St.Thomas Beach on your own?

[Mike320]

Hi,
Wondering if I can get to one of the beautiful beaches in St. Thomas from the port. I have two adults and 3 children.

Wondering the best one and the cost to get there and back...

Thanks,
Mike

 

[faireygod mother]

We did it on our own and it was about 6.oo a person

 

[Mike320]

Dee - which beach did you do?
Thanks! Mike

 

[two-foxes]

We did Coki Beach on our own. Coral World is located there as well. We did a dive there, but there is good snorkling, a small snack stand and you can rent chairs. The beach itself is not big, but still nice, although I am sure there are better looking beaches around St. Thomas....but if you wanted to do Coral World, this is the place to be! I believe it was $7 to take a cab from port and it was around a 15 minute drive. Here are a few reviews from travel advisor.com. Hope it helps!

Coki Beach Reviews

 

[Mike320]

Jill & Tim,
Good info as well..thanks. can't wait..I'm sure it is all so beautiful as I remember wow....it's already 15 yrs ago! MY GOD...time flies!
Mike]

 

[jdm]

I have also been researching this and we decided on Magan's Bay. I've heard pretty mixed reviews on Coki and it tends to be extremely crowded when there are a lot of cruise ships in.

We decided on Magan's because it gets really good reviews, and looks extremely beautiful. They do charge a $3 fee per person which I don't mind. I guess that's why a lot of people choose the other ones. I understand the snorkeling isn't that good there though, if that is what you're planning to do.

I got a lot of my port information on Cruise Critic's port boards. Great info there.

HTH
Jenn
(formerly of Warwick )

 

[Tylerandalliesmom]

Are the cabs or guides waiting at the dock? Do they charge a flat rate round trip and wait for you or is it $7 one way and you have to find a cab returning to the dock from the beach when you are done? Also what time should you return? I notice the excursions are pretty short 1 1/2 - 2 hours at the beach. Is that because of travel time to and from the beach?

 

[princess crazy]

Thanks for this post! I too would love to know about the pier pick ups with the cabs and how much it costs ---is it safe to do??? and how long of a ride???---I thought I had read some posts here where some of the rides were very harrowing??? We will have my 75 yr old parents with us and they will be very nervous if the drivers are'nt that good---Anyone know---maybe in particular Magen's Bay???? Thanks alot!

 

[dbond]

We rented a car in St. Thomas and went to both Magen's Bay & Coki Beach as well as sight seeing around the island. If you want to snorkel, go to Coki beach, Magen's Bay is beautiful and suited more for relaxing.

 

[Tylerandalliesmom]

Is the car rental place right at the pier or do you need to take a cab to the car rental place? Any idea on price?

 

[Roxie A]

We rented a small car from Budget I believe, you can see it from the port. We took the car ferry over to St. John and went to Trunk Bay, it was very nice.

 

[dbond]

We also rented from Budget, the rental spot was right by the pier. Price depends on time of year, supply/demand, etc. I don't remember how much it was, sorry, probably around $50-$75.

Does DCL always dock at the pier these days? Once when we were down there it was DCL's turn to tender. The tender port was NOT close to the pier. DH had about a 2 mile walk to the rental car location.

 

[Tarquin]

When we went on the 1/8 eastern, we had planned on taking the ferry to St. John, by the time we tendered in, we missed the 9:00 Charlotte Amalie ferry, so we were planning on going to take the taxi to the Red Hook Ferry , we were in a taxi w/another family who were going to Sapphire Beach (in St. Thomas), the taxi driver went to the beach first, we looked around and said "hey , this looks pretty darn nice" and ended up just staying there-

nice beach, beautiful snorkeling, shady as well as sunny areas,relatively quiet, restrooms, restaurant and NO VENDORS!!
we would definitely go back there again

Cathy M

 

[Jiffymom]

I didn't want to drive on the Islands. They drive on the wrong side

They have some fun open air taxis that will take you directly to Megans bay. Or ask a Taxi how much to Megans bay with a short tour. That is what we did and lots of fun. The driver took us the long way and told us about the Island and stopped at some of the mountain tops for Photo ops. We took the open air taxi back. There are plenty of taxi's waiting at both ends. You will love it. Have a pina colada on the beach and enjoy Yummy

 

[jweiss]

We have gone to Megan's Bay twice now on our own. It is easy, safe, and reasonably priced. There are tons of cabs gong back and forth thru out the day. It's a great safe beach for kids....... You can rent chairs, etc. There's a "restaurant" (haven't eaten there) and a little store. Last August my daughter and niece got their hair(s?) braided there and it was a good job...... (my DD had a bad experience with hair braiding on the ship the first time, so she will only get it done on the islands.)

 

[bobbiwoz]

We also did Magen's Bay by taxi, and also found that there were plenty of taxis waiting to take us back to the ship. It's a beautiful beach.

Bobbi