TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands How many days in USVI

In all our trips to BVI we have yet to venture over to St Johns. If we don't go next week ( yes we will be in the BVI Saturday) our next trip is in March. I'm sure two days would be great but anyone have suggestions on how to expand that to four days?

stay 2 extra days?

As in where and what to do

After 20 years of just the BVI we now are big fans of St John. Our trip in March of 2014 we circumnavigated St John and had the best time. Cruz Bay was awesome, can't beat happy hour at Woody's , Waterlemon Cay for snorkelling, Coral Bay Skinny Legs and the floating Bar then Lameshur bay hiklng to the petroglyphs (our crew went not us). All in all very relaxing.

Thanks Ron,
That's what I'm looking for. Where to go and what to find there. We love BVI, just looking to expand our trips. Anymore ideas?

Christmas Cove with awesome pizza from the floating Pizza Pi boat on Great St James and a night in Megans Bay on the north side of St Thomas are some other options.

Coral Bay is fun with Skinny Legs and Indigo Grill at the Dinghy Dock, we prefer to anchor at Hansen Bay (in Coral Bay) for great swimming and snorkeling.

Little Lameshure, Great Lameshur and Salt Pond are great south side anchorages with NPS moorings. BabandRon mentioned hiking from Lameshur to Reef Bay, but there are also day use moorings at Reef Bay. There is an NPS dock at Lameshur with trash drop off. You cannot see any houses/lights on the hills above Lameshure. From Salt Pond it is possible to hike up to Concordia or the Tourist Trap for food and drinks. Concordia has a small camp store.

We love Leinster/Waterlemon Bay with great snorkeling and access to the Johnny Horn Trail and Annaberg. Walking up the ridge you get a great view down the Drake channel. You can hike to Brown Bay or go all the way to Coral Bay. This is one spot with almost no ATT/LIME/Digicel access. The outermost mooring has a bit of ATT signal.

The Maho/Francis Bay anchorage is our favorite. Lots of moorings that are spread out and generally well protected. The Francis Bay side has a better breeze coming over the low lying area.

You can access Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay from the moorings there. Not so well protected. Hawksnest also has moorings.

The Caneel Bay mooring is exposed to ferry wakes that run from about 5AM until midnight. The closer in towards the Caneel dock the less rolly. You can dinghy up to the Caneel dock to access the restaurants. Zozo's is a crowd pleaser. The Bar & Grill has well reviewed sushi at lunch. They usually ask you to put out a stern anchor for your dinghy.

We prefer to have our play time in Cruz Bay and anchor elsewhere since our monohull feels like a rocking horse in the Caneel Bay anchorage. But, Cruz Bay has so many walkable shops, bars and restaurants we end spending the night there more often than not. As others mentioned, Christmas Cove at Little St. James is a great close anchorage with Pizza Pi.

Not too far down the south side of St. Thomas is Abi Beach Bar. Its a polished interpretation of the beach bar style. We like it.

If you're checking in at Cruz Bay you can anchor in the creek area close the C&I if you draw 5' or less. Don't try and approach the C&I dock with a sailboat. The NPS dinghy dock is a short walk to C&I. Make sure you dispose of trash before you check in at Cruz Bay, otherwise they will ask you to take your trash to an incinerator on St. Thomas.

Here's a useful NPS mooring guide: http://www.nps.gov/viis/planyourvisit/upload/MooringGuide.pdf

Cheers, RickG

We are the reverse, 20 years going to STJ and now exploring the BVIs.

As RickG reports, Cruz Bay is a fun (small) town to explore if you like to shop, stroll, eat and bar hop. I am NOT a shopper but I always enjoy it in Cruz Bay because of the quality of the stores as well as the atmosphere of Mongoose Junction and the water-side location of Wharfside Village.

Our in-town style of strolling/eating in the evenings in Cruz Bay is something we miss when we stay in the BVIs.

The rhumb line to St John's is about 170 miles from the BVI's. You going to need a few more days. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

St.Johns, Antigua?

I always want to ask that when I see someone call it "St. John's" instead of St. John.

Funny, my mind always goes north and east of where I live, and that's a lot further than Antigua !

170 miles sounds about right from the Virgins to Antigua

One long 24-hour sail at 7 knots!

Don't be political you well know we are talking about the USVI.
Well maybe you don't.

Political? I don't think anyone was being political. It's a joke. That's all.

Spot on as no one was

We rent a condo on Sapphire Beach on STT after spending time in the BVI, mainly because we want to stay on the beach close to the water. But the close proximity to Red Hook is great for day/night trips on STJ, and fun bars around RH like Lat 18 and Duffy's. Also easy to get to the airport for flight home...