Charlotte Amalie is the port. The rest is water.
Which catamaran anchors long enough to actually snorkel. What the crossing to Cruz Bay costs against chartering your own hull. Whether the glowing kayaks live up to the photographs. Reviews of every tour you can book across the three islands.
Four bookings a first Virgin Islands week is built around.
A day under sail, the crossing to St John, a lagoon that lights up after dark and the boat east to the Baths. What each one costs and who it suits.
01The day on deckHalf Day Luxury Catamaran Turtle Snorkel And BeachHalf a day on a catamaran out to the turtle grass off Buck Island, with the anchor down long enough to get in twice.
02Across the soundSnorkel St. John Tour from Sapphire and MargaritavilleSapphire Beach to the St John reefs and back. The easiest way to see the park without moving hotels.
03After the sun goesNight Kayak Tour St. Thomas – Westin Frenchman’s ReefClear-bottom kayaks lit from underneath, out of Frenchman’s Reef. Go on a night with no moon.
04The channel eastThe Baths and White BayGranite boulders at the Baths, then White Bay for lunch. Bring the passport: this one leaves US waters.
St Thomas, St John, St Croix. Pick the base first.
One island has the airport, the harbour and almost all the boats. One is two-thirds national park and reached by ferry. One sits forty miles south on its own. Where you sleep decides what you can book.
Half-day catamaran, sunset sail, or a hull of your own.
Nearly every day worth having in these islands happens off a dock. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and what you get for the difference.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Explore the Virgin Islands on a Private Boat Charter
Private chartersYour own boat, your own anchorage, up to twelve aboard.
Sunset sailsTwo hours out of the harbour as the light goes gold.
Turtle snorkelsBuck Island and Honeymoon Beach, where the greens graze.
Every boat dayHalf-day cats, island hops and the fast harbour runs.
All 77 days on the water →
The Virgin Islands days more people book than any other.
Every review on the site →The tours that go first across the three islands, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Turtle Cove Catamaran Snorkel and Sail at Little Buck Island STT
From Frenchman’s Cove, The VI Cat sails to Turtle Cove on Little Buck Island. You get a mask, snorkel, fins, and vest, plus about an hour in the water, with guides such as Serena, Isaac, Nick, or Porscha helping with safety and marine life. Snacks and drinks follow.
From · $119
Read our review →
2
Snorkel St. John Tour from Sapphire and Margaritaville
from $180
3
Night Kayak Tour St. Thomas – Westin Frenchman’s Reef
from $69
4
Tree Limin’ Extreme Zipline
from $155
5
Afternoon Snorkel, Pizza & Sunset Tour departing from St. Thomas & St. John
from $120
6
Parasail Experience in St Thomas
from $146
7
Sunset & Harbor Lights Dinner Sail from the Marriott’s Frenchman’s Cove
from $119
8
Night Kayak Tour St. John – Westin Resort
from $69
St John is two-thirds national park, and the boat leaves from Red Hook.
Twenty minutes of open water buys a different island: no cruise pier, one small town, and a coastline the federal park has kept undeveloped since 1956. Most people come for a day. Most people regret not staying.
The mangrove lagoon does its best work once the sun is down.
Clear-bottom hulls with lights under them, a mangrove channel where tarpon come up to the paddle, and a helmet that lets you walk the reef floor with your hair dry. Five o’clock is not the end of the day here.
What a day out in the Virgin Islands actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The cheapest good day here is a park ticket and a taxi; the dearest is a boat with nobody else on it.
Park and aquarium tickets, town walks, island taxi runs and the short beach shuttles.
- 1Shop, See, & Splashfrom $40
- 2Coral World Ocean Park General Admission Ticketfrom $29
- 3Sights, Scenes, & Shopping Spreefrom $40
The standards: half-day catamarans, night kayaks, sunset sails and turtle snorkels.
Full-day sails, private charters and the long boats over to the British Virgin Islands.
- 1Snorkel St. John Tour from Sapphire and Margaritavillefrom $180
- 2Tree Limin’ Extreme Ziplinefrom $155
- 3Snorkel Cat All Inclusive Adventurefrom $175
Three things that only happen in the Virgin Islands.
Reefs and rum bars run the length of the Caribbean. A lagoon lit from under the hull, a helmet that lets you walk the sea floor, and a taco boat moored inside a national park do not.
The Glowing Lagoon
The kayaks are clear-hulled with LED panels mounted underneath, so the water below you turns green and everything moving in it becomes visible: needlefish, rays, the occasional tarpon that makes the whole group shout. Trips launch from Frenchman’s Reef and the Westin on St John after full dark, and the darker the night the better it works. A bright moon washes the effect out completely.
- 1Night Kayak Tour St. Thomas – Westin Frenchman’s Reef★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,813 reviews
- 2Night Kayak Tour St. John – Westin Resort★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,011 reviews
- 3Glow Boats LED Night Kayak, Marriott Frenchman’s Cove Dock, USVI★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 456 reviews
The Sea Trek Helmet Walk
You climb down a ladder at Coral Bay wearing a clear helmet fed by an air line, and then simply walk along the sea floor at about twenty feet. No certification, no mask, no regulator, and your hair stays dry the whole way. It runs out of Coral World on St Thomas, the reef is stocked with the fish the park feeds, and it is the one dive-adjacent thing here that people who hate swimming still do.
- 1Sea Trek Helmet Dive at Coral World Ocean Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 992 reviews
- 2Coral World Ocean Park General Admission Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 442 reviews
- 3Snuba Adventure at Coral World Ocean Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 114 reviews
The Run to Jost Van Dyke
Jost is British, so the boat clears customs at Great Harbour and everyone aboard needs a passport in hand, not a photo of one. What you get for the paperwork is White Bay: a half-mile of sand with three beach bars on it and no dock, so the boat anchors off and you swim the last fifty yards. Most days pair it with the granite boulders at the Baths on Virgin Gorda.
- 1The Baths and White Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 595 reviews
- 2St. John Jost Van Dyke & Soggy Dollar Snorkel Sail with Breakfast – Westin★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 176 reviews
- 3Catamaran Sail to Jost Van Dyke (Soggy Dollar Bar)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 139 reviews
Four Virgin Islands bookings that will not wait.
Most of a week here can be arranged from a bar stool in Red Hook the night before. These four run on customs hours, tide windows, boat capacity and a national park that caps its own numbers.
- 01The Baths and White BayThe Baths are in the British Virgin Islands. The boat clears customs both ways, every passenger needs a passport aboard, and the crossing runs on a fixed departure.
- 02Tree Limin’ Extreme ZiplineSix lines above Saint Peter Mountain, run in small timed groups. On a heavy cruise-call morning the whole day is gone before the first ship has finished tying up.
- 03Night Kayak Tour St. Thomas – Westin Frenchman’s ReefNight trips launch inside one dark window and each guide takes a set number of hulls. There is no second departure to move you to.
- 04Circle the Island of St. John | Lunch stop at Lime Out (Taco Boat)Lime Out floats on a handful of moorings inside a national-park bay. The boat books the mooring slot, not a table, and the slots are finite.
When four ships are in, Charlotte Amalie is not the plan.
Cruise calls stack onto the same mornings, and when they do the shopping streets, the Skyride and the beach shuttles all fill at once. The answer is to be on a hull, in the mangroves or on the Cruz Bay ferry before nine, and to save Main Street for a quiet afternoon.
By island — and by where the boat leaves from
By kind of day — deck, reef, trail or town
Charlotte Amalie, the east end, Cruz Bay, and the channel out to the Baths.
Skyline Drive
Mangrove LagoonThe newest Virgin Islands tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Vi Top Taxi – St. Thomas Airport Transfer to Wyndham Margaritaville
Read our review →
Reef and Turtle Adventure – Kayak and Snorkel Tour
Read our review →
Turtle Snorkel Sail on Buck Island from Frenchman’s Reef
Read our review →
Sunset on the Water + Night Snorkeling with Guide in St. Thomas
Read our review →
Private Sunset Charter + Guided Night Snorkeling in St Thomas
Read our review →
Guided Tour of Coral World Ocean Park & Happy Hour
Read our review →
Half Day Boat Charter around the Islands of St Thomas and St John
Read our review →
Sail and Snorkel Private Charter – Mid-Day Sail 1230pm to Sunset
Read our review →
Coral Reef and Turtle Discovery Kayak and Snorkel Tour
Read our review →
