Best Beach to visit

Help! Looking to do a beach day in either St. Thomas or St. John. We are cruising Carnival so it can be either through the ship or not. Give me the good, bad, and ugly!

Just read the threads just below this one, there is a wealth of information right there! ;)

Once you decide what type of experience you are looking for (snorkeling vs relaxing, shade vs full sun, calm vs wavy, and crowded vs quiet) you will also have a good feel for the different beach choices and will get more useful advice on the best beach.

You can also read the first post and some of the replies in this thread -

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1993432

Help! Looking to do a beach day in either St. Thomas or St. John. We are cruising Carnival so it can be either through the ship or not. Give me the good, bad, and ugly!

Coki Beach - Best snorkeling I've seen and we've been quite a few places. Crowded. Has facilities.

Magen's Bay - Great relaxing beach. Not crowded when we went. Beautiful! Has facilities.

Sapphire Beach - High waves when we went. I didn't snorkel.

Trunk Bay, St. John - Awesome, beautiful. Very good snorkeling. Will be a stretch from a cruise ship. Less time on beach, more travel time.

My favorite is Coki beach. It is $10/pp taxi ride from the ship, has food & drinks, chairs and umbrellas for rent, nice clear, calm water.

Our favorite beaches for snorkeling -

Sapphire - gorgeous water colors and island views, abundant natural shade and all the amenities you want, usually calm and great snorkeling with the reef and seagrass areas.

Lindqvist - cannot comment on the snorkeling but arguably one of the nicest beaches we've seen anywhere.

Secret Harbor - smaller bay and quite calm, less shade but has a beach restaurant.

Our favorite beaches for non-snorkelers -

Sapphire - Just because it's so beautiful!

Lindbergh Bay (aka Emerald beach) - Very nice beach and water, great spot to relax close to Crown Bay.

Hull Bay Nice secluded bay away from the crowds on the north side, if the bar/restaurant is open it's perfect, if not pack a lunch.

All of these are on STT, if going to STJ Cinnamon is very nice and not as crowded as Trunk.