Snorkeling on St. Thomas

[marcoulIers]

Cruising with 5 adults and 5 teenagers and stopping in St. Thomas.  Hoping to find a nice beach that we can take a cab to from the port (not an excursion) that will be good for snorkeling but also have chairs/umbrellas for the adults who won't be snorkeling.  Also, must have rest rooms and food.  Thanks!

[HangryGrl]

We took a cab to Sapphire Beach this past January.  The beach was not very crowded at all and the snorkeling was great once you got a bit out from the beach.  My husband saw 2 octopus and a sting ray!  🐙 We just plunked our towels down a little way down the beach but there were chairs and umbrellas for rent up closer to the bar area.  I had a rum punch from the bar which was good/standard.  We didn't try any of the food but it looked like they had a variety of options.  I can't remember how much the cab ride was but it was a van so you all might fit in one ride.  I will say that the roads and driving were pretty terrifying!  😮

[PrincessE]

I read this great article on beaches in St Thomas by a guy I follow on Facebook called RumShopRyan.  Here's a link to the blog.  Very informative and detailed.  https://www.rumshopryan.com/2015/12/02/top-5-beaches-on-st-thomas/

 

[zqvol]

Coki or Sapphire.

[Organized Chaos]

We were in St. Thomas last year. I had read a lot of good things about Coki Beach, but also read that the locals like to use that spot for a certain recreational activity. It's earned the nickname "Smoky Beach," if you know what I mean. That's not something we're interested in being around and didn't want to take the chance, so we chose Sapphire.

 

We got a taxi (full size van) right outside the port. They crammed as many of us as they could get in there. It was the 4 of us plus a group of 3, with one of them up front in the passenger seat. Lots of hills and curves and the driver wasn't afraid to put the pedal down. I rarely get car sick, but I was in the very back of the van and was feeling it big time that morning. The van's A/C wasn't keeping up and with all the hills and twists & turns, we couldn't get there soon enough. I felt much better once we arrived, though. You can rent chairs (I think they were $5/ea.). We just set our stuff under a tree and no one messed with it. For about an hour, everyone was snorkeling just off shore, over the small reef area that's in about 5 ft. of water. Then a white-haired old man wearing a "Security" T-shirt showed up, blowing his whistle, telling everyone to get away from the coral. I don't think anyone was doing any harm and, like I said, we were there an hour before it suddenly became a problem. Snorkeling is why everyone was there, no one wants to stare at a bare sandy bottom. I had to laugh because someone jokingly said he must've just woken up from his nap. From that point on, he'd walk up & down the beach blowing his dang whistle. He'd disappear for a while, then come back.

 

Like someone else said, there's much better snorkeling farther off shore here. You can rent life jackets from the shack if you want. We did that for a little while, but only got out far enough to see nothing but the sea floor covered in seaweed beds. By then we were exhausted, so called it a day. Our original van driver had insisted that everyone he brought needs to call him and he'll come pick us up again, but we weren't about to wait. There was another van already there, so we took that back to the port. Only the 4 of us that time and I sat up front, so felt much better on the ride back. I'm not positive, but I think it was $10/person one way.