How YOU can easily and inexpensively get to St. John on your own...

[CaribbeanBound]

St. John, US Virgin Islands

We berthed at Havensight Pier in St. Thomas. Our destination was Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay on the Island of St. John for snorkeling. Despite what everyone at the pier will tell you (and they will lie to you), you can get local transportation for $2 per person in an open-air taxi to Red Hook to catch a ferry to Cruz Bay on St. John.

 

Simply walk out of the Havensight pier main gate, cross the street, turn left and walk until you get to the Bus Stop (there is a pullover area) across from K-Mart and cross the street so that you are standing on the K-Mart side of the street. It is a leisurely 15-minute level walk. When you see an open-air taxi drive up, flag him down, tell him where you wish to go and enjoy the trip.

 

The drive takes about 20 to 30 minutes each way depending upon traffic. The taxi will drop you off at the Red Hook ferry terminal. Pay upon exiting the taxi, go through the gates and hop on the ferry to St. John. We caught the 8:00am ferry and paid our $5.00/pp fare. Normally, you would pay at the booth prior to boarding. The very pretty ride across the bay runs about 15 minutes.

 

[Note: there is also a downtown ferry that runs directly from Charlotte Amalie for $10/pp. The ferry dock is a short taxi ride from the Charlotte Amalie pier. This is a very pretty 40-minute ride. As I recall, it runs less often than the Red Hook ferry.]

 

Upon arrival at Cruz Bay, St. John, we caught a 10-minute taxi ride ($6.00/pp) to Trunk Bay, stopping once along the way to take pictures of Trunk Bay from a picturesque spot along the road. We arrived at 8:30am which allowed us to get in free. Once the admission booth opens, it costs $4.00/pp to enter this beautiful white sand beach with clear waters, awesome views of islands and cays, nice facilities, and an underwater snorkeling trail.

 

The snorkeling trail can be found on the right hand side of the beach. It begins on the far side of the little island and works its way around the island and ends on the closer side. Note that the closer to the island you get the better teh snorkeling. (The path is a little wide of the island). The snorkeling is very good, with lots of fish and colorful coral. Including the four of us, there was a total of 7 people enjoying this beach from 8:30am to 10:15am when larger groups began arriving —– at which time we left and caught a $4/pp taxi for Cinnamon Bay. (Trunk Bay is now one of our top three Caribbean beaches).

 

Cinnamon Bay is part of a campground with good facilities, snorkeling equipment rentals, and kayak rentals. The beach is not as pretty as Trunk Bay but offers good snorkeling as well. Sea Turtles can be spotted here in the middle of the bay feeding on the sea grass, but we did not spot any this trip.

 

We caught a taxi back to Cruz Bay ($7/pp) at 11:40am. We just missed the noon ferry so we ate lunch at High Tide Bar and Grill adjacent to the pier. We enjoyed the Virgin Island Pale Ale (a fruity beer made for distribution in St. John by a brewery in Maine), and especially liked the sweet mango salsa which accompanies the chips and salsa appetizer. We shopped until 1:45pm and bought tickets for the 2:00pm ferry, which was 30 minutes late arriving.

 

A very large crowd anxiously waited in a long line in the hot sun on the pier. There was no problem getting everyone on the ferry. We arrived back in Red Hook at 2:40pm. Ignore the $7/pp taxis and wait for a $2.00 taxi again EXACTLY where it dropped you off. (Do not cross the street). We got dropped off a couple blocks closer to Havensight than the K-Mart where we picked up the taxi.

 

St. Thomas is a major shopping destination. Havensight has a large number of shops convenient to the ship, however, the real shoppers head into Charlotte Amalie to do their shopping. It is very easy to get to St. John from the ship. We look forward to doing this excursion on our own again.

 

 

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http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

These are our very detailed personal reviews, hints, and tips for ports of call that you will be visiting.

[52marv]

We're taking our kids on the Serenade of the Seas in March of 2009 and our 8 year old really wants to go to St. John. This is a very helpful post,

 

Lee

[Betsy's Mom]

The VI government and the taxi association are working on revising the rules/licensing of the $2 saffari buses. There is thought of replacing them with small buses (enclosed) whose insurance and safety would be more closly monitored by the Government. This may change transportation options on the Island with in the year.

B.

[whineconnoiseur]

Thanks for the really helpful post! It was just the info I was looking for :)

[bobnatt]

What great information and what a great post. This is the best information on how to do St John effeciently and cost effectively. Sounds llike you had a great day.

 

So many people ask this same question I wonder if that this can be kept as a permanent information source.

[Riversedge]

Thanks so much for your post. I printed it out as this is exactly what we are hoping to do in June.

[Chesneygirl]

Is the Crown Bay pier in Charlotte Amalie?

 

We would love to do a day trip to St John's and from what I have read so far, I believe our ship docks at Crown Bay.

[mnnjcouple]

Crown Bay is not in Charlotte Amelie but a little west of the city. I think most Princess ships dock there instead. We just got off the Crown Princess and it docked there. I believe the taxi from Crown Bay to Red Hook was $11/person. It only took about 25 minutes. We docked at 7am, had a little immigration thing (essentially showing your passport) on the ship, got a taxi at about 7:20am, and got to Red Hook at 7:50am, easily making the 8am ferry. Cost of taxi back was same or similar price. Took longer due to traffic so plan accordingly. Have fun!

[mnnjcouple]

P.S. We took the 3pm ferry back to Red Hook. We eventually got back to Crown Bay by 4:20pm. We saw some folks with the blue/white Princess towels still lounging around at Trunk Bay when we left so I assume they were able to get back safely by taking the 4pm ferry back to Red Hook (or 3:45pm ferry back to Charlotte Amelie)