Trannies Beach Snorkel
LOCATION West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia
DEPTH 1-3 Meters
WATER TEMP 25-30 Degrees
DIFFICULTY Easy
Sheltered shallow water with easy access from the beach
FEATURE
Google Map data © 2024 Imagery © Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies
Trannies Beach Snorkel
LOCATION West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia
DEPTH 1-3 Meters
WATER TEMP 25-30 Degrees
DIFFICULTY Easy
Sheltered shallow water with easy access from the beach
FEATURE
Google Map data © 2024 Imagery © Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies
Trannies Beach Snorkel
Located on the northern end of West Island, Trannies Beach is yet another sensational snorkel spot in the Cocos Islands. Whether you snorkel around the lagoon or swim the 100m out to the reef, there are fish everywhere. Best done at low tide, keep an eye out for trevally, turtles and the resident grouper on the reef.
What Can I See?
- Turtles
- Reef Sharks
- Stingrays
- Trevally
- Marbled Grouper
Getting There
Getting to the Cocos Islands is the hard part. Flights leave twice weekly from Perth. Once you get to the main tourist Island – West Island – Trannies Beach is about 6km north of the township. The road is sealed most of the way, just the last few hundred metres is on a hard dirt track.
Where & How do you get in?
Walk into the water straight off the beach. you will see lots of fish right there in the shallows around the coral outcrops, or it is about 120m out to the reef wall. If you go at low tide the water is quite shallow all the way out to the reef.
Best Season
The best weather in the Cocos Islands is from April to November. Trade winds keep the humidity down and the weather is fine day in day out. Over summer the wind drops, it is hot and humid and there are monsoonal rains. It is also cyclone season.
How Busy / Crowds
- Unlikely to be too many people here at the same time, I saw one other couple.
Parking
- A small carpark is available right next to the beach
The information for each snorkel spot is provided by people who have snorkelled there. However, snorkelling conditions change daily. Please be aware that wind, swell, tides and cloud cover can all affect visibility and your experience in the water.
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Best Conditions
Aim to go at low tide so you get the benefit of the protection of the reef inside the lagoon. If you are there April to Nov when the trade winds blow, earlier in the day the winds are not as strong.
Windy Map Instructions – Click on the wind icon in the top right to see other conditions such as swell, temperature, rain. To clear the four day forecast click and close the wind icon.
Facilities at Trannies Beach
Toilets
Picnic Tables
Parking
BBQ’s
Shade
About the Snorkel
There are no bad snorkel spots in the Cocos Islands and Trannies Beach is just another amazing underwater adventure you can have right off a beautiful palm-lined beach.
You only have to get into water deep enough off the beach to snorkel in and you will see all sorts of colourful fish and some big fish too. We had a quick look around the shallows before heading out to the reef wall.
We were snorkelling a bit before low tide. It was still shallow out at the reef but it was a little bit bumpy. That didn’t stop us seeing some amazing stuff.
We snorkelled north along the reef and saw some big reef sharks, trevally and a host of small tropical fish. But the highlight was catching a look at the huge brown marbled grouper that lives on the reef here. It was enormous and it was great seeing it up close and watching it cruise around the rocks and over hangs.
Something that always amazes us here is how unbothered so much of the fish are by people. Several times we had big blue fin trevally swim right up to us for a look before darting off.
We had heard that Trannies Reef is home to some small, young turtles but we didn’t catch sight of any. Somehow we seemed to be the only people who hadn’t spotted them during our stay here.
If going out to the reef isn’t for you, you will still have an amazing snorkel in the shallows here. We wished we had got to Trannies a bit more off during our stay. It is a much easier snorkel than Pulu Maraya at the other end of the island with just as much to see.
Snorkel Spots Nearby
More Things To Do
- Swimming with Turtles in Australia - October 29, 2023
