Hansen Bay

Hansen Bay at a glance

Verified Oct 9, 2026.

Conditions today at Hansen 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 southwest, by our read from the map.

Sea state

Sheltered. The swell is from the east at 0.9 m, period 4 seconds; Hansen Bay opens southwest, 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 Hansen 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 39 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.

Thirty-nine minutes from Cruz Bay, through Coral Bay

Hansen Bay is 39 minutes by car from Cruz Bay, across the island and through Coral Bay, then out East End Road, which is Route 10. It is the far end of the drive: Haulover Bay, the last beach the National Park Service lists on this road, comes a minute sooner. Anyone staying on St. Thomas crosses first on the Red Hook ferry, and the drive east from the Cruz Bay dock needs a rented car or a taxi. The Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's tariff has no Hansen Bay stop; the nearest it lists, the one it calls Vie's (East End), is $38 for one person or $25 each for two or more from Cruz Bay, or $12 or $11 from Coral Bay, on the 2022 schedule still in force. Coral Bay is the last village on the road, and nothing at the beach is published, so pack lunch and water before you set off.

Is Hansen Bay a private beach?

The shore is not; the land behind it is. The Open Shorelines Act declares, in section 402, that the public's right to use the territory's shorelines continues, and section 403 bars any barrier on them that gets in the way of that use. The protected strip begins where the sea stands at low tide and reaches 50 feet up the beach, stopping sooner at the first continuous vegetation or a natural barrier. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources, which runs Coastal Zone Management, puts the rule in five words: beaches cannot be fenced off.

The Act gives no right to cross private land to reach that strip. Hansen Bay lies outside Virgin Islands National Park on the National Park Service's own boundary data, so there is no park lot and no park path here. That is where the word private comes from: the sand by the water is yours to use, and the ground between the road and it is somebody's land.

The question has been tested here. On Mar 29, 2014 the St. John Source reported a fence, no-trespassing signs and a tarp-roofed hut on a narrow strip of beach at Hansen Bay; the head of Coastal Zone Management told the paper the owner did not have to provide access across the property, since the beach could be reached from the water. The Superior Court went further in Kosick v. Bar-Sela, a St. Thomas case it decided by memorandum on Apr 2, 2007, writing that it was "troubled" by the argument that the Act lets an owner limit access from the land side, because "encouraging beach property owners to restrict access to the beach via land will limit use" of the shore. In practice you reach Hansen Bay across land a family allows you to cross, on their terms.

What to expect at Hansen Bay beach, St. John

Expect a short sandy beach and terms that no agency or owner publishes, so what follows is only what the local guides we read in October 2026 agree on.

A family that owns land beside the bay lets visitors park on it and walk down, and asks a donation for the parking. The guides do not agree on an amount and no operator publishes one, so carry small bills and settle it with whoever greets you. Two guides, dated 2020 and 2021, describe chairs, kayaks and paddle boards to rent on the same land; none of it is confirmed for October 2026, and no source publishes hours.

Plan for very little. Two local accounts, from 2020 and July 2025, describe portable toilets on the family's land, which is as far as anyone goes; the guides contradict each other on food and drink, and the shade, in the latest account, is a few palms. Bring lunch, water and something to sit under. The water is the reason to come this far; swim it as if nobody is watching.

The tradeoff is the distance, and the uncertainty at the end of it. Thirty-nine minutes each way, past the last village on the road, to a beach that stays open to cars because a family allows it, on terms that can change without notice.

Choosing between Haulover Bay and Hansen Bay

Haulover if you want the terms set by an agency; Hansen Bay if you want sand and somewhere to leave the car. Haulover is park land, with no fee and, as of October 2026, no pets and no glass on the beach, and its two beaches are pebble with little sand in the National Park Service's description. Hansen Bay, by the local guides we read in October 2026, has soft sand and a family's land to park on, on that family's terms. A minute separates them on the road from Cruz Bay, so the drive does not decide it; sand against stones, and a host against a park, does.

Suits a second or third trip, a day already planned around Coral Bay, and a driver content to ask permission and leave a donation; not a first morning on the island or anyone who wants the fee and the facilities fixed in writing before leaving town.