Hawksnest and Maho bay are wonderful in St John

Cinnamon is also nice and Cinnamon Cay has a lot going on.
While in the Maho area, continue on to Francis Bay (North). Starts out slow, but as you approach Whistling Cay, you come across numerous schools, turtles and rays.
Waterlemon Cay is more work to get there, but worth the trip if you like star fish.
Lameshur Bays are probably too involved for cruise visitors but turtles and conch shells are numerous.
It's best to rent a jeep if you want to reach Lameshur while car will get you to Francis and Waterlemon. Taxis will take you to Hawksnest, Cinnamon and Maho.

Loved Francis Bay for the sea turtles!!! 🙂

I love Francis! It's just the nicest beach, calm water, neat things to see. It's on my "to do" list every year we visit.

Hello Rosemary,

Good suggestions for St. John so far. On St. Thomas you can try Coki Beach, Sapphire or Secret Harbor. In Dominica you might want to try visiting one of their many amazing rivers.

--Islander

Thank you for your insight, but why hasn't anyone mentioned the snorkeling trails of trunk bay? Can we go to these other bays alone? What is the distance factor between them? Thanks for your help.

No one has mentioned Trunk because, especially with cruise ship in port, it is crowded. Plus, if you are used to great snorkeling like Belize, The coral and conditions at Trunk are in very poor condition.

We choose our vacation by snorkeling. We have also snorkeled at many top places like Belize, Bonaire, Hawaii, Cayman, etc.
I wouldn't put St John at the very top but with the combination of sandy beachs, relaxing snorkels and friendly town, it is about our favorite place.

My favorite snorkeling 1)Take a boat out to Indians and Caves between BVI and St.John - this is some the best snorkeling anywhere and very varied coral 2) Waterlemon Cay - not a great beach though 3)Jumbie Bay - quiet and very nice snorkeling out at the left point and nice beach.

St John has nice snorkeling and several sites have something unique to offer. Don't expect the great barrier reef though.:-)

Have any of you all been on this particular cruise? Any suggestions for things to do in the other ports? Thanks

Tortola, any suggestions on sites to snorkel in tortola??and what is de loose mongoose?

Indians and caves, thought the cruise line had a shore excursion there when in tortola??

Could very well be. The Indians are right between Tortola and St John. The last time we went down, we had looked into doing a dail snorkel out of Totola before we went over to St john the next day. Didn't work out timing wise so we took the trip from St John with Sea Gypsy - GREAT.

If you are going out of Roadtown in Tortola, there are several company's running day trips or 1/2 day trips out of Roadtown.

-aj

Hi Rosemary~~

My husband & I are doing the same itinerery in about 10 days, not sure if it's the same ship, but we will be flying to San Juan. I will let ya know what we find at those locations. We are planning on snorkelingat Coki Beach, STT. may or may not go to STJ (short on time)
Think we're doing the whale watch at Dominica, may take a private taxi tour of Barbados, recommended by someone on the Fodor's board ( she's been there 19 times), On Aruba, planning to go to Baby Beach for snorkeling, touring the island a bit & then Carlos & Charlies..lol. I have done a lot of reading & hope all goes well!

when we were at Coki Bch the snorkling was poor, maybe it has improved.