St. Croix Beaches Virgin Islands swimming snorkeling scuba diving

Buccaneer Beach At the Buccaneer Hotel. It's $5 for not guests but includes a beach chair, changing rooms, etc. Beach bar and restaurant on the premises as well as a full watersports center.

Cane Bay Driving along Route 80 you can't miss it. Good snorkeling, nice beach. Two bar and restaurants right on the beach.

Chenay Bay Beach At the Chenay Bay Beach Resort. Good beach, great snorkeling if you stay to right and follow the cove around the point. No charge for use of the beach unless you want to rent a chair or float. Bar and restaurant on site.

Club St. Croix This is at Club St. Croix (well duh). Good beach, swimming is OK as there can be a lot of grass just offshore. Bar and restaurant at the hotel.

Davis Bay At the Carambola Beach Resort. Excellent beach, good swimming at the west end of the beach (not as may rocks there). Bar and restaurant on site. The public beach access is from a parking lot located above the resort, but if you're real nice to the folks at the guard gate (or say you're going to one of the restaurants) they'll let you park in the main lot which is much closer.

Hibiscus Beach See Pelican Cove Beach below

Hotel on the Cay The closest beach to the town of Christiansted. This beach is located on Protestant Cay which is a small island right in Christiansted harbor. There's a $3 charge for the roundtrip ferry ride. Beach chair rentals, bar, restaurant, watersports, good beach, good swimming, good snorkeling.

LaGrange Beach Coconuts Restaurant in Frederiksted. This is the former site of the Lagrange Beach Club. Nice beach, good swimming, OK snorkeling.

Pelican Cove Beach At the Palms at Pelican Cove Hotel. Very picturesque white sand Caribbean beach with palm trees and all. Swimming is OK as there's a lot of rocks just offshore. Good snorkeling around the rocks. If the waves are up there can be a strong rip current. Both the Palms at Pelican Cove Hotel and the Hibiscus Beach Hotel have bar/restaurants on the beach.

Rainbow Beach Great white sand beach (it's the picture above), good swimming, OK snorkeling, great bar and grill.
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Reef Beach Out on the east end. Long stretch of beach protected behind a barrier reef. Bar and restaurant.

Sand Castle on the Beach Hotel. An excellent west end beach. Gorgeous sunsets, good snorkeling, and the waters is almost always flat calm. The hotel has chairs available and there's a very good restaurant right on the beach.

Tamarind Reef Located at the Tamarind Reef Hotel, good beach, watersports, good snorkeling complete with floating rest stops. Deep End Bar and Grill on site.

Sunset Grill At the Spratt Hall Hotel just north of Frederiksted. Good beach and snorkeling. Bar and restaurant on site.

Grapetree Beach On the site of the old Grapetree Beach Hotel off of Route 60. You can park fairly close to the beach which is protected by a barrier reef, though the swells that make it to shore can be good for body surfing.

Isaac's Bay & Jack's Bay These are listed together as they're right next to each other and both are maintained by the Nature Conservancy. These two beaches are the most secluded on the island as they're very difficult to get to. This is where people who prefer to go "au natural" go although it is illegal in the Virgin Islands. There is no vehicle access to either beach as they're both home to a lot of Hawksbill and Green Turtle nests and driving on the beach destroys the nests. There's a couple of ways of getting to these beaches, and hiking is involved is all of them.

The beach to the west is Jack's Bay Beach and it's most easily reached by driving past Grapetree Hotel to the end of the road and walking down. A longer way is to hike over from Cramer Park, while much longer, this does give the impressive 360 degree view of St. Croix from Goat Hill. This is probably a 35-40 minute one way hike.

The fastest access to Isaac Bays, is to go to Point Udall, and hike down from the trail that starts just before the Millennium Monument (this used to be accessible to vehicles, but the VI government blocked it off a few years back to keep vehicles off of East End Bay, which hosts a good number of nesting sea turtles annually). As mentioned, this drops you into East End Bay, and then you have to hike up and over the knob to Isaac Bay. It's probably a good 15-20 minute hike to Isaac this way.

Of course, you can still access Isaac Bay from Jack Bay. This is about a 20-25 minute hike to Isaac this way. The Nature Conversancy is making the effort to keep the hiking trails in Jack and Isaac Bays mowed for ease of hiking. They will also be placing informational kiosks at the three main entrances, with maps to indicate hiking trails, along with directional signs at intersections to make the area as user friendly to hikers as possible.

Both have good beaches, and great snorkeling along the barrier reef. There are absolutely NO facilities of any kind there. Also please keep in mind that these beaches makeup some of the top turtle nesting beaches on the island so avoid digging in the sand or doing anything to disturb these nests, especially between July and October

Sandy Point This National Wildlife Refuge hosts what is probably the prettiest white sand beach on the island, BUT, it's only open on Sundays from 10a-4p and not at all from April through August. It's a major Leatherback Turtle nesting area so access is extremely limited. To get there, follow the 4 lane (Route 66), continue straight ahead when the 4 lane ends. Follow the main road (even though it's dirt). It's quite a ways in but once you get to the beach area you'll see cars parked.

Shoys Beach Probably one of the best secluded beaches. It's located in Estate Shoys (very exclusive area). Great beach, good swimming and snorkeling. To get there, turn into the Buccaneer Hotel. When you get to their guard shack, turn right and stop at the other guard shack (For Shoys Beach). Tell the guard you're going to the beach and they'll probably ask your name (I use a different one each time I go). Follow the road to the end where there's a small parking lot. The trail to the beach is just to the left of the big iron gates.