You may find it difficult to rent for only several days. Doubt you can reserve for less than a week so you will have to 'walk up' and see what is available. Having a car is better than waiting on taxis as they want to fill up so you have wait time.

Buy either St John Off the Beaten Track or Feet, Fins and 4 Wheel Drive. Either is proceless for the information provided. While on the way to Waterlemon, take time to snorkle Francis. In the same area and you may have better luck with turtles, etc.

Trunk is a beautiful beach but it gets cruise traffic making it more crowded (relative term compared to NE coast beaches). Check the Cruise Guide & Schedule link end of next week to find busy days. The more ships in STT, the more crowded Trunk is.

How do you find the Cruise Guide & Schedule link? Do you have a URL for this??

Thanks Chris!

I already got both books from Amazon.

I have read really mixed reviews about the quality of Trunk. It sounds as though it has suffered from the cruise traffic over the years.

Fins and 4 Wheel Drive is the one that steered me toward Salt Pond. I'll have to look at Francis now. Waterlemon is the one that hands down across the board wins.

I was extremely disappointed in Grand Cayman when we were there in December. It's gone to the pits since I was there in the early 90s and again in 2001.

We've had a really hard time finding good snorkeling since we snorkeled 16 days on our honeymoon in Hawaii in 2002. I'm hoping we can find some places in STJ that can renew our faith in the Caribbean.

That is good to know about car rental. I'll have to discuss that with my husband.

Thank-you,

Leslie

The cruise schedule and schedule is at the very top of this page.

It's to the right of the big "VINOW" and it has: Cruise Guide & Schedule/Ferry Schedules/Getting Here/Visitor Info/Weather

I never could find it either for some strange reason.

Schedule is updated the end of the last week for the following month. Check Friday 2/24 or Monday 2/27 for March schedule.

Salt Pond is also good and more accessible if you have the car. You can get a taxi there but returns are hit and miss. If you rent a 4 wheel jeep, I also suggest Big and Little Lameshur Bays (west side toward the point).

Trunk is beautiful and although the snorkling is somewhat tired from traffic, it is nice. The issue I have is sharing with others so we go early (5). If you are adventerous, you can snorkle out to the island in Francis Bay (whistling Cay). Another option is to consider a day sail with one of the local STJ charters. If he has 2 spots available, I highly recommend Capt. Phil and the Wayward Sailor. He takes you to some awesome areas and is a great individual.

http://www.waywardsailor.net/about/index.htm

St. John is a MUCH better snorkle than Hawaii. My wife and I love to snorkle and live slightly South of Seattle. It's a 5 hour non stop to Hawaii, or a 13 hour miserable over-night flight (in which my baggage always gets sidetracked) to St. John. We choose St. John everytime!

Not to mention, I worked for a decade in the marine business and know lots of tour operators in Hawaii, who would happily take me off the beaten path - I still choose St. John.

St. John is further south than Hawaii, so it has much better coral formations, not to mention, most of the time St. John doesn't have a shore break.

This is not to put Hawaii down - it's a tropical paradise. Just not a snorkling paradise.

Now to the discussion about Trunk Bay. It's a commom mis-conception that Trunk is over run with cruise ship passengers. This is only partially true. For the most part, the cruise ship passengers don't spread out over the entire beach (they don't have time). The stick to the point of land closest to Trunk Cay (it's very congested there), but if you go to the left side of the beach (West), you'll have plenty of sparsely populated beach to enjoy.

My second Trunk Bay tip, is to snorkle around the entire Cay and out towards the point to the East. Most cruise ship passengers snorkle about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up the West Side of the Cay and then snorkle back. Well, the fish know that and they stay further out.

When we were at Trunk last year, it was my family's (not mine) favorite beach because it's beautiful and it's a good snorkle. Out on the North end of the island, schools of small fingerling sized fish would lay along the Cay. When you snorkled through these schools, you'd be amazed because the school would part for you like you were some kind of snorkling Moses. After you got into the school it would be a little earie - it was dark all around you because the fish would blot out the light.

We would snorkle through the schools of fish and watch the tarpons and other preditors dart in and out of the school in a feeding frenzy. One thing to note: Tarpons are often confused with sharks at Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay. Look for a second dorsal fin between the tail and the main dorsal fin. Reef Sharks have them, Tarpon don't have a 2nd dorsal fin.

At Trunk we did see a a nurse shark tho. It was to the West of the Cay in the area where people swim. Don't worry tho, I've had nurse sharks brush up against my leg in Puget Sound and they didn't do anything. The only time I've heard of a person having trouble with a nurse shark is when they stepped on it, so use common sense.

Also at Trunk we saw a couple of turtles and a bunch of rays. There's all sorts of marine life at Trunk, you've just got to stay in the water long enough to see it.

St. John has more great snorkle spots than you can see in 2 weeks. There's Jumbie, Maho to Francis, Cinnamon, Waterlemon, Salt Pond, Little Lameshur, and the East wall of Gibney that will keep you busy for about a week.

Have fun.

JFP

Actually....I am going in late March and was able to secure a 4-day jeep rental (jeep wrangler) through Cool Breeze Rentals. They are fairly well regarded and charge about the same as everyone else. If you have your villa management company set it up they wont even ask for a credit card deposit.

Eric

I'm really excited about snorkeling in STJ now! We had good luck when we were in Maui. I saw a lot of sea turtles,octopus,spinner dolphin, etc. But you are right, there isn't great coral there. Punta Nizuc in Cancun doesn't have great coral either (other than its giant brain coral).

I would love to see some shark, barracuda, and Tarpon in STJ.

When we have done some fishing in the Gulf in FL my husband accidentally hooked a Tarpon when we were only fishing for Redfish. That thing dragged us for miles for 45 minutes on a 10 pound test line until it finally broke. But that was the most beautiful fish I think I have ever seen. If he had only known he was going to hook a Tarpon he would have had a heavier line. I would love to just swim with them.

I'll just have to look at the cruise ship schedule and pick a day when the least amount will be in port to go to Trunk Bay.

Now I have to convince my husband that we need to rent a car. He thinks we don't need one because we'll be in Cruz Bay and everything is close. I'm thinking we'll want one for the entire time. I have a feeling that we'll end up at Waterlemon a lot or other North shore beaches.

Get the car...you,and he will, not be disappointed if you do but you will possibly regret it if you don't.

Show your husband the taxi fee schedule and do the math. Also taxi's are not like what we have here in the states. They are more like trucks with benches and they don't always leave right when you get to them. They wait until they are full and make stops for the other passengers along the way. Who wants to spend valuable vacation time waiting for other people? If you want to get the most snorkeling time in I suggest you rent the jeep.

This is a great beach guide for St. John

http://www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Beaches.htm

I used this web site for the cruise ship schedule. Just type in your dates and they give a list of all the cruise ship stops.

http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/default.aspx

Get a car. IMHO the taxis and VI Trans are not to be trusted on vacation. I wouldn't spend my time waiting for the bus (taxi).

Even the locals don't rely on public transportation. St. John is a small community, so you'll see the locals waiting on the side of the road waiting to hitch a ride. That works great for them, because on St. John everybody knows everybody, but I wouldn't suggest that as a mode of transportation for a tourist.

I read my husband all of your replies. He is now convinced that we need a vehicle thanks to all of your wonderful help.

I am leaning towards Conrad Sutton car rental. He seems to have an impeccable reputation according to everyone on this board. We will definitely rent for the full 5 days as well if the vehicle is available.

Thank-you,

Leslie

We were on St. John the week after Thanksgiving. Although, Trunk Bay was beautiful there were other beaches that we liked better for snorkeling. Salt Pond was excellent. My favorite spot was Little Lameshur. We actually went to both spots on the same day. Our favorite beach was Maho Bay. One day the "swells" made Maho unaccesible so we went to Francis Bay that day. The snorkeling between Little Maho and Francis was clear one day and a bit cloudy a few days later. I still would rather be there on a cloudy day than anywhere else. We rented our car from St. Joh Car Rental and we were very pleased. The Jeeps were all brand new as of early December.

Leslie,
We are anxiously awaiting our second trip to St John in April. It is by far the best place I have ever been. The snorkeling is incredible. I particularly enjoyed Waterlemon(saw shark and barracudas) and my sons favorite was Trunk. We all liked Gibney because we pretty much had it to ourselves. Also a day trip was great. You will be glad you got a car for the week. So many places to see..so little time. We never made it to Salt Pond so that is a definite for us this time. The St John Beach Guide was our much used book. We used Sutton for our Jeep rental. We were very pleased, but we had a few loose lug nuts on a wheel that was scary after we thought what could have happened..so everyone check your wheels and lug nuts. Have a great time..its a place that will get into your blood and you will long for another visit forever.

Leslie, there was a furious exchange on TripAdvisor about Conrad Sutton a few days ago. You might want to check it out before deciding.

Thanks for the heads up!
I cruised over there and checked some of those comments out.

Hmmm...very interesting. I fortunately don't have to worry about it because Conrad Sutton was booked up when I called.

We ended up booking with Cool Breeze. We got a bitty little standard shift Suzuki Vitara. My husband should have a blast navigating the opposite side of the curvy roads. We'll have a trip within a trip!

Les