Virgin Islands Ecotours | Enjoy USVI Tours: Kayak, Hike & Snorkel

When staying in the US Virgin Islands, whether you’re on St. Thomas or St. John, you’re surrounded by other islands you’re going to want to explore. Between the USVI and BVI, there are countless snorkel spots, beach bars, and other iconic locales. This is why the region is known as a boater’s paradise. You can hop on a boat for the day and island hop, easily seeing several different stops within the daylight hours.

If you’d like to go boating, the first question to determine is whether you’d like to rent a boat or charter a boat. In general, our recommendation is always to charter a boat whenever you can. In fact, all of the boat trips on our website are charters. Here’s why:

When you charter a boat, it comes with a Captain (and sometimes crew) who knows the boat. They will be familiar with how to operate it, how it has been maintained, and where all of the necessary equipment is located.
When you charter a boat, your Captain is also knowledgeable about the region. This means that they will not only know where to avoid hazardous conditions (you won’t get stuck on a reef!), but they also know fun stops and cool secret spots to explore.
When you charter a boat, no one in your group needs to worry about being the designated driver. Everyone can imbibe all the Painkillers and Bushwackers they desire without jeopardizing the safety of the passengers or the boat.

When you charter a boat, there is always someone to stay with the boat, if need be. Whether there’s limited space at a dock, not enough mooring balls, or everyone wants to snorkel to shore, your Captain can stay with the boat while you all continue the fun.
When you charter a boat, there are typically more amenities that come with it than a bareboat rental. That means you may have access to snorkel gear, floats, coolers, and more. Check out the charter boat options to see which boats offer which amenities.

Renting a boat is definitely an option if you’re familiar with the area and have boating experience. However, even with that in mind, chartering a boat with a captain allows everyone onboard to have a safe, positive, stress-free experience for the day.

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A person is sitting in a chair on a beach under a palm tree.

Our Favorite St. John Photo Ops

By Chrissann Nickel • March 27, 2025

St. John is an incredibly picturesque island. Those white sand beaches, the sparkling aquamarine water, and those dramatic green hillsides… both locals and visitors alike can’t resist pulling out their phones to snap one more picture, again and again. And don’t get us started on those Virgin Islands sunsets! Whether you’re a first time visitor to the island, or will be coming back soon on your 36th annual vacation, every trip to STJ is special—and every trip is worth commemorating with fresh photos. One of our newest experiences that we’re excited to offer is our Private Photoshoot Tour . On it, you’ll be matched with a talented professional photographer who will take you to some of St. John’s most stunning photo ops and take photos of you that are 1,000x better in framing, lighting, and style than those your well-meaning taxi driver took for you off the side of the road (he tried his best, but… we said what we said ;) ). In celebration of this new tour, we thought we would share some of our personal favorite photography spots on St. John. Here they are, in no particular order: