Our 10 Year Anniversary Trip to the Virgin Islands and Virgin Islands National Park

Lauren Barrett

At the beginning of 2025, we began to make plans for our 10-year anniversary on June 20, 2025. 

We knew we wanted to go somewhere tropical, without kids, and somewhere where we could relax. 

Our plans for the trip were to have no plans. Or relatively few plans. 

With crossing off national parks on our bucket list, we decided to go to the U.S. Virgin Islands since there is a national park there.

We had such a good time there. I'll break down what where we stayed and what we did. 

Virgin Islands Facts

• There are both the US VI and the British VI. We were in the US VI. 
• No passport needed to get there.
• They drive on the left hand side. 
• Manners are extremely important. You must always greet them with either a “Good morning, afternoon, or evening” before speaking. Ladies always go first. 
• The VI gave birth to three main islands: St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. 
• We stayed on St. Thomas where the airport is. 
• The national park is on St. John which you can get to by a ferry that leaves every hour on the hour. 
• There are TONS of taxis to take you around the island. The price for this taxis can be expensive, so if you are planning on doing a lot of exploring, I would rent a car. 
• The island is very hilly so 4-wheel drive is a must. 

Where We Stayed

We got a room through Crystal Cove Resort at Sapphire Beach. It was about a 30 minute ride from the airport. Sapphire Beach is minutes away from Red Hook which has the ferry, lots of restaurants, and a grocery store. 

Here are the pros of where we stayed: 

• 100 yards from the beach. 
• The beach had crystal clear water, a white sandy beach, and calm waters. 
• You could rent lounge chairs for the day for $15. You could also rent snorkeling gear, cabanas, and watercraft like kayaks and paddleboards. 
• There were four restaurants right next to the beach: A bar and grill, a pizza restaurant, a coffee/ice cream/breakfast spot, and an upscale dining restaurant on the second floor with awesome views of the ocean. 
• There was the cutest boutique and the coffee shop also sold supplies.
• Good vibes - fun, good music, live music on Sundays, corn hole, not too crowded but not too quiet. 

Here are the cons of where we stayed: 

• The room wasn't as nice as it was advertised. The bathroom was honestly dirty and so were the closets. We wished it would have been nicer since this was our anniversary trip. 
• The pool was probably a five minute walk and left much to be desired. The actual pool was nice with the views but the lounge chairs were run down and there was an empty spot where there used to be a bar. We only went to the pool once and then never came back. The beach was honestly better. 

What We Did

As mentioned, our goal for this trip was to do as little as possible. Most of our vacations in the last 10 years have been jammed back, adventurous, and fun but tiring. 

We just wanted to relax, read, write, and talk to each other without kids interrupting us. We achieved that with where we stand. 

So, in terms of exploring the island and trying different restaurants, I have little recommendations about that. We ate in Red Hook once. 

However, we did two things which I highly recommend. One we preplanned and the other we decided to do while on the trip. 

Afternoon Snorkel, Pizza & Sunset Tour departing from St. Thomas & St. John

​This was the best excursion/tour I have ever been on. No wonder it has a 4.9 rating with over 1,000 reviews. We LOVED this. It was only $120 a person. 

This 5 1/2 hour excursion takes you on a boat ride into the national park. You do two 1-hour snorkel excursions. In between, you get snacks. 

After the second snorkel excursion, they open the bar up for drinks and that's when the party begins. Music, dancing, and a pizza delivery from a floating pizza restaurant. 

So fun and 100% recommend!

Trunk Bay

We decided to take the ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay St John to see the national park by land. 

Once we docked, we grabbed a taxi to take us to Trunk Bay, voted World's Best Beach in 2024. 

We wished we had preplanned this a bit more because the beach facilities closed at 4PM, and we got there at 2PM. 

We still had a good time. We rented beach chairs and a floatie. You can also rent snorkel gear.  There is also a place to get food, a retail store, and showers/restrooms. 

Afterwards, we stayed on the island for dinner and took the ferry back when we were finished. 

Overall

We had a really nice time staying on the Virgin Islands. We aren't the people who usually go back to a spot more than once, but I'm really glad we chose the VI for our anniversary destination. 

And I would absolutely recommend this island to anyone. The weather, beaches, vibes, and food were top notch. 

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L​auren Barrett is a multi-passionate mom working to help all people become their best selves and build positive relationships with the people around them. She has a degree in deaf education and a Master’s in Reading Education. She is a high school teacher of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing, a former cross country coach, a writer/author, and a full time mom to an amazing 6-year old and 5-month old. Lauren is a 3x author, including children’s book,Henry’s Hiccups, and parenting guide Now What? Mindful Checklists for Life’s Hard Parenting Moments. She is a blogger at Lauren Barrett Writes. Currently, she is grieving her loving mom’s unexpected death and devoting her time to helping people learn about grief, insomnia, and anxiety in honor of her mom. She loves her faith, running, visiting MLB stadiums with her husband, chocolate, scrapbooking, pretending she would actually do well on the Amazing Race, re-watching The Office, listening to Bobby Bones, and helping out all moms. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, James, and son, Henry. Follow her on her blog and get her free kind for sleep and anxiety, Stress Free Sleep.