Caneel Bay

The premiere resort on St. John in the USVI is Caneel Bay. The resort sits within the boundaries of the Virgin Islands National Park on 170 acres and strives to mesh with the natural environment. The best part of this location is that it occupies an entire peninsula and there are seven separate beaches on the grounds. Among the complimentary services that accompany your stay are free snorkeling gear (they also provide sunfish sailboats and kayaks for no charge!), and I can attest to enjoying more turtles snorkeling here than anywhere else in the Caribbean.

Of course you have your choice of several restaurants on site, ranging from the romantic and elegant Turtle Bay Estate House to the Equator Restaurant, an 18th century sugar mill largely constructed from coral blocks. Luxury abounds everywhere and you can live quite sumptuously if you are willing to open your wallet (one of the options is staying in Laurance Rockefeller’s private estate house). Of course we stayed in the ‘cheap seats’ – the rooms overlooking Hawksnest Bay, but there were no complaints. Being lulled to sleep each night by breaking waves is priceless.

Hawksnest Bay is the only one of Caneel Bay’s beaches that is not private (and two are adult-only). Since there is no airport on St. John we really appreciated the free ferry service from St. Thomas to reach Caneel Bay (the ferry docks right on the property). I won’t rattle on about the luxurious amenities available here, but they are plentiful and if you need to alleviate your stress levels Caneel Bay is the ticket!