Glass-bottom
Four of the fourteen listings on this site use glass-bottom boats, and they are not a lesser option. In shallow, protected water with good visibility, a glass panel shows you the same coral as a mask does — and nobody in the group has to be brave.
Quick answer
A glass-bottom day in Sainte Anne Marine National Park starts at $83 and is the cheapest way to see the reef. The boat anchors over the same shallow coral the snorkelling trips use, and you look down through panels in the hull. Most of these listings also offer snorkelling if you want it.
When glass beats a mask
Mixed groups, small children and cameras. Otherwise, get in the water.
Mixed groups. If one person in four would rather not put their face in the sea, a glass-bottom boat makes the whole day work. Everybody sees the same reef.
Small children. Snorkelling with a five-year-old is a job. Looking through a floor panel with one is a delight.
Camera people. Shooting through a clean glass panel from a stable boat is easier than shooting from the surface with a mask fogging up, and the results are often better.
Where a mask wins is presence. Being in the water with the fish is a different experience from watching them through a window, and if everybody in your group is happy to swim, the snorkelling listings are the better Moyenne Island tour.
The four glass-bottom listings
All four go into Sainte Anne Marine National Park.
$83. The cheapest trip on this page, and the floor we would book: anything below it stops being a proper day out.
$92. Seven hours, and it lands on the island.
$110. Six hours, and a newer listing with no ratings yet.
$143. Six hours with snorkelling and a beach stop, 36 reviews at 4.4.
Glass-bottom and the Moyenne Island tour that lands
A glass-bottom day can be a full Moyenne Island tour. Check the itinerary.
The common assumption is that a glass-bottom listing is a shorter, cheaper trip that skips the island. On this page that is only half right.
Two of the four glass-bottom listings are full days that include a landing, and the seven-hour one at $92 is a complete Moyenne Island tour with the reef viewed through the floor instead of through a mask. The cheapest at $83 is the one to check carefully.
So the glass panel is a choice about how you see the reef, not about whether you see the island. Read the itinerary rather than assuming.
Glass-bottom works here because the coral is shallow and the water is protected. In deep or murky water it would be pointless.
Sainte Anne Marine Park→Book direct
All four, from the cheapest trip on the page upwards.
★ 4.5 · 49 reviews
★ 4.1 · 19 reviews
★ 4.4 · 36 reviews
Common questions
In Sainte Anne Marine National Park, yes. The coral is shallow and the water is protected, so a glass panel genuinely shows you the reef.
From $83, which is the cheapest trip on this page.
On most of these listings, yes. They carry masks and anchor at the same stops as the snorkelling trips.
Very. It is the easiest way to show a small child a coral reef without anybody having to manage a mask.
Some do and some do not. Check the listing — the seven-hour one at $92 does.
For seeing the coral, close. For being among the fish, no — that is what a mask is for.
Go deeper
One man, 16,000 trees and forty years. The story behind the park.
CostFrom $83, and the park fee nobody mentions.
The parkProtected since 1973, and the first marine park in the Indian Ocean.
The verdictFourteen listings, and the four worth your day.
TortoisesAround fifty of them, and how they got there.
SnorkellingWhat you actually see, and which trips put you in the water.
Mahé: Saint-Anne Marine Park and Moyenne Island Cruise
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h