Wind Spirit St. Thomas Shore Excursion vs. Staying on the Ship Question

[Markb1]

My wife and I are booked on the Wind Spirit St. Thomas (RT) February 3rd cruise. Being avid snorkelers and beach lovers, we are switching to the smaller ships offered by Windstar in an attempt to spend more time in the crystal blue water and on the pristine white sand.

 

Our question is: Which ports on this itinerary afford you the opportunity to snorkel and lay on the beach without a shore excursion? We have no problem with a dingy tendering us to the beach.

[2Feathers]

Markb1... You can pretty much get to a beach on your own (without purchasing a Windstar excursion) on all of the islands on this itinerary.

 

You'll have to take a taxi to get to a beach in St. Thomas, St. Martin, and Tortola as there aren't any real swimming beaches near the docks, but you can (we did) do this on our own.

 

St. John, St. Barth's, Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda have beaches at the drop-off area for the ship's tender/dinghy, or within walking distance, so you really don't need any other transportation.

 

You can hike to Salomon, Honeymoon, and Caneel beaches on St. John. All are beautiful, with Salomon our favorite. Also decent snorkeling there along the rocks between Salomon and Honeymoon.

 

You can walk to Shell Beach on St. Barth's, which is a small, quiet beach with a restaurant/bar... and of course LOTS of shells! Not the nicest beach on St. Barth's, but we went there for the morning, back to the ship to eat lunch, then took a taxi over to St. Jean Beach (beautiful!) for the rest of the day. Taxis are expensive on St. Barth's! We rented a car another trip for around $65 or so, and that was also fun.

 

Windstar runs a dinghy at Jost that drops you right off on the beach at White Bay, probably the most beautiful beach on the itinerary! Not very good snorkeling there, but just a stunning, quiet beach, with a few sailboats and yachts coming and going to entertain you.

 

Windstar does a beach BBQ lunch during the stop at Virgin Gorda on a little stretch of beach called Prickly Pear, and the tender will drop you off there if you want. Nice, but certainly not the best beach on Virgin Gorda. This is the only island where we purchased a ship excursion, which went to the Baths. We tried to work this out on our own, but its very difficult due to the area where the ship anchors... You'd pretty much have to take a public ferry over to Gun Creek, then arrange for a taxi or rental car to get to the far other side of the island where the Baths are located. The excursion was only about $40pp, but you only get about 90 minutes or so beach time.

 

The best snorkeling we've found on any of these islands was probably in St. John. We've been there on a few land vacations, and love to snorkel. Waterlemon Cay is probably the best snorkeling spot, but requires either a rental car or rental dinghy to get there. (Renting a dinghy in St. John is fun, and you get to see a lot of the North Shore beaches that way.) Trunk Bay is very nice, with decent snorkeling (has the famous underwater snorkel trail) but can get crowded. If you rent a car on St. John, Salt Pond and Lameshur Bays on the other side of the island have excellent snorkeling. We've done the Wind Spirit St. Thomas itinerary twice now, and went down a few days early and stayed on St. John both times. I highly recommend doing that if you can. We love, love, LOVE St. John!!

 

As I said, we only did the one ship's excursion to the Baths, but others we talked to who did some other "snorkeling" type excursions really seemed to have enjoyed them... Some going to little off-shore islands and Cays, like Sandy Spit off Jost, Norman Island and the Indians off Tortola, etc. If you really enjoy snorkeling, you should probably look into some of those.

 

Sorry for the long-winded reply, but I hope this helps a little. You're going to have a great time!!

[vgottlieb]

Thanks 2Feathers for the great information. We are also on Wind Spirit Feb 3. First we are spending a week on St John so all your info was great!

[2Feathers]

vgottlieb... I remember seeing on an earlier post that you all are staying a week in STJ before boarding. That's just awesome! I'm sooo jealous!

[Markb1]

2Feathers,

 

Thanks so much for your very informative post. I think it is one of the best replies to a question I have ever had! Now I have to start booking the appropriate shore excursions!

 

Thanks again,

 

Mark

[2Feathers]

Glad I could help! You are going to have a great time! This is the ultimate itinerary for "avid snorkelers and beach lovers."

 

So you and vgottlieb are on the same cruise? Y'all stay out of trouble, try not to eat too much, and don't let it bother you TOO bad that I'll be shivering in the cold up on Rocky Top come February while you're lying on some soft, white, sandy beach with the warm Caribbean water lapping at your toes... We'll be expecting full reports when you get back!