Well folks, we made it. We made it through another high season. We made it through another season of crazy beach parking and packed restaurants. These past several months seemed to be one of the busier winter seasons in recent memory. I gauge the crowds based on the North Shore parking, and this season was a doozy!
I am happy to say that shoulder season has arrived. Yes, we still have a large number of people on island, but it is no longer overwhelming. Beaches still have parking around 10 a.m., and you no longer have to make a dinner reservation 30 days out for the top restaurants. It’s the time of year when we all let out a collective sigh of relief.
The island will remain full, but not crazy full until mid-to-late July. That is when the majority of travelers will leave, and slow season will arrive. The island is extremely quiet in August and September, and many businesses close during that time. I will post about St. John’s seasonal closings when the time comes. You will find that list at www.explorestj.com/closings. The 2025 list is still posted, so you can check it out to get an idea as to when your favorite business may close this year.
In the meantime, it’s a great time to enjoy the island ourselves. Here are a few pictures I took earlier this week. Enjoy!
Ceneel BaySunday morning at Caneel BayCaneel Bay 1pm SundayHawksnestHawksnestTrunk Bay at 1015am Sunday morning
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
A stretch of roadway in Cruz Bay is getting paved this week, and it may slow traffic this week.
The stretch of roadway in front of the car barge entrance is being paved this week. Work began Tuesday morning, and it is expected to be completed by Friday. During this time, the road will be down to one lane, which will undoubtedly slow traffic in the area. Work is expected to occur between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Give yourself extra time if you are traveling in the area.
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Saw some soggy donkeys in Coral Bay Monday morning
This story was originally published on April 13, 2026.
It rained today. And then it rained some more. And then it rained even more. We received more than two inches – 2.1 to be exact – out here in Fish Bay over the past 24 hours. That’s a lot! The island needed rain, so a lot of us residents were thrilled to see it pour into our cisterns. The majority of us live off of collected rainwater, so today’s rain was much-welcomed. I planted 11 trees in my yard last week, so I was especially thrilled by today’s rains!
The radar was not looking pretty today!My house received 1.5 inches between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. today!
Before I get into the rest of this rain story, I would like to thank my morning tour guests for being some of the best ever. It absolutely down poured several times during this morning’s tour. So much so that I had to wring out my skort while we were checking out Cinnamon Bay. They are National Park enthusiasts, so they smiled the entire day. I cannot thank them enough. It was a great, albeit soggy, island tour today.
Ok, so the weather forecast is showing more rain for the week. The rest of the week doesn’t look like it will be as soggy as today, but we can have more measurable rain. So what do you do on a rainy day in St. John? Well here you go!
Shop, Dine & Drink
The shops and the majority of the restaurants will remain open even if we receive monsoon rains. Mongoose Junction is a great place to spend a few hours on a rainy day. Enjoy a locally crafted beer from The Tap Room, fresh-rolled sushi at 1864, or an ice cream cone or a popsicle over at Scoops or Irie Pops. Looking to shop? I love Sugar Birds and Portico for unique souvenirs, Big Planet, Just Beach, and Lulee for clothing, and Caravan Gallery for jewelry. There are a ton of other great spots at Mongoose, so check out everything while you’re there. When it rains super hard, the gut that runs underneath Mongoose will become a raging river. It’s a pretty neat thing to check out. It was running wild Monday morning!
Grab an umbrella and head over to Wharfside Village. I am fairly certain that The Beach Bar and High Tide will be rocking. There’s great shopping over there too. Check out the St. John Spice Shop, The Little Things, the jewelry stores, and more.
If you have a vehicle, you can head up Centerline Road and check out Shambles or Heading East. Both have ample covered spaces and are great places to grab a bite or enjoy a few cocktails.The Windmill Bar is located up there too, but they close during super hard rains.
Over in Coral Bay? Head to Skinny Legs and join in on the fun. There is a great retail shop there called Mumbo Jumbo, so you can combine some retail therapy with one of Skinny’s famous burgers. Once you’re done, walk across the street and check out Pirate’s Cove or go around the corner to Jolly Dog and Zemi.
Explore the Island
Trunk Bay Monday morning
If you have a vehicle, take a ride around the island. Be careful if it is raining hard because small rocks sometimes fall into the roadway and there can be a lot of water that pools on the roadways. You will definitely need four-wheel drive when it rains very hard. You also have to be mindful of flooding. It flooded today near the tennis courts in Cruz Bay and also in front of Starfish Market. Those are two spots that we see flood a lot.
You can grab a book and sit under the pavilion at Hawksnest, or grab a raincoat and check out some of the island’s rich history. You can explore Catherineberg, Annaberg, or even the Cinnamon Bay Sugar Factory. All are very cool spots, rain or shine. You might even get lucky and catch a donkey in passing.
Catherineberg
Hike to a Waterfall
When it rains hard like today, a waterfall will form at Reef Bay. This is definitely a sneaker or sandals with straps kind of hike, as it will definitely be slippery. The trailhead for the Reef Bay trail is about five miles outside of Cruz Bay and about three miles outside of Coral Bay on Route 10, also known as Centerline Road. The trail is 2.1 miles in each direction if you are going from the road to the ocean, and it is quite steep. There is a spur trail on the right that will lead you to the petroglyphs where the waterfall will form. Pack a bag, bring snacks, bug spray, and plenty of water for this hike.
A small waterfall is likely to form between Cinnamon and Maho bays. The water will flow across the road, so be careful when driving in that area.
A rainy day in St. John can be fun. And you know what they say – a rainy day in St. John is a better than a sunny day at home! Stay dry everyone!
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
There is a small amount of sargassum seaweed in Coral Bay currently.
For those of you who have flown into the islands recently, you may have seen what looked like an oil slick out of the airplane window, clumps of a rust-colored mass floating throughout the water. What you’re seeing is sargassum seaweed, and it’s pretty common to see more and more of it during this time of year.
Sargassum is a type of seaweed that floats in large masses in the ocean. It’s a brownish, copper-like color, and it has air-filled bladders which helps it stay afloat on the water’s surface. Sargassum affects St. John every year, and we typically see more of it as the water starts to warm up prior to the summer months. I started noticing it a bit more over the past week, but, luckily, it has not been affecting any of St. John’s most popular beaches.
St. John’s winds typically blow from east to west. Most of St. John’s most popular beaches – Caneel, Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Maho – face either north or west. This means that the sargassum usually blows right by these beaches. It rarely piles up on any of them. St. Thomas, however, has more of a problem with the sargassum clogging up its beaches, as the Ritz Carlton, Margaritaville and Sapphire all face east. The sargassum floats right onto those beaches, and when it dries up, it can get quite stinky.
There is currently quite a bit of sargassum in Fish Bay, and I saw some over in Coral Bay this week, as well. Other than that, we’re looking pretty good here in St. John.
Fish Bay
If the sargassum becomes problematic, I will definitely let you all know. But as of today, our beaches remain beautiful and seaweed-free. 🙂
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Today is Gifft Hill Gives Back day here in St. John. Students from kindergarten through high school will be conducting community service projects throughout the island in an effort to give back to this island that we all love. If you are lucky enough to be on island today, you may see some of the kids and hopefully you can support some of our efforts!
Here is a list of today’s Gifft Hill Gives Back projects:
Our kindergarteners will be walking around Cinnamon Bay with posters that educate vacationers anbout beach safety, reef safe sunscreen, conserving water, and recycling.
Our first grade students will be collecting food for the Catholic Curch, which operates a food pantry in Cruz Bay. Furst graders will be collecting food at Midway, Dolphin Market near the Westin and new Starfish Market.
Our second grade students – my son Dalton is one of them – will be a beach clean up in Cruz Bay. They will also hand out posters to restaurants to educate people to be good stewards of the islands. The fifth graders will join our second graders for this project.
Our third graders are going to stay on campus where they will package cracked corn for St. John Wildlife Rehabilitation.
Our fourth graders will be holding a walkathon fundraiser at the ball field near the Visitor Center in Cruz Bay.
Our Upper Campus students (middle and high school) will do a variety of projects, including:
Trail maintenance at Leinster with Friends of VINP
Brown Bay trail and beach cleanup with Friends of VINP
Coral Bay mangrove cleanup with kayaks donated by Crabby’s Watersports
Bake sale in Frank Powell Park benefiting the Love City Pan Dragons
Car wash at St. John Rescue to raise funds for their nonprofit
Lionfish removal with CORE in non-NPS waters
Coral restoration and beach cleanup with CORE at Leinster Bay
Barge dock wall mural with VIWMA
Gifft Hill dumpsters mural with VIWMA
Bake sale at Skinny Legs benefiting KATS
There are so many great things happening today! It makes me love this community even more!
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
The island is busy, busy, busy with many people looking for lunch offerings when visiting St. John’s beautiful beaches. Here is a quick rundown of which St. John beaches have food and drinks available for purchase.
Honeymoon Beach
Honeymoon Beach is the home to the Caneel Bay Beach Club. The beach club serves a variety of snacks, and they also have a full bar. You can access Honeymoon Beach by taxi or via the Lind Point Trail. If you choose to taxi to Honeymoon, you can park or take a taxi to the entrance of the Caneel Bay resort. From there, you would hop on a second taxi that will drive you from the entrance to Honeymoon Beach, approximately a five-minute ride. The cost of that taxi is $6 per person or $12 roundtrip. You can opt to walk in and taxi out, or vice versa. Chair rentals are available too. There is a small retail shop, bathrooms, and showers, as well.
Trunk Bay
Happy hour starts in the morning at Trunk Bay! You have to love that! Trunk Bay has a snack shack and a full bar where happy hour happens daily from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. There is an area that serves a variety of hot and cold items for lunch daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Trunk Bay is one of our busiest beaches, and the parking area is rather small, so I suggest you take a taxi when visiting Trunk Bay. If you prefer to drive, you should get there by 8:45 a.m. to ensure you get a parking spot.
Trunk Bay has chair rentals, snorkel gear rentals and life vests too. There are also showers and restrooms.
Cinnamon Bay is a great spot that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Breakfast is served from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the Rain Tree Cafe, which is the large restaurant near the reception area and camp store. Lunch is served beachside out of a food truck from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner is served daily at the Rain Tree Cafe from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. You can purchase beers and seltzers from the camp store daily beginning at 10 a.m. The food truck also has some canned alcoholic drinks and a few cocktails available for purchase too.
Because there is a campground at Cinnamon Bay, there are restrooms and a spigot to wash the sand off of your feet. Showers are available to campers only. There are also chair, snorkel gear and watersports rentals at Cinnamon Bay.
There are two large parking lots at Cinnamon Bay. Those lots have been filling up pretty quickly over the past several weeks. I suggest getting to Cinnamon Bay by 9:30 a.m. to ensure you get a parking spot. You can also taxi to Cinnamon.
Maho Bay has two businesses that sell food and beverages – Maho Crossroads and Reef2Peak’s food truck next door. (This was recently updates. sop stay tuned for more info on this!) The bar at Maho Crossroads is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The food truck is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The food truck has a variety of items like hot sandwiches, burgers, salads, and more. Maho Crossroads has a full bar; however they do not have a blender. If you want a frozen drink, just wander next door to Reef2Peak.
Reef2Peak is a rental outfit that serves cocktails and other drinks. Reef2Peak rents chairs, snorkel gear, kayaks and paddle boards. They even offer guided kayak trips. Reef2Peak is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Reef2Peak’s food truck at Maho Bay.
Maho Crossroads has a restroom available for patrons only. There are two National park restrooms across the street on the beach for beachgoers.
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
