Tip - If you go to the more popular Trunk, you should go when the big cruise boats aren't coming in over on St. T. You can get a schedule for the docks (we got it at the front desk of our resort) and go when there's only 1 or 2 (if lucky none) cruises docking. Some days there are fewer cruise liners and therefore - fewer people on St. John. (this goes for visiting the "Coral Gardens Aquarium" or for snorkeling Coki on St. T as well - super crowded if boats are in) Someone just gave me this www.stthomasthisweek.com link to see if I could find a calendar for cruise line docking days as well as an activity around the islands calendar - but I haven't gone there yet.

The hike and snorkel out to Waterlemon Cay was great, and worth it for the snorkeling. Be prepared for quite a hike from the parking lot (has a toilet in the parking lot) to get out to the closest point to cross over to the cay - have to walk all the way to the end of the beach to the point to have the shortest route over to the cay - read below to see why that might be important to you. Take water bottle with you!

More Waterlemon Tips: There used to be 2 tires that you could throw dry goods in while going over, or there are some bushes that you can hide stuff in, but we took a small dry bag and tied around our waste with the camera and keys, etc...

Watch out for the spiny urchins if you decide to snorkel over from the center of the bay beach over to the cay - they are all over in the shallows. Also, watch out for the boats coming through to tie up to the buoys when swimming across the channel.

Snorkeling around this cay is great for strong swimmers - the current on West side during full and no moon days is stronger - plus, there's no real beach to get out and rest on the cay, so plan on snorkeling around the whole thing, saving energy to come back to mainland. We started out by going around towards the North once we reached the cay because that was a tip that I got about the current - this way you are swimming against the current at first. That way when you get to the other side, when you are a bit more tired, you are swimming with the current.

The underwater landscape scenery changes as you swim around the cay - from sloping sandy with sea fans to deep crevasses and walls - a bit of everything here.

Once back on the mainland point, if you snorkel along the coast towards the South following the beach path back to the parking lot, you might see groups of cuddle fish and turtles, small fry and different types of critters than around the cay.

Continuing to snorkel around the bend to the south coast, if you go out by the buoys close to shore you can see really huge starfish (down 20-30') - but watch out again for boats and when coming out for the spiny urchins along that side - choose your exit carefully.

Waterlemon is my fave so far - but I'm heading back in a week to see if I can find another!

Blu, I think Trunk would be my absolute fav when you can catch it with a lighter crowd which is not that hard early in the day or even late in the day. It is beautiful and the addition of the cheeseburger in paradise with a pina colada while sitting at my favorite table helps! I've found that you can easily get some privacy down toward either end. Bringing up a close second would be Cinnamon because of the view of the mountains nearby. Down toward the far end, It literally feels like you are alone in the world! It's never as crowded as Trunk but that may be just because it is farther from Cruz Bay... I also have to admit that an afternoon at Hawksnest, which is soooo wonderfully close to Cruz Bay that you can just skip over there for a quick trip, is a great small combination of lovely beach and rocky snorkeling opportunity depending on which end you choose. I guess you can't go wrong with any of the north shore beaches.... maybe you should just let each day take you where it will and see which beaches appeal to you as you go by?! Oh, one more thing, we saw several wonderful sea turtles right off of Caneel in their sea grass beds... at one point we were watching two huge sea turtles and about 7 sting ray all in the same area... awesome!