If you could only visit one beach in St John, which would you choose?

Gibney !!!!!

That's a hard one!I would say Francis Bay.
I have never been to many of the beaches in Coral Bay area.(only Salt Pond Bay)

I would like to go back and explore the East end more.

Christie

I agree with christie, Francis is awesome. But I could never answer this question without mentioning Gibney, Solomon, or Hawksnest.

The best part of Trunk is seeing it from the overlook on the north shore road.

Scott,
Trunk is sooo picture perfect from the overlook.We stopped at the overlook almost everytime we passed it.

Christie

Little Lamesur

geez...that's like asking what my favorite city/town in Italy is

Trunk Bay is certainly the most scenic (from the overlook), but Francis Bay was my favorite to frolic at as well.

Like choosing which is your favorite food. Depends on what I'm in the mood for that day, Maho for its all around convenience and variety, Little Lameshur for its remoteness and endless snorkeling possibilities, Privateer Bay for its seclusion, rocky uniqueness, or Vie's on Hanson Bay for a perfect Saturday family beach.

Francis is my favorite, mostly due to the remoteness in comparison to the others. There are rarely more than a few other people and the bay is nice and calm for snorkeling. It is known for the occassional sea turtle sighting.

Trunk is hard to beat when quiet, however...and Hawksnest wins for conveniency.

Tuxedo,

Just a quick question about your reply of Little Lameshur.

You mentioned "Endless Snorkeling Possibilities". When my wife & I snorekled there, we snorkeled out to the rocks that broke the surface in close to shore, and also about 200 yards up the left hand shoreline along the rocks, and hardly saw anything. Please advise to what we did wrong, as we obviously missed what you discovered there. Thanks for any help.

Just one? But thinking that probably Honeymoon but unfortunately it too has been discovered and not as peaceful as it once was. Salomon ... Haulover ...
Waterlemon (if I wanted to snorkel) - maybe. Thankfully only those who come via cruise for a few hours are the ones who have to pick and choose ...

Tough question--all are amazing!
My votes:
Best relaxing and swimming beach: Hawksnest
Best snorkeling: Leinster Bay
Best view: overlooking Trunk Bay

scott-we have only snorkeled that little rock area once, and we saw lots of activity. I bet there are lots of reasons for not seeing anything, time of day, season, etc.
you probably did nothing wrong!!! nothing is guaranteed!!
and my fave beach?? hard to name one...francis, maho, cinnamon(I know more people, but i cannot get over the color there)

ScootB: As Soggydollar said, you didn't do anything wrong per se. The left along the rocks is usually a good area to spot small schools of fish and if you swim out into the middle of the bay, you often see stingrays. Last time, I saw a spotted eagle ray and a very good sized Nassau grouper which is now rare. Closer to shore, I've seen a 3 foot barrecuda several times. But I guess I'm talking about going all the way out towards the end of the bay on the left hand side. There are some rock formations forming little canyons where schools of fish swim all around. If you continue around the point to your left, there are more such neat formations. To your right, you see the next little bay, and straight ahead is open water. It was not as deep as I expected (about 20-30 feet). I could just snorkel around in that bay all day long. But every spot can be a hit or miss. It really does depend on the time of day, the season, what the weather was like the day before, etc.

Thanks guys.

We saw the juvinile fish here and there, but for the most part, it was pretty void of life. You're right, probably just bad timing or something.

I also think we had been spoiled by Waterlemon, Salt Pond, Francis, etc.

Thanks again.