Cruz Bay to Jost Van Dyke

Is there a ferry from Cruz Bay to Jost Van Dyke?

Yes, one, three days a week. Inter Island Boat Services runs a boat that starts at Red Hook on St. Thomas at 7:30 am, calls at Cruz Bay at 8 am and crosses to Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke, on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays as of October 2026. It leaves Great Harbour for home at 3:30 pm. The operator lists the trip at 35 minutes.

Its page asks you to check in 45 minutes before departure, so 7:15 am in Cruz Bay, and its booking terms say a reservation must be confirmed in person. The office is on the Cruz Bay bulkhead, the place to confirm and to ask which dock the morning boat uses; the trip page does not say.

What a Jost Van Dyke day trip from St. John costs

The fares on the operator's page as of October 2026, each shown beside a higher price struck through and an offer of $20 off for booking a day ahead.

The customs and immigration fees are extra: $30 a person, the operator says, without saying whether that is each way. If it is charged once a person for the round trip, a family of two adults and two children aged 3 to 11 spends $660 at the listed prices on the boat and the border before lunch.

The tradeoff: the tickets do not come back if you miss the boat. The operator refunds only when it cancels for weather, mechanical trouble or something else beyond its control, and an unused ticket is good for six months.

Do you need a passport for Jost Van Dyke?

Yes. Crossing to Jost Van Dyke takes you out of the US and into the British Virgin Islands, and the BVI turns away visitors without a passport book or, for Americans, a passport card. The rule took effect on March 1, 2025, in a Government of the Virgin Islands release, and it exempts only BVIslanders and Belongers, so a child on a birth certificate cannot board for the day.

You clear in at the Great Harbour jetty, whose office keeps 8:30 am to 4:30 pm seven days a week on the BVI Tourist Board's list as of October 2026. The boat leaves Cruz Bay half an hour before the office opens, and the 3:30 pm return leaves an hour before it closes.

The way back is a US border crossing too. U.S. Customs and Border Protection accepts a US passport or a passport card from a citizen arriving by sea, so one document covers the day in both directions.

How long you get on Jost Van Dyke

The day is set by two times: the 8 am departure from Cruz Bay and the 3:30 pm boat back from Great Harbour. The operator lists no arrival time and no other return, so the 3:30 pm is the boat that matters. Leave the beach in good time.

On a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday there is no boat from St. John. The route on those days is the ferry from Red Hook on St. Thomas to West End, Tortola, and a second boat on to Jost Van Dyke, which is the St. Thomas ferry's subject.

Getting to the 8 am boat from your villa

A 7:15 am check-in in Cruz Bay is an early start from anywhere but town. Our measured drives to the Cruz Bay ferry dock, the nearest point we have timed:

From Coral Bay, that means leaving before 6:45 am, and leaving the car in Cruz Bay for the day. A villa in Cruz Bay itself is a walk to the waterfront.

White Bay and the Soggy Dollar Bar

The boat lands at Great Harbour, on the south side of Jost Van Dyke, and White Bay is the next bay west. The Soggy Dollar Bar is on White Bay, the beach bar whose own history page tells the story of the Painkiller; the drink and its two published recipes are a subject of their own. The bar publishes no hours or season, so we print none.

We have not measured the way from Great Harbour to White Bay, so we give no time for it; ask at the jetty when you land, and keep the 3:30 pm boat in mind.

Other ways across from St. John

The scheduled boat is the only one from Cruz Bay that we found posted with days and times, as of October 2026. Inter Island Boat Services also lists a private charter, priced on request. Any boat that takes you across crosses the same border, so the passport rule and the customs office's hours apply to a charter too. The Red Hook ferry to St. Thomas is a separate, domestic crossing and needs no passport.