour in the water, taking GoPro photos. Lunch, the showers, changing rooms and lockers at the beach are included, and the whole day takes about seven hours. Because the ferry seats are reserved for you, it has to be booked at least seven days ahead. It costs from $89 a person and carries 72 reviews (checked November 2026).

Two conditions come with it. Turtles are wild, and the trip does not guarantee one. And it is not for everyone: the listing excludes non-swimmers, children under five, people over 65, people over 100 kg and anyone prone to seasickness. If the ferry is cancelled or the sea is unsafe, the trip is cancelled with a full refund, and you hear by email by 8:30 on the morning.

Where to see sea turtles in Okinawa

• Tokashiki, Kerama Islands. The closest of the inhabited Kerama islands to Naha: Tokashiki Port is about 32 km from Tomari Port in a straight line. Tokashiku Beach, on the island’s west coast, is where the day trip above snorkels.
• Zamami, Kerama Islands. Zamami Port is about 38 km from Tomari Port in a straight line. Zamami Village’s own guide to Ama Beach says turtles live in its clear water and you can swim with them close by, and asks you not to get too close and to watch them gently.
• Ishigaki. A flight, not a ferry: about 400 km south-west of Naha in a straight line. Both Ishigaki turtle trips on this page start with a hotel pickup and enter the water from the beach.
• Miyako. The other southern island with turtle trips, covered below.
• Okinawa Island itself. The Blue Cave at Cape Maeda is the famous snorkel on the main island. It is sold on the cave, its light and its reef fish, not on turtles.

Does the Blue Cave trip meet turtles?

Not as a promise. We read all ten Cape Maeda trips on this site’s Blue Cave shelf for turtles, and not one mentions them in its listing. A turtle may still swim past at Cape Maeda, as one can anywhere on this coast, but if seeing a turtle in the water is the point of your day, a Blue Cave trip is the wrong booking.

The Kerama boats are the opposite. JOY CREATE’s full day from Naha describes searching for sea turtles every day at its two or three spots, and Marine House SEASIR’s day trip with lunch offers the chance of turtles at two reef points. Neither guarantees one; both go where the turtles live. The Kerama Islands snorkeling guide compares those boat days.

The one trip on GetYourGuide that pairs a Blue Cave with turtles is on Ishigaki, not at Cape Maeda: Okinawa Ishigaki Island: Blue Cave Tour with Turtle Snorkel visits Ishigaki’s own Blue Cave, a different cave on a different island, about 400 km away. If your trip is on Okinawa Island, do the two things on two days: the Blue Cave in a morning from the west coast, and a Kerama day from Naha.

Tokashiki or Zamami?

Both are in Kerama Shoto National Park, both are reached from Tomari Port in Naha, and both have beaches where turtles live. The difference is the boat and the fare. Fares below are from the two villages’ own ferry pages, checked November 2026, for one adult.

Tokashiki (Tokashiki Village, fares from 1 October 2026):

• Ferry Tokashiki: about 70 minutes, ¥2,200 one way, ¥4,180 return. It leaves Tomari at 10:00 and returns from Tokashiki at 15:30 from October to the end of February, 16:00 from March to September.
• Marine Liner Tokashiki, the fast boat: about 40 minutes, ¥3,300 one way, ¥6,270 return, passengers only.
• Plus ¥100 environmental cooperation tax, for passengers of high-school age and over.

Zamami (Zamami Village):

• Ferry Zamami: ¥2,900 one way, ¥5,510 return. It leaves from the south side of Tomari Port, in front of the Tomarin terminal.
• Queen Zamami, the fast boat: ¥3,950 one way, ¥7,510 return. It leaves from the north side of Tomari Port, about a 10-minute walk from the Tomarin ticket counter.
• The village gives the crossing as 50 to 70 minutes by fast boat and 90 to 120 minutes by ferry, with stops at Aka on some sailings.
• Plus the village’s ¥100 island tax; children up to junior-high age are exempt.
• Reservations open one month ahead and close the day before sailing; the village takes no same-day reservations.

Which one? Tokashiki is the closer island and the easier day, and the guided trip above includes its ferry, so there is nothing to book but the tour. If you already have ferry tickets or are staying on Tokashiki, the same company runs Tokashiki Island Turtle Snorkel Tour – Meet on Tokashiki, from $51, with a shuttle from the port. Zamami suits a slower trip, or a night or two on the island: Ama Beach is very shallow, and the Japan Tourism Agency’s guide text for Zamami suggests coming at high tide.

Three ways to snorkel with turtles in Okinawa

Prices, ratings and review counts from the GetYourGuide listings (checked November 2026). Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.

Can you swim with turtles in Okinawa without a tour?

Yes. Tokashiku Beach and Ama Beach are public beaches, and the village ferries are open to anyone. What a tour adds is the boat to the reef, someone who knows where the turtles are that day, and someone watching you in the water. If you go on your own, check the swimming conditions on the day (Zamami Village posts them on its homepage), wear a life jacket, and never stand on the coral: Zamami Village recommends a life jacket for exactly that reason, so you float instead of standing.

The rules for turtles in Okinawa

• No Japanese body we found sets a viewing distance in metres for the Kerama Islands or Ishigaki. The guidance that exists is Zamami Village’s: do not get too close, and watch the turtles gently.
• Green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles are protected in the national parks. The Ministry of the Environment lists all three as designated animals in Kerama Shoto National Park and Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park. In the parks’ special zones, capturing them is banned under the Natural Parks Act unless the minister or the prefectural governor gives permission, for research or another public purpose.
• Never touch a turtle. The Tokashiki trips, the half-day boat, 3piece's Ishigaki trip and the Miyako trip on this page all list touching marine life as not allowed, and the Ishigaki Blue Cave trip asks you to swim with the turtles at a safe distance.
• Float at the surface, to the side. Do not swim on top of a turtle, crowd it, or block its way up to breathe. One guest on a Kerama boat trip wrote of other guests who clung to a turtle; a crew that briefs its group before anyone gets in prevents that.

When is turtle season in Okinawa?

The turtles you snorkel with in the Keramas are there all year: Zamami Village describes them as living off Ama Beach, and the Ministry of the Environment notes that the Kerama beaches are nesting beaches for green turtles. What has a season is nesting. Okinawa Prefecture’s red data book puts loggerhead nesting mostly in May to July and green turtle nesting in about June to September, and names the north of Okinawa Island, the Kerama Islands and Iriomote as where green turtles nest most in the prefecture.

What changes your day more is the sea. The water is around 21°C in February and nearly 30°C in August, per Okinawa’s tourism board, which is why several of these trips include a wetsuit, or one for winter. August and September bring the typhoons, and a cancelled ferry cancels the island day with it. The Blue Cave homepage has the water temperatures, the typhoon months and the jellyfish advisory in full.

Ishigaki: turtles from the beach

Ishigaki is a separate trip: a flight from Naha, and about 400 km in a straight line. The two turtle trips here are short, beginner-paced half days that start with a pickup and go in from the beach, so there is no boat ride.

• Okinawa Ishigaki Island: Blue Cave Tour with Turtle Snorkel is the one carded above: about three hours with pickup in Ishigaki, a group of eight at most, photos sent the same day, a winter wetsuit included. It advertises a 95% chance of meeting turtles; it does not promise one.
• Ishigaki Island: Snorkeling Tour with Sea Turtles by 3piece, from $44: pickup in southern Ishigaki, about two hours in the water, 30 to 50 photos, and a sunrise option. Its itinerary also names Ishigaki’s Blue Cave as the snorkel stop.

Both take you into Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park’s water, under the same protection as the Keramas.

Miyako

Miyako, between Okinawa Island and Ishigaki, also has turtle trips from the beach. One is Miyako island: Sea Turtle Snorkeling Tour by MIYAKO ADVENTURE PiPi, from $44 in current promotion (usually $50): about two hours from the Shigira Beach car park, for ages six to 59, touching marine life not allowed.

Is turtle snorkeling in Okinawa worth it?

If you want to see a sea turtle in the water, yes, and the Kerama Islands are the way to do it from Naha: a ferry day, a reef where turtles live, and a crew in the water with you. It costs more than a Blue Cave morning, and it takes a day rather than a morning, so plan it as its own day.

Check dates for the Tokashiki turtle day