Honeymoon Beach

Honeymoon Beach at a glance

Verified Oct 9, 2026.

Conditions today at Honeymoon Beach

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; Honeymoon Beach 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 Honeymoon Beach; 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 on foot 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.

The walk from Cruz Bay on the Lind Point Trail

Honeymoon Beach is reached on foot, by shuttle or by boat, not by car. The Lind Point Trail starts behind the park's Cruz Bay Visitor Center, and our map measurement of the walk to the sand is 1.4 km, a little under a mile, in 17 minutes. The park's trail page allows 20 to 40 minutes for a path it calls narrow, rocky and not accessible, which rules out a stroller, so plan on the park's number and wear shoes. Of the trail's upper and lower routes, the lower one passes Salomon Beach first. A second trailhead is on North Shore Road at the park sign, and the park sends drivers there to the first two gravel lots.

The Red Hook passenger ferry brings St. Thomas visitors to Cruz Bay. The park says you can walk from the ferry terminal to the visitor center, so this is one St. John beach that needs neither a taxi nor a jeep. Drivers ask at the visitor center desk for a parking pass before they set off.

The third way in is the concession's shuttle: $6 a person one way or $12 round trip from the main gate of Caneel Bay, every 15 minutes, parking included and $5 for each chair you bring, on Caneel Bay Beach Club's site as it reads in October 2026. Ring the club, 340 690-CLUB, before you count on it. A taxi to that gate from Cruz Bay costs one passenger $9, or $8 each in a group, on the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's 2022 schedule.

What to expect: shade, a concession and no road

The National Park Service describes Honeymoon as a white-sand beach where palm and seagrape trees provide generous shade. Bring a hat, not an umbrella: the beach club says umbrellas are not permitted, because the park designates this a turtle nesting area.

It is one of the few park beaches with something for sale: the park's amenities list runs to a bar, table-service food, snacks, ice cream, a gift shop, lifejacket rentals and picnic tables. Restrooms are not on that list, but the concession's rules page says showers and restrooms are open to all guests and visitors, walkers who buy nothing included.

The concession is Caneel Bay Beach Club, and as of October 2026 its site is selling passes and hiring and says it serves every day from morning to sunset. Its prices as the site reads that month: a chair for the day at $25 a person, a 4-hour pass with chair, towel and attendant at $75, an 8-hour pass with the round-trip shuttle at $150, a cabana for up to four at $800, a USVI resident package from $20, and walking in by the trail at $0.

The tradeoff is how firm any of that is. No page on the club's site carries a date, and the park took proposals for a new Caneel Bay lease until Jul 8, 2026, so who runs this beach could change. Carry water on the walk in, and confirm prices and hours with the club before you build a day around them.

Expect company at midday, when day charter boats put in from late morning to mid-afternoon; the early walker has the sand first. There is no lifeguard on duty, by the club's rules page as of October 2026.

Caneel Beach is about 540 m along the same shore in a straight line, by our measurement, but when the park reopened it on Aug 1, 2024, it said there would be no access between the two by trail or on foot at this time, and no later park page we could open says otherwise.

Snorkeling Honeymoon Beach along the reef to Caneel

The snorkeling is along the shore, not out in the bay. The National Park Service describes a narrow reef that follows the shoreline east from Honeymoon toward Caneel Bay, and off the rocky point on the other side, between Honeymoon and Salomon, it names five corals in clear water: brain, lettuce leaf, elkhorn, mustard hill and pillar.

We score the snorkeling 4 of 5, on the park's description and two local guides who call it good; none of them puts it among the island's top sites, and the park itself does not rate it. Virgin Islands Ecotours runs a 3-hour guided hike and snorkel here in the afternoons, $99 for ages 13 and up and $69 for ages 2 to 12, per its own page in October 2026.

The club's rules warn of fire coral and sea urchins, ask swimmers to stand only in sand, and say not to snorkel alone. The park's own rules apply as everywhere: reef-safe sunscreen, and no pets on the beach.

Honeymoon Beach, St. John, or the one on Water Island

There are two Honeymoon Beaches in the US Virgin Islands, on different islands. This page is the one on St. John, inside Virgin Islands National Park, also searched as Honeymoon Bay, St. John. The other is on Water Island, off St. Thomas, and has its own page here; a search for Honeymoon Beach, St. Thomas usually means that one, while this one is a ferry to Cruz Bay and a walk.

Suits a visitor without a car, a day trip off the Red Hook ferry, and anyone who would rather walk 1.4 km than look for a parking space; not someone who cannot manage a rocky trail, or a family carrying a full day of gear.