Anything to do in St. John's besides the beach?

[a9753]

I'm not a beach or water person, but I want to visit St. John's from St. Thomas. Is there a town to stroll through, nice spots to eat lunch? What are your recommendations for non-beach / water type activities? Am I better off staying in St. Thomas?

[PABirder]

I'm not a beach or water person, but I want to visit St. John's from St. Thomas. Is there a town to stroll through, nice spots to eat lunch? What are your recommendations for non-beach / water type activities? Am I better off staying in St. Thomas?

 

Cruz Bay (where the ferries stop) is the main village on the island and does have a nice little town square type area with nice restaurants. There are nice restaurants throughout the island - some on hillsides with amazing views. There is also Coral Bay - the other village area on the island which has a few shops and restaurants. However, you would need to take a taxi or bus (or better yet - rent a car) as it is on the far side of the island from the typical ferry drop-off. If you like hiking, there are also numerous trails and historic ruins throughout the island.

[PhoneGoddess]

We usually take the Lindpoint Trail and hike to one of the more secluded beaches such as Honeymoon Beach (it can only be reached by the hiking the trail or by water taxi). I know you said that you're not a water/beach type person, but even if you just stop for a moment to enjoy the scenery, it is so amazingly beautiful. Then we hike back to town and have lunch at one of the many little restaurants right there in Cruz Bay. The food is reasonably priced and usually pretty good. We then stroll around town and check out all the small shops. The island has a very laid-back atmosphere and it is just a very relaxing day for us.

 

Have a great time!:)

[RSWBADGER]

I'm not a beach or water person, but I want to visit St. John's from St. Thomas. Is there a town to stroll through, nice spots to eat lunch? What are your recommendations for non-beach / water type activities? Am I better off staying in St. Thomas?

 

Visit Mongoose Junction, a 5 minute walk to the left along the bay, restaurants, shopping, etc.

http://www.mongoosejunctionstjohn.com/stores.htm

[Karysa]

We usually take the Lindpoint Trail and hike to one of the more secluded beaches such as Honeymoon Beach (it can only be reached by the hiking the trail or by water taxi). I know you said that you're not a water/beach type person, but even if you just stop for a moment to enjoy the scenery, it is so amazingly beautiful. Then we hike back to town and have lunch at one of the many little restaurants right there in Cruz Bay. The food is reasonably priced and usually pretty good. We then stroll around town and check out all the small shops. The island has a very laid-back atmosphere and it is just a very relaxing day for us.

 

Have a great time!:)

Phone goddess I just posted a thread about going to Saloman Beach do you have any information on the hike or this beach. From what I can tell Honeymoon and Saloman can both be reached by the Lindpoint Trail is this correct?

[Summerhouse]

We were in St. John in mid April 2007, after arriving in St. Thomas via Carnival Glory cruise ship. We took a local dollar open air safari bus to Red Hook. It cost us $2.00 each. Missed the ferry by 5 mins and waited an hour for next one. Ferry cost $5.00 each. At St John we hired a taxi to take us on a 2 hr tour. My husband & I were the only ones in the open air taxi and it cost us $25/ person. Charlie, our driver stopped at all the photo opts. We have beautiful pictures of beaches at Caneel Bay, Trunk Bay, private homes, Cinnamon Bay, Maho Bay and Leinster Bay. We walked on the beach at Cinnamon Bay and through the campground there, visited another beach, walked around the Annaberg sugar mill ruins. Charlie let us take pictures of Coral Bay from Chateau Bordeaux. Charlie named the other islands that we could see, such as (BVI) Great Thatch Island, Jost Van Dyke Island, Little Thatch Island, Tortola, Frenchman Cay and Waterlemon Cay. At one beach we visited, Charley said that Tortola was so close that it was possible to swim there. Charley also showed us termite nests and a poisonous tree called the Manchineel Tree. The Indians used the milk from the tree on their poisonous arrows. We saw an iguana and other small animals. Up in the mountains, with thick trees on each side of the road, we came across 2 run away white cows. Charley had us back to the ferry in time for the 3 pm crossing. We thought the price of $50.00 total was worth the private tour. We caught a local bus back to near the cruise pier. We had to wait at Red Hook for the bus for 20 mins because a lot of school kids were hopping on the buses taking up the empty spots. Many local buses stopped at Red Hook and we were back on the ship by 4:30 pm. Bus price was again $2.00/person. We had a small lunch then, because our dinner was at 8:30 pm. I had wanted to take the tram up to Paradise Pt after we got back to St Thomas, but decided against it because we had so many good pictures from St John high up in the mountains. The tram is right across the road from the cruise ship pier. I also was going to do some shopping, when we got back, but we were to tired.