Magens Bay vs Sapphire Beach?

[Shininghalo1]

In your opinion--if we were to beach it at St. Thomas, which is the better beach, Magen's Bay or Sapphire?

For us, the perfect beach is:

-calm enough to swim

-blue water, soft sand

-pretty backdrop

-not TOO many people

 

...and if there's good snorkeling, that's a plus.

[2PinaColadas]

Sapphire Beach is my favorite St. Thomas Beach. The water is calm, the snorkeling is good, the water is unbelievable blue, and I've never seen it too crowded. The sand is not the powdery soft kind, but neither is Magen's.

Magen's is nice, but IMO does not live up to its hype. It does have a nice bar/restaurant and better bathroom than Sapphire. But not nearly as pretty. I'd choose Sapphire.

[Genessa]

I think Magen's is prettier, but Sapphire has better snorkeling.

 

Magen's, I think, gets more crowded.

[mitsugirly]

Sapphire is beautiful and has great snorkeling. You walk right out into the water and it's there. It also has a great view of St Johns. There's plenty of water with just sand if you want to get out of the snorkeling area.

 

Plenty of grape shade trees and no need for umbrellas.

 

You can snorkel really far out and it's still fairly shallow.

 

Here's my detailed review with a link to pictures at the bottom:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1280889

[mitsugirly]

Oh also, I've never been to Magens so I can't compare however I have read enough reviews to know that while it is very beautiful there, that is where all of the cruise ship people and tourist go, so it is very crowded. Also, there is no snorkeling there.

[highflyingrealtor]

Have been going to Magens for the last 7 years now. We were married there too on one cruise! It's a special place for us but we tried Saphire this year and loved it. Snorkeling was great as mentioned but the day we were there it was kind of rough. Much more remote and I can say we would go back there if there's lots of ships in port since the crowds go elsewhere. If only a few ships, we'll go back to Magens - love that pizza there too, just no snorkeling.

[Karysa]

I thought they were both great beaches. I thought that Magen's was the prettier of the two but I thought that Sapphire had clearer water. Sapphire had very good snorkeling from the beach and we never tried it at Megan's because I read that the snorkeling was not good at all there.

[l2f]

Can you rent snorkel mask at Sapphire?

[blue_water]

Yes, you can rent everything you need at Sapphire, and yes Sapphire is the preferred snorkel beach (along with Coki). Magens is a swimming beach

[blue_water]

In your opinion--if we were to beach it at St. Thomas, which is the better beach, Magen's Bay or Sapphire?

For us, the perfect beach is:

-calm enough to swim

-blue water, soft sand

-pretty backdrop

-not TOO many people

 

...and if there's good snorkeling, that's a plus.

 

Magens Bay is beautiful and popular for good reason. But it is also the most publicized by cruise lines and so gets extremely crowded unless you want to walk aways. Sapphire and Coki are your best bets in my opinion -

 

Sapphire offers generally calm water for good snorkeling, gorgeous water colors (the name fits for Sapphire), beautiful views of Tortola and St John and boats coming and going from Sapphire Marina, and usually much less crowded than Magens and other beaches closer to port. It can be a little wavy on some days but most bays are that way.

 

Coki is a little more protected and is actually the most beautiful bay on STT in our opinion. The sand is ooh soo soft and the water colors gorgeous. But it's a livelier vibe with more vendors and tends to get more crowded because it's a very small bay. Because of that many people hit Coki early to enjoy her beauty then taxi 10 minutes to Sapphire if it gets too busy at Coki - that's the perfect day IMHO. Taxi = ~$24pp from cruise dock to Coki to Sapphire to cruise dock.

 

Enjoy!