Category: Uncategorized

People often ask me during my island tours if there is a beautiful beach they can walk to from Cruz Bay. The answer is yes, and it’s one of the best!

Honeymoon is one of the closest north shore beaches to Cruz Bay. It is very quiet and serene, as you can only access it currently by hiking in via the Lind Point trail or by boat. It’s a decent-sized beach, especially for St. John standards, and it has a nice reef, which is nestled between Honeymoon and Salomon beaches. The walk to Honeymoon via the lower Lind Point trail is roughly a mile, and it takes about 25 minutes or so depending on your pace.

The Lind Point trail starts just behind the National Park’s visitor center in Cruz Bay. If you are not familiar with that building, it is the large yellow building that is located next to the creek and across the street and down a little from Mongoose Junction. Walk behind the visitor center, and you will see a set of stairs. That is where the hike begins.

(If you have a vehicle and plan to park and hike, you have to go into the visitor center to obtain a parking pass. There is not a fee associated with this pass.)

To start the hike to Honeymoon, you will walk up these stairs and then take left at the top. You will see the Caneel Bay apartments to your right and beautiful views of Cruz Bay to your left. You will walk up a small hill, and will quickly see the trail going into the woods on your right.

There is a small incline at the begin of the trail as you walk up the rocky steps and onto the main path. This slight climb lasts only for a few minutes before the trail levels out.

Within just a few minutes of walking, you will come to an intersection with a large rock in the middle. The trail to your right takes you to the upper Lind Point Trail. This trail also leads you to Honeymoon beach, but today we’re sticking to the lower Lind Point trail. So you will want to take a left at this intersection.

As you can see in the photos below, there are some rocky areas along this trail. There are also some spots that are very sunny, and others that are rather overgrown. This trail is definitely doable in flip flops, but it’s a lot easier in sneakers or sandals with straps like Tevas or something similar to that.

After roughly 15 minutes of walking, you will come the trail that leads down to Salomon beach. As you continue walking, you will see another trail that leads slightly uphill on your right. This connects to the upper Lind Point trail. Skip both of those trails and continue forward if you’d like to visit Honeymoon beach.

You will come to yet another intersection about five minutes further. This is a larger intersection where the trails are wider. If you follow the trail straight and up to your right, you would eventually come up to North Shore Road, or Route 20 on the map. Take the more narrow trail downhill to get to Honeymoon beach.

And then you come to this…

Pretty gorgeous right??!! Check out a few more pics:

So as I mentioned, I absolutely love Honeymoon beach. The views are gorgeous, as you can see, but it’s also a great place to snorkel. And there are so many fish! If you are interested in snorkeling and seeing numerous species of fish, including blue tang, parrotfish, sergeant major and more, simply access the water at the far end of the beach to your left if you are looking at the water. That’s where the reef is located. Be cautious though, because there is usually a small current that pulls you to your left.

Want to walk to Honeymoon from the ferry dock? The map below shows you how to do so.

Hi all! I am super excited to tell you all that STJ To Go is launching tonight! They say that all good businesses start in a bar, right?? Well STJ To Go is one of them! 🙂

I was sitting at The Tap Room last month with my friend Dan Frenette, and we were talking about the lack of restaurant delivery services here on island. We don’t have Uber Eats, Door Dash or any of those fancy companies you all have stateside. Many people have talked about offering this type of service over the years, but logistically it’s tough. As many of you know, Centerline Road is only 12.8 miles long, but the ride takes about 50 minutes. That’s a problem. The fact that we don’t have widely-known street addresses is tough too, although there is a current initaitive working to change that. So in order to pull this off, you really need to know this island well and know the location of several villas. Luckily for us, I drive these roads daily giving my island tours, and Dan cleans villa pools. So together, we feel confident that we can successfully offer this service to all of you. We pulled in Mike Hedy, who happens to be my other half, and together we are launching STJ To Go. Did I mention how excited I am??!!

We are doing a soft opening tonight, and then will launch officially on Tuesday, January 19th. We have to start small because we want to do this right. Therefore we are only delivering four restaurants at the get go. They are 1864, Banana Deck, Extra Virgin and The Tap Room. Our delivery zone initially is Cruz Bay to Gifft Hill and everywhere in between. We plan to expand both the number of restaurants and delivery zone in the near future.

The delivery/service charge is a flat $30 fee. That pays the driver and covers operating expenses. Unlike Uber Eats and the like, we are not charging the restaurants to provide this service. They have had one heck of a year, and we want to help them. Restaurants are at 50 percent capacity due to Covid, so essentially their businesses have been cut in half. We are hoping to help them with that.

We are planning to offer STJ To Go Tuesday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. You can order the day of or up to 14 days in advance. We are limited in the number of nightly orders, so we suggest ordering in advance if possible.

Please take a few minutes to check it out at www.STJToGo.com

And as always, you can always email me at jenn@explorestj.com or inbox me on Facebook.

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful weekend!

Well folks, it’s been one heck of a year. I don’t know about you, but I am beyond over 2020 at this point. I miss the days when I could freely hug my guests, when I could see my parents and family members without worry. And you know what I miss more than I thought I would? Sitting at a bar. How silly is that??! I never realized how much I enjoyed sitting at the bar over at High Tide or Banana Deck, for example, while chatting it up with some of my favorite bartenders. Normal life soon come, I hope…

One nice thing about this island is that we have the ability to escape. It may be for a moment or perhaps even a few hours, but we have the ability to take a hike in the woods only to come upon some of the world’s most beautiful beaches. We have the ability to float in the healing waters of the Caribbean. For that I am beyond grateful.

I know that many of you reading this are somewhere in the states where the weather is likely getting cooler, forcing you inside your homes. So I am going to start to bring more of the island to all of you. I want to share the beauty of this island even more so now, a time when I understand how much it is needed.

Last week I hiked down to Salomon beach. It was another stunning day here on island, and I took a little video for all of you. I hope you enjoy it.