Best Beach for my wish list

[trump]

We will be in St. Thomas for one day in April for a cruise. We have been to Magens Bay twice - we want to try a different beach. Please help me select the best one suited to what I am looking for:

- crystal clear water

- enough shallow water before it gets deep

- soft sand

- not crowded, but not secluded

- chairs

- shade trees

- bathrooms

- restaurant - tables on outside deck

- frozen drinks

- floats would be nice....but not a deal breaker

*** from my research so far :

Emerald sounds nice, but concerned about the airplane noise ?

Sapphire sounds nice, but concerned about crowds and no restaurant ?

Secret Harbor might be the one ?

Other suggestions ?

Thank you !

[rummenroman]

We will be in St. Thomas for one day in April for a cruise. We have been to Magens Bay twice - we want to try a different beach. Please help me select the best one suited to what I am looking for:

- crystal clear water

- enough shallow water before it gets deep

- soft sand

- not crowded, but not secluded

- chairs

- shade trees

- bathrooms

- restaurant - tables on outside deck

- frozen drinks

- floats would be nice....but not a deal breaker

*** from my research so far :

Emerald sounds nice, but concerned about the airplane noise ?

Sapphire sounds nice, but concerned about crowds and no restaurant ?

Secret Harbor might be the one ?

Other suggestions ?

Thank you !

 

Coki has most of what you are looking for. There are bathrooms, however they aren't the cleanest in the world. I change in them, and that is about it. It also doesn't have a deck style restaurant. They do have lots of small walk-up stands, which also have waiters patrolling the beach. There are also no floats to use.

 

What it does have, is beautiful water, sand, and views! There are lots of shade trees to sit under, and still be close to the water. It also has the best snorkeling i've seen in the Caribbean. I've been there twice, and haven't seen it overly crowded. There is a pretty gentle slope into the water, and there is plenty of shallow before it gets deep.

 

Hope it help!

[CruisinManiac]

Just returned from Coki and felt quite the opposite. :eek: I would not recommend that beach to an enemy. Yes, the view was pretty, but not near the best we have seen. I'd go to Sapphire, Frenchman's Reef, St. John's (best snorkeling ever off Trunks Bay) or depending on where you dock, Water Island (now that was a beautiful area and where we wish we had gone.)

 

Our experience: Besides the very long taxi ride to get to Coki (not to mention the cost,) we were greeted at the gate by a man that insisted we wait and walk down to the beach as a group. Along the way, we were introduced to a woman with a clipboard and menu in her hand. She pointed out the restrooms and mentioned that they had a plumbing issue and were not in working order. She then asked us for drink orders and became insulted when we said we didn't want a drink so early in the morning. :rolleyes:

 

We were then told about a lady that does massages on the beach, and also about the chair rentals. We rented two chairs @ $5 each, thinking we could get a chair further down the beach and away from the crowds. No, the guy pointed to two chairs (among the crowds and throngs of screaming children) and said those were ours. The beach was very crowded because there were 7 ships in that day, including the RCCL Oasis.

 

While I sat trying to read (I say trying because I was constantly interrupted by both children and adults using a path next to my chair, and also by the many menu bearing bar tenders, and locals trying to sell their wares. I was also approached by the same man that led us in and insisted that we had not paid for our chairs. :mad: That did it for me!

 

Meanwhile, DH took a walk down the very small beach to check out the massage "hut." I was asked by the lady that first helped us, if I were ready for a massage. I told her that my husband had gone down to check out the massage facilities. She again became upset and said that DH had gone down there without her. When DH returned, he said that he didn't think I would be happy having massage in the location and then asked if I were ready to go back to the ship. I couldn't get my things together fast enough! LOL Another long and expensive ride back, and we were relaxing back on the ship with beautiful views of the island, quiet and all the food and drink we could want.

 

See photos:

[tamilyn]

Just returned from Coki and felt quite the opposite. :eek: I would not recommend that beach to an enemy. Yes, the view was pretty, but not near the best we have seen. I'd go to Sapphire, Frenchman's Reef, St. John's (best snorkeling ever off Trunks Bay) or depending on where you dock, Water Island (now that was a beautiful area and where we wish we had gone.)

 

Our experience: Besides the very long taxi ride to get to Coki (not to mention the cost,) we were greeted at the gate by a man that insisted we wait and walk down to the beach as a group. Along the way, we were introduced to a woman with a clipboard and menu in her hand. She pointed out the restrooms and mentioned that they had a plumbing issue and were not in working order. She then asked us for drink orders and became insulted when we said we didn't want a drink so early in the morning. :rolleyes:

 

We were then told about a lady that does massages on the beach, and also about the chair rentals. We rented two chairs @ $5 each, thinking we could get a chair further down the beach and away from the crowds. No, the guy pointed to two chairs (among the crowds and throngs of screaming children) and said those were ours. The beach was very crowded because there were 7 ships in that day, including the RCCL Oasis.

 

While I sat trying to read (I say trying because I was constantly interrupted by both children and adults using a path next to my chair, and also by the many menu bearing bar tenders, and locals trying to sell their wares. I was also approached by the same man that led us in and insisted that we had not paid for our chairs. :mad: That did it for me!

 

Meanwhile, DH took a walk down the very small beach to check out the massage "hut." I was asked by the lady that first helped us, if I were ready for a massage. I told her that my husband had gone down to check out the massage facilities. She again became upset and said that DH had gone down there without her. When DH returned, he said that he didn't think I would be happy having massage in the location and then asked if I were ready to go back to the ship. I couldn't get my things together fast enough! LOL Another long and expensive ride back, and we were relaxing back on the ship with beautiful views of the island, quiet and all the food and drink we could want.

 

See photos:

We sort of felt the same way about Coki. It was pretty, but very crowded. We just stopped by for a few minutes and then left. Where is Water Island? We will be there again in April and are looking for a great beach. We've been to Megan's Bay twice and also to St. John. Don't really want to spend the time getting to St. John but it was beautiful.

[runner15km]

We will be in St. Thomas for one day in April for a cruise. We have been to Magens Bay twice - we want to try a different beach. Please help me select the best one suited to what I am looking for:

- crystal clear water

- enough shallow water before it gets deep

- soft sand

- not crowded, but not secluded

- chairs

- shade trees

- bathrooms

- restaurant - tables on outside deck

- frozen drinks

- floats would be nice....but not a deal breaker

*** from my research so far :

Emerald sounds nice, but concerned about the airplane noise ?

Sapphire sounds nice, but concerned about crowds and no restaurant ?

Secret Harbor might be the one ?

Other suggestions ?

Thank you !

 

We were on RCCL Jewel of the Seas making a St.Thomas port stop seeking a beach. Morningstar was recommended as close to the ship, reasonably priced, beautiful and uncrowded by our Jewel dining waiter. It was all this and more - short open taxi ride for about $7 and about that many minutes took us to the beach w/a promise to return for us at the agreed time. We found a wide, clean beach w/here chairs were offered at reasonable pricing. The water waved gently and the walk out to chest deep was long and sandy underfoot with some fish visible. There was a nice outdoor restaurant nearby and a gift shop. The day was perfect w/a pleasant blend of the ingredients for beach lovers paradise - sun, sand, sea. And, our taxi did return at the agreed upon time to return us to the ship.

[CruisinManiac]

Morningstar is the Frenchman's Reef beach that I was speaking of. We went there last October and didn't have to pay for chairs. :confused: See photos below. We also went there 30 years ago on our honeymoon and why we visited again.

 

 

 

 

 

[CruisinManiac]

tamilyn - Water Island (Honeymoon Beach) was recommended to us as we were docked at Crown Bay instead of Havensight. You have to take a nearby ferry over to the island, but it is much closer than St. Johns, and the ferry is just off the pier.

 

Try this link to look at photos and reviews: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/23/f3/d3/hilltop-view-of-honeymoon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147404-d1379988-Reviews-Honeymoon_Beach-St_Thomas_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html&h=412&w=550&sz=73&tbnid=nXnbTBfqw0qTlM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHoneymoon%2Bbeach%2BSt.%2BThomas&usg=__O2SxlQYyCPeYzekXA-NFmgyQ7hk=&ei=Nf2XS5PbJdaOtgezwf3jAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=5&ct=image&ved=0CB8Q9QEwBA

 

Here are photos that we took from our ship of the island and beach as we were leaving the bay.

 

 

[SoonerOne]

Morningstar is the Frenchman's Reef beach that I was speaking of. We went there last October and didn't have to pay for chairs. :confused: See photos below. We also went there 30 years ago on our honeymoon and why we visited again.

 

 

 

 

 

Your pictures are beautiful!!! I wonder how this compares to Sapphire Beach?

 

Donna

[ocay4me]

I have been going back and forth trying to decide if I should spend the day at one of the beaches on St. Thomas or go to Honeymoon Bay with RC excursion St. John 1/2 Day Champagne Cat Sail - ST82. I have read many reviews trying to find the nicest beach that I don't have to spend a long cab ride getting there, that is not too crowded and has crystal clear water with good snorkeling. It is hard to get an answer to that question, because everyone has their own opinion. This excursion seems to be really nice and I would rather enjoy a ride on a catamaran to St. John instead of taking a cab to a ferry and then another cab from the ferry to the beach. Has anyone that has done this excursion feels that this would be better than going to a beach at St. Thomas?

[CruisinManiac]

WOW! I didn't know that a cruiseline has an excursion to Honeymoon Bay. :eek: That will be no fun once it gets crowded.

 

I have read a lot of good things about the Catamaran excursion.

 

SoonerOne - It's been years since I have been to Sapphire. Although it was also a beautiful beach, I think that Morningstar would be less expensive to reach, and a bit better. Here are a couple of photos from Sapphire. The views were outstanding!

 

 

[kona_wahine]

I have been going back and forth trying to decide if I should spend the day at one of the beaches on St. Thomas or go to Honeymoon Bay with RC excursion St. John 1/2 Day Champagne Cat Sail - ST82. I have read many reviews trying to find the nicest beach that I don't have to spend a long cab ride getting there, that is not too crowded and has crystal clear water with good snorkeling. It is hard to get an answer to that question, because everyone has their own opinion. This excursion seems to be really nice and I would rather enjoy a ride on a catamaran to St. John instead of taking a cab to a ferry and then another cab from the ferry to the beach. Has anyone that has done this excursion feels that this would be better than going to a beach at St. Thomas?

 

I'm making myself CRAZY trying to decide what the best option is! Everyone has an opinion and I have a HUGE list of maybes! I have a reservation with Godfrey tours (shopping/tour/Megans Bay) but thinking about cancelling it and going to a beach. I've heard Secret Harbor, Emerald Beach, Morningstar are all good. I want something not too crowded, white sand, blue water, easy taxi access (especially back) snorkeling would be a plus but not that big of a deal, palm trees, and did I mention blue water??? lol I have 2 more months to decide.

[CruisinManiac]

Where does your ship dock?

[Fourseventeen]

im coming in on Carnival Glory late April and have been trying to figure out this same thing...which beach to visit while im there. Guess ill keep reading this topic and see what the census has to say.

I want beautiful views, nice snorkeling and the least amount of rug rats running around :)

We have one other ship in port with us that day...Freedom of the seas

[kona_wahine]

Where does your ship dock?

 

I'm not sure. We will be on the Carnival Dream.

[laser110]

WOW! I didn't know that a cruiseline has an excursion to Honeymoon Bay. :eek: That will be no fun once it gets crowded.

 

I have read a lot of good things about the Catamaran excursion.

 

SoonerOne - It's been years since I have been to Sapphire. Although it was also a beautiful beach, I think that Morningstar would be less expensive to reach, and a bit better. Here are a couple of photos from Sapphire. The views were outstanding!

 

 

 

 

Your top pic is Sapphire Beach. The bottom is Phillipsburg, St Maarten.

 

Scott

[laser110]

Morningstar is the Frenchman's Reef beach that I was speaking of. We went there last October and didn't have to pay for chairs. :confused: See photos below. We also went there 30 years ago on our honeymoon and why we visited again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice pics. I literally grew up around "The Reef" and posted your first pic as my desktop background. It looked alot different when I was growing up, but it's still an icon. Morningstar Beach is a favorite, because we have been there 1000's of times. The steep slope seen in your 3rd pic is because the beach has been replaced numerious times over the years, as it gets washed away from tropical storms and hurricanes.

 

Scott

[CruisinManiac]

Scott - Frenchman's looked somewhat different when we were there 30 years ago. LOL The pool area has completely changed for the better! When we honeymooned, we arrived just after a hurricane and Morningside Beach was almost gone. We spent our time at the resort pool, and Magen's. Didn't even know about St. John's back then.

 

Our first night in St. Thomas was spent at Pineapple Beach resort (remember that one?) and we changed resorts for the rest of the week because a Naval ship had dropped their crew off to R&R at Pineapple. Can you imagine what that was like for a young girl on her honeymoon? They were "cat calling" to me, and I thought my DH and the men were going to get into it at any moment. :eek: Incidentally, when we were leaving Coki Beach, we road by the Pineapple Resort. It is no longer, but I recognized it and pointed it out to DH. He was unsure until we asked the cab driver. Sure enough...that was it. :)

 

Your top pic is Sapphire Beach. The bottom is Phillipsburg, St Maarten.

 

Scott

 

I'm perplexed because I got that photo off my AOS photo disk and it falls with my other photos of Sapphire. Also, interesting was that although we went to St, Maarten on that cruise, we did not go to the beach that trip and only stayed downtown shopping. Would there have been an area downtown where I could have shot the photo?

[laser110]

Cruisemanic, I definately remember Pineapple Beach Resort. It was torndown in the mid 80's to build the Souffers Grand Beach Resort, Which is where they filmed alot of Weekend at Bernies 2. The resort changed hands and became a Wyndam Grand Beach Resort and eventually closed. The property is now empty and deserted. I had heard investors from Puerto Rico were interested in making a timeshare resort, but that too has never materialized. The road to Coki Beach is the same road.

 

Pool at Frenchman 's changed for the better? I might disagree on that one. The pool where the waterfall is now, used to have a built in hottub where the two pools now connect with that channel they built. The inwater bar is cool, but not my cup 'o tea, so I could care less. The bar actually used to be up on the deck and has you sat at it you faced Downtown Charlotte Amalie. I can't recall how many times I have seen Morningstar Beach wash away. It used to have more gentle slope. I think the last few times they rebuilt it they made the slope at steeper angle to help keep the beach erosion at bay.

 

One of the "improvements" I really miss at The Reef, was the removal of the Lighthouse Restaurant. We spent so much time there, that I can say without doubt, we stayed in everyroom facing the ocean on the top 2 floors. Most were right above The Lighthouse. Something about sitting on the terrace at night as the smell of grilled burgers waffed up, or early in the morning as the bacon and eggs got going. I miss that alot and it will always be with me. The new Cruzan restuarant is not the same. It is built on whatat one time was more rooms. The second floor was badly damaged in a Hurricane ( I think Hugo) and instead of rebuilding the rooms, they made the resturant.

 

That pic is definately Philipsburg. Looks like it was taken from the deck of a ship at the cruise ship pier, judging by what's in the photo. Do you know when it was taken? The harbor is suprisingly empty of marine traffic. Usually a few boats anchored there. I don't see any in the pic.

 

Scott

[CruisinManiac]

Sorry to take so long to get back.

 

First of all...let's get back to the photo. I checked the date and time for the photo, and it was taken the day after our St. Thomas stop, which WAS in St. Maarten. The date is 3/7/2000 taken at 5:43 am (which I am sure must have been an incorrect time by perhaps an hour) and I am thinking I took it from the ship when coming into port or just after docking?

 

Did not know that Bernie's was filmed at the old Pineapple Beach. I knew it was St. Thomas. Thanks for that tidbit.

 

Apparently, the entire resort was not destroyed because the reason I recognized it a couple of weeks ago was because I could see the bungalows we stayed in. They were right there, behind the wall from the street. :) Sad that nothing has been done with it.

 

I have fond memories of Frenchman 's and the bar area (spent many hours there :D) but i think the pool area is stunning now, and we do like the swim-up bars. Also love the waterfall that leads to Morningstar.

[laser110]

Crusinmaniac- No problem on the reply. That's definately a "ship shot" judging by the angle and whats in the photo. I have few myself from our trip to St. Maarten.

 

Weekend at Bernies 2 was filmed at the Stouffers/Wyndam Beach resort, not Pineapple Beach Resort. Although some of the scenes are also in downtown Charlotte Amalie along the waterfront and in the area of market square. Alot of beach scenes are actually Magen's Bay. As far as I recall, all of Pineapple Beach was torn down, it was in pretty poor shape then, others might be able to confirm or deny that though. What you might have seen was the rebuilt bungalows that were put in when the hotel was built.

 

I "learned to drink" ast the bar at Frenchman's. Offcially the VI drinking age is 21, Unoffically it was/is if you can reach the bar. Growing up my father would let me have a mixed drink or two on occasion. He always said he would rather have me do it while he was there and make sure I didn't get into trouble, then do it later when he wasn't around and things could get out of hand. By the time I went to college drinking was no big deal for me, unlike my boozer friends ;)

 

Scott

[pandorasays]

We almost stayed on the ship because we did not have a lot of time, but we passed people in the elevator who said they had been to Emerald beach. It was only a $4 cab ride so we did it. It was great. Beautiful beach, we snorkeled around the rocks. The hotel did not have any problem with our being there, and there was a nice little bar - probably a grill too. It said the pool was for guests only, but I doubt there would have been a problem using it. I'd like to stay there for a week next time. True you did see and hear the jets taking off - it seemed like every five minutes, but you got used to it. Very likely this will be my destination any time a cruise takes me to St. Thomas, and I would recommend it to anybody.

[CruisinManiac]

pandorasays

 

Thanks for that info. I cannot wait to tell my DH. :D I tried to get him to go there, but he wanted to go to Coki because he had heard that name, and not Emerald.:rolleyes: Never mind that I am the one that reads the boards all the time and had already decided that Emerald was the place to go because we were already so near the beach. Had we been docked at Havensight, we would have gone back to Morningside. I don't know if we will ever be docked at Crown Bay again. I just hope that we will be on a cruise that goes back to St. Thomas again. We have been so many times, that this last time, I took it for granted that we would be back. Now, I am not so sure because we are starting to branch out from the Caribbean with our cruises.:(

[LRCcruise430]

My vote is for sapphire beach. I will be visiting st thomas again for the third time and I am 100% going back to this beach. It was absolutely beautiful, peaceful, and the snorkeling was good. However there were only 2 ships in port that day so maybe thats why it wasn't so crowded. Our first intention was to go to coki beach, but the cab driver recommended sapphire because coki is always more crowded. My profile pic is from sapphire beach, although its kinda small and hard to see, I highly recommend this beach and Im so glad we listened to the cab driver!

[heydude250]

Can you rent beach chairs and are the resturants on the beach (Sapphire). I want to go in the am and stay most of the day. RCI only offers a 2.5 on the beach in the afternoon.

 

Thanks