Well, you know how I feel about our stay at Secret Harbour. The bottom floor beachfront romms are literally 30 ft from the sand and 75 ft. from the water.

Regarding Sapphire, looks like the condos of Crystal Cove at Sapphire Beach get better reviews on tripadvisor.com than the resort at Sapphire. Also see pictures posted with some reviews there and pictures at bestbeach.com. Hope you also get some feedback from folks who have stayed at either.

Sapphire might actually be a bit closer and more of a straight shot to Red Hook than Secret Harbour, but not enuff to be a deal breaker.

JMQ

Just a word of advice on renting a car in STT. I also am making a trip to the island in June and plan to rent a car for several days. Be sure to ask if your rental can be taken on the ferry. Hertz told me that they did NOT allow it. Avis will allow it but their insurance is not good while the car is on the ferry. We also are staying at Secret Harbour. It will be our first trip to the Islands. Best Wishes and have a good trip.

Stayed at both resorts. SH smaller resort & beach. Felt like SB was more family oriented. If I had my choice I would stay at SH beach front room. The pool & SH was not that great. It was on the upper part of the resort.

When renting a car use Budget in St. Thomas they allow you to go over to St. John.

My wife & I will be in St.Thomas/John 1st week in June (4th time). Staying 2 nights at the Inn at Blackbeards Castle. Then renting a Cottage in St. John for a week.

Did alot of research on Caribbean Islands & we just can't seam to shake St.Thomas/St. John.

Enjoy.

Frank

Couldn't agree more with jmq about Secret Harbour. Can't say it any better.

Sapphire is a nice beach and in my opinion it is more scenic than Secret Harbour. I like Sapphire Beach when all I want to do is take in the scenes and go for a swim. In my experience, snorkeling was disappointing there. A much better swimming beach.

Both really nice beaches (my 2 favorite on STT). But taking a look at your "must haves" (snorkeling in particular)..... Secret Harbour fits the bill.

tmax

secret harbour is a secret stop telling everyone

LOL
will be there tomorrow! lol

Good point about the pool at Secret Harbour - it was such a non-factor to us we never even walked up to see it. Something to consider if that is important to you.
Also, at first the beach seemed a little small, but man, those sunsets...

What is the approxipate cab fare to these beaches from Charolotte Amalie? Are their chairs/umbrellas to rent? What type of food/beverages are available nearby? Are there lockers to secure your belongings when you want to go snorkeling?
Thanks!

taxi from CA to secret harbour is 9 dollars pp
there is a beach bar open til three and restaurant open later...

no lockers as far as i know...
and if i remember correctly the chairs and umbrellas are only for hotel guests but you can use the beach ...

I guess I would have to be put in the Sapphire Beach camp. It is the only place I ever stay. I much prefer the beach at Sapphire. I find the trade winds keep me cool even on the hottest days whereas Secret Harbor is pretty protected. Also, all the units at Sapphire are on the beach (except the marina units) whereas many of the units at Secret Harbor are not. The best snorkeling at Sapphire is on what is called Red Beach, but most people don't know about it.
Sapphire will rent chairs and equipment to non guests. I also prefer the views at Sapphire.
I am not knocking Secret Harbor, I think it is a nice resort, but I just prefer Sapphire.

Bill

We,ve always stayed at Secret Harbor and have always enjoyed the beach and beachbar. We,ve also rented from Dependable each time and they have no problems with you taking the vehicle to ST John. However ,like all rental places, you may be on your own if you should have a break down while over there.

ok Bill you got my interest up . where is red beach at sapphire?

Red Beach is located in front of the D and E building. It is a rocky beach so no one swims there. However you can pick your way into thigh deep water and then swim so snorkeling is easy. Since no one swims there the coral is undamaged and there are schools of fish.

PS
If you are a new snorkeler please do not stand or walk on the coral reefs. Coral is a living organism and standing and walking on it kills it. The tourists have and continue to kill the reef at the main beach at Sapphire.

Bill

We just returned from a stay at Sapphire Beach (Antilles Resorts) condos. We would have had a perfect view of the beach except for an unfortunate tree in front of our balcony. Luckily, it didn't have much in the way of leaves. We were right on the beach in building A. The beach at Sapphire is lovely - we had cruise ship people coming by the boatload a couple of days, which is not a selling point, but that's how nice the beach is. My husband snorkeled out to a little rocky point in the ocean, probably close to the Red Beach area mentioned on another post. He said the snorkel there was better than his scuba at Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

If you stay at Sapphire, be sure to stay over for the Sunday afternoon BBQ - we were checking in during that, and it really seemed fun, and a great band. Nightly entertainment at the SB bar varied from okay to so bad it was funny. We spent most evenings at Duffy's.

Beach chairs supposedly rent for $5 each, which Antilles will reimburse you for at the end of your stay. We never were charged at all - maybe because we went down to the beach in the later afternoon generally.

Rooms were clean, efficient and comfortable. We and several other people had problems checking into the condos however. Still don't quite understand what the problem is with that. Antilles had been informed and confirmed of our arrival, and we still couldn't get a rep over there for over an hour to give us our key. Their phone line was busy, and we finally left a message on their emergency line when we got through. A rep was there a few minutes later to let us in. Also, our neighbors didn't have any hot water for most of their stay, and no one at Antilles seemed too concerned about that, apparently. We had no problems at all, outside of the problem with our check-in.

We spoke to some other travelers staying at Secret Harbour, who had to walk down about 100 stairs to the beach, and were not too pleased about it. Be sure to mention "ocean-front" as opposed to ocean view if you book at SH.

Red hook is a nice little town with several good restaurants, and of course, Duffy's, and a couple of minutes by taxi from SB. They have some nice shops not selling standard tourist stuff also.

If we come back to STT, pretty sure we will stay at SB again.

Don't miss Tortola!! Beautiful! Loved STT, beautiful island, lots of friendly people.

You mentioned Tortola. We'll be there on 5/31 (on a cruise ship) and were wondering if you did your own thing there. Could you compare Cane Garden Bay Beach to Brewers Bay Beach? Thanks.

No - Actually we took an island tour with another couple - didn't have time to go to the beaches before we had to catch the ferry back to STT. I was really sorry we didn't give ourselves more time on the island. It was beautiful there. Also cooler than STT, which was REALLY hot. I guess they get more of the trade winds there. We would have gone back, but we were going home the next day.

what unit did you stay in, Bonnie?
We own A-207

Hi Laurie - we stayed in A202. We really liked the unit - they just need to cut down the tree right off the patio. While we were there, the unit a few doors down, maybe 204 0r 205 got flooded from a broken water heater above it. Your unit okay?
Bonnie