My parents, my husband and I, and our two kids will be staying at Frenchmans Reef in USVI in February. I'd love to pay for a day trip for all of us to St John for the day for my parents' Christmas presents. Our sons will be 5 and 2.5.

Obviously, the 2.5 year old won't be snorkeling, or really even swimming. The 5 year old has practiced snorkeling but I'm fully aware that his attention span (and endurance) will not last long.

We'd like to find a day trip that combines a little bit of everything, but that would allow the kids to hang out on a beach while the adults tag team in the water.

I've looked at sailsafaris.net, which looks great, but I can't really tell if it would be appropriate for our kids.

Any comments on this one, or other ideas for visiting St John?

Thanks!

on the sailsafari site it says they take kids 4 and over.
if i was you i would rent a van or large jeep for the day. this should run under $125 for the day. drive to red hook and take the car ferry over. that way you can take all the stuff you'll need to keep the little one happy. also you can go back to st. thomas when it suits you.
i've not been on st. john enough to recommend the perfect beach for you but someone on here will know.
also only some of the agencies allow their cars to go to st. john but the frenchmans reef staff should be able to set this up for you.
on a side note the (imho) best restaurant on st.t - havana blue - is at frenchmans. not really for kids but perhaps you can find someone to watch them for a couple hours. a table at sunset is especially wonderful.
your family might enjoy a day at secret harbour as well. the beach is wonderful for little ones, with gradual water entrance. they have shade! the restaurant, blue moon cafe, is very kid friendly. the bar is outdoors on the beach. excellent snorkeling to the right facing out into the bay. you can snorkel close to shore with your 5 yr old and then go off around the rocks when he is done.

Not sure how adventurous you are but you could take the ferry from Red Hook to St. John. Once on St. John Rent a car for the day, you should reserve it in advance for < $100, then visit several of the beaches along the north shore road. Hawksnest, the closest public beach to Cruz Bay, has great snorkeling right off the beach, toilets and the water is usually calm. Trunk Bay is another nice beach, okay snorkeling but it also has bathrooms, showers & food available. Maho Bay Beach is the farthest from town but you park right by the beach. This is probably the calmest of all the beaches but no toilets, showers or food available.

I agree with the last post. I would ferry over, rent a car and hit Hawksnest, Trunk Bay, and Cinnamon Bay. Conrad Sutton is a good car rental and there are many others. Your husband could walk the couple of blocks to the car rental, get the car and come back to get you. You could also wait for him at Woody's which is a block up the street from the ferry and have a drink or snack.

Another easy option is to hang out at the beach at Caneel Bay. They have good food and drinks and a relaxing raft out in the water. If that is the only beach stop, then just take a cab, maybe?

Another good option would be to take a ferry to Jost Van Dyke (if everyone has passports). The beach there is awesome and the Soggy Dollar is a great place to hang for the day or half a day.

Hubby and I just got back from St. John on Saturday. Wonderful trip!

Hawksnest and Maho were our favorite beaches.

We also took a catamaran over to Jost Van Dyke and hung out at the Soggy Dollar Bar. It was SO much fun!

Just my opinion, my daughter having been going to STJ since she was 6 months old, I'm not sure I'd go with an organized tour. Having 2 kids plus grown-ups who have different attention spans, needs etc., I'd stay as flexible as possible and as close to amenities as possible. You can keep things pretty simple for a nice daytrip by simply going to the passenger ferry at Red Hook which is not expensive and only about 20 minutes long. The ferry brings you right into Cruz Bay where you can do a little shopping and eating, and/or take a taxi out to the northshore beaches. Cruz Bay is tiny and you can walk to just about everything. Hawksnest is close to the road so easy to get to. There are basic facilities there so is convenient when you have kids. Then there's Trunk Bay (can get a bit crowded with tourists, although not by Florida standards) and Cinnamon Bay both with facilities, equipment rental and snack bars. Maho is our favorite for little kids because the water is so calm and there's decent shallow snorkeling at the right end of the beach (facing the water), but it doesn't have any facilities. If you want to go to more than one beach or explore the island a bit more, than I would definitely go early in the morning and rent a car for the day. There are many rental companies close to the ferry terminal (Denzil Clyne and others). Having your own car (which will run you about $85) provides you with terrific flexibility and no wait time for taxis. With all the people in your group, the taxi fares can really start to pile up anyway. I would spend the whole day exploring and enjoying St. John, get the car back by 5 or 6 p.m. whenever the rental company needs it back, have a wonderful dinner in Cruz Bay and take the passenger ferry back to St. Thomas. I think they run every hour until 9 or 10 p.m. You can check the schedules on just about any USVI site. Have a wonderful time!

Sounds like we're better off on our own...which I think makes sense.

Jost van Dyke looks interesting. We do all have passports. Where exactly does the ferry run??

If we decided not to book a day trip...any other ideas for a Christmas "gift" that we'll use on our vacation?

I definitely would not book a day trip. I have been to the BVIs & USVIs many times and the only day trip that I enjoyed was from Virgin Gorda diving the wreck of the Rhone. All of the others are cattle herders (too many on a boat) and feel like a rip off.

To get to Jost Van Dyke from STT, I think you would need to ferry to St. John and then catch a ferry from there? It is an easy boat ride and your littlest one will fall asleep most likely and the 5 yr old will love the ride!

Here is the website:

http://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/in...t%20Van%20Dyke

Forgot to mention, at the Soggy Dollar on JVD, there is plenty of shade and chairs, tables, and even hammocks. I think it is a must do for everyone.

If you go, you have to have the famous Pain Killer.

and there is ice cream just down the beach from the soggy dollar.

Just last Thursday hubby and I were sipping on painkillers at the Soggy Dollar.

Oh, what a difference a week makes. Back to cold New England!

Rum raisin or mangoe are the flavors! We stopped by there this summer and the owner picked mangoes for my daughters to take back to the villa on Tortola.

(My condolences also to the New Englanders....I was cold today and it was 66 in Texas!)

Don't forget to check out Foxy's just down the road from the ice cream shop. Most taxis stop there anyway before heading back to the ferry.

If you're interested in Jost Van Dyke, there is a ferry which runs there from STJ, but I don't think that it's frequent. Again, I don't know if you want to do any significant boating with a 2.5 yr. old. If you do, perhaps a bigger boat is better? There are plenty of tour operators as well who run out of St. Thomas and STJ. Our favorite Jost Van Dyke trip was a catamaran which ran out of the Westin in STJ (there are other catamarans from other points) which started out at about 8:30 a.m. and took us to a couple of snorkel spots, and then to Foxy's (on Jost Van Dyke) for lunch, and then over to White Bay to the Soggy Dollar bar. We spent the afternoon just relaxing and then for the sail back to STJ around 5 p.m. Very relaxing and low-key fun for adults but I think it depends on the child whether they enjoy it or not. Our trip was pre-kid, but there was a pretty calm 4 year old boy who seemed to like it. We've also taken smaller motorboat (6-12 people) trips which were terrific fun but I wouldn't recommend for small children. We took a large boat (20-25)trip to Virgin Gorda and Flanagan's Island out of the Westin with an operator called Limnios which may be a better choice for small kids. It allows more room and the ride tends to be less choppy. Bear in mind, it is at least a 35 minute (Tortola) trip to the BVI's. Jost takes about 1.5 hours and Virgin Gorda a bit more than that.

The ferry Red Hook ferry from STT to STJ is 20 min. and the ferry from STJ to JVD is only 20-25 min.

Just a practical comment here. Are you used to driving on the left hand side on hilly steep curvy roads? It takes a little getting used to, so are you up to it?

We were in St. John's for a few days over a year 1/2 ago and we rented a car for one day with our kids (school age) and we were only able to hit two beaches (Trunk Bay and Hawknest - 2 hours at each). Both well worth it. We wanted to see so much more but ran out of time. We spent the remainder of the afternoon in town doing a little shopping. We took taxis the rest of the time. Keep in mind the taxis are open air pickups fitted to sit people in the back - no seatbelts. They charge per person.

I wished we could have had a driver for the day (like in Mexico), this way we could really relax. A couple of times we had close call when pulling out of parking spaces, looking the "wrong" way. Just be careful and don't get distracted.

We also took a day trip on the Limnos boat to BVI (you need passport). It was a really relaxing and enjoyable trip where you can sit back, have a drink and watch the beautiful islands go by. It was a larger boat (no seasickness) not overcrowded and they pull up to a dock at BVI to go to Baths so you don't have to jump in the water (better with little ones).
The island is absolutely beautiful, one of our favorite places ever.

We're back! My parents were thrilled with their gift...we gave them a choice of St. John or Jost Van Dyke. I think they actually wanted to do the JVD, but we didn't realize until too late that my son's passport was expired.

Instead - we took the ferry to St. John and rented two Ford Escapes (the rental company escapes me now...Hall or Hill?) We were up and over there early, but still didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked, since the rental car had to be back by 5.

The kids wanted to do a hike, so our first stop was Cinnamon Bay where we did the short nature trail past the old plantation. They loved seeing the ruins and were thrilled with all the lizards they say. (They never got tired of the lizards...you'd think the novelty would wear off!)

We went to the beach at Cinnamon Bay and the adults took turns snorkeling out around the outcropping in the bay. Good snorkeling...it was windy, though, so the swim was not as easy as other places we've been.

We'd packed a cooler over, so we picnicked at the beach and then drove over to the Salt Pond. The kids and I 'hiked' again - although there wasn't much to see on the short hike here. The longer ones might have been better. Snorkeled again out to the middle of the bay - nice coral and bigger fish.

On the way back, we stopped (very briefly) for a quick look at Hawksnest and Maho. We decided we want to go back to St. John itself for a whole week - so many beautiful beaches.

We returned the cars and had enjoyed happy hour on the water before ferrying back.

My only complaint was the logistics...but that was only because there were six of us (too many for one rental car) and we were lugging a lot of stuff (cooler, b/c we were trying to budget so packed lunch, and the carseats). Otherwise - a great day!

so glad you're trip was a success and that you loved st. john.
did you try havana blue?

Glad it worked out for you. When you go back to St. John for a week you'll want to rent a villa.

If you plan on renting a boat for the day, avoid Water's Edge Sports. The service is about as bad as the boats. We chartered a boat for the day and one motor wouldn't start after a couple hours. The 'captain's' attitiude was who cares, you got out on the water, whats the problem. When trying to contact the owner I get no reply. DO NOT CHARTER FROM THIS OUTFIT... BAD NEWS!!!