St. John - Beaches

[swimfin]

Hello!

We have done Trunk Bay on our own via the Red Hook/Cruz Bay ferry and loved it and we are fortunate enough to return to St. John at the end of July! Wondering what other beach might be nice. Maho Bay? We are trying to avoid Cinnamon because it allows water sport rentals and don't want motorized boats around. Honeymoon has a resort? That would not be ideal as we are trying to avoid crowds. Sooo, we loved Trunk Bay so much we'd return in a heartbeat, yet thought we'd try something similar if possible. Our plan is to take the 9am ferry over and then head straight to the beach. Would love to hear experiences from people who have done this on their own and did you like other beaches better than Trunk Bay? Cheers!

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Caneel Bay, the resort at Honeymoon is closed indefinitely due to the hurricane. Not sure how that impacts the beach. But it sure is beautiful there and my favorite. No other advice, as we have not done this on our own. But jealous. I love St. John. Have a great trip!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Honeymoon Bay is in good shape so long as you are not looking for the amenities of Caneel Bay. You can rent snorkel equipment.

We did Solomon Bay and Honeymoon in March.

 

[swimfin]

Caneel Bay, the resort at Honeymoon is closed indefinitely due to the hurricane. Not sure how that impacts the beach. But it sure is beautiful there and my favorite. No other advice, as we have not done this on our own. But jealous. I love St. John. Have a great trip!

THANK YOU for the reply!!! We will definitely check out Honeymoon as it's right by Cruz Bay! We are feeling blessed to go back and we LOVE St. John too! The Eastern is one of our favorite itineraries!! Cheers!

 

[swimfin]

Honeymoon Bay is in good shape so long as you are not looking for the amenities of Caneel Bay. You can rent snorkel equipment.

We did Solomon Bay and Honeymoon in March.

THANK YOU!!! PERFECT!!! We are not looking for amenities! We definitely want Trunk Bay solitude! We have our own snorkel gear so we can go anywhere Do you mind me asking how the snorkeling was at Honeymoon? Is Honeymoon as protected as Trunk bay? THANK YOU again! Cheers!

 

[swimfin]

Honeymoon Bay is in good shape so long as you are not looking for the amenities of Caneel Bay. You can rent snorkel equipment.

We did Solomon Bay and Honeymoon in March.

Hi again! One more question .... if you took the Red Hook ferry to Cruz Bay, do you remember if they had two different prices now ... resident and non-resident? I thought it used to be $12/pp roundtrip yet the website now has non-resident $16.30/pp roundtrip. .... Thanks!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Honeymoon and Solomon have very good snorkeling. We did not use the Red Hook ferry so no comment there. We used the ferry option via DCL.

 

[swimfin]

Honeymoon and Solomon have very good snorkeling. We did not use the Red Hook ferry so no comment there. We used the ferry option via DCL.

THANKS! Cheers!

 

[brandyleeann]

Mind if I jump in with a question? How do you get to St John? I see DCL has a port adventure that is just a ferry ride...does that leave from the port it do you taxi somewhere else first? How long does it take? And then when you arrive from the ferry at St John, how did you get to the beach (Trunk or Honeymoon)?

 

[Sepo]

We rented a car to Smith Beach (called something else too), on St Thomas. It was beyond perfect. About a 25 minute drive from port. I’m sure u could taxi too and arrange pickup back.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Mind if I jump in with a question? How do you get to St John? I see DCL has a port adventure that is just a ferry ride...does that leave from the port it do you taxi somewhere else first? How long does it take? And then when you arrive from the ferry at St John, how did you get to the beach (Trunk or Honeymoon)?

St. John On Your Own is a private ferry from the cruise dock to Cruz Bay. Leaves around 8:45 and you have to be back at the ferry on St. John at noon. If you are okay with only having 3 hours on the island, it saves a lot of running around and is cheaper than the taxi to the public ferry, the RT ticket, and the taxi back to the dock.

Once on St. John, it is about a 1.5 mile hike to Honeymoon Beach, or you can cab into several beaches on the island.

 

[dcassetta]

Hello!

We have done Trunk Bay on our own via the Red Hook/Cruz Bay ferry and loved it and we are fortunate enough to return to St. John at the end of July! Wondering what other beach might be nice. Maho Bay? We are trying to avoid Cinnamon because it allows water sport rentals and don't want motorized boats around. Honeymoon has a resort? That would not be ideal as we are trying to avoid crowds. Sooo, we loved Trunk Bay so much we'd return in a heartbeat, yet thought we'd try something similar if possible. Our plan is to take the 9am ferry over and then head straight to the beach. Would love to hear experiences from people who have done this on their own and did you like other beaches better than Trunk Bay? Cheers!

I think the best snorkeling beach is Waterlemon. Live coral, and a small cay that you can snorkel around, be careful of currents. Easy taxi ride from the ferry terminal. The beach itself is on a flat trail maybe a half-mile from the parking area. There are no facilities at the beach, so you'll need to take water, snacks etc. Make sure and pre-arrange the taxi to return and pick you up.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Bring supplies to any beach on St. John. With the resort at Caneel Bay still down, none of them have a lot of amenities. Honeymoon has snorkel gear and some snacks and a toilet, but don't go in expecting chairs to rent and a bar.

 

[swimfin]

I think the best snorkeling beach is Waterlemon. Live coral, and a small cay that you can snorkel around, be careful of currents. Easy taxi ride from the ferry terminal. The beach itself is on a flat trail maybe a half-mile from the parking area. There are no facilities at the beach, so you'll need to take water, snacks etc. Make sure and pre-arrange the taxi to return and pick you up.

THANK YOU!! Cheers!

 

[swimfin]

Mind if I jump in with a question? How do you get to St John? I see DCL has a port adventure that is just a ferry ride...does that leave from the port it do you taxi somewhere else first? How long does it take? And then when you arrive from the ferry at St John, how did you get to the beach (Trunk or Honeymoon)?

Two years ago, summer of 2016, we got off the boat and headed to the jitneys. The jitney took us to Red Hook and from there we caught the 9am ferry to Cruz Bay. My notes said that the ferry took us about 15 minutes to cross over to Cruz bay from Red Hook. From there you can catch a taxi/jitney to any beach on the island. We headed to Trunk Bay and arrived before the DCL group. Even when the DCL group arrived the beach was not crowded at all. The snorkeling was crystal clear and the beach is fairly long so there is plenty of space to spread out. We did not prearrange a ride back because there were plenty of taxis and this time around I will make sure there will be available taxis again or I'll arrange for our driver to come get us. One hitch with prearranging is that you may want to leave earlier than you thought. For us, this was the case. We spent the previous day in Tortola with Aristocat sailing/snorkeling/SUPing all day and we were actually ready to leave an hour earlier than we thought. (Just something to think about) The taxi took us back to Cruz Bay and we waited about 20 min for the ferry. Once we arrived back at Red Hook the taxis were plentiful. I have included pictures at Trunk Bay and the link for the ferry schedules:

http://www.vinow.com/travel/virgin-islands-ferry-schedules/

Hope that helps! Cheers!