Shelly Beach · Manly · Sydney
Premium guided snorkelling in the calm, protected water of Cabbage Tree Bay, Manly.
Who we're for
Most snorkel tours quietly assume you can swim, follow a briefing in English, and get yourself down to the water. Ours does not. We are built for the groups other operators find too hard.
Flotation is standard kit, not something you have to ask for. Gentle feet-first entry from the sand, surface snorkelling only, and a guide beside you the whole time.
Safety briefings in ten languages, and fully visual briefings for everyone else, so a language barrier never becomes a safety barrier.
Most of our guests have never snorkelled. That is the normal case here, not the exception.
The Experience
One booking covers everything: equipment, briefing, guiding and beach time. Guests bring swimwear and a towel. Tour leaders organise nothing.
On the sand
Meet your guide, learn the basics on the sand, and get fitted, with a fish identification card so you know who you're about to meet. Fins, life jackets and flotation as standard. Wetsuits and thermal gear on Premium and Platinum.
45 to 75 minutes, by package
45 minutes on Essential, a full hour on Premium, 75 minutes on Platinum. Your guide leads the group across the reef, naming the blue gropers, cuttlefish, rays and everything else you meet.
Back on the beach
Warm up, swap stories and collect your reserve certificate, with proof you snorkelled a protected marine reserve. Photographs on Premium and Platinum. Beach barbecue and drinks by arrangement, subject to permit.
Hygiene, done properly
Every mask and snorkel is washed, disinfected and dried between guests, and checked before it goes back in the box. On Platinum, you get a brand-new one, unwrapped in front of you at the briefing and yours to take home.
Packages & Pricing
All prices per person in Australian dollars. All prices include GST. Group and net rates for tour operators on request.
The guided classic
$140 per person
A ninety-minute experience with forty-five minutes in the water.
Warmer, easier, photographed
$170 per person
Two hours, with a full hour in the water.
The complete Manly experience
$220 per person
Two and a half hours, with seventy-five minutes in the water.
* Surface dry suits are available on selected bookings, ideal for guests who would rather keep their clothes dry, feel the cold easily, or prefer more coverage in the water. Ask when booking, or see Safety & Equipment.
* Beach barbecue and drinks are available by arrangement and subject to permit. Ask when booking.
Manly Snorkel Club
Snorkelling is better with other people. The club is how you find them.
Club mornings at Shelly Beach, first look at new dates before they go public, a member rate on every session, and a crew to swap stories with over a coffee afterwards. No fees in 2026, no minimum, no experience needed. Turn up, get wet, meet people.
What members get
Photographs
On Premium and Platinum, your guide shoots the whole session, in the water and on the sand. Photographs come back to you the same day, edited, with nothing in the corner but a small logo. Tag us and we will share the best ones.
Tour Operators & Groups
Manly Snorkelling is built around organised groups, not walk-ups. One booking, one invoice, one contact. From coach set-down to the final group photo, a half-day your itinerary can rely on: welcome, fish identification, fitting, guided snorkel, photographs, certificates, celebration.
Contracted rates or commission arrangements for inbound operators, DMCs, agents and resellers.
Your group only, timed to fit your Sydney itinerary. Weekday sessions open for groups of eight or more.
Translated safety briefings in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Spanish, French and German, plus fully visual briefings. Language is never a barrier to joining safely.
Group photographs delivered the same day, with operator-branded photos and certificates available for partners.
A full coach is no problem: larger groups alternate between the water and the shore programme in waves of up to sixteen, so everyone stays inside our guide ratios.
A published weather policy with an early morning call, free rescheduling and alternative-activity options, so a cancelled session never becomes a refund fight with your customer.
Tell us your group size, preferred dates, language needs and the package you have in mind.
We reply within one business day with net pricing, and hold your date while you confirm numbers.
Your group steps off the bus and into a fully managed experience: equipment fitted, guides ready, photos delivered.
fish@manlysnorkelling.com.au · Replies within one business day.
1営業日以内にご返信いたします。 · 영업일 기준 1일 이내에 회신드립니다.
Operator resources: Rate card (print-ready) · Safety briefing: English · 日本語 · 한국어 · 中文 · ไทย · Bahasa Indonesia · Bahasa Melayu · Español · Français · Deutsch
Safety & Equipment
Most of our guests have never snorkelled. Some barely swim. The whole experience is designed so they're comfortable anyway: calm protected water, gentle feet-first entry from the sand, surface snorkelling only, and a guide beside them the whole time.
The final call is always our guide's, and it's never overridden for commercial reasons. If conditions or confidence aren't right on the day, we'll say so early, and make sure there's still a great beach experience.
Led by Robert Partridge, dive instructor, first-aid instructor trainer and founder of one of Asia's largest dive operations, with more than twenty years guiding beginners in open water across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.
The Location
Shelly Beach sits inside Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, a no-take marine sanctuary protected since 2002, at the quiet end of Manly. Sheltered from the ocean swell, it offers easy shore entry, calm clear water, and over 160 fish species, more life than anywhere else this close to the city. Your tour helps keep it that way: we look, we don't touch, and every guest learns why the bay is worth protecting.
Circular Quay to Manly, then a flat 15-minute walk along Marine Parade to the beach.
Group set-down and pick-up in Manly by arrangement. We meet your group at the bus.
Combine with Manly Beach, the Corso and the coastal walk for a full Sydney beach-day itinerary.
FAQ
Usually, yes. You're exactly who we designed this for. Life jackets, buoyancy aids and swimming noodles are there for anyone who wants them, and plenty of guests do. The water is calm and shallow near the entry, guests who'd like extra support stay closest to the lead guide, and our guide makes the final call on the day based on conditions and how you feel.
Never more than eight guests per guide in the water, and never more than thirty in a session. Larger bookings, a full coach for example, alternate between the water and the beach programme in waves of up to sixteen, so nobody is ever part of a crowd out there.
Not at all. Most of our guests are first-timers. The session starts on the sand, fitting your equipment and practising the basics before you enter the water, and your guide stays with the group the whole time you are in it.
Swimwear, a towel and sunscreen. Everything else (mask, snorkel, fins and flotation, plus a wetsuit on Premium and Platinum) is provided as part of your package.
Sydney water ranges from about 17°C in winter to 24°C in late summer. Premium and Platinum packages include wetsuits, and surface dry suits are available on selected bookings for guests who feel the cold or prefer to stay dry.
Cabbage Tree Bay is a protected no-take reserve with more than 160 recorded fish species, so it's unusually full of life: eastern blue gropers, giant cuttlefish, wobbegong sharks resting in the kelp, fiddler rays, schools of yellowtail, octopus and, if you're lucky, a weedy seadragon or the bay's resident green turtle. Your guide identifies what you're seeing as you go, and your fish ID card is yours to keep.
No, and that's exactly why the snorkelling is this good. The bay is a no-take reserve: nothing is touched, fed, chased or collected, not even empty shells, which become homes for living animals. Your guide will show you how to watch everything up close without disturbing it.
We check conditions against documented limits early on the morning of every session, and if our guides judge them unsuitable we'll offer your group a free reschedule or a full refund, early enough for your itinerary to adapt. Safety decisions are always ours to make, and they're never overridden for commercial reasons.
Tours are guided in English, with safety briefings in ten languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Spanish, French and German. Fully visual briefings cover everyone else, and the site is in English, Japanese and Korean.
Email fish@manlysnorkelling.com.au with your group size, dates and language needs. We reply within one business day with group pricing and hold your date. Operators are encouraged to reserve weekend and holiday dates well in advance.
Book / Group Enquiry
Book directly at the published rates for weekends and public holidays, when group capacity allows. Weekdays are for groups.
Enquire to BookNet rates, commissions, private sessions and season-long date reservations. This is the channel we're built for.
Group EnquiryOnline booking is coming. Until then, fish@manlysnorkelling.com.au is answered within one business day.