Travelers visiting St Thomas and St John in the US Virgin Islands often end up at the well known beaches like Magen’s Bay and Trunk Bay. While those are both quite wonderful, St Thomas and St John have many hidden gems. We set out to find them during our recent trip. We found secluded paradise at three beaches – Sandy Beach and Neltjeberg Beach in St Thomas and Little Cinnamon Beach in St John. This post is the last of a three part blog series and it shares how to visit Little Cinnamon Beach on St John.
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How to Visit the Secret Beach in St John: Little Cinnamon
During our trip to the US Virgin Islands, we stayed at an Airbnb with a breathtaking view in St Thomas. We planned a day trip over to St John. We found it to be much more affordable to stay on St Thomas vs St John. For tips on affordable travel in the US Virgin Islands, check out our post on budget travel in the US Virgin Islands.
Traveling to St John
The first part of our journey started with taking the people ferry from Red Hook in St Thomas to Cruz Bay in St John. There are two ferries that run daily from Red Hook, the people ferry and the car ferry. The people ferry is $6 each way and runs every hour until midnight.
We briefly considered the car ferry but it was more expensive and did not run as late as the people ferry, so we may have felt rushed to get back to the car ferry in time. There is also a ferry that runs from Charlotte Amalie, but it was more expensive, took longer and ran much less frequently. We chose Red Hook due to the price along with the option to return anytime we wanted before midnight.
To prepare we packed a small cooler with sandwiches, snacks and water. we had a full day of exploring planned – starting with a drive to Coral Bay, visiting the Salt Pond, hiking to Ram’s Head and hopefully ending with a hike to Little Cinnamon.
We arrived to the ferry terminal a little before 9 am and loaded the boat within a few minutes of arrival. We had some time to wait on the ferry to try and contact car rentals on St John. We had intended to make a reservation a few days prior. We were so caught up in exploring St Thomas that we simply forgot. That was a mistake!
Skylar called every car rental place on the island and none had rentals available. Of course there was a cruise ship in port that day so the rentals were scarce. At that point we had committed to going to St John. We decided we could hang around Cruz Bay and hope that after an hour or so a rental would become available. Or our back up plan would be to take a taxi to the beach to hike to Little Cinnamon.
The ferry ride was quite routine and uneventful but the scenery of the nearby islands was nice. One can sit below in a covered area, or on the second level if the weather is nice. The ride was about 20 minutes, but it seemed to go much quicker.
Getting Around in St John
As we walked out of the terminal a nice gentleman asked us if we needed a car rental, and of course we did. He said he knew a place that may have one rental left if we were willing to pay him for securing the rental. We entertained his offer. He walked us to a rental place about a block away and was able to get us the last rental they had for the day.
We ended up paying him a $20 finder’s fee, but I guess that is what we get for not planning ahead on this trip! We were willing to pay it as the alternative was not having a car for the day at all. There were others that visited the rental office after we arrived and were turned away. If we were to do it again we would remember to book ahead!
Driving to Cinnamon Beach
We drove to Cinnamon Beach with our rental after our hike to Ram’s Head, but one could take a taxi from Cruz Bay. The hike to Little Cinnamon starts at Cinnamon Beach, which is about 15 minutes from Cruz Bay.
The drive from Cruz Bay is easy. One would head out of town on N Shore Road and stay on it until you reach the turn for Cinnamon Beach on the left, approximately 7.5 km. The road is curvy, but it is paved and maintained well. We really enjoyed driving on this road – after driving in St Thomas we quickly adjusted to driving on the left side of the road.
Visiting Cinnamon Beach
We parked at Cinnamon Beach and walked the path to the beach. Here is where we saw quite a bit of damage from the hurricanes. There used to be a building with concessions and restrooms. That building was damaged and no longer open. There were port a potties available, but this beach area was far from recovered. There were trees that had fallen down, and another small building that was damaged.
We don’t want this to keep people from visiting – even though the area is still recovering – the beach is clear and absolutely gorgeous.
One could be quite content just visiting Cinnamon Beach. We did relax a bit on Cinnamon before hiking to Little Cinnamon.
Hiking to Little Cinnamon Beach
Finding our way to Little Cinnamon was quite easy because we were willing to walk on rocks. Once at Cinnamon Beach we turned left and walked along the beach. There was a rocky area at the end of the beach and we just kept walking/hiking over the rocks until we reached the secluded Little Cinnamon. It took us less than five minutes.
We had reached yet another paradise in the US Virgin Islands. We were the only people at the beach during our whole visit. The sand was white and soft and the water was a beautiful blue. We could have relaxed at this beach for quite some time, but clouds were rolling in and it was the end of the day. We enjoyed the short time we spent at Little Cinnamon and will probably make it back someday.
Out of the three secluded beaches we hiked to Little Cinnamon was the easiest and quickest to access. It is also possible that one could swim from Cinnamon Beach to Little Cinnamon. We visited in February and the water was just a tad to chilly for me when the sun wasn’t out so we didn’t try to swim and do not know what the currents are like in the area. This would be a perfect spot for true relaxation on St John.
Tips for Visiting Little Cinnamon Beach
- Stress free travel to St John: plan your trip ahead of time and reserve a car rental. Also check the ferry options to ensure your travel to St John and travel on St John goes smoothly. This is especially important on days when cruises are in port at St Thomas as many cruisers do travel to St John for the day. More about the ferry will be discussed in a later blog.
- Easy navigation to Cinnamon Beach: prior to traveling, download the Google map for St John. This will allow a smart phone to utilize the Google map even if the phone does not have cell service or wifi.
- Avoid surprise cell phone bills: turn phones to airplane mode while on St John to ensure phones do not accidentally ping the cell towers on the British Virgin Islands. St John is very close to Tortola, it is important to be aware of the possibility of pinging British cell phone towers. We kept our phones on airplane mode and used the downloaded google map most of the day we visited.
- Path to Little Cinnamon Beach: wear shoes that will provide support navigating on rocks. We honestly thought we were done hiking for the day when we went to Cinnamon Beach. We were tired after the Ram’s Head hike! We changed our minds after relaxing at Cinnamon Beach for a bit. We did end up hiking to Little Cinnamon in our sandals, but it would have been preferable to have water shoes for this short hike.
- Time at Little Cinnamon Beach: this beach is perfect for relaxation, a beach blanket would be nice to get comfy on the beach – and even take a beach nap. Wear a swimsuit if you plan to get in the water. Think about bringing food for a beach picnic! Once to reach Little Cinnamon you won’t want to leave!
More US Virgin Islands Secluded Beach Options
We also visited Neltjeberg Beach and Sandy Beach on St Thomas during our stay. Overall we enjoyed all three of our secret beach experiences. We have fond memories of each!
Neltjeberg Beach offers a more challenging hike along the coast, but leads to a much larger secluded beach area.
Sandy Beach involves a 1 mile walk/hike on a paved path. The beach is also very beautiful, but is small.
All three beaches are highlighted in the travel video below.
We also created travel vlogs of our time in St Thomas and St. John:
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Thank you for sharing! We recently visited St. Thomas on a cruise ship and spent the day at Megan’s Bay. We fell in love with St. Thomas and plan to return there for a week. This post has been very helpful!
Hi Lisa, so glad to hear you fell in love with St. Thomas too. We easily could have spent a week there exploring if we wanted. It is so close to St John, Jost van Dyke and Tortola too. Let us know if you have any questions we can help with when you start planning!
Wow! I’ve known several people from St. Thomas, and have always wanted to visit the area. Now I’m inspired! How far did you all travel to get there? I’m in Florida so it isn’t too terrible a trip I don’t think.
Hi Lauren, we are also in Florida! It was super easy travel over a long weekend. We booked on Spirit from Orlando to Charlotte Amalie – it was a nice direct flight. There were also direct options from Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We hope you get to visit, you won’t be disappointed!
Gorgeous photos! We did a brief stop in the US Virgin Islands on a cruise, but not enough to really explore. Looks like you had a great time!
Thank you, the beautiful views were every where on these lovely islands. A cruise definitely has it’s perks, but it isn’t enough time to really enjoy St. Thomas and St. John. Thanks for stopping by!
Great recommendations and pictures. For sure we would consider in our list of places to go!
Thanks Adriana – we would recommend both islands 🙂