St. John, USVI Attractions

St. John offers visitors numerous attractions and activities. There is also an opportunity to experience firsthand the many plants, flowers, trees, birds, fish and other marine inhabitants of the island.. 

Sun & Fun 

The dazzling-clear waters and soft white sandy beaches of St. John  offer superb swimming and sun-bathing activities. Popular beaches include Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay and Salt Pond. A few feet off the shores of St. John, scuba  divers enjoy the activity of exploring miles of coral reefs teeming with colorful sea life. St. John On Foot And By Car contains easy-to follow identification guides to the fish, coral and other marine inhabitants of the island. Other popular visitor activities include kayaking, hiking, fishing, sailing, horseback riding and ecological tours.

Moving inland, vacationers discover another attraction – the wealth of the forest, with its abundantly rich array of fauna and flora. Hikers can penetrate the dense greenery of St. John  with relative ease, thanks to an elaborate network of well-cleared paths. Following the Cinnamon Bay Loop Trail and the Reef Bay Trail, detailed in St. John On Foot And By Car, visitors are likely to see all sorts of woodland attractions including lizards, hermit crabs, spiders and wild donkeys. Termites have created huge brown ball-like houses seen dangling from tree trunks. Termites, St. John visitors discover, do not kill living trees, even though they use them to support their homes. 

Wild donkeys are part of St. John colorful patchwork of fauna and flora. Watch out when driving or walking down trails on St. John. They often appear quite unexpectedly, caution the authors of St. John On Foot And By Car. Donkeys were once the principal means of transportation on St. John. Now they roam freely and often cause lots of mischief by digging up gardens and upsetting campsites. It is perfectly okay to snap photographs from a safe distance,  but do not attempt to pet or feed these animals. Remember, they are “wild” and are often not quite as friendly as they may appear. 

Indian Artifacts 

Artifacts of Pre-Columbian Indians have been discovered on St John. Most notable are the Taino Indian “petroglyphs” (rock carvings), which are described in the Reef Bay Trail Hike of the book. Viewing the many Taino pottery images that have been unearthed at Cinnamon Bay is an exciting activity.

Historic Sites 

The architecture on St. John reflects the colonial Danish influence. The habit of driving on the left in the USVI is also a Danish remnant. Old plantation names on St. John such as Carolina, Enighed and Adrian are used to identify various areas of the island. For a firsthand sense of the past, St. John On Foot And By Car leads visitors on a tour of several old Danish sugar plantations, including the ruins at Annaberg, Cinnamon Bay and Reef Bay. The ghost-like images of these abandoned structures are to tourists haunting reminders of the history of slavery on St. John.

Annaberg is one of the most visited historic attractions on St. John. The sugar mill was probably built shortly before 1780. One of Annaberg’s first recorded owners was Benjamin Lind, a very wealthy man from St. Thomas.. Down through the years most of Annaberg’s owners have been "absentee owners". In 1816, Annaberg was sold to Thomas and Mary Sheen, and in 1827, it was auctioned off to Hans Henrik Berg, another wealthy St. Thomas resident. Following Berg, there was a succession of owners until the estate was finally purchased by the Virgin Islands National Park in 1956. The National Park stabilized the ruins and restored many of the buildings for the enjoyment of tourists. The windmill is one of the largest in the USVI.

There is a marked walking trail that guides tourists through the Annaberg ruins. St. John On Foot And By Car takes visitors from one marker to the next, explaining the significance and history of the many fascinating aspects of the Annaberg sugar factory and outbuildings. 

It is often difficult for tourists to comprehend how hard life must have been for a slave on St. John. The misery began from the moment a slave was sold into bondage. Conditions were so bad on some slave ships that  passengers were lucky to survive the crossing. Those slaves that managed to make it, had next to face the denigration of the auction block. The following excerpt is incorporated into the guidebook from Virgin Islands historian Antonio Jarvis’ book, Brief History of the Virgin Islands. “At the time,” writes Jarvis, “slave auctions were the most exciting event of any month. When the slaver entered the port, the white inhabitants rushed to the water’s edge and took to boats in order to get a preview of the living cargo…Despite the unholy stench and the ravages of filth from the voyage, the partly washed freight tried to put on a look of complacence, save where some untamed chieftain in lofty tones demanded his release, or a hysterical woman alternately screamed or sobbed.  “When the slaves were finally put ashore and marched to the auction block,” continues Jarvis, “a huge crowd of prospective buyers, sailors, prostitutes and free blacks, with earrings and store clothes, gathered to see the sale....Women had to suffer the degradation of being minutely examined in public.”