Which beaches do you recommend for snorkeling on St. John? Can we reach the south side beaches by car or boat or short hike. The car rental company said we can only use the paved roads. Also due to knee problems, we're not able to hike over rugged terrain.

You'll find good snorkling at most of the North shore beaches. My favorites are Waterlemon Cay (1/4 mile flat hike in around Leinster Bay.) Salt Pond Bay - hike down ruddy dirt road from the parking area. Not sure if this would be considered "rugged terrain" for you.

Cinnamon Bay & Little Cinnamon & Haulover beaches we enjoyed as well.

Lamesur & Little Lamesur are also favorites, but they are only accessed from dirt roads. Are you renting a 4WD? (You should). I'm surprised to hear a rental company limiting where you can go considering how many roads on STJ are unpaved, steep & ruddy!

Have a great trip!

Just about every beach we snorkeled from was a short walk from where we parked the car and only Little Lameshur required an off road trip. I saw that in our rental agreement and considering the drive to the place that we stayed, a drive off road was nothing.

I would not attempt the road to Lameshure without a 4 wheel drive. Almost all the rentals on St. John are 4 wheel drive anyway and countless people have driven their rental cars there. Not telling you to do it, just talking statistics. While the road is in certain places very steep (thus requiring 4 wheel drive like many portions of even paved roads on St. John), the main danger on the road to Lameshur is the potholes. We drive as much around them as possible and proceed slowly. Salt Pond is a good 5 minute walk from the parking area and down a significant hill. You should probably avoid that with bad knees. Walk to Waterlemon is long but not rugged. Rendezvous Bay is accessible only by 3 mile hike (rugged) or by boat. Haulover North is a short walk from the parking area (road) and not too rugged.

tuxedo: we recently returned from St John after renting a villa on Rendezvous Bay/Klein Bay and were aboe to access (with a 4wd) a road that took us within 30 yards of Ditlff Point/beach where we had enjoyed some very nice and very private snorkeling. There was a trail that required some good eyes to find but it really wasn't that rugged. The good thing was that there was no one there but us.

We also enjoyed the underwater trail at Trunk Bay as well as snorkeling at and around Maho Bay, especially if you are willing to endure a short swim beforehand.

texthejhawk: That's great info. on the Klein/Rendevouz. I haven't been to Rendezvous in a while because of what I thought was difficulty in accessing. I'll have to look for that road next time we go. By the way, one of my favorite snorkels is actually Cinnamon Cay at Cinnamon Bay. The island is a significant swim from shore (farther out than Trunk Bay's island) but it is definitely worth it because the lefthand side (looking at it from the beach) and the backside are in deeper water (20-30 feet) and have wonderful canyons. I like to swim around the entire island.