We try to go snorkeling every place we can and even though many said the snorkeling in Tamarindo was not very good we had a great time.  Sailfish arrived right on schedule and at our first stop we saw tons of fish and while there is no beautiful coral we still had fun and I enjoyed the fact that the area was shallow allowing us the get up close. The wind really picked up which is typical in December so we moved to a nice protected cove where I saw a huge sea turtle and at one point was surrounded by a school of at least 300 fish about 3 feet long. Overall we had a great time and I would highly recommend booking a private tour vs getting on a boat with 20 - 50 other people for roughly the same price.