How to get to Jost Van Dyke from St. Thomas

Two ways to reach Jost Van Dyke from St. Thomas

By boat, from Red Hook on the East End, and there are two ways to do it. Inter Island Boat Services runs the one scheduled boat from St. Thomas that we found on an operator's own page: Red Hook at 7:30 am, Cruz Bay on St. John at 8 am, Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke after that, and back from Great Harbour at 3:30 pm, on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays as of October 9, 2026. The operator gives the trip as 35 minutes and does not say which leg that is.

On a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday, the way in is through Tortola: the ferry from Red Hook to West End, which is a topic of its own with the St. Thomas to Tortola ferry, then New Horizon Ferry from West End to Great Harbour. That is two boats, two tickets and the same border.

Red Hook to Great Harbour: fares and fees

Inter Island Boat Services lists $150 for an adult round trip, $170 struck through, beside its offer of $20 off for booking a day ahead. Every ticket shows the same pair.

Fares from Inter Island Boat Services' route page, checked October 9, 2026. On top of the fare the operator adds $30 a person in customs and immigration fees. Two adults and two children on a round trip come to $540 in fares and $120 in fees at the listed prices, $660 in all.

The tradeoff: there is one boat each way, and the operator's refund policy says bookings are nonrefundable, with a refund only when it cancels for weather or mechanical trouble. A missed boat is a lost fare.

Check-in at Red Hook, and the drive there

Be at the counter by 6:45 am. The route page asks for check-in 45 minutes before departure and the refund policy says 30; plan on 45. The boats leave from the Urman V. Fredericks Marine Terminal at Red Hook, where the St. John ferry leaves too.

Driving routes we measured on September 16 and October 9, 2026. A 6:45 am check-in from a villa near the airport means leaving before 6:10.

Through Tortola on the other four days

New Horizon Ferry runs West End, Tortola, to Great Harbour every day, per its own schedule page read on October 9, 2026, which carries no season dates.

New Horizon charges $40 round trip and $30 one way. The Red Hook to West End crossing comes first, with its own fare and its own fees, so time the West End boat to the ferry you arrive on and the ferry home to the boat you leave on.

Passports, BVI customs and the way home

Jost Van Dyke is in the British Virgin Islands, so the boat lands you at a border. The Government of the Virgin Islands asked for a passport book from March 2025, and accepts a passport card from US travelers in its place; a child travels on the same terms as an adult, since its notice sets none apart. The BVI Tourist Board asks visitors to fill in the online Immigration and Customs form, which opens 72 hours before arrival, and to show the receipt on a phone or on paper.

Great Harbour is a port of entry, and its customs and immigration office is open Monday to Sunday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, per the BVI Tourist Board as of October 2026.

On the way back into the US Virgin Islands, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) takes the same book or card from a US citizen arriving by sea, and lets a US child under 16 through on a birth certificate. The BVI's rule is the one that binds: a child with only a birth certificate is not covered by the release on the way in.

Planning a Jost Van Dyke day trip from St. Thomas

A day trip on the direct boat works three days a week, and the boat sets the day. It leaves Red Hook at 7:30 am and leaves Great Harbour at 3:30 pm, an hour before the Great Harbour customs office closes. The operator does not publish the time the boat is back at Red Hook, so a cruise passenger checks it against the ship's all-aboard before booking.

The boat lands at Great Harbour. The Soggy Dollar Bar on White Bay, and the Painkiller it is known for, are a topic of their own. Inter Island Boat Services also lists private charters, for a group that wants its own hours.

Book the direct boat a day ahead, and be at Red Hook by 6:45 am.