Cabrita Point, St. Thomas

Staying in Cabrita Point

Cabrita Point is where the East End road runs out of island. The headland sits between Muller Bay on the Red Hook side and Great Bay to the south, and from its slopes the water opens to Pillsbury Sound and St. John in one direction and to Great St. James in the other. Most of the point is houses on the hillside, and the Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas stands on Great Bay at its western edge, at 6900 Great Bay by the hotel's own address. The hotel states that its beach, Great Bay Beach, holds Blue Flag certification as of October 2026. A stay here is chosen for the house and what it looks at; shops, restaurants and the ferry are all somewhere you drive to.

The water south of the point is protected. Great St. James, the island across the channel, gives its name to one of the three marine reserves and wildlife sanctuaries that make up the St. Thomas East End Reserves. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources describes the reserves as a multi-use marine protected area, kept for fish stock replenishment, recreation, shoreline protection, water filtration and the conservation of nature.

No stay on the point works without a car. The ground around the middle of the area measures steep, and the owner is the one who knows whether the drive up to the house wants four-wheel drive, so that is the first question to put to them. From the middle of the area, the Red Hook ferry terminal is 12 minutes by car, Charlotte Amalie 29 and Cyril E. King Airport 43. From Red Hook the passenger ferry crosses to Cruz Bay in 20 minutes, with the last boat back at 10 pm from Cruz Bay per the Department of Public Works as of September 2026. A car can go too: the barges charge $65 a car one way on the Big Red Barge and Love City Car Ferries rates pages, and the last ones leave Red Hook between 6 and 7:30 pm depending on the company, per the Virgin Islands Port Authority's schedule as of October 2026.

Vessup Beach is the closest sand with a guide of its own, 4 minutes by car from the middle of the area, a free strand on the bay with no restroom, food or rentals on the sand as of October 2026. Secret Harbour Beach is 8 minutes, Sapphire Beach 12, and Coki Beach and Bolongo Bay 16 each, with Magens Bay across the island on the north shore at 31. Lindquist Beach, 11 minutes up the road, is the exception for now: shut since July 9, 2026, when the St. Thomas Source reported the Magens Bay Authority's sargassum closure of Smith Bay Park, with no reopening announced by October 8, 2026.

The cost of the point is distance. It is the far end of the far end: the airport is 43 minutes away, Charlotte Amalie 29, and even the ferry is a 12-minute drive rather than the bottom of the hill. A week of dinners in Charlotte Amalie means two long drives a night on steep roads in the dark. A week spent mostly at the house, with a beach a few minutes off and St. John for a day, uses the point for what it is. Build the airport run into the first and last days.

Suits a group who want the view from the house more than the town, and who will plan around the drive to the airport.

Getting around

Cabrita Point needs a car: the ground measures steep, so ask the owner about the driveway, the nearest sand is a few minutes away and Charlotte Amalie is 29 minutes by road.

The big houses on Cabrita Point commonly come with their own generators, judging by the listings we read, and every one runs on a cistern, since no public water main reaches the point. Facing St. John and the British Virgin Islands, a phone here can now and then drift onto a foreign network, by our read, so keep data roaming off.

Beaches near Cabrita Point

• Vessup Beachabout 4 min
• Secret Harbour Beachabout 8 min
• Lindquist Beachabout 11 min