St. Thomas

Today our cruise ship docked at Havensight, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is the port closest to Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas. We decided to check out two beaches on the island. The first would be Magen’s Bay Beach and the second would be Coki Point Beach. (See the map below)

We got off the Carnival Cruise Ship, Fascination, and headed toward the shopping area. We were told that’s were we could take a taxi to the beach.

As we got to the shopping area, they have a fun sign to take a picture showing that you were on St. Thomas. I love that Julie is willing to play along and have fun with it!

We then took a taxi to Magen’s Bay Beach. The price for the taxi was $10 for one person or $8 per person for two. You don’t pay till you arrive at your destination. When we got to Magen’s Bay Beach, we paid $16 (cash because they don’t take credit cards) for the taxi ride. Magen’s Bay Beach has a gated entry that you need to pay to enter. The price was $5 per person, so $10 for Julie and I to get in. (Again, we paid cash)

MAGEN’S BAY BEACH AND COKI POINT BEACH:

Once you enter the park, you walk through the parking lot and down a sidewalk to get to the beach. It only took us a few minutes, but everything is clean and pristine. They have bathrooms, showers, and a fast food style restaurant. I really liked the look and feel of this beach. 

We found a spot and laid out our beach towels. This beach was awesome for walking. The sand was soft and the views amazing! 

We reached the end of the beach and soaked in the views.

Along the way we saw this iguana.

We decided to do some snorkeling. The water was crystal clear. We saw turtles and lots of cool looking fish.

The views of Magen’s Bay Beach from the water were breathtaking. 

After we snorkeled for a few hours, we were hungry so we decided to get something to eat. We went to the Magen’s Bay restaurant. You walk up to a counter and place your order and pay. You don’t leave a tip as it is more of a fast food setup. I got a cheeseburger for $10, a Fanta Orange soda for $3, and Julie got a diet coke for $3. It came out to $16 total. It tasted so good and got my energy levels back up. (Again, we paid cash)

COKI POINT BEACH:

We then took a taxi to Coki Point Beach. It started raining really hard on the way there. We paid $10 per person, so $20 cash for that taxi ride. We had our umbrellas so we opened them up and just waited out the rain storm.

I saw this stingray just cruising along the bottom as I was snorkeling.

After it quit raining we grabbed some empty beach lawn chairs and put our stuff on it. They didn’t charge us for the chairs. I’m not sure if it was because they were all wet or if they are always free. We did some more snorkeling and saw a sting ray. The water was beautiful.

Coki Point Beach was a lot smaller than I was expecting and it felt crowded. We had a good time there, but I liked Magen’s Bay Beach much better because of how open it was.

We stayed there for a few hours and then took an open air taxi back to the cruise ship. That ride was $9 per person, so $18 cash for the two of us.

The one thing that took me by surprise was the cost of taxis. There are very few sidewalks and the hills are really steep. We thought we might be able to walk to some of the beaches, but without sidewalks it was really dangerous to try and walk on the narrow streets. Taking a taxi was definitely the way to go. We ended up spending $54 cash just on transportation. You need to bring cash as they don’t accept credit cards.

Another interesting note was that they drive on the left side of the road. That surprised me as St. Thomas is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

We got back to the port and did some souvenir shopping and then got back on our cruise ship. We had a great day on the island of St. Thomas and would love to go back again!

Magen's Bay Beach, St. Thomas:

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

Coki Point Beach, St. Thomas

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

Our visit to St. Thomas was actually pretty cheap since we didn’t book an excursion.

Our budget was spent on taxis, food, and entrance fee to Magen’s Bay Beach.

Taxi to Magen’s Bay Beach: $16 Cash for 2 adults

Taxi to Coki Point Beach: $20 Cash for 2 adults

Taxi back to port: $18 Cash for 2 adults

Entrance fee to Magen’s Bay Beach: $10 Cash for 2 adults

Lunch at Magen’s Bay Beach: 

Cheeseburger: $10

Fanta Orange Soda: $3

Diet Coke Soda: $3

Total Cost: $80

Although it was a pretty cheap day, I didn’t budget enough cash for the day. I brought $100, but I didn’t know how much the taxi’s were going to be, so we split a cheeseburger for lunch to make sure we had enough to get back to our cruise ship at the end of the day. I thought I would be able to use my credit card, but that wasn’t the case.

Make sure you bring plenty of cash to have a great day!

These are the things that I recommend you bring:

• Plenty of cash to cover taxi’s and food.
• Extra cash for souvenirs and beach chair rentals
• Sunscreen
• Towels
• Your own mask, snorkel, and fins
• Go Pro Hero 8 Black video camera
• Go Pro 3-Way Grip to hold the camera out in front of you.

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