Best shore excursions in St. John/St. Thomas

[paddles]

We're going on an Eastern Caribbean cruise the first week of Dec., with kids ages 7 and 9.

Can you recommend any good shore excursions? I'm debating between a catamaran/snorkel adventure or the Coral World by Land and Sea (that's primarily in St. Thomas).

Does the ship dock near any beaches? So, if we wanted to do Coral World in the morning, would we be close enough to go the beach in the afternoon?

thanks!!

 

[owensamo]

Coral World is right next to Coki Beach (in fact, you drive right by the beach access to get to the parking lot) so doing both is very manageable. I don't believe there's a beach near the port (either Havensight or Charlotte Amalie, depending if the port is dock or tender) but you should be able to get a cab to one of the many great beaches on the island.

There are other things to do as well - there's a butterfly farm that is right by the dock in Havensight (along with a large shopping area, which is adjacent to the Yacht Club with even more shops). There's also a gondala to the top of one of the mountains where you can get a great vista. It's only about a 20 minute walk (and not a bad one) between downtown Charlotte Amalie and Havensight - more shopping downtown along with some history in some of the buildings.

Our next Eastern will be our 4th, so we will probably either hop a cab to Magen's Bay or just do some shopping in town and spend the rest of the stop exploring the ship. I'd love to see St. John's, but the travel time really seems high for the amount of time spent - I guess we'll just have to vacation there sometime to see it right!

 

[castawaycayfans]

If snorkeling is an option, we do Doubloon, they are lots of fun!

 

[carpenta]

The "Bones" or" Doubloon" (they are sister ships) are THE BEST excursions you will ever do in the Caribbean.....ask anyone who has done either. As far as Coral World it is on the other side of the island and is a little "shady" area you go througnh to get there. But it is a cute little aquarium for a half day.

 

[kimistry6]

We loved The Bones!!! Best excursion we have ever done. Honeymoon Beach was great. We weren't fans of the snorkeling though. We had our 5 & 8 yr olds with us and they didn't handle it very well. But, we would still book this excursion again!! For us, the full day Honeymoon Beach and Turtle Cove is the best.