Known for its duty-free shopping and cruise ship port at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas is not to be missed on your Virgin Islands tour. When you're not diving or snorkeling the offshore reefs you'll want to take advantage of the boating, fishing, biking, kayaking, parasailing, hiking, and sightseeing vistas that St. Thomas offers.
Dive shops all over the island visit the waters of Pillsbury Sound between St. Thomas and St. John to dive several shipwrecks encrusted with bright sponges and coral. The General Rogers is a 120-foot US Coast Guard buoy tender intentionally scuttled as an artificial reef. Sitting upright in 60 feet of water, it is now home to dozens of angelfish, grunts, and goatfish. The hull is covered with colorful orange cup corals and other sponge growth.
Coki Point is a favorite hangout for tarpon. Easily accessible as a beach dive near Coral World on St. Thomas' East End, Coki Beach slopes off to a 60-foot depth. Damselfish, Sergeant Majors, and parrotfish roam the reef as swirling baitfish lure the tarpon in to feed.
Sail Rock reaches up 125 feet in the air off the West End and teems with jacks, barracuda, wrasse, and cruising turtles. Touted as the Virgin's best dive, Sail Rock is home to multihued sponges and crinoids, arrow crabs, and feather dusters among the coral and rock formations.
St. John
With over half the island dedicated to National Park, St. John is a nature-lovers dream destination. You can snorkel and dive all around the island, hike the Reef Bay Trail, camp overlooking deserted offshore cays, or just stretch out in a hammock under a waving palm tree. Between St. John and St. Thomas are two favorite dives at Carval Rock and Congo Cay. Old pirate lore says Carval Rock got its name from early St. John privateers mistaking the rock for a rival pirate ship and shooting at it. When the cannonballs bounced back off the rock, the pirates thought they were being fired upon by a Carval ship. Now this peaceful dive site is home to turtles, swarming silversides, cruising reef sharks, and waving sea rods and gorgonians. The swim-through between two towering rock faces is covered with orange cup corals and vibrant marine life.
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