Book the right boat.
Turtle Cove snorkels, the twenty-minute ferry across to Cruz Bay, sunset out of Frenchman’s Cove and the long sail east to Jost Van Dyke. What each day is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven that make a Virgin Islands week.
First trip or fifth, these carry a Virgin Islands week: the catamaran that anchors over Turtle Cove, the lit kayaks off Frenchman’s Reef, the parasail line above Water Island.
Snorkel St. John Tour from Sapphire and Margaritaville
Powerboat snorkeling in St. John from St. Thomas with guided help for first-timers, breakfast, picnic lunch, snacks, and an open bar.
From $180 per person
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One boat, one day, three stops.
Leave the marina around nine, anchor over the seagrass at Turtle Cove by ten, eat lunch off a boat in Christmas Cove and be back on the dock before the light goes. This is the day people fly here for. The only real decision is how many people you share the deck with.
Which island gets the day?
St Thomas has the airport, the berths and most of the boats. St John is a twenty-minute ferry away and mostly national park. St Croix sits forty miles south and barely feels related. Pick the one that matches the week you actually have.
Airport and berths
St Thomas
from $119 · 2,100 reviews
Everything lands here: the airport, the cruise berths at Havensight and Crown Bay, the marinas at Red Hook and Frenchman’s Cove. Drive up to Mountain Top for the Magens Bay view, walk the Danish alleys of Charlotte Amalie, then take a boat out for the afternoon. If your trip is short, this is where it happens.
See the St Thomas tours →
Two thirds park
St John
from $180 · 1,874 reviews
Twenty minutes from Red Hook by ferry, and a completely different island. Most of it is national park, which is why the north-shore bays at Trunk, Cinnamon and Maho still empty out by late afternoon. Come for the day, or take a boat that anchors here and never lands at all.
See the St John days →
Forty miles south
St Croix
from $145 · 289 reviews
The biggest island, and the one most visitors skip. Two Danish towns in Christiansted and Frederiksted, sugar-mill ruins standing in the cane fields, Buck Island Reef National Monument offshore. It needs a seaplane or a ferry and a whole day, and it repays both.
See the St Croix trips →
The water is better after six.
The sun drops behind Water Island around half past six most of the year, and that is when the good trips start. Clear kayaks lit from underneath in Frenchman’s Bay, tarpon rolling past the hull, dinner sails leaving the Cove as the harbour lights come on behind you.
The island by road.
Open-sided safari trucks grinding up to Mountain Top, jeeps down to the beaches nobody signposts, the long slow loop of Centerline Road with the whole channel on your left. Three days of snorkelling and you will want one of these.
You have six hours. Spend them well.
Ships tie up at Havensight and Crown Bay, both a short ride from town. These fit inside a port call with room to spare: harbour runs, the viewpoint and duty-free circuit, short snorkel boats that have you back at the pier by two.
St John kept its coastline.
Most of St John was handed to the country in 1956, and the park has held the line ever since: no resort wall along the north shore, an underwater trail marked out in Trunk Bay, and the Annaberg sugar-mill ruins looking straight down the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Twenty minutes from Red Hook, and it may as well be a different country.
Pick the bay, then the boat.
The territory works in bays, and each one is a different day. Magens for the postcard. Coki for the fish. Trunk for the snorkel trail. Cruz Bay for the ferry, and lunch once you are off it.
Twelve ways to spend a morning.
Half of these get you wet and half of them do not. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of day, then work down the list behind it.
The days that need a boat.
Nothing out here is far. Jost Van Dyke is an hour east and technically another country, Christmas Cove is twenty minutes out of Red Hook, and the park bays on St John are closer than the traffic through Charlotte Amalie makes them feel.
What the first three days should look like.
You cannot see the whole territory in a week, but three days will give you its shape. This is the order that works, weather permitting.
Day 1
Learn the shape of it
Up to Mountain Top for the look down over Magens Bay, back through the Danish alleys of Charlotte Amalie, then an afternoon on a beach you did not plan. Easy pace, and it tells you where everything is.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Give the day to a boat
The full-day sail: anchor over Turtle Cove for the turtles, lunch off Pizza Pi in Christmas Cove, one beach stop before the run home. Book it for the first clear forecast in your week.
Plan the sailing day →
Day 3
Cross to the park
The hourly ferry out of Red Hook, a taxi over the ridge, then the snorkel trail at Trunk Bay and Maho before the afternoon boats arrive. The last ferry back always leaves earlier than you want it to.
Plan the St John day →
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