On what basis won't Caneel let non-guests of the hotel use "their" beaches ??<BR>Officially all beaches are public ! Right ?<BR>Then why do I keep reading about people being asked by Caneel's personnel to leave some of the beaches which happen to be adjacent to Caneel ????? What is their "legal" basis for this ?

Just a guess (since I haven't been to Caneel, but have encountered similar situations elsewhere) ... even though the beach itself (to the high water mark) is public, the access is not -- it's private property. So, if you are not a guest, or did not arrive by water, you must have trespassed on private property to get on their beach. No law requires Caneel or the like to offer public beach access.

I've read elsewhere on this board that people who have accessed those beaches "belonging" to Caneel via water/boat have been asked to leave as well !!!!!

You can use the main beach at Caneel no problem. Its open to the public-you cannot use the beach chairs, towels etc.<BR>whats your beef!!!Legal-it was stated above.

The beaches ajacent to Caneel are fine for non-guests and there are 2 at Caneel you can use. The ones that can't be gotten to throught the resort and are part of the resort are resticted to guests only. Guest of caneel have the privilege and right by paying for it to some privacy rather than having day people slopping all over their resort and using the facilities for free. Talk to the Rockefellers. They are the ones who did it that way and there are more than enough beaches for eveyone.

was at Caneel in Jan. For the most part it would seem sort of easy to park in Caneel's parking lot, walk to the beaches and settle in. I saw staff at Scott beach only 2 times in a week. But, all Caneel guest have these particular towels, so it would be easy to distinguish who is staying there. And, one day a guy pulled up on a raft from one of the sail boats off shore (or somewhere) and the staff were looking for him like the Gestapo. I guess if you pay a lot for privacy it's worth it, but you might try going to the beaches anyway...just tell them you were looking for Caneel or Hawksnest beaches which are the ones that are "public" access. there is good snorkelling at Caneel on the edges in late afternoon and supposedly at Hawksnest as well. n

Caneel Beach and Honeymoon are the public beaches on the Caneel property. Hawksnest has two sections. One on the Caneel property and the other a public beach just out of Cruz Bay. You can use the public Hawksnest and there is good snorkling there.

There was another thread about this, it started with a discussion about the Westin St. John and some people were wondering if they could stay at the Westin but go to the beaches at Caneel. When we were on St. John, we went to Caneel to see the beaches (and to check out the resort to see if it was worth the money for future stays). Well, they have one parking lot, they know you're there. We walked up to the entrance and a polite staffer asked if they could help. We (truthfully) said that we wanted to see the resort & beaches, especially the one that is supposed to have the sea turtles. The answer was the the general public may use 2 of Caneel's beaches, but not all of them. I think the previous poster has it right--the beach may be public property, but if it's private property surrounding the beach, the property owner does not have to give the public right-of-way to the beach. So we looked at Caneel beach, and then headed for Hawksnest, Cinnamon, Trunk, Maho and the other North Shore beaches, which are beautiful. I don't know why everyone wants to get onto Caneel Bay's beaches so badly, when there are so many other beautiful public beaches on St. John. Let the people who paid a fortune to stay at Caneel Bay enjoy the beaches they paid for.