St. John's Island Tour

[robandkelly13]

Can anyone tell me about this excursion? What did you enjoy/ not enjoy? Was it worth spending your entire day on this tour or do you wish you had chosen something else? Or explored on your own?

All advice is appreciated

 

[SuperDry]

I did it and enjoyed it a lot. I haven't done a lot of them, but this one has been my favorite excursion so far. In case you didn't pick it up from the description, it involves a 1-hour ferry ride each way from near where the ship docks in St. Thomas to the neighboring island of St. John, where you board a bus for the tour. Both the ferry ride and the bus have interesting narration.

 

[ImDMous]

We did it several years ago and it was OK. We would have enjoyed snorkeling at one of the beaches but instead we just kept driving past them. There isn't much to see on the island and you spend the whole day on the bus. The views are gorgeous but next time we'll make sure we get to enjoy the beautiful beaches.

 

[gzmtlock]

We did this excursion in 2008 and really enjoyed it. St. John is truly beautiful! And not built up the way so much of the Caribbean is. Our family enjoys the outdoors and beautiful scenery, and we got to see lots of it that day.

DSthen14 was in a protective boot due to a foot injury. So the moderate amount of walking was good for us. If we were to return now, I would probably choose the Eco Hike on St John as our excursion. But I would definitely return to St John!

 

[jlemieu1]

St02. We just did it last Nov. We enjoyed it. Basically we drove around the island for a couple hours stopping for a couple good photo stops. We made 1 quick stop at beach area for bathroom break. We also made a longer stop to explore an old sugarcane plantation. Samples of local bread to try. We had about 20 to do some very quick shopping on St. John before the ferry back to St Thomas . The ferry ride was a little choppy but fun for me.

 

[Flossbolna]

We did this in December. We originally had booked the snorkel excursion to St John, but when we went to check in, they told us that visibility would be low due to the weather. It was rather windy when we were there. We asked what other excursions they had available and decided to change over to this one at the last minute as we were not keen on not seeing anything in choppy waters. We ended up being very happy with our choice. We stopped at several outlooks, at the beach (bathroom break, but enough time to walk down to the water and see that the water was indeed not great to swim in that day) which was beautiful and at the Sugar Cane Plantation. When we got back to the place for the ferry ride back home we had a little over half an hour to explore. There is a little shopping center where we bought some post cards and some ice cream. We got back in time for lunch and then ventured into Charlotte Amalie afterwards.

 

[Cruella 66]

We did this excursion in June. It was very relaxing, million dollar views, lots of picture stops, and a great narration of the island, ocean, geography, animals, fauna, and history. One thing we would have liked was a beach stop as they just looked SO inviting! The day before we did Mountain Top Downhill Rainforest Trek on St Maarten. That was also fabulous but it was miles treking straight downhill through vague jungle paths with mostly rocky terrain. We loved it but were exhausted afterward so the St. John's tour was perfect for us! Our party was my husband and myself, both later 40's and our DD 11 and DS 13. Book it and enjoy!!! Cindy

 

[lbgraves]

DH and I did this tour in 2013 and enjoyed it a lot. We had the morning tour. There was a good guide on the ferry who pointed out who owned the big houses on the islands as we passed them. The guide on St. John was also very interesting. It was an open-air bus. We did comment that it was good we hadn't taken the tour with the kids when they were younger since they would probably have been bored. They stayed onboard the ship while we went. Great photo ops & would recommend it.

 

[remlap]

Just pointing out that St. John is very easy to do on your own.

We exited the ship got on the waiting taxi to the ferry, which we made with no problems.

When we docked, we walked one block to rent snorkel gear, then went back to the ferry dock and got a taxi to Trunks Bay.
Snorkeled and relaxed on the beach.

When we had felt like we had experienced this, we walked back out front, and took a taxi to Cinnamon bay. Swam again.

Cinnamon bay had a Sugar Plantation ruin across the street with a nature trail.

When we were done, we took a taxi back to the dock. We could have hoped on the ferry right then, but had a late lunch overlooking the bay. An hour later we got on the next ferry, taxis were waiting at St. Thomas to take us to the ship.

The only thing I would recommend is work out what return ferry you need to be on, and then make sure you on are the one an hour prior.

We had a fantastic day, much cheaper than the official excursion, and our table mates were jealous as all they did was drive around the island and look at the water.

 

[schmass]

We did this and enjoyed it. I wish that we could have put our feet in the water at least, as the water looked so nice, but it was still a good excursion. I have pictures and details in my TR.