St. John on own options & pricing questions

[cookie*]

We were planning to use the ship excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John, but our daughter will be 5 (almost 6) on our trip and 6 is the minimum age requirement. All of the ship excursions to St. John have a min age of 6. I know our daughter can handle any of these excursions, but we will just have to plan on our own.

 

My questions:

 

1) Please help me with my pricing. I did some research and this is what I came up with. I keep reading that there are big savings by doing excursions on your own, but I am not seeing a huge price difference here (see below). Might be because we would have had a $50 credit on the ship excursion. Or maybe I don't have my pricing correct for taxis/rentals etc. Our ship excursion cost would have been $266 for the Trunk Bay excursion. I'm only seeing an $8pp savings.

 

2) Which option do you like better? Maybe there is an option I haven't considered like a boat tour around the island? What about a boat that picks up from St. Thomas and tours around St. John to the different beaches? Open to ideas!

 

Trunk Bay on Own 2 adults/2children

Taxi Crown bay to Red Hook RT $80

Ferry Red Hook to Cruz Bay RT $16

Taxi Cruz Bay to Trunk RT $48

Beach Pass $20

Snorkel Rental 4 w/2 vests $70

Total: $234

 

Honeymoon Beach on Own 2 adults/2children

Taxi Crown bay to Red Hook RT $80

Ferry Red Hook to Cruz Bay RT $16

Taxi Cruz Bay to Caneel Bay RT $40

Shuttle from gift shop to beachRT $40

Rental Package (incl snorkel, $118

paddle board, chairs, kayak)

Total: $294

[GMoney]

A r/t ferry ticket between Red Hook and Cruz Bay is $14pp. It's $ r/t kids 2-11. I think you'd have to adjust that cost.

 

At Trunk, the "beach pass" is a National Park entry fee of $5pp.

 

At Honeymoon, you don't have to take the shuttle from Caneel to the beach, but perhaps it's a necessity for small children. You could also consider hiking into Honeymoon from Cruz Bay using Lind Point trail which is behind the NPS Visitors Center. Again, I'm not sure if this is an option given your kids, but the option exists and could reduce costs.

Edited January 28, 2017 by GMoney

[cookie*]

RT ferry is $14 pp and same price for kids 2-11?

Thanks!

[GMoney]

Sorry - The ferry is $2pp r/t for kids 2-11.

Edited January 28, 2017 by GMoney

[bedfordmom]

A r/t ferry ticket between Red Hook and Cruz Bay is $14pp. It's $ r/t kids 2-11. I think you'd have to adjust that cost.

 

At Trunk, the "beach pass" is a National Park entry fee of $5pp.

 

At Honeymoon, you don't have to take the shuttle from Caneel to the beach, but perhaps it's a necessity for small children. You could also consider hiking into Honeymoon from Cruz Bay using Lind Point trail which is behind the NPS Visitors Center. Again, I'm not sure if this is an option given your kids, but the option exists and could reduce costs.

 

I hiked into Honeymoon Beach using that trail with a ship sponsored eco hike tour. it was so easy and pleasant we are thinking of doing it on our own on our next trip.