Today is the day we decided to head back to Magen’s Bay in St. Thomas. We had the best time here last time we were in the Caribbean. To get to Magen’s Bay is an adventure. A car ride down the mountain, through the 8 miles of twists and turns, into Cruz Bay to our go to parking lot, a walk down to the Ferry dock where we wait for the ferry to take us to St Thomas. The ferry ride is a quick, easy 20-minute ride to Red Hook, St. Thomas.
After exiting the ferry, there is a bunch of cabbies just waiting to take you anywhere you want to go. Keep in mind when traveling from St. John to St. Thomas, that you go to Red Hook and not Charlotte Amalie where the Cruise ships dock. If you take the Ferry there, not only will you fight a multitude of cruise ships guests for a cab, but they will charge you a lot more money. We had a few cabbies fighting over us and we decided to go with the dude with the seashell dashboard. His entire dashboard was covered with seashells! A nice couple joined us who were from a cruise ship but made their way to Red Hook. The ride is a about a 30-40-minute ride to Magen’s Bay. Actually longer than I anticipated. A couple times I questioned if we were in fact going the right way. St. Thomas has just been decimated by the last few hurricanes and you can see the long road to recovery. Many parts of St. Thomas are filled with garbage, dilapidated houses and buildings and devastation at every turn. It looks more like a third world country than a popular Caribbean vacation spot. It was sad to see the damage the hurricanes left and the struggles to come back.
We finally made it Magen’s Bay and quickly made our way to the beach to grab our spot on the sand, get some chairs and floats and start our day! The nice thing about Magen’s Bay is they rent chairs, umbrella’s, floats, have a great gift shop and a rather ample food menu. The wait staff bring drinks and food to you, so you never have to leave the warm waters and soft sand. Today the water was fairly still, super warm and we had a great spot right near the water. The waitress soon began bringing drinks and we dined on a gourmet lunch of pizza & gyros.
After a long day of salty fun, we grabbed a cab for the ride back to the ferry dock, and cruise back to St. John. Before we jumped in the car, we decided to stop for dinner at a water front restaurant in Cruz Bay called High Tide. High Tide was ok, your typical bar with your typical bar food. Our orders ranged from burgers to fish sandwiches to conch fritters to quesadilla and all were just ok. This place is great if your drinking and just want some mediocre bar food in your belly. Don’t go expecting a gourmet meal but enjoy it for what it is. A bar where the view is better than the food.
We headed back to the villa to rest up for our next day’s adventure!