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St Thomas- What's the best excursion?

Jandtsmommy3112

By Jandtsmommy3112,
in St. Thomas/St. John

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dioxide45

dioxide45

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Posted (edited)

For us, St John would win out. While the other beaches are great. Nothing beats Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay. It just takes more work to get there.

 

ETA: On St Thomas, NEVER take a ship excursion to go to a beach (unless you go to St John). All they do is load you up on a taxi and bring you back on a taxi. You can do that yourself. We learned the hard way.

Edited by dioxide45
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kona_wahine

kona_wahine

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We did the snorkel tour to Trunk Bay. Gorgeous place for sure, but I don't think we even had two hours there. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to say I've been there. Just you have to travel to get there and wait on the excursion company and it eats up a lot of time.

 

Our last cruise we grabbed a taxi and went to Maagens Bay. We were there before they started collecting entrance fee. Had the whole beach pretty much to ourselves. It, of course, did get a bit crowded. It was a couple hours before we could rent chairs. It's a beautiful place to spend the day. We also rented a couple kayaks for an hour and went down the whole beach just outside the bouys. When we were ready to head back there were plenty of vans waiting to fill up and go back.

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skrufy

skrufy

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Trunk Bay is the place to go. If you like to snorkle, there is a trail just off the beach. Taking the Carnival excursion shortens your time there but its convienent. The ferry picks you up right by the ship and is waiting to bring you back. Going on your own you have to get to the east end of St.Thomas catch the ferry, once on St. John you need to take a cab to Trunk Bay. Then reverse the process back to the ship. Most importantly, keep track of the time and know the ferry schedule.

 

Another excursion you might like is the Champagne Catamaran snorkle to St. John.

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dioxide45

dioxide45

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Thank you! Would you recommend the excursion to St Johns through carnival? Or is there a private company you have used and liked?

 

For St John, it is one of the few places that I am an advocate for the ship excursion. They pick you up right by the ship and take you to Cruz Bay. They return you right back close to the ship. Another thing is that it costs just about the same amount as a do it your self trip. You lose a little bit of time on St John, but you have no worries as long as you are sure to catch the boat back.

 

Red Hook where you would catch the ferry is a fairly long taxi ride away. I think the taxi fare there from the cruise port is $10 per person. Taxis in the USVI are expensive and priced per person. If you have a lot of people or are staying on the island, you can probably negotiate. But for a single trip for a few people, negotiating really doesn't work. Then you have the ferry ride to St John. That is $14 round trip. So for a taxi and ferry, you are at $34. We paid $35.75 for a "Self Explore St John" excursion through Celebrity. The tour that Celebrity used picked us up on the same pier as our ship was docked and returned us back to the same place.

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Towel Critter

Towel Critter

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Trunk Bay is slightly better than Magen's, but much more time consuming to get to. I'd choose Magen's simply because you will have more time there. If there was a huge difference between the two, maybe Trunk would be worth all the hassle and lost time getting there. But the difference is negligible.

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cruisexlife

cruisexlife

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St.John's. The "Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel Trails" excursion is a great one. If you read my Glory review and jump to St.Thomas, you can follow my trip on that excursion. On Liberty, we spent the morning in Charlotte Amalie shopping, and then went up to Paradise Point, before spending the last few hours of our visit on the ship, sunbathing. Both links can be found in my signature.

 

But I would certainly recommend going over to St.John, it's such a beautiful island. You will love it! :D

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HarpHarp

HarpHarp

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We took a taxi to sapphire beach. Rented 2 chairs for $9 each. They gave a waitress that walks around and we never had an empty drink. We ordered great Mahi sandwiches from her for lunch. Beautiful beach and view!

 

I agree with Jenny about Sapphire. It was my favorite when I lived on St Thomas. If you don't want to use up your day, about 2hours, going to/from St. John, I'd head to Sapphire. It has good snorkeling by the reef & lots of shade. Magens is too crowded for my taste most of the time & it has no snorkeling. The view of it from Skyline Dr is worth the trip though.

Here's the web cam for Sapphire & the link at the top has a drone view.

http://www.sapphireinthesun.com/

Edited by HarpHarp
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PurrSusan

PurrSusan

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We did a b2b in April 2015 that went to St Thomas each week so the first week we went to St John (Trunk Bay) & the 2nd week we went to Sapphire. We took the ship's excursion (RCCL) to St John that included a brief tour of the island plus beach time. When we went to Sapphire we just took a taxi with another couple--very easy process. We liked both places so I guess I'm not much help :eek:

 

The first 3 photos are Trunk Bay & the other 3 are Sapphire....

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IMG_0039.jpg.675de0e3c9120fc3c984fc5546dbd8e6.jpg

IMG_0048.jpg.4a923b800b32eefcff36398d94102e29.jpg

IMG_0049.jpg.22f13ca34eda73d8d194091df55d50fd.jpg

Edited by PurrSusan
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