Cinnamon Bay

Cinnamon Bay at a glance

Verified Oct 9, 2026.

Conditions today at Cinnamon Bay

As of 7:00 AM on Oct 16, 2026, island time. Read each morning from the National Weather Service, DPNR, the National Park Service and Open-Meteo; the bay opens northwest, by our read from the map.

Sea state

Sheltered. The swell is from the east at 0.9 m, period 5 seconds; Cinnamon Bay opens northwest, so the bay sits in the lee.

Open-Meteo wave model at the nearest ocean cell; the bay's opening is our read from the map.

Rip current risk

Low. Surf around 3 feet, east winds around 15 mph.

National Weather Service San Juan, surf zone forecast for St Thomas, St John and adjacent islands, issued 3:51 AM.

Water test

Not a site in DPNR's weekly programme, which samples St. John only some weeks.

Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Beach Water Quality Monitoring Program.

Park alerts

No alert names Cinnamon Bay; the park posts 1 alert today.

National Park Service, Virgin Islands National Park alerts.

Rain

Dry through the day; the chance of rain peaks at 21%.

Open-Meteo hourly forecast at the pin.

The day

UV index up to 8; sunset 5:55 pm; sea 30 °C, 85 °F.

Open-Meteo.

Getting there

About 17 minutes by car from Cruz Bay. How to reach St. John: Airfare to St. John means a flight to St. Thomas, Car ferry from St. Thomas to St. John, How to get around St. John, St. John map, St. John weather by month, St. Thomas to St. John ferry, Things to do in St. John.

Seventeen minutes from Cruz Bay, four past Trunk Bay

Cinnamon Bay is 17 minutes from Cruz Bay by car on North Shore Road, past Hawksnest at 8 and Trunk Bay at 13. Cinnamon Bay Resort & Campground, which runs the site for the park, asks drivers to follow the U-shaped drive to the lot and leave the front spaces to taxis, which load at the front desk. The lot is not on the sand: the beach is a walk through the campground on paved paths the park lists as accessible, about 300 meters on our map, so pack what you can carry. On its getting-around page the National Park Service names Cinnamon Bay among the North Shore beaches whose lots can be full by 10 am. Without a car, the taxi from Cruz Bay costs $14 for one person or $11 each for two or more, the 2022 fare of the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission, plus $3 a bag, which matters to campers; book the ride back before you get out.

What a day visitor finds at Cinnamon Bay beach

As of October 2026, Cinnamon Bay Resort & Campground lists the Rain Tree Cafe as open all week to campers and visitors, breakfast 7:30 to 9:30 am and dinner 5:30 to 8 pm, with a food truck at the beach from 11 am to 4 pm, lunch at $10 to $15, and a general store open 10 am to 6 pm. Its watersports desk runs 9 am to 4 pm, by the same pages as of October 2026: a snorkel set or a beach chair $10 a day, a kayak $30 an hour, a paddleboard $35, all subject to change.

None of those hours carries a season, and nothing published says the truck or the desk runs in September and October, when the park's record has the campground closed; bring lunch and a mask then, or call 340-714-7144 first.

The park lists restrooms, an accessible restroom, a kayak launch and beach wheelchairs. Its campground record adds cold showers in season; whether day visitors may use them is not published. As of October 2026 there is no lifeguard, by the operator's FAQ, and the shade is under the vegetation at the back of the sand. At the end of the sidewalk to the beach stand the remains of a Danish warehouse, which the park's snorkeling page calls the oldest colonial ruins on St. John.

The tradeoff is that the beach has residents. The campground's 121 sites sit behind it, so from November through August the people who slept there are on the sand before the day trips arrive. Francis Bay, 25 minutes from Cruz Bay, has a lot, toilets and picnic tables and no campground.

Is the Cinnamon Bay campground open?

Yes, for ten months of the year. The National Park Service's record for Cinnamon Bay Beach and Campground has it closed every September and October, and it usually reopens in November; confirm with the operator before you book. The front desk runs 8 am to 8 pm in season, per the same record as of October 2026. The long closure people still ask about is over: the campground shut after the 2017 hurricanes and reopened on Jan 22, 2022, under CinnOpCo, LLC, the park's concessioner there since May 2019, per the park's camping page.

Cinnamon Bay camping is the only camping inside Virgin Islands National Park: the park's register lists one campground, this one. As of October 2026 the park's record prices a bare site at $50 a night, eco-tents from $190 and cottages from $230 to $315. Cinnamon Bay Resort & Campground's FAQ adds a two-night minimum, seven over Christmas and New Year, Presidents week and Easter, check-in at 4 pm and no air conditioning; eco-tents and cottages have fans. Reservations are on its own site or at 340-714-7144.

Snorkeling out to Cinnamon Cay

Cinnamon Cay, the small cay off the middle of the beach, is the reason to snorkel here. The National Park Service lists it as shelter for fish, crabs and other invertebrates, perhaps a lobster or two, with snappers in the nooks of its steep slopes and in the deeper water on its east, north and west sides, and a few small pillar coral colonies on the northwest corner. The shallow sand on its south side is where the park says to rest before swimming back.

The swim out is open water, with no marked trail and no lifeguard, so take fins and a second swimmer. In winter the North Shore takes a swell, and the park's snorkeling page singles out Maho Bay and Francis Bay as the bays it troubles least; Cinnamon is not on that list. On a day with surf on the sand, Maho Bay, 18 minutes from Cruz Bay and the next beach east, is the move. Local guides also point to a reef off the beach's eastern end, which the park does not list.

It suits a long day with lunch taken care of, and campers; less so a family that wants the sand to itself, or anyone counting on the cafe in September or October.