Scott Smetana

After doing my research before the cruise, I knew I must see the beaches of St. John and go snorkeling. I was right! This was one of our best days on the trip! When getting off the boat, take a cab (3$) to the short drive downtown to take the City Ferry ($7) to St. John’s. It leaves promptly at 9 am and I strongly recommend taking this boat or your day will be very cramped on St. John. When getting to Cruz Bay on St. John, there will be 25 ‘taxi’s’, or pickups built with benches in the back to go on beach/’jungle’ tours. We really wanted to be on our own, so we splurged and rented 2 new scooters for the day. They were a blast!!

Some of our other group took the “jungle” pick-ups. On the scooter, I was able to inspect over 15 beaches on the island. HANDS DOWN, the best is TRUNK BAY (although there are a few nice ones that were very secluded and private). Some guide books told me that Trunk Bay would be crowded – VERY UNTRUE!! If you like snorkeling or would like to try – this is the place for you! It is the most beautiful beach that I could imagine.

The “national forest” part of the island was surprising very dull with not much to see. However, we enjoyed the drive on our mopeds. You must catch the 3pm boat from Cruz bay back to Red Hook to make it back to the Explorer in time for departure. Non-stop, it’s probably a 45-minute drive around the entire island.

I do NOT recommend the ship’s excursion package to St. John’s as they only spent about an hour at Trunk Bay before the group leader blew an air-horn and said it was time go.

Check out the shore excursions available in St. John.
St. John, USVI Shore Excursions

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