Yes you can see St. John without renting a car - however renting a car will allow you to see more of St. John and to see it at your own pace. I would recommend one day going over and renting a car/jeep and beach hopping and island drive and then go over another day and hike a trail and pick a beach to spend the day at. You can taxi around the island - but that will add up if you want to go to more than one beach. You can walk yes - to maybe Caneel Bay and Honeymoon and the beaches in that vacinity - the ones like Salt Pond Bay that are far from Cruz Bay would be a really long walk - you could try hitching a ride if you wanted to spend your day doing this. Renting a dingy in Cruz Bay is a fun way to see the island - you can cruise in and out of the little beaches and coves - definietely a good time/ Taxis do frequent beaches often and you can stand on the road side and a taxi usually passes ever so often and you can flag them down to get back to Cruz Bay.

TD -

We have been to USVI three times now. Stayed once on St Thomas and did day trip to St John as you propose - stayed on St John our last two trips. If it were me and I were to do it based on experience I would rent a jeep - many rental places to choose from. We got ours last week from Cool Breeze - no problems. Take ferry from Red Hook -$3. Day long rental in high season is about $85, I'm sure it is less in June.

Driving is an adventure - left side of road, very narrow roads, mountanous, with many shape turns - but not a "bad" adventure. It's just about impossible to drive faster than 25-30 mph so it's all pretty much under control. Rental gives you much more flexibility - go when and where you want more easily.

Here's a possible full day. Take an early ferry (every hour on hour), grab car, bring snorkle stuff if you have it, cooler with water (other drinks too) is big bonus as many of beaches to not have anything available. Or buy drinks after you get car and before you leave town.

If it's early enough, have breakfast at Chilly Billy's up the hill. Otherwise, drive to one of north shore beaches for a while (my family likes Trunk and Cinnamon which are full service, others are excellent too) to beach and snorkle. We saw barracuda (sent the kids back to the beach fast!), turtles, rays and of course fish and coral at Trunk this past Friday - try the west end (left) of beach on Trunk, in addition to the park service offering around the island - don't be afraid to snorkle quite aways away from beach to the west.

Then off to Francis Bay - snorkle out a ways to the east end where the beach gets rocky to swim with turtles and rays. There's something about swimming with the turtles...

Then drive over to Coral Bay, have late lunch and great frozen drinks at Shipwreck Landing.

Keep heading away from Coral Bay to Salt Pond Bay. Be very sure you have water before you go to Salt Pond. It is on very arid side of island. It's a quarter mile to beach from road, downhill is easy, uphill afterwards is tougher - save some water. Good hikes here - Ram's Head is cool. Snorkle on left side and out very deep...octopus, eel, squid, turtles here last week. Then hike back up hill to jeep.

Head back to Coral Bay and take Centerline back to town. Stop at Chateau Bordeaux for drink and to soak in unbelivable views. Finish drive back into town. Find a spot to park (good luck). Frozen libations for a while then dinner at The Lime Inn (many other good eaterys)... Then head back to ferry for return to Red Hook.

You can easily do taxi's, but then you are more limited to visiting one beach, maybe two. It's very easy to get taxi to take you anywhere from town, a bit harder to get picked up at more remote locations. Taxi's are prevalent at Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Maho. We relied on taxi's our first visit and it went fine. Went to Cinnamon for the day...food, drinks, snorkle and chair rental...very easy. Snorkle on reef on east (right) end of beach. Back to town for a little shopping at Mongoose Junction then dinner and ferry back. Very nice...it was enough to convince us to stay on St John our next trip.

I would not recommend walking to beaches...The first hill right out of town will discourge all but the fittest...

Dingy rentals are available in Cruz Bay right off of ferry to the left - haven't done that...

Have fun.

Bob

Bob - thanks for your input - your suggestions will certainly be of great assistance to TD and to others planning St. John visits!!! Great input!!!

Bob and Islander:

Thank you for taking the time to respond to our questions. What outstanding suggestions! I really appreciate all of the detailed, descriptive information.

One last question: We have "shortie" wet suits that we used to snorkel off Curacao last year (they kept us very comfortable in those cool, deep waters). Would you recommend we bring our "shorties" with us, or is the water warm enough to leave them at home?

Thanks in advance,

TD

I'd save the suitcase room and leave the shorties at home. We were in and out of the water all day...never out because we were cold...even after an hour of snorkling water temp was not a problem. I would guess that in June it is more likely the water will be warmer rather than cooler than it was last week.

Bob