Hi Dianne.

Anyone can park in the Westin lot and use their beach, and most likely no one would say anything if you were on the water trampolines or iceberg, especially as you are not going during a peak time, but there are signs posted that the facilities and equipment are for Westin guests only.

I personally wouldn't select the Westin beach for swimming...it is okay but most other beaches are better. The only reason we spent as much time there as we did is we were guests and my kids loved the trampolines and we all liked floating on their yellow foam mats. You are also allowed to use the Caneel Bay beach, but again, not their chairs or towels, but it is a lovely beach and there is a large float (maybe 8x8 feet) a little ways off of the beach to swim to and dive off of (it was in at least 10-12 feet of water when we used it in July) . You are much better off at any of the National Park beaches in terms of beauty and beach quality.

Hope you have a great trip!

Hi Dianne,

Generally, you'll see many more people at the Westin pool than on their beach, so that should tell you something. It's a man made beach, so not as nice as the Nat'l Park beaches. Someone once wrote that of the 39 beaches on St John, it ranks 40th. A little harsh maybe, but you get the point. I haven't been to them all (probably about 10), but it's clearly at the bottom of my list. That said, the Westin beach is nicer than most stateside beaches. It's not that it's a bad beach, it just doesn't stack up to the rest of the beaches on the island.

Enjoy your trip and don't forget to let us know how it went!

WW

We could see it 2 weeks ago and the beach was deserted all day. We'd see a few people on the trampolines and iceberg, but not many. The whole place seemed dead.

On St. Thomas there are a several beach resorts; Lindberg aka. Emerald Beach (Best Western & Island Beachcomber), Morningstar (Marriott), Limetree (Bluebeards Beachclub), Cowpet (Elysian Resort and a couple condo developments), Sugar Bay (Wyndham), Turtle Cove & Bluebeards (Ritz) and Sapphire, Bolongo and Secret Harbor where the hotels have the same name as the beach.

All are open to the public. Ritz has a very small parking area for public beach access. All the others the parking is fine. None have water trampolines. Secret Harbor and I think Sugar Bay have a float out in the bay that you can swim to. You can buy food/drink at all of them. Chairs are available to rent at Emerald, Morningstar, Sapphire and Bolongo. Watersports available at all of them, except Secret Harbor which does have a dive shop and kayaks. Good snorkeling at Cowpet, Sapphire and Secret Harbor.

Check out the beach guides on this site for St. Thomas and St. John for photos and more info; use the drop down tabs at the top to get to the beach guides.

--Islander

We "Crashed" the beach at Wynham Sugar Bay onee day and then ventured over to their pool. We swam, used their towels, said yes to the fruit and candy that came by and had a great lunch in their restaurant by the pool. Whether they knew we were guests or not...everyone was so pleasant! The hostess in the restaurant was hugging me when we left! We even took their shuttle up to the lobby to catch a cab back to our place! Was it wrong...probablyl! We spend 7 hours there and probably around $200.00 with food and drinks so I don't think they minded! We had a great day!

Elisa you are too funny. We take the kids over to the Wyndham to ride the bumper boats and play mini golf. Sometimes we will eat at the resturaunt and swim too. As long as you are spending money at their resort I don't think that anyone minds, how can the staff keep track of who's staying their anyway. We once crashed a wedding at Magens Bay, now that's another story!

Molly