Are all beaches public in the Virgin Islands?
Yes. All beaches are public in the Virgin Islands, American and British alike: the sand at the water's edge is open to everyone, whoever owns the land behind it, and nobody may fence it off. What stays private is nearly everything above it, from a resort's loungers to, quite often, the path down.
What the Open Shorelines Act makes public
In the US Virgin Islands the rule is a statute. The Open Shorelines Act, passed in 1971 and still on the books as chapter 10 of title 12 of the Virgin Islands Code, declares that the public 'has and shall continue to have the right to use and enjoy the shorelines' of the territory, and then says exactly where the shoreline is.
| The Act | What it says |
|---|---|
| Where the public shore begins | The seaward line of low tide |
| Where it ends | 50 feet inland, or at the natural vegetation that spreads continuously inland, or at a natural barrier, whichever is the shortest distance |
| What nobody may put on it | Any obstruction, barrier or restraint that interferes with the public's use |
| Whom that binds | Any person, firm, corporation or association |
On the sand that is simpler than it reads. On a narrow beach the sea grapes come first, and the public ground ends where they begin; on a wide one it stops 50 feet up from the low-tide line. Ownership and use are separate lines: a deed can run down to the high-tide line, and the public's right to be there runs past it, up the beach.
The Act wrote down a right more than it created one. In 1974, in a case about the beach at Bolongo Bay, the District Court of the Virgin Islands upheld the law and traced the public's use of the shore back to Danish rule, a custom older than the territory. In 2007 the Superior Court applied it to Vessup Beach, near Red Hook, and said what it is for: to guarantee the beach to everyone, 'not just the boating elite'. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources, which regulates the coast, says it in five words: beaches cannot be fenced off.
What a public beach means at a resort
Most of the confusion is in front of hotels. A resort may own everything behind the sand, and may call its beach private or reserved for guests; what it can reserve is its own property. The strip by the water stays open to anyone, guest or not.
| On a resort beach | Whose it is |
|---|---|
| The sand from the low-tide line up to the vegetation, 50 feet at most | Everyone's |
| The water in front of it, and the walk along the shore | Everyone's |
| Loungers, umbrellas, cabanas and towels | The resort's |
| The pool, the showers and the restrooms | The resort's |
| The parking lot and the path through the grounds | The resort's |
Some resorts say so themselves. Secret Harbour tells visitors that every beach in the Virgin Islands is open to the public and that no day pass is needed for its beach or its restaurant, and keeps the loungers and the pool for its guests. The resort at Bolongo Bay sells no day pass and charges nothing to walk onto the sand. At Sapphire Beach the beach club rents chaises by the day, and at Lindbergh Bay the bar and restaurant at Emerald Beach Resort take outside guests while its sunbeds stay with the house.
Elsewhere a visitor brings a towel and keeps to the water's edge: at Limetree Beach and Morningstar on the south shore of St. Thomas, and at Great Cruz Bay, in front of the Westin on St. John, where the way in is a small free lot at the south end, not the resort's gate. Each beach's page says what the resort offers a visitor and where to leave the car.
What the law gives is the sand, with nothing to sit on: no shade, no restroom, no lunch. On those terms a resort beach is a swim more than a day out, unless there is a bar on it that serves the public.
Getting to the sand when the land is private
The Act opens the shore, not a road to it. It protects the beach and the walk along it and stops there: nothing in it obliges an owner to let you cross a garden or a lobby to reach the water. In the Vessup case the Superior Court said that shutting off the land side runs against what the Act is for, since a beach reached only by sea belongs in practice to people with boats, but the ruling made no path. So the way down is a separate question at every beach, with four usual answers.
- A public road or lot. Vessup Beach Road runs to the sand with no gate, and Great Cruz Bay has its free lot. Coki Beach, Magens Bay and Lindquist Beach are public beaches and parks with their own entrances.
- A posted public way. Since the coastal law of 1978, new commercial building on the shore has had to secure a public-access easement first, and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources requires signs that show the way and where to park. Where there is a sign, use it. An older resort may have no such path, and the entrance is then the resort's to open.
- An owner's permission. At Hansen Bay, on the East End of St. John, the way in crosses a family's land, on the family's terms.
- The water. The shore can always be reached from the sea, which is how a kayak or a dinghy lands on a beach whose road is gated.
A rented house settles it more simply, because a villa on a beach comes with its own way down. The sand in front of it is still everyone's; what the house adds is the path and somewhere to sit. St. John vacation rentals and St. Thomas vacation rentals list each house by its owner, who can tell you how far it is to the sand.
National park beaches and the three that charge
On St. John most of the question answers itself, because most of the famous sand is federal land. Virgin Islands National Park holds the North Shore beaches, and there the public ground is more than a strip: it is the beach, the trees behind it and the lot on the road. The park is open all year, at any hour, and asks for no entrance pass.
A fee at the gate does not make a beach private. On St. Thomas and St. John three beaches charge one, and each is a public park:
| Beach | Run by | The fee |
|---|---|---|
| Trunk Bay, St. John | The National Park Service | A daytime amenity fee; the beach has showers, restrooms and a snack bar |
| Magens Bay, St. Thomas | The Magens Bay Authority | Entry and parking, at a staffed park with lifeguards |
| Lindquist Beach, St. Thomas | The Magens Bay Authority, as Smith Bay Park | Entry and parking, with lifeguards and restrooms |
Each beach's page carries the current figure. Coki, a government beach, is free to walk onto, though its parking is not.
Private land survives inside the park, too. At Denis Bay and at the Gibney end of Oppenheimer Beach the sand is open and the ground behind it is private, so stay on the beach. At Caneel Bay, where the resort has been closed since the hurricanes of 2017, the beach is open again by day, through lots whose gate is locked at the end of the afternoon.
British Virgin Islands beaches are vested in the Crown
Across the channel the answer is the same, and the law behind it goes a step further. In the British Virgin Islands every shore and beach, natural or man-made, private islands included, is vested in the Crown, and there is always free access to it from the water. The government said so without qualification in March 2023, when the Minister for Natural Resources and Labour told the House of Assembly that all BVI beaches are public and asked any owner or manager keeping people off one to stop at once.
| The rule | US Virgin Islands | British Virgin Islands |
|---|---|---|
| The public beach | From low tide to the vegetation, 50 feet at most | From the foreshore to the vegetation line or another natural barrier, whichever is closer |
| A way in by land | Not given by the Open Shorelines Act | At least one public landward access to every beach, under the Physical Planning Act, 2004 |
| Who takes a complaint | The Division of Coastal Zone Management, St. Thomas | The ministry responsible for natural resources, Road Town |
The landward rule is the generous one. Where a beach has no public road, twenty years of open public use of a private way is grounds for making it a public one, and the Crown may acquire an access where there is none. Practice trails the principle, and the government's own beach policy says as much: several beaches are enclosed by private land or lie on private islands, and the privacy of the people living there is to be respected. On the villa coasts that means asking. At Mahoe Bay and Nail Bay on Virgin Gorda, and at Trunk Bay on Tortola, the sand is everyone's and the way down is a question for the villas above it; at Lambert Beach the road in is the resort's.
A beach day needs no permit. A beach party might: the ministry asks organized groups, anyone bringing loudspeakers or lighting a barbecue, and any commercial event to apply for permission first. The Baths and Devil's Bay are national parks, entered on a day pass from the National Parks Trust.
If you are told a beach is private
Move down to the water's edge. There you are on public ground on either side of the border, and what is left to argue about is the lawn, the loungers or the path, which are the owner's to refuse.
If you are turned off the sand itself in the US Virgin Islands, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources asks you to report it to its Division of Coastal Zone Management, at Tutu Park Mall on St. Thomas, +1 340 774 3320, on weekdays. The department also maps the public access points and their parking, so the same office is the one to ask where the public way is before you drive to a beach with houses along it. In the BVI the call goes to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change in Road Town, +1 284 468 2147.
The courtesy runs both ways. The right is to use and enjoy the shore, and it comes with neighbors: keep to the strip, carry your litter out and keep the music down in front of a house. For a day with chairs, shade and a restroom, choose a park beach or a resort that welcomes visitors; the St. Thomas beaches and St. John beaches pages say which is which.
Questions about public beach access in the Virgin Islands
Are there private beaches in the Virgin Islands?
No. In the US Virgin Islands the Open Shorelines Act keeps the shore public from the low-tide line up to the vegetation, 50 feet at most, and bars anyone from fencing it. In the British Virgin Islands all beaches are vested in the Crown and public by the government's own statement. What can be private is the land behind the sand and the way across it.
Are St. Thomas beaches open to the public?
Yes, every one, resort beaches included. The sand by the water at Morningstar, Limetree, Sapphire, Bolongo Bay and Secret Harbour is public under the Open Shorelines Act; the chairs, pools and parking belong to the resorts. Magens Bay and Lindquist Beach are public parks with an entry fee, and Coki is a free government beach.
Are USVI beaches public up to the vegetation line?
Yes, or 50 feet from the low-tide line if that comes first. The Open Shorelines Act defines the public shoreline as running inland from the seaward line of low tide for 50 feet, or to the natural vegetation that spreads continuously inland, or to a natural barrier, whichever is the shortest distance. Above that line the land is the owner's.
Can a hotel or villa in the Virgin Islands have a private beach?
Not in law. A hotel or a villa can own the land down to the shore and keep its chairs, pool and path for its guests, and a beach with no public road can feel private. The strip by the water stays open to anyone who reaches it, by land or by sea, in both the US and the British Virgin Islands.
Are BVI beaches private?
No. The BVI government's position, stated by the Minister for Natural Resources and Labour in the House of Assembly on March 9, 2023, is that all BVI beaches are public, including those beside resorts and on private islands. The Physical Planning Act, 2004 calls for at least one public way to each beach by land. The Baths and Devil's Bay are national parks with a day pass.
Do you have to pay to go to the beach in the Virgin Islands?
Rarely. Most beaches are free. On St. John and St. Thomas three charge at the gate, Trunk Bay on the first and Magens Bay and Lindquist Beach on the second, and each is a public park; in the BVI, The Baths and Devil's Bay take a national park day pass. Each beach's page has the current fee, and parking at a few free beaches is paid.
Facts checked against the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the National Park Service, the British Virgin Islands government and NOAA's Institutional Repository. Checked November 2026.