Buying a snorkel set can be a good idea if you are on a tight budget, instead of buying your pieces of snorkeling gear separately. You can buy mask, snorkel, and fins sets, with a decent bag for it, all for under $100. We bought our first snorkeling gear as a set from Costco many years ago. And looking back we see what a bargain it was. Just to compare, when buying quality snorkel gear individually you can easily spend $50-$100 on a mask, $40 is typical for a good snorkel, $75 is average for quality fins, and then a bag is $30 to $50. That all adds up to $200-250 or more.
But, for the best fit and quality, we recommend you buy your pieces individually. If you are a new snorkeler, it may seem a good idea to get cheap equipment to see if you like the sport first. But if you get poor fitting, uncomfortable, leaky gear, you may end up disliking snorkeling because of it.
Pros of Buying a Snorkel Set
- Save Money – As mentioned above, you could spend a lot less than buying gear separately.
- Better Than Renting – For the cost of renting gear for a couple of days you could buy your own set, and the quality of the gear may be better.
Cons of Buying an Inexpensive Snorkel Set
- Fitting Issues – It normally takes trying on many different masks and fins to find a good fit for your face and feet, so buying it all together you very likely will have fitting issues with one or more parts of the set. Snorkels can also be very specific to your mouth and body size.
- Quality Issues – If it costs less than half the price, there is a reason. Likely the mask skirt will not have a high percentage of silicone, or will be plastic. The same goes for the mouthpiece and flexible tube on the snorkel. Inexpensive dry snorkels rarely work well. The fins also may have hard plastic sections that will not last as long as quality fins and may be uncomfortable.
- Safety Issues – We would avoid buying a full face snorkel mask set unless you are absolutely sure it is a brand that tests for CO2 build-up (like the SEAC version below). There are many really cheap options in sets that are very questionable in terms of safety.
- Short Fins – Many snorkel sets come with short travel fins. We don’t recommend these. They do not provide enough power for when you are in a current, which is another safety issue.
You can buy a snorkel set that is just a mask and snorkel, and buy your fins separately.
Note: We do not test snorkel sets. On our mask, full face mask, snorkel, and fins pages we recommend equipment that we use ourselves, or have tested snorkeling. You can help us if you purchase from the links below. We may make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.
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Suggested Snorkel Sets
Phantom Aquatics Legendary Snorkel Set – In this affordable set you get a two lens mask with a silicone skirt, a dry snorkel with a flex tube and purge valve, adjustable open heel fins, and a simple gear bag. The quality is not great, but the price is hard to beat. There are many color choices available.
Aqualung Sport Snorkel Set – This set includes their Duetto two lens mask with a silicone skirt, their Zephyr Flex snorkel with a splash guard, flex tube, and purge valve, and their Amika Pivot Flex adjustable open heel fins. The quality on this gear set is good. Blue is the only color available.
Cressi Light Weight Premium Travel Snorkel Set – Also known as the Palau set, it includes the open heel style Cressi Palau Long Adjustable Fins (LAF), the single lens Onda mask with silicone skirt, and the Supernova Dry Snorkel with dry top, flex tube, and purge valve. Cressi offers good quality gear, and there is one other color option for this set.
Phantom Aquatics Boutique Snorkel Set – This is a set that includes their Clareza panoramic mask with side windows and a silicone skirt, their Senhora Dry Snorkel with a dry valve, flex tube, and purge valve, their open heel style adjustable Rapido Fins, and a simple mesh carry bag. The quality of this set is good and it comes in many different colors.
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Full Face Mask Snorkel Set
SEAC Unica Full Face Mask and Sprint Fins Set – The SEAC Unica Mask is one we have tried. SEAC is a quality Italian manufacturer, and their full face masks have been tested for safe CO2 levels. We also really like the SEAC open heel fins. They have a lot of power for their size and are compact for traveling.