Overview:

St. John is the smallest of the three US Virgin Islands. Virgin Islands National Park occupies more than half the island. Home to a variety of bird life including cuckoos, warblers, and hummingbirds, island’s waters also have dolphins, hawksbill and green turtles.

The resorts, businesses and homes for the 4000+ residents are concentrated in Cruz Bay and Coral Bay. Cruz Bay is the main town has most of the shops and grocery stores as well as a post office, schools, and so on. The second largest developed area Coral Bay also has restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses.

There are no airports on St. John, the only access to the island being by boat. The ferry dock is in Cruz Bay and service runs hourly to Cruz Bay from St. Thomas and daily from Tortola; regular ferries also operate from Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and Anegada.

There are no marinas on St John and there are restrictions on vessels traveling through and anchoring in National Park waters. See the US VI Formalities/Restrictions section.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria:

St. John has mostly recovered from Hurricanes Irma and Maria (September 2017) which caused major damage to the island’s hotels, housing, charter boat business, beach facilities and the national parkland that extends over about 60 percent of the island.

As of February 2020, most businesses have been rebuilt except the Caneel Bay Resort.  A few derelict boats remain but most of the wrecked cars, boats and debris were removed in 2018 and early 2019. The landscape has returned to tropical greenery as the mangrove swamps and vegetation have recovered as they always do after hurricanes.