Hello Ann,

St. John + scuba + boat + beach + shopping... certainly you won't want to do all of that in one day. 🙂 🙂 here are some suggestions, sure others will add to it.

St. John - day trip - visit the island, drive around, visit a couple beaches, Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay, Hawksnest... hike a trail or two, eat at one of the great restaurants... Thats a whole day right there. Oh not to mention you can shop also while looking around, get your shopping in then.

Another day trip St. John - if anyone knows how to drive a boat or dinghy or would want to... rent a dinghy in Cruz Bay and beach hop from one to the other following the islands shore line basically. Take some picnic foods with you and enjoy.

Book a dive boat trip... if the ladies don't want to do this perhaps you guys can stay in Cruz Bay and shop and have drinks maybe do an island tour if you havent already. There are no beaches they can drop you off at particularly if they go out to reef or rock outcrop to dive or snorkel. You will be on the boat. If they do drop you off at a beach - it more then likely wont be a beach that is secluded but a beach you might have gotten to just as easily if you had shopped a bit with the ladies and then taken a taxi to the beach. Also no shopping areas really close to beaches. You will find shops in Cruz Bay and Coral Bay.

Hope that helps some.

--Islander

Ann: If you are staying on St Thomas, the divers could go with Chris Sawyer out of the Renaissance while the shoppers go shopping! www.sawyerdive.vi

Good idea... enjoy St. John with the group. For those that don' t want to dive they can stay on St. Thomas and shop in Charlotte Amalie all day long if they like. 🙂 Chris Sawyer is a great dive operator.

--Islander

Ok, I think you could do it in one day, IF you wanted to.
I take it, with your schedule, you will need to rest from your vacation when you get home.
OK, my choice of diving outfits on St. John are Low Key, they are nice, affordable, and if you wanna pick up equipment, it is cheaper than some shops on st. thomas(that surprised me!). Anyhow, what are your levels of diving? Are you all certified? If you aren't, you can do what they call a "resort" class dive. It is fairly cheap, they take you on two dives and give you a crash course, it is also good if you wanna try diving before you take the certification course which is a three day committment. Most of the dives at Low Key start at 8am and you are done by 1130-noon. Then you grab lunch and the rest of the day is yours, except a good nap on a beach under a shady tree would fit me fine. Whoever doesn't want to go diving will have their pick of shops in cruz bay while the diving goes on and if you want to continue after the dive, so be it. Then, you can hit the beaches on a taxi out of cruz bay anytime you want after lunch...or go on hikes for the rest of the day. Just remember that the sun goes down on the islands year round around 6-6:30pm. Personally, it sounds like a great day without the hiking. On St. John, hiking can easily be an all day affair. If you do go for this power day, don't plan on getting up early the next day and do becareful of the sun exposure because nice fair-skinners can be burned crispy in a matter of 45 minutes without protection and only a few hours with sun block. Being around water all day would intensify that!
Good luck......
BTW, St. John is best taken at slow speed, most people take at least a week to do all you wanna do in a day.