Secret sands vs Magens bay vs. Coral World

[Pixarfans]

Need help deciding on port adventure in St. Thomas. I have 2 boys (9 & 14 years old) with no interest in snorkeling but love the beach. Any reviews, suggestions would be great. Also, if it is just as easy on own let me know.

 

[lklgoodman]

We went to Secret Sands earlier this year, booked the DCL excursion. It is very nice. They only allow one ship to be there at a time and no more than 75 people. So no crowds. The bathrooms were very clean, have showers to rinse off the sand. There are no restaurants or bars there, it is a nature reserve. The host did have drinks you could buy(soda, juice, alcohol) and snacks(chips). There's picnic tables. We went right after breakfast so didn't get anything. We were there about 3 hrs. They have beach chairs that are reserved for only those who did the DCL excursion. If you did it on your own, you wouldn't have a chair. We saw a few locals, they all brought their own chairs and went further down the area we were at. They had free pool noodles, snorkels and masks to rent. Nice sandy beach, calm waves. My dd was 10 yrs old, we all enjoyed it and will go back on our 2021 cruise. Haven't been to other places. Someone posted pics a few months ago of Secret Sands. If you do a search on here, you can see what it looks like.

 

[Wendy12]

We went to Magens Bay on our own. It was a great day and super easy to manage. Taxis are everywhere. There is a restaurant on the beach. We ordered a large pizza for lunch. My boys were 8 and 11 at the time.

 

[ambula603]

We did Magens Bay on our own, I posted about it recently on another St. Thomas thread. We left as soon as we could get off the ship and had the bay to ourselves for a couple hours, it was heavenly!

 

[Intr3pid]

We haven't been to the other two, but we tried Magens Bay on our own in March this year. That place was crowded - almost run over. And it was before Oasis of the Seas was going to dock later in the afternoon. We lasted all of 45 minutes before hopping on the cab back into town. Sadly, a bit of an anti-climax from the day before at Jost Van Dyke - which IMO is the best beach on the Eastern Caribbeans itineraries.

 

[StlZNF]

We went to Coki Beach and Coral World in 2016 on our own. We hired a private car to take us there and to pick us up at the end of the day. We spent the morning on the beautiful beach with very few people and awesome snorkeling, then we went to Coral World for a sea lion encounter and to wander around. I believe we ate lunch there as well. We returned to the beach (the vendor watched our chairs), and it was packed! I do know that area was affected by the hurricane, so I do not know what it looks like today, but I've dreamed of going back.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

We went to Coki Beach and Coral World in 2016 on our own. We hired a private car to take us there and to pick us up at the end of the day. We spent the morning on the beautiful beach with very few people and awesome snorkeling, then we went to Coral World for a sea lion encounter and to wander around. I believe we ate lunch there as well. We returned to the beach (the vendor watched our chairs), and it was packed! I do know that area was affected by the hurricane, so I do not know what it looks like today, but I've dreamed of going back.

We went to Coki beach in 2018, after the hurricanes. We didn't have anything to compare it to, but it was beautiful. It did get busy as the morning went on. We had a private excursion with St. Thomas Scuba and Snorkel adventures and we hung out there for a while and then went to a different location when it got busy.