Virgin Island National Park Overnight Mooring

We love the mooring fields around St John, we usually go around the island a few times.

Maho bay is just beautiful. We saw so many turtles around our boat.

Excellent World Class attraction. We feel privileged to be able to visit St John and admire its beauty!!!!

The moorings at Leinster Bay are my favorites. It is peaceful and protected, with opportunities to swim, snorkel and hike.

Beautiful!

Well organised, good infrastructure, splendid region. The only downside is that some users don’t respect the rules or don’t know them (I.e. water skiing between the buoys!). Apart this I am stunned by the quality and simplicity of your system. Bravo !👏

The NPS moorings always seem to be in great condition. We stayed in Little Lameshur, Cinnamon and Caneel Bay overnight. Day stops were at Scott's Beach & Waterlemon Cay. We were greeted by a volunteer once when we stopped at Scott's Beach for lunch and once for an overnight at Caneel Bay. He was extremely helpful and gave us great information.

Clear, easy, well organised.

Just great. Please keep on.

Moorings were in good condition with good protection from weather. Scenery is beautiful. Corals do not seem to be recovering from hurricanes as well as I hoped. Lots of Tarpon & turtles. Hiking trails excellent.

Quiet

Great Experience

Moorings and pennants were in great condition and easy to pick up. The moorings are spaced well to allow for wonky boat swinging. Best of all, the moorings protect the corals and the snorkeling is outstanding.

Perfect spot for what we wanted. We were able to sail each morning and come back to the same harbor for multiple nights on this completely unplanned adventure.

Beautiful quiet mooring. Great snorkeling, hiking and beaches to explore.

One of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Stayed at Maho Bay. One our favorite places.

Highlights were Water Lemon Cay and Little Lamashure Bay. Conditions in Caneel were very confused (light current, no wind), with boats facing different directions. We felt the moorings in Caneel Bay were far too close together to keep boats separated.

Fantastic help from "Jeff" - a park volunteer who helped us understand all the rules, processes, and possibilities of staying there. What a gem!

We absolutely loved this area for Mooring with regards to price, beauty, water and beach. We found ourselves back here a few times because it was one of our favorite spots. It was peaceful and to watch deer graze right near the beach. Seeing turtles and fish popping up around us. People here were very quiet at night. The snorkeling was great too. We just loved it here. We had East/ North East winds, which made this a great spot to be.

Beautiful place to moor and enjoy the natural beauty!

Such a nice place to settle in and enjoy the island. Francis Bay is beautiful and protected in most weather. The beach is great, and nearby Maho Bay is fun to people watch or grab a bite to eat. Francis Bay Walking Trail that goes through the salt marsh is absolutely breathtaking. Thanks for providing such a great respite.

We went on several walks which were very enjoyable. Francis Bay is well sheltered. Caneel Bay is more exposed and was rolly when we were there.

Great experience at Honeymoon Beach. Mooring ball was in great condition.

Salt Pond Bay mooring field is very nice. We love that we can snorkel from our boat and there are nearby hiking trails. We have swam ashore to go hiking. The winds are very strong from the east (we are here during a small craft advisory) but the first mooring ball is very comfortable. The only issues we have had here were 1 dinghy going way too fast through the anchorage and one large boat that dropped people off near the beach and then hovered in the area for 45 minutes while there were snorkelers in the water nearby. I was snorkeling at the time and was not sure his intentions so stayed near the shore until he left. Today we took our dive flag snorkeling to insure we could be seen. The turtles here are very friendly and we are happy to see all the snorkeler are respectful.

Well maintained moorings in a well protected bay with easy access to nice snorkeling. Definitely the most quiet and relaxing place in the area.

Well maintained moorings.

The Park Host was extremely helpful in providing us with all of the information particularly as it pertained to the use of the Golden Passport as well as the App that permits an individual to pay on line negating the need to go to each of the paystations.

Beautful views, and felt safe and secure on the mooring. Would highly recommend!

Our first day we were greeted by John in Caneel Bay. He is a very welcoming ambassador. He provided us with a map and explained the types of moorings and rules for the park and mooring field. It was very helpful. I think it is imperative that cruisers know they cannot speed in the mooring field, take their dinghies inside the snorkeling buoy areas, tie to any vegetation or structure or anchor in any areas within the mooring field, We stayed at multiple locations including Caneel, Henley Cay (day use for snorkeling), Hawksnest, Francis Bay and Waterlemon. We have moved around to the south side of St. John and will visit more sites here. We encountered several dinghies in Waterlemon that tied to mangroves and two that went into the buoyed area with snorkelers. I don’t know if they were unaware of the rules or didn’t care. We were snorkeling at the time one of the dinghies was there and it made us concerned that would not see us. We ordinarily use a dive flag but generally leave it on our dinghy at the tie off when snorkeling a designated area with buoys surrounding it. We were disappointed in the state of many of the corals but happy to find many fish and invertebrate species. We are avid underwater photographers so we document what we see and report fish sightings to reef.org through their citizen scientist survey logs. We have also really enjoyed the hiking trails and ruins. The Annaberg ruins had the most signage and foot traffic that we have seen. We have been very happy to see the variety of bird life. Many of the trails are well maintained. We have found we had to look at multiple maps to find everything we want. The mariner map is great but doesn’t show the trails. It would be wonderful if there were a fully interactive map available online to access all the information at once. Having said that, we have had a wonderful experience so far and look forward to continuing our explorations.

Great moorings - secure and protected

Easy to use app.

St. John's is paradise. The snorkeling is excellent and the beachs are superb. The trails make for a fun visit and the views are beautiful. Some hikes are steep. The Rain Tree Cafe in Cinnimon Bay is a great pace to eat. The moorings are well located and far enough apart so you don't feel close. Excellent system for obtaining and paying for a mooring. The numbers on the moorings are not very big for old sailors and are only on one side, so when hooking up pull the ball in to get the number. Great island to visit.

Beautiful island in the world

It was beautiful mooring off Honeymoon Beach! There were just a few other boats nearby us, but it was not crowded. It is about a mile hike to Cruze Bay. It is moderately difficult hike, but great to shake out the sea legs.

Buoys are very good shape and still reasonably priced. The App makes payments really easy.

It beautiful and the park is well cared for. Jeff visited the boat and shared lots of good info.

St John, USVI is a paradise!

I would recommend that the app or website allow payment WITHOUT having to scan a QR code at the floating kiosk or ashore.

Wonderful locations to moor. We were there when the park wasn’t that busy. One night in Salt Pond bay we were the only boat mooring. Such beauty! Pretty good snorkeling, lots of sea turtles and hiking trails.

Easy to scan QR code and pay online

We appreciate the fact that the beauty around St. Johns is being preserved by this National Park. The mooring was solid nd appeared well maintained.

It’s really wonderful to have the National Park moorings available. They are a huge bargain at $13 a night (with the Giolden Age pass) and appear to be well-maintained. Leinster Bay and the Lamesure bays are peaceful and beautiful.

Beautiful beaches with good snorkeling.

Super solution

The concept of safe, well maintained, moorings, excellent hiking, nice beaches is unsurpassed!!!

Beautiful location. Be sure to check your mooring before payment. Many seem worn out.

Perfect!

Nice quiet bay. Easy to pay.

Beautiful place. Please be sure to read all the rules before arriving, they are not posted.