We were snorkeling in St John for two weeks in May 2022. We rented a 4WD SUV for the middle seven days of our trip, and used the public taxis for the front and back ends of our trip. We’ve done that on other trips and it works well for us – gives us a few days to get acclimated to the roads from the safety of the taxi before venturing out on our own. The roads on St John are very steep and twisty, and driving is on the left side.

On the days we had the car we snorkeled the farthest sites, out towards the east and south ends of the island. Taking the public taxi to those sites would have been costly and also not as convenient logistically to do, regarding wait times. Getting to the snorkeling sites closer to Cruz Bay, where we stayed, was super easy and inexpensive (and a blast!) via the open air taxis. An SUV was fine for us, it had high clearance and navigated some pretty wild dirt roads without grounding out.

We stayed at Battery Hill in Cruz Bay, which was lovely. There are eight or so units there, most of them listed on VRBO. It was a short walk down the hill into town.

Cinnamon Bay on the north shore has camping and cottage options. It is a big, lovely beach. We saw huge turtles and rays there, also squid and several huge Permit.