Trunk Bay VS. Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas???

[aaronem]

We will be traveling with two kids ages 7 and 9. We have NEVER been to any beach before and really want to experience beautiful, clean sand and clear, calm water to swim in (we are going end of April 07). We also are concerned with having safe swimming water for the kids (calm/ no undertow, etc.) Is Trunk Bay really MORE beautiful than Sapphire and worth experiencing? Is it a pain to travel to St. John with the kids? Also...is it cheaper to go on our own vs. book St. John with DCL? Thank you, thank you. Any help/suggestions would be great!!

Kristin

Magic 4/28/07

 

[delo4]

We went to Sapphire Beach, never been to Trunk Bay. From what I understand, it is quite a way to get to St. John. You have to take a ferry and there just isn't alot of time.

Last year we went to Megan's Bay. Sapphire Beach was much nicer. The view is beautiful, the water was warm (we were on the 3/18 eastern cruise), and it was easy to get to. We took a taxi on our own, $10/pp each way, so $20 round trip. We just asked our taxi driver to come back and pick us up at a particular time. He was back on time, even a couple of minutes early. We thoroughly enjoyed our day. Sapphire beach has chair rentals $5/chair. There is plenty of shade, a small store where you can buy snacks. They were cooking hamburgers and hot dogs there, but it was $11/hamburger and $8 for a hotdog, so we declined.

Megans beach also has chair rentals, but you have to go to the store, leave a deposit, go get your chairs, return your chairs, go back to the store to get your deposit. It was a real pain. Plus, Sapphire Beach was much less crowded and I think more beautiful.

 

[rtphokie]

We will be traveling with two kids ages 7 and 9. We have NEVER been to any beach before and really want to experience beautiful, clean sand and clear, calm water to swim in (we are going end of April 07). We also are concerned with having safe swimming water for the kids (calm/ no undertow, etc.) Is Trunk Bay really MORE beautiful than Sapphire and worth experiencing? Is it a pain to travel to St. John with the kids? Also...is it cheaper to go on our own vs. book St. John with DCL? Thank you, thank you. Any help/suggestions would be great!!

Kristin

Magic 4/28/07

I've not seen Sapphire but Trunk Bay is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. My wife relaxed on the beach and petted the burro that just wandered up (no there wasn't anyone hawking photos, he just wandered up) and I snorkelled for a while, just enjoying the clear, warm water.

We've considered vacationing on St Johns island just to get more time on this beach.

 

[BoardwalkBabe]

Have not been to Sapphire either, but we love Trunk Bay! We like it much better than Magen's Bay, if that puts it into perspective for you.

 

[Minnie724]

We have spent a week on St John and absolutely loved it. They have some of the most amazing, unspoiled beaches. The island is wonderful too since much of it is protected. Trunk Bay is lovely although it can be crowded on cruise ship days. As for the ferry, it takes at least 45 minutes to travel from St Thomas to St John. Since you need to factor in the taxi ride to the ferry and so on, it will easily take over an hour. Given these factors, we decided to go to Sapphire Beach while on DCL. We hope to go back to St John for a week one day soon because it truly is fabulous.

Went to Sapphire and Magens Beach a long time ago. Magens used to be ranked as a top ten most beautiful beach in the world according to National Geographic, but I think the crowds have ruined it. I prefer Sapphire now.

 

[donald...really]

Easy to get to Trunk Bay... Get off the ship as early as you can. Take a taxi to Red Hook (about 15 minutes). Take the ferry to St. John (about 20 minutes. See FERRY SCHEDULE at bottom of post). Take a taxi to Trunk Bay (about 5 minutes). There are PLENTY of taxis waiting at the terminal. Do it on your own. Very easy, less expensive, and you will have more time on the beach. We were on the beach when all of the Disney excursion passengers had to pack up and head back. We were able to stay for about another hour. I was worried about doing this on my own before our cruise, but we decided to give it a try. It was much easier and quicker than we thought it would be. Just make sure you know when you need to be back on the ship, and make sure you take the ferry that will get you back in time. I think we had to be back on the ship by 5:00 and we took the 3:00 ferry back, which gave us PLENTY of time.

Trunk Bay is AMAZING. If you have never been to a beach before, then you are in for a treat. We spent the day on Trunk Bay during our first Disney Cruise, fell in love with the beach and island, and when we returned home we bought a timeshare on St. John, so now we go back there every year. The last time we were there we were talking to a group of people who were staying on St. Thomas and visiting St. John for the day. We asked them what there was to do on St. Thomas. They said the only good thing to do while staying on St. Thomas is to go to St. John.

FYI

http://travel.discovery.com/convergence/beaches/2005/us/trunkbay.html

Here is a photo album I found of St. John with BEAUTIFUL pictures of the beaches, including a bunch from Trunk Bay.

http://www.pbase.com/rcplanefan/st_john_2005


FOUND THE RED HOOK FERRY SCHEDULE:

Red Hook
Rates: One-way, $5/Adults and $1.00/Children under 12.
Time: 15 to 20 minutes

Leaving Red Hook, St. Thomas
6:30 am, 7:30 am then hourly from 8:00 am to Midnight

Leaving Cruz Bay, St. John
Hourly from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm

 

[aaronem]

Thank you so much for your helpful information. After seeing more pictures and reading that article I think we will be going over to Trunk Bay. It also looks as if it is safe for kids to swim as well. Do you know if they have lifeguards there??? Thank you.

 

[aaronem]

Thanks so much for your response. I think we are going to go to Trunk Bay and we are so excited. Like I said...it will be our first beach experience...
Thanks again.

 

[Jeanne B]

Thank you so much for your helpful information. After seeing more pictures and reading that article I think we will be going over to Trunk Bay. It also looks as if it is safe for kids to swim as well. Do you know if they have lifeguards there??? Thank you.

Here's a link to St John beaches and yes, Trunk Bay has lifeguards (scroll down and it's the first beach listed). We're spending a week on St John in June and I can't wait!! It will be our first trip there and I've seen so many beautiful pictures of Trunk Bay but I'm looking forward to seeing the beauty of it myself instead of just looking at pictures.

http://www.vinow.com/stjohn/beaches_stj/

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

We missed out on Trunk Bay due to bad weather on our cruise last year so I really want to make sure we get to do it for the cruise next year. That being said, we now have a beautiful baby girl who will only be 14 months when we go on our cruise. The Disney excursion to Trunk Bay has a minimum age limit of 5 years old. Is there a minimum age for the ferry if we were to do Trunk Bay on our own??? I really don't want to leave the baby on the ship while we are off doing an excursion - I'd worry the entire time and it would ruin the whole day...

TIA!