Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay is the beach that appears whenever the Virgin Islands are photographed: a long crescent of very fine white sand curving round water that grades from clear to deep turquoise, with a small green cay sitting just offshore. It sits inside Virgin Islands National Park, which is why the hillside behind it is forest rather than hotels. Its distinctive feature is an underwater snorkelling trail, a marked route out along the reef with plaques set on the seabed identifying corals and fish as you swim over them, one of the first of its kind anywhere. Facilities are unusually good for a park beach, with showers, lockers and snorkel hire. Cruise passengers arrive by the taxi-load in the middle of the day.

What you actually see

• The underwater trail - marked plaques along the reef identifying corals and fish.
• The beach itself - fine white sand and graded turquoise water.
• The overlook - the classic view down onto the bay from the North Shore Road.
• The park forest - undeveloped hillside behind the sand.

When to go

December to April is the dry season and the peak; summer is hotter and wetter with a hurricane risk from August into October. Arrive before ten or after three to avoid the cruise-ship taxis, which fill the beach in the middle of the day.

Honest expectations

It is the busiest beach on St John and, between about eleven and two on a cruise day, genuinely crowded, which undercuts the postcard. There is an entry fee, unusually for a Caribbean beach. Coral along the trail has suffered from bleaching and hurricanes, so it is not what it was, and several neighbouring bays now snorkel better.

Nearby

Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay are along the same north shore; Cruz Bay is fifteen minutes west.