Maho and Trunk in a day?

[jillfeng85]

We will be going in Dec. 3 cruises in town same day, but ours will be 1h earlier than others. Hopefully that gives us some advantage in avoiding the crowd. We are planning to go to both Maho and Trunk. Trunk for the view, and Maho for turtles. Is this possible? How can I get from Trunk to Maho?

[sugarbird]

We will be going in Dec. 3 cruises in town same day, but ours will be 1h earlier than others. Hopefully that gives us some advantage in avoiding the crowd. We are planning to go to both Maho and Trunk. Trunk for the view, and Maho for turtles. Is this possible? How can I get from Trunk to Maho?

This is pretty much impossible--you run the risk of missing your departure unless you charter a boat to take you to both.

[HarpHarp]

This is pretty much impossible--you run the risk of missing your departure unless you charter a boat to take you to both.

 

On the contrary, it is very easy.

You should be able to make the 9am ferry to Red Hook & be at Cruz Bay by 9:30 at the latest. There you will find many taxis to take you to Trunk Bay. Maho is less than 2 miles from Trunk Bay Past Cinnamon Bay, yes the one Kenny Chesney sang about, certainly worth a stop. You should be able to get a taxi there from Trunk & be at Maho in less than 10 minutes. Taxi back to the ferry in Cruz Bay so that you get the ferry at least 2 hours before your departure, so if you have a 5pm departure, that would give you 5+ hours on St John. As a former St. Thomas resident, I can tell you the ferries are very reliable.

 

You don't say how many are in your party, but you also may want to consider renting a jeep, since taxi rates are by the person. It is a very easy drive along North Shore Rd. to both those beaches. Just remember you will be driving on the left. Take your time. The island is very small & 68% national park.

 

Here is a link for more info:

http://www.visitusvi.com/stjohn/travel_transportation

Edited September 20, 2015 by HarpHarp

[jaga04]

I'm thinking that you should be able to do this, since we went to Cinammon and Trunk in the same day, and Maho is only a little further than Cinammon. You probably know that you have to take a taxi from the ship to Red Hook and then take a ferry to Cruz Bay. The ferries run once per hour, so your time in St. John can be affected by just making vs. just missing a ferry.

 

There are open air taxis/buses when you get off the ferry. They run from Cruz Bay along the north shore to the beaches. They usually wait to fill up, with maybe 10ish passengers. Trunk is the most popular and closer than Maho, so some taxis just go there and turn around.

 

If I were you, I'd go to Maho first, since that is the harder beach to get back from. You can ask the driver who dropped you to pick you up for the return to Trunk at a certain time. We did that once at an even further beach and it worked out well, though it was a different driver who actually came to get us. That and the following happened when we were staying in St. John, so time wasn't an issue. We waited for about 15 minutes for a bus to take us back from Maho to Cruz Bay. Don't know if that's typical or not, since we just did that once.

 

If all takes longer than expected, you can skip Trunk and just go back to the ferry when you're in the return taxi. You will still have had a great day seeing a beautiful island and beach.

 

If you go to Trunk, the taxis go there regularly, so getting back won't be a problem. You may have to wait for one to fill up, though.

 

Pay attention to how long each step takes on the way there, so you have an estimate for the return. Know which ferry you need to take back in order to make the ship.

[AZ ParrotHead]

We will be going in Dec. 3 cruises in town same day, but ours will be 1h earlier than others. Hopefully that gives us some advantage in avoiding the crowd. We are planning to go to both Maho and Trunk. Trunk for the view, and Maho for turtles. Is this possible? How can I get from Trunk to Maho?

 

Easy. Take the ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay. Grab a taxi to Trunk and get the snorkeling in. Then when you're done head to Maho via Taxi--another 10 minutes on the same road. Keep in mind Maho doesn't have any facilities--just a restroom.