U.S. Virgin Islands National Park
Trip Assistant
How Much Time?
Do you enjoy splashing around in pristine turquoise water and lounging on sumptuous white sand? If yes, then you’ll want to stick around for a while. If for some reason you’re in a hurry, St. John is small and you can do a pretty good job getting around it in a day. There are a bunch of other wondrous islands, including the British Virgin Islands, down here as well. So, it does pay to get out of the National-Park-or-nothing mindset a lot of us get into. For me, two nights here is plenty, and then it’s time to look into other Caribbean locations.
Need to Know
- Trunk Bay is the one spot plastered on all the St. John marketing materials. It’s sublime. It also has a nominal entrance fee. The only one in the park.
- To get here, most visitors fly into St. Thomas and then ferry (or water taxi) to St. John (where the park is).
- Ferries arrive at Cruz Bay (St. John) from Red Hook and Charlotte Amalie (on St. Thomas).
- You don’t need a car rental, but it will simplify travel. Most car rental companies will wait for you at the dock.
Highlights
- Salomon Beach
- Honeymoon Beach
- Trunk Bay
- Mauna Loa
- Cinnamon Bay
- Maho Bay
- Annaberg Ruins
- Ram Head
Activities
- Hiking
- Paddling
- Sailing
- Snorkeling
- SCUBA Diving
- Fishing
When To Go?
Weather
Visitation
Visitation drops a bit in summer for hurricane season, but weather and visitation are fairly steady year-round.
Park Map Downloads
Road Trips
Helpful Tools
It’s a small island with limited roads. I’m sure there’s a great deal to see in the Caribbean but I’m not a good source.
Google My Maps, Wanderlog, and TripIt are incredibly useful trip planning tools. Find what works best for you!
There’s much more to our country. Here’s another Google Map with points of interest across all types of public land.
For campers, here’s a Google Map with National Forest campgrounds. National Park campgrounds are difficult to reserve (there are about 200!). With nearly 5,000 national forest campgrounds, you can usually pull in and find a spot.
Highlights
Maybe I’ll have some input for this section some day, but I don’t see that being any time soon.
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