St. Thomas Beach on our own...please vote!

[dtuleya]

We'd like to do a beach excursion on our own in St. Thomas. I've searched and read the threads, but I'm still not sure which beach would suit our needs best. Here's what we're looking for:

--Place where the kids can swim and snorkel. The youngest will be 11.
--Water sports rentals!!! The more the better!
--Bathroom and possibly refreshments
--Chair and other beach rentals


I'd love to hear your experiences and why you voted the way you did. If you have another suggestion, I'd love to hear that too! TIA!

If you have any other websites about the beaches and their amenities, please post them.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

The only St Thomas beach I have been to is Magens Bay, so naturally it is the only one I can vote for.
The water is warm, and calm, the beach is clean. There is a vendor on the beach who rents boats and such.
Decent restroom facilities, and outdoor showers to wash off the sand before headin back.
Spectacular views, you will feel like you are in paradise.
Trees scattered on the beach, back from the water, make great shady spots to sit and watch the kids having fun.

My only fear is that now that DCL does Magens Bay excursions, it may become more crowded than when I was there, and spoil some of the tranquility.

 

[DonnaDavid]

I, like the above poster, have only gone to that beach and would agree with everything said above. However, I would have to warn you that when I went in 3/02, the beach got very crowded by around noon.
The best place to research cruise destinations and excursions is www.cruisecritic.com . They have a wonderful discussion area also.
Good luck.

 

[NJ Cruisers]

We love Magen's, but it doesn't have everything you want. There is no snorkeling ... well, I guess you could snorkel if you had your own equipment, but you wouldn't see much. I don't remember any water sports ... they may have kayaks, but definitely no wave runners.

Coki has great snorkeling. Again, I'm not sure about water sports.

Diane

 

[goofydadeo]

We went to St. Thomas this past April for a spring break and visited most of the beaches you mentioned. All are nice but each one has its quirks! Magen's Bay has no watersports to speak of and the snorkeling is marginal. Coki is nice, but small. Again no watersports but the snorkeling is better and a bonus is that you are right next to Coral World. I have not been to Saphire however I would recommend Trunk Bay on St. John instead. It's magnificent and you can do it on your own fairly easily. I would recommend you consider going to Bolonogo Bay. It is actually a small hotel with lots of watersports, a good beach bar, shade and some decent snorkeling. You can check out their website (bolongobay.com) to learn more and see some pictures. We stayed there for a week in April and next to St. John it was our favorite.

Goodluck!

Goofydadeo

 

[mmouse37]

We much prefered Sapphire Beach to Meagan's Bay....we saw some pretty shady characters at Meagan's Bay scoping out people's belongings....plus I did not like the fact that you had to go to two different places to rent chairs....you had to go into the office to pay for them and then to the shack to pick them up and haul them to your spot.

When you were done for the day you has schlep them back to the shack and then go back inside you get your deposit back....too much work for me on vacataion!!!

Plus the sand was not as nice as it was at Sapphire Beach.

MJ

 

[dmillerdmd]

You must go to Magens bay. We went a few years ago when our twins were 3 y.o. It was not planned, we went "shopping " with 2 three y.o. and soon realized it was a very dumb idea. We took a bus to the other side of the island , and discovered PARADISE. We endedup BUYING bathing suits for us and the kids swam in their undies, we rented towels & had the best day of our entire trip! Nothing better than sponteneity!!! It really is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Hope this helps!

 

[mobetsy]

I didn't vote but will put my info. We went to Coki Beach and loved it. We arranged with the Coki Beach Dive Club (website has lots of details) to do a Discover Scuba class (2 kids age 9, 3 adults). It was very reasonably priced and extremely well taught, completely tailored to us. They picked us up at the dock and brought us to the beach. When we weren't doing the scuba, we had use of snorkel, mask, and fins, plus boogie boards that had a mask sort of inset in them so you could lie on them and see underwater. Even though ds5 wasn't signed up for a class, they let him use one of those and would've given him mask, etc. if he'd wanted them. They have footlockers right by their trailer, so there's a safe place to put your belongings that is still very convenient to the beach (50 feet?). I am pretty sure chairs, etc. could be rented at another shack there, although we didn't do that. The fish there are incredible and the water is gorgeous! The bathrooms were next door at Coral World. At the end of the day, we got a taxi van back to the dock for $7 ea, very simple. We took food from the ship along with us, which saved $$$.

 

[mkymouse4ever]