Morningstar Beach

Morningstar Beach at a glance

Verified Oct 9, 2026.

Conditions today at Morningstar Beach

As of 7:00 AM on Oct 16, 2026, island time. Read each morning from the National Weather Service, DPNR and Open-Meteo; the bay opens south, by our read from the map.

Sea state

Swell at an angle. The swell is from the east at 0.9 m, period 5 seconds; Morningstar Beach opens south, so the swell comes in at an angle and the water moves without breaking hard.

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 in DPNR's advisories since Jul 24, 2026. Met it in 13 of 13 weeks sampled since Sep 27, 2024. The advisory.

DPNR samples for Enterococci bacteria and turbidity weekly; a result after heavy rain can change within the week.

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 5:56 pm; sea 30 °C, 85 °F.

Open-Meteo.

Getting there

About 11 minutes by car from Charlotte Amalie. How to reach St. Thomas: Flights to St. Thomas, How to get around St. Thomas, St. Thomas airport, St. Thomas cruise port, St. Thomas map, St. Thomas weather by month, Things to do in St. Thomas.

Is Morningstar Beach in St. Thomas open in 2026?

Yes. As of October 2026 the beach and both hotels on it are operating, and the resort's own site lists daily hours for its restaurants on the sand.

People ask because the place was shut for years. The Government of the Virgin Islands wrote on Oct 4, 2018 that the hotel, then called Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Beach Resort, had been badly damaged in the hurricanes of 2017, and that its owner expected to reopen in the first quarter of 2020. It took until 2023. The hotel on the beach opened first, and the larger hotel on the headland above it followed that September, the end of what the owner's release called a $425 million rebuild.

The resort's site now calls the two Buoy Haus Beach Resort and The Westin Beach Resort St. Thomas.

Eleven minutes from Charlotte Amalie by car

Morningstar Beach is 11 minutes by car from Charlotte Amalie, 4.2 km, measured to the parking lot mapped at the beach. The resort puts the ride from Cyril E. King airport at 20 minutes, and its arrivals page says that without a booked transfer, a shared public taxi or a rental car is the way in.

Local guides list parking at the beach without saying who may use it or what it costs. As of October 2026 the Buoy Haus Beach Resort's own FAQ lists a single option, valet at $40 a day, and does not say whether a visitor who is not staying may use it. The resort's number is 340-249-0100.

A taxi settles it: $12 from Charlotte Amalie for one person, or $9 each when two or more travel together, by the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's 2022 tariff, which still names the stop Frenchman's Reef.

What the public may use, and what is the resort's

The sand at the water's edge is yours to use, and nearly everything behind it is the resort's to grant. The Open Shorelines Act, as the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands quotes it in Kosick v. Bar-Sela, gives the public the right to use and enjoy the shoreline: here, the sand below Frenchman's Reef from low tide to 50 feet up the beach, or to the vegetation line if that comes first, with no barrier allowed across it. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources adds that beaches cannot be fenced off, and its Coastal Zone Management office on St. Thomas, 340-774-3320, takes reports of denied access.

On chairs, the resort's pages are written for its guests. As of October 2026 the resort reserves the beach cabanas and the Tide Pool for guests of Buoy Haus, and the Buoy Haus site lists access to beach loungers and chairs among the benefits of booking direct. The resort publishes no day pass and no chair rate for visitors, so bring a towel and ask at the beach desk before you count on a chair. Two local guides list bathrooms at the beach; the resort does not say whether a visitor may use them.

The tradeoff is certainty. The right to the shoreline is statute. The chair is the resort's to rent or refuse.

Where to eat on the sand, with hours

Three places serve food on or beside the sand, and food is the one part of a day here with published hours. As of October 2026 the resort's dining page lists Sugarfin, its beachfront restaurant, for breakfast from 7 to 11 am and lunch from 11:30 am to 5 pm, with reservations encouraged, and the Salt Shack, on the sand at the Buoy Haus, on Friday evenings only, 6 to 9 pm.

SandBar x Isla Blue is the third, and both its own site and the resort's call it privately owned and operated. As of October 2026 its site puts it steps from Morningstar Bay, with a Spanish menu, open daily from 11 am to 10 pm and the kitchen closing at 9; Isla Blue, its dinner room, serves from 5 to 10 pm. Neither site says whether a diner must be staying at the resort, so ask when you reserve.

Swimming, snorkeling and boats from the dock

Morningstar is a swimming beach more than a snorkeling one, and the swimming depends on the day: the resort's managers said in May 2022, before the reopening, that the water here is frequently rough. The bay floor is sand, its seagrass lost in 2017, by a consultant's account to the Coastal Zone Management committee that February.

The committee approved three breakwaters about 300 feet off the beach that month, with coral to be planted around them for snorkelers. No report we found by October 2026 says the work was finished, so expect little to see through a mask.

As of October 2026 no source publishes a lifeguard for this beach; rely on yourselves. Two hotels share one bay, so expect company, and by our read the most of it when ships are in at Havensight, 9 minutes away by car.

The boats are better documented. Dockside Watersports works from the Frenchman's Reef dock, and the resort's site lists catamaran snorkel sails, a sunset sail, guided jet ski tours and night kayaking, and a boat to Cruz Bay on St. John, about 35 to 40 minutes by the operator's count.

Suits a visitor with a day in town who wants lunch on a beach 11 minutes from Charlotte Amalie, and anyone staying at Frenchman's Reef. Limetree Beach, the next beach east, is 14 minutes from town.