Gifft Hill, St. John

Staying in Gifft Hill

Gifft Hill is the ground you climb between the ferry town and the resort bays of St. John, and most of the houses on it are there for the height. The middle of the area stands about 650 feet above the sea by our measurement, so the address puts you above the south shore rather than on it. The estate names on deeds and addresses here are Glucksberg, Bellevue, Grunwald and Beverhoudstberg, with San Soucci and Guinea Gut, and Gifft and Regenback. A house under any of them is listed on this page.

Gifft Hill, St. John, is a hillside of single villas, and its largest neighbor is Gifft Hill School, which began as Pine Peace School in 1978, took its present name in 2005 and now has its Lower and Upper Campuses on 14 contiguous acres of the hill, by its own history; it opened its doors five days after the second of the two Category 5 hurricanes of 2017. A week up here runs on the car, and every errand ends with the climb, so a full grocery run in Cruz Bay on the way in saves a second trip down.

On a 46-minute uphill walk home from town, the car decides the week. The roads on Gifft Hill measure steep, which means low gear on the way down and a car with grip on the way up. The walk is measured from the middle of the area, downhill there and uphill home, so dinner in Cruz Bay means someone in the party drives the hill back afterward. The Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's tariff, in force since October 2022, spells it Gift Hill and sets a taxi there from the Cruz Bay ferry at $12 for one person or $9 each for two or more, plus $3 a bag. Ask the owner what the driveway needs before you choose a sedan or a four-wheel drive.

No beach is a walk from the middle of the area. The nearest sand by road is Boatman Point Beach, 8 minutes by car. Frank Bay, the stony town beach on the south edge of Cruz Bay, is on the way into town. At Great Cruz Bay the sand is public shore under the Open Shorelines Act, and a small free lot by the south end of the beach leaves a minute's walk to it, as of October 2026; the Westin's lot is for its own guests and for activities that leave from the resort. What the hill has over the bays below it is the North Shore. Measured from the middle of Gifft Hill, Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay are each 15 minutes by car, Maho Bay 16 and Caneel Bay 17, where Trunk Bay is 20 minutes from the middle of Chocolate Hole and 24 from the middle of Great Cruz Bay. Trunk Bay charges $5 a person aged 16 and over, by card or mobile payment only since October 1, 2026, per the National Park Service.

The tradeoff: the hill is the whole address. Every beach, every dinner and every bag of groceries is a drive on roads that measure steep, and the height that lifts you above the south shore also keeps you off its sand. If sand within a few steps of the house matters more than a short run to the North Shore, look at Great Cruz Bay below. If you would rather leave the car parked after dark, the houses in Cruz Bay itself are the ones to read.

Suits a group that wants a house above the south shore, the North Shore beaches a quarter of an hour away, and a driver who is easy on a steep road.

Getting around

Gifft Hill needs a car: the ground measures steep, so ask the owner about the driveway, the nearest sand is 8 minutes by car and Cruz Bay is 11 minutes by road.

Gifft Hill houses store their rain in cisterns, and one with a generator rides out the island's cable outages, so ask the owner whether this one does. By our read the signal fades on the lower bends of Route 104 and comes back around the middle of the hill, though one network is reported weak near the Gifft Hill School.

Beaches near Gifft Hill

• Great Cruz Bay Beachabout 12 min
• Frank Bayabout 13 min
• Solomon Beachabout 14 min