St. John’s – U.S. Virgin Islands
On the day of my birthday, we decided to go Island hopping to St. John’s. We heard a lot of amazing things about it. St. John’s is one of the Islands close to St. Thomas and you can only access it via ferry or boat. Trunk Bay on St. John’s island is 225 -yard-long underwater coral reef trail. It offers a great opportunity for underwater snorkeling and other activities. it is one of the most pristine beaches I have ever been to. You cannot miss out on this place.
We had our morning tea at home and headed out with our rental car to the ferry terminal which was literally 5 minutes from where we stayed in Red Hook. We thought we were late, but the ferry/barge came a little bit late (island time) so it worked out for us. You buy tickets on the ferry not in advance. Ferry ride is just 20 minutes in total. Once we got out of the ferry, it was still early to get food, so we decided to get smoothies from Our Market Smoothies. The smoothies were delicious and kept us full until lunch. Highly recommend you get tropical flavors like guava or passion fruits flavors.
On our way, we came across a Sugar mill, that we decided to stop by and take some pictures. I am not sure which plantation ruins it was, but I think it might be Susannaberg or Catherineberg Ruins. The roads were tricky, so only drive that route if you feel comfortable.
We spent few hours at the most famous Trunk Bay. I cannot tell you how beautiful and gorgeous the water was. We also stopped for views everywhere. The turquoise water was so beautiful to look at and my husband did some snorkeling. I enjoyed a swim in the water. We didn’t feel like leaving that place, but we had to explore other places on St. John’s.
We had lunch at Cruzan Bay Landing. I tried their famous drink – painkiller. It was so good, the breeze was outstanding, the food was delicious and there were chickens all over the place. I tried chana roti, which came with salad and very delicious dressing and mango chutney. My husband had chicken sandwich that he loved it too.
From there, we went to Maho Bay. It’s a bay so if you are like me who does not like waves, it was perfect place. Maho Bay is famous for birds and turtles in the water. At Maho bay crossroads, there was music going on, food trucks etc. very cool vibe all over that place. After a nice swim, we went to Annaberg Sugar Mills, and explored those ruins. It was only 5 mins from Maho Bay.
On our way, we stopped at lot of viewpoints and a few other beaches. Depending on what you really want to do, there are tons of beaches in small vicinity. We stopped by Hawksnest Beach.
By then, it was time to get back to ferry terminal as we didn’t want to miss last ferry going back. On our way, we stopped to get some local ice cream. Again, try to get tropical flavors if you can. B, got a guava flavored ice cream which was delicious.
We got back to our rental and took showers and enjoyed some wine with views. B had made reservations for dinner at an Italian place called Pesce Italian. The food was very good, the service could have been better. The host was extremely rude. We heard couple of people share similar experience with their service. But the food was delicious. We tried couple of dishes. It was such an amazing day!
St. John’s is absolutely breathtaking! I still have more to share. I didn’t wish to make a long blog post so divided into parts. Stay tuned for more next week and be sure to check out the first part!
Be sure to check out St. Thomas!
XO, Devangi