Saint John Things to Do

This 15-kilometer island (the size of Manhattan?) of St John in the US Virgin Islands can be efficiently toured using the open-sided safari-style bus tours.

They drive you around the city and then into this botanical paradise where the driver will point out certain plants and their characteristics. The highlight of the trip would be a visit to the remains of Annaberg Sugar Mill ---- and of course, the amazing views of the bays/beaches. You also get a view of the Caneel Bay Hotel which was built by Rockefeller in the 1950's.

I don't remember seeing any wild animals but there are some on the island and we were just not fortunate to see them at the time - besides I was busy not letting my one year old son fall off the open-sided bus, hehehe...

President Roosevelt protected this island by proclaiming it the Virgin Islands National Park in 1956 --- now it cover over 5000 hectares of lush vegetation.

There are several beaches where one can swim in St John. We liked the beach we were in (I think it was Trunk Bay ) - because the water was so blue and there was even a RAINBOW landing on the waters! We did not have our swimming stuff with us, so we just bought everything at the shop (from our swim apparel to beach bag - and they were nice quality).

Trunk Bay Beach, owned and operated by the US Virgin Islands National Park, is available to the public - cover charge of $4.00 for adults and $1.50 for children over 16 years old.

Located on the North Shore Road, 10 minutes from the Hillcrest, you can reach this Bay also by taxi. They have a snack stand with hot dogs, hambugers and veggie burgers and yummy sandwiches - and you can eat at the several picnic sheds.

Snorkelling is available and you can rent equipment. Underwater Trail is the beaches main feature - marked by red, white and blue buoys.

The Annaberg Sugar Mill was part of the open bus tour which we took at St. John’s Island with our then 2-year old twins. Anna was supposedly the name of the baby daughter of one of the owners of this 18th-19th century ruins (first established in 1718).

If you walk up the hill, you will find a sugar mill, a horse mill and some very old public school houses. Besides sugar, molasses and rum were also produced by Annaberg which was under slave labor until 1848 when an uprising afforded freedom to the people. The steep hills behind the factory used to have sugar cane everywhere and slaves worked up to 20 hours!

The twins enjoyed going around the windmill. You also great great views of the island and very nice pictures. Definitely a nice place to see a little bit of history when in St. John!

2 more images

I especially enjoyed the day trip we took on board a catamaran. We stopped at several spots to snorkel then made two stops in the British Virgin Islands...one for lunch at Foxy's the other at White Bay for the Soggy Dollar Bar (there's no dock, you must swim in to shore, thus the soggy dollars).