Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John was the first park Jarrett and I ever visited together. This was long before we decided to visit all 63 US National Park, so I didn’t pay close attention to the park details, trail names or history like I do now. We didn’t even go into the visitor center! If you are interested in reading the full trip recap from our 2013 trip, check it out here.
About 60% of St. John is part of the park, so no matter where you go, you’re usually within the park boundaries! We did a hike or two but mostly spent our time lounging on the many beautiful beaches. Maho and Hawksnest were our favorites, but we enjoyed snorkeling at Salt Pond Bay as well.
Besides hanging out at the beach, you can hike, snorkel, check out old factory ruins and see wildlife. Some animals we saw were wild donkeys, iguanas, pelicans and all kinds of marine life! We saw small sharks (I believe it was a lemon shark) and some kind of ray!
Date Visited: May 2013
Park Established: August 2, 1956
Location: St. John, USVI
Park Fee: Free!
Return Trip? Yes! I would love to go back
Favorite Beach: Maho Bay – although I’ve heard it’s changed a lot since we were there
Favorite Hike: Caneel Hill
What I would do differently: I would make sure to visit the Visitor Center, read more about the history of the island and Taíno people, do more water sports and additional hikes.
Have you ever been to Virgin Island National Park? If not, I hope this helps future planning!
📍I acknowledge the lands mentioned in this post are the ancestral lands of the Taíno people.
The Adventures of Suze 
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