Beach Life in St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands

When you spend your next vacation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, or, your planning a trip to the beach, go visit Buck Island.
You will understand why once your there, why it was rated as one of the top ten beaches, by National Geographic in the world. The beauty alone speaks for itself.

The Island is five miles out from Christansted, St. Croix. It is overseen by the U.S. National Park Service.
There are chartered boats, that sail daily giving a tour of the Island. Buck Island Reef National Monument, is surrounded by 700 acres of the Caribbean Sea, and 1800 acres of coral reef. There are about ninety spices of fish, and many species of coral. The Island is only habitated by leatherback turtles, green turtles, and hawksbill. Now there is a stingray, who they call Sammy, and he is someone you will see once you get to the island. But don't worry he is friendly.

You can either spend the whole day on the Island, half a day, or you can enjoy the sunset sails. A full day begins at 9:30 am, and ends at 4:30pm, the half day is at 12 noon, until 4:30pm. On your sail there you get to stop at the beach, snorkel. There is gear for rent, for those of you who cannot swim and want to be adventurous, you can get snorkel gear, and lessons. You get to explore the underwater nature trail. The Charters have guides who are experience swimmers, divers, and friendly. They will help you or your young ones, to explore the undersea life.

You will get to see the beautiful parrot fish, the anglefish and blue tangs. The different spices of coral, the staghorn corals which are 30 feet from the bottom of the sea, the brain corals, and star corals, are surrounding the reef. There are only two areas that the park service has designated for scuba diving. The shallow 40 foot dives, go throuh lots of elkhorn coral. During the all day tour, you can relax, in the picnic areas, walk the trails on the island. The picnic areas provide tables, charcoal grills, and restrooms. Many of the charted tours offers snacks, hamburgers, hot dogs. Beer and sodas, bottled water are sold. Once you contact the chartered tours, they will guide you on what to bring, and what not to bring.

The sunset sails at Buck Island offers a breathtaking view of the sunsetting. They offer a compliementary fruit punch and rum punch. There is a ordained minister, who owns one of the charters, so if you want to plan a wedding, this is a perfect spot.

National Park Service Contact Info:
340-773-1460
BUIS_Superintendent@nps.gov