Lameshur Bay

Lameshur Bay at a glance

Verified Oct 9, 2026.

Conditions today at Lameshur 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 south, by our read from the map.

Sea state

Sheltered. The swell is from the east at 0.9 m, period 5 seconds; Lameshur Bay opens south, 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 Lameshur 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 45 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.

Getting to Lameshur Bay: the road and its stalled rebuild

As of Oct 8, 2026 no closure of the road to Lameshur Bay was posted: the park's alerts feed listed none, and the rebuild that will close it had no contractor. With the road open, the dirt lot at Little Lameshur is 45 minutes by car from Cruz Bay by our measurement. The route crosses the island to Coral Bay, turns south past Concordia and Salt Pond Bay, and runs out of pavement.

The National Park Service is plain about the road: "Four-wheel drive is recommended, because the access road is rocky." It adds that many car rentals prohibit driving on it and tells renters to check with their company first, so read the rental agreement before you plan the day. A taxi is the answer when the contract rules the road out: the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's 2022 tariff, still current, prices Lameshur at $38 for a single passenger and $25 per person for two or more from Cruz Bay, $15 and $10 from Coral Bay. After heavy rain the low stretches hold standing water, which is why the federal rebuild plans new low water crossings.

The rebuild is the thing to check. The park and the Federal Highway Administration plan to rebuild about three quarters of a mile of the unpaved road with a gravel surface, new low water crossings and a new parking area. In December 2025 the St. John Source reported construction scheduled from September 2026 to February 2027, with the road closed and the only public access by boat. That start did not hold: bids closed on Aug 11, 2026, and the notice on SAM.gov was canceled on Sep 21, 2026 with no award. No new date had been published when we checked on Oct 8, 2026. When the work goes ahead, the bid documents close the road to vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians for up to 135 days. Phone the Cruz Bay Visitor Center, (340) 776-6201, before you set out.

Little Lameshur Bay is sand; Great Lameshur Bay is rock

Little Lameshur is the sand beach and Great Lameshur is the rocky one, in the park's own words. You reach Great Lameshur first: the larger bay, a shore of stone rather than sand, and boats at anchor. Little Lameshur, past the point, is where most people stop.

Little Lameshur has picnic tables and barbecue grills, a dirt lot beside the sand and, by most accounts, some shade under the sea grapes behind it. A road-project document filed with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources mentions a recently constructed toilet facility and plans a new parking area beside it, labeled Great Lameshur Beach Parking, to end the roadside parking that has damaged vegetation. No source places a restroom on the sand itself.

Ruins of the Lameshur plantation stand at the western end of the sand, on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, and more Danish-era ruins line the Yawzi Point Trail, by the park's description. Great Lameshur has a later history: the Tektite underwater habitat sat on its floor in 1969 and 1970, home for weeks at a time to teams of scientists, one of them the all-woman crew Sylvia Earle led. Most accounts call the bays quiet, the long drive being the reason; one says to expect some company on the sand at Little Lameshur.

The tradeoff is the distance from everything. No food, no drinking water, no rentals, by every source we read, and no source publishes a lifeguard at Lameshur as of October 2026, so swim as if there is none.

Snorkeling at Lameshur Bay: Yawzi Point between the two

Both bays snorkel well, and the point between them is the reason. The National Park Service says both "offer good snorkeling, especially at the tip of Yawzi point, the spit of land that separates the two bays", with fish and other creatures in the rocky coral shorelines. The side trails off the Yawzi Point Trail drop to small rocky beaches the park describes as quiet snorkel entry spots.

Little Lameshur is the sheltered swim, with the easy entry from the sand; the waves build as you work east toward Yawzi Point. Great Lameshur is the harder swim: the entry is over rock and the waves near the point can get large, so keep it for a calm day and a confident swimmer.

Trails that start at the sand

The Yawzi Point Trail leaves the beach for the crest of the point: 0.3 mile, 30 to 50 minutes there and back by the park's reckoning, easy, past stone ruins of homes from the Danish colonial period, with side trails to small rocky beaches. The park calls it narrow and rocky, not accessible, and buggy early and late in the day.

Two longer trails leave the same sand, the Lameshur Bay Trail west to join the Reef Bay Trail and the Bordeaux Mountain Trail up to Bordeaux Mountain Road; the park publishes no lengths for either. On the way in, the Tektite Trail, 0.7 mile, starts on the right of Lameshur Road at the first switchback and begins with a moderately strenuous climb onto Cabritte Horn Point, per the National Park Service. Leashed dogs are allowed on all of these trails and on none of the beaches.

Lameshur Bay or Salt Pond Bay: 45 minutes or 41

Salt Pond Bay if the rental agreement rules out the road, or if the road is shut for its rebuild; Lameshur if the vehicle is allowed and the day includes a trail. Salt Pond Bay's lot is 41 minutes from Cruz Bay on pavement, then a walk down to the sand; Lameshur is four minutes further and you park beside the sand.

Suits a second or third trip with a jeep the contract allows on this road, a snorkeler who wants Yawzi Point, and a hiker linking the beach to Reef Bay, each after a call to confirm the road is open. Not a rental sedan, and not a day that depends on buying lunch.

Photos of Lameshur Bay