By Lisa Schuler
We just returned from a seven day trip in January 2024, and here is our St. John USVI snorkeling report. It was our first time visiting the island, so we have no comparison to pre-hurricane reef conditions.
The following is a brief overview of our snorkeling experience.
Places We Snorkeled in St. John USVI
- Maho Beach
- Salt Pond Bay
- Waterlemon Bay
- Rendezvous Bay
- Tektite Bay
What We Thought of Snorkeling St. John
Out of the five places snorkeled in St. John USVI, we found the best experience and conditions to be at Salt Pond Bay (four snorkel rating). There was a very good quantity and variety of reef fishes, turtles, and octopus. Some healthy coral existed, but evidence of reef damage is extensive.
A close second was Waterlemon Bay (3-4 snorkel rating). While we did not venture out to Waterlemon Cay, the conditions in the bay were very good with a variety of reef fishes, a very large barracuda, rays, and turtles.
We snorkeled Rendezvous and Tektite Bays as part of a snorkeling and sailing excursion. The conditions were fair to good in some places, with a variety of reef fishes. We give both a three snorkel rating.
Lastly is Maho Beach. I took the advice from snorkel reports and sought out the far western edge of the beach along some rocks. We did not see any turtles this day, just some reef fishes so overall the snorkeling was marginal. I give it a two snorkel rating.
We enjoyed our experience at Salt Pond Bay so much that we returned twice.
Thank you Lisa for your report and pictures.
The snorkel rating or ranking comes from our St John Snorkeling Guide eBook. We appreciate you referencing that. Another community member has done that about St John on this page.
All of the spots mentioned above are described in our eBook, though Rendezvous Bay is referred to as Klein Bay and Ditleff Point Beach, and what Lisa calls Waterlemon Bay is really Leinster Bay.
I have snorkeled Maho Bay probably 50 times from 2017-2021 and have never NOT seen a turtle. Has something dramatic happened in the last year or so?
Maho’s a party beach now, courtesy of Maho Crossroads (it’s grossly expanded from the original “It’s just going to be a food truck!” plan, it’s a whole complex from the parking lot all the way to the hill). From everything I’ve heard, the turtles have pretty much moved on. It’s never been our favorite snorkel, so our last time there was probably 2020.
Lisa, great report and very timely; we’ll be there in a week. Nice turtle photo: is it from Salt Pond Bay? A couple more questions: at Salt Pond, did you go out to the rocks in the middle of the bay? That’s my favorite spot but it’s a bit of a long pull to do solo! And, at Waterlemon Bay (so named on Google Maps: the easternmost part of Leinster Bay, due south of Waterlemon Cay), were you indeed south of Waterlemon Cay, near the boat moorings? Our favorite spot in that area used to be the mouth of Mary Creek (at the west end of Leinster Bay), but the hurricanes really steamrollered all of the elkhorn coral there.
My wife and I have been calling St. John our home away from home for over 20 years. In fact we were on St. John when Irma hit. There are many places that used to be great, like Waterlemon Cay, but no more. There is still great snorkeling if you know where to go but it usually takes some work to get to. The Yawzi Trail hike/snorkel is probably my favorite. It is coming back in great fashion, especially the fan coral.
If you go back I strongly suggest you take a boat out to snorkel around St. John. The Captain knows all the good spots and because there is no driving or hiking involved you can hit them all in a day. My boat of choice is Island Roots. Jason and his crew grew up there so they know all the good spots.
I also am amazed you did not see a turtle at Maho. You can usually stand on the shore pretty much anywhere and see their heads pop up for air, then swim out in that direction.
We just arrived on St John; we purchased Galen and Nicole’s eBook.
Thank you for all these recent posts!
We are staying near Salt Pond Bay for three nights and then over near Cruz Bay for six nights. Any more suggestions are always appreciated! Thanks.
We just returned from St John. We had a fantastic snorkel in Maho Bay, Francis Bay and saw a scorpion fish, arrow crab, lobster, lion fish, barracuda, Permit, turtles, moray eel, and nurse sharks. It was a fabulous time. Waterlemon, Salt Pond, and Yawzi were also great snorkels with Queen trigger fish, spotted rays and scrawled file fish and scrawled cow fish.
We are avid snorkelers and looking for someplace that can compare with St John. Love love love this island.
Hi, my wife and I were on St John also in January, and from our experience, the best snorkeling BY FAR was at North Haulover Bay. Vast fields of coral, huge purple fans, stretching all along the western shore, from shallow to deep, with sharks, schools of blue tang, porcupines. North Haulover is what gave us hope for the reefs on the island.
We also saw many fish at Maho, including a large school of tarpon hanging out for a few days.
Salt Pond seemed greatly diminished compared to previous years. I had to snorkel out to the rocks near the opening of the bay, and even there, the coral was kind of sad and the fish less plentiful.
Anyway, North Haulover is in a class of its own on St John, and not to be missed if the waves will let you in.