Virgin Islands National Park

When you think of the Virgin Islands – the first thing that comes to your mind is probably amazing beaches, turquoise water, and a happening night life. And while all of that is certainly true – there is also an incredible National Park that makes up about two-thirds of the island of Saint John. It includes some of the amazing beaches you would expect, but also includes lots of cool hikes and ancient ruins of plantations. Snorkeling is also a great option here as you will find a lot of colorful fish and also will likely find some sea turtles. Saint John was also devastated by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 which took every leaf off every tree and ruined many of the island’s structures. We had first planned to visit in February 2018, but had to put that on hold a year to February 2019 as a result. And even in early 2019 – you could still see remnants of the devastation as many structures still had tarp acting as the roof.

When to Go

As mentioned above, we went in February 2019 to the park – but this timing was driven off of also visiting Everglades National Park which is a must in the December to April timeframe. The positive about visiting the Virgin Islands at this time is there is no threat of hurricanes during this portion of the year. However, the waters can be a bit rougher and less clear for snorkeling purposes. If you are willing to take on the small risk of hurricane season – this park can easily be visited year round.

How to Get Here

This isn’t the easiest place to get when it comes to National Parks. American Airlines does run quite a few flights between Miami and the island of Saint Thomas. We actually caught an American flight from Philadelphia to Saint Thomas which worked quite well. However, when you get to Saint Thomas – you aren’t done yet. You’ll need to grab one of the plentiful taxi vans at the airport and head to the Red Hook ferry docks which is a 30-40 minute ride depending on how many stops you have to make in your shared van. Once there, you will board a 20 minute ferry to Cruz Bay on the island of Saint John. When you finally arrive in Cruz Bay – your next step depends on where you are staying. There are plenty of shared taxi vans available near the ferry dock if you need a ride. Or if you are like us – you will be within walking distance of your lodging. We did have to drag our bags up a very steep hill, but this was doable and we appreciated the exercise after being on a plane and in taxi vans all day long.

Trip Length

This is really up to you in the case of this National Park. We spent 2.5 days on Saint John, but you could also easily spend a week or more here if you really wanted to. This visit was part of a larger National Park trip for us (including the Everglades, Biscayne, and Dry Tortugas), so we didn’t have the luxury of staying any longer. There are tons of beaches where you could spend your days and also plenty of interesting hikes that could take a half day each. You also have to keep in mind there isn’t a very efficient transportation system on the island. You are at the mercy of the various shared taxi vans and they certainly run on “island time”. So plan in plenty of buffer time into your plans as you will likely need it. We had actually scheduled a couple rides that never even showed – so we eventually gave up on that approach and just went down to the ferry docks to take the shared rides.

Where to Stay

We would recommend trying to stay within walking distance of the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. This is going to be your transportation hub throughout your stay and is also near all of the restaurants and nightlife if you are interested in that sort of thing. While there are certainly a few nice brand name resorts in this area – we’d recommend trying to find a guesthouse or bed and breakfast type place. We stayed at the Hillcrest Guest House during our time on the island which is about a 10 minute walk from the ferry docks up a very steep hill – but it has incredible views of the bay as a result. As is to be expected, you are not going to find a budget friendly hotel anywhere. Hillcrest was one of the cheaper places and was well over $200 a night.

Cruz Bay and the view from our room at Hillcrest.

What to Do

On your day of arrival, it will likely be later afternoon or evening when you finally make it to Saint John – so get settled in your lodging of choice and relax for a while! If you have the energy, there are plenty of night life options in the Cruz Bay area to check out. From this point forward, it’s really up to you on what you want to do and in what order. If you just want to lay on various beaches during your time – do it! Simply head down to the ferry dock area and tell the taxi drivers what beach you want to head to that day and they will take you as soon as they have a group of people heading to the same spot. Taxis will also be available when you are ready to return and you’ll follow the same process at that time.

Great Beach Options

Trunk Bay

Cinnamon Bay

Honeymoon Beach

Maho Bay

Caneel Bay

Hawksnest Bay

Of all of these – Trunk Bay is by the most popular and is one of the most photographed beaches in the world. We definitely spent a day there and would recommend you do as well. Of the remaining beaches, the locals were very high on Maho Bay and we have heard a lot of good things about Cinnamon Bay – but it was heavily damaged during the hurricane and was still under repair when we visited. You used to be able to camp on Cinnamon Bay beach which was a great economical way to see the park – but this was destroyed by the hurricane and has not yet come back.

Touring the Island

While we did spend one of our days being lazy at Trunk Bay – we also had another very active day exploring the entire island. We actually hired a private taxi for only $25 each plus tip to take us around the island. We got picked up at our guest house around 7am and then drove the entire length of the island to Emmaus Moravian Church which was constructed around 1750. The main road stops here, so if you want to make a loop of the island – you have to do some walking. At this point, we got out of our taxi and hiked over 2 miles on the Johnny Horn Trail and then picked up the Leinster Bay Trail for about a mile which took us to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins which we spent some time exploring. We hiked a lot faster than our driver was expecting, so we had a lot of extra time to sit on the beach at Leinster Bay and relax before our driver picked us up to continue on. Now that we were on the beach side of the loop, our driver made a short stop at many of the beaches we mentioned above so that we could get some pictures of these first class beaches. The overlook of Trunk Bay is also incredible and gives you a different perspective compared to actually being down on the beach itself. We returned to Cruz Bay and got some lunch because the day was only half over and we had another afternoon adventure ahead of us!

After lunch, we headed over to the Park Visitor Center which includes a few exhibits – but not a whole lot else. Our main reason for being here was to meet our next tour which we purchased on Viator for $89 each. This ended up just being a group of 5 or 6 of us and included a hike, kayaking, and snorkeling over the course of 3 hours. We had a quick orientation of the tour at the Visitor Center and then started our hike on the Lind Point Trail which brought us to Honeymoon Beach. Once at the beach – we got geared up for kayaking and snorkeling before getting the kayaks in the water. We then kayaked over to a beach in between Caneel Bay and Turtle Bay where an old resort used to exist pre-Hurricane Irma. It was destroyed and no one has attempted to rebuild it at this point which means it is a super quiet area and a great place for snorkeling. We pulled our kayaks up onto a white sand beach and then got back in the water to snorkel around the bay looking for wildlife. We found a few turtles and a couple sting rays along with plenty of fish as the water was luckily very calm. We even got a glimpse of an octopus – although it was doing a good job of hiding most of the time. As our time in the water came to an end, we got back in our kayaks and paddled back to Honeymoon Beach where the tour ended. We were fairly hungry and exhausted at this point after such an active day, so instead of sticking around at the beach – we hiked the Lind Point Trail back to the Visitor Center and then found a restaurant to relax at for a bit before heading back to our guest house.

There are lots of other trails located around the island and plenty of other spots to kayak and snorkel as well that we didn’t have time to get to – but if you spend more time – you might be able to fit these in as well. We will certainly go back at some point to try some of these out!

At the conclusion of your time on Saint John, you will incur another long day of travel as you’ll board the ferry at Cruz Bay and head back to Red Hook on Saint Thomas. From there, you will again grab a taxi van and head back to the airport to fly to your next destination – which for us was Miami as we were heading to the Everglades next!