Two-thirds of a mile of white sand at the head of a long, sheltered bay on St. Thomas's north shore — calm most of the year, given to the people of the Virgin Islands in 1946 and run as a public park ever since. About twenty minutes over the hill from the cruise docks, and the island's busiest beach on a ship day.
Skip today Rough — 3.3 ft WNW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast. If you go, the least bad stretch left is 8 am–11 am.
| Day | The call | Why | Best time | Cruise guests here | Sea at the beach | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | Skip today | Rough — 3.3 ft WNW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast | 8 am–11 am | None | Some chop · 2.8 ft | Thunder |
| Tomorrow | Skip today | Rough — 3.5 ft WNW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast | 10 am–1 pm | None | Rough · 3.3 ft | Thunder |
| Sun, Nov 8 | Skip today | Rough — 3.4 ft NNW swell, shore break · Busy 10 am–3 pm with ~1,600 cruise guests | 3 pm–6 pm | ~1,600, 10 am–3 pm | Rough · 3 ft | 67% |
| Mon, Nov 9 | Skip today | Sargassum offshore · Choppy — NNE swell into the bay | 3 pm–6 pm | ~650, 10 am–3 pm | Some chop · 2.3 ft | 41% |
| Tue, Nov 10 | Skip today | Sargassum offshore · Choppy — NNE swell into the bay | 8 am–11 am | ~900, 2 pm–5 pm | Gentle · 1.8 ft | 28% |
The call is the same one our beach report makes, refreshed every half hour: the swell reaching the bay (Open-Meteo's marine forecast north of the islands), the cruise passengers our crowd model puts on the sand, NOAA's sargassum satellite and the rain forecast. It is a model, not a lifeguard's report — the lifeguards and the flags on the beach have the last word. The bars under each call are the hours from 8 am to 5 pm. Today's beach report
Taxi fares from the docks and the airport, the ships that fill the beach, today's beach and weather reads and the island around it — each one opens the full page.
Magens Bay from OpenStreetMap: the sand, the park road with its parking along the beach, the Discovery Trail, and each facility where OpenStreetMap's mappers put it. The small red dots are lifeguard stands, the brown squares the covered picnic sheds. Tap a pin for its section.
Magens Bay is on the north shore, over the ridge from Charlotte Amalie. Route 35 climbs out of town, crosses the top at Drake's Seat — the lookout over the bay on every postcard — and winds down the far side to the park gate, where it ends. There is no bus to the beach: almost everyone comes by taxi, on a ship's excursion or in a rental car.
Taxis charge the official per-person fare in the table from the cruise docks, downtown and the airport. In beach hours they drop off and pick up at the taxi stand inside the park, by the main bathhouse; after hours the stand is out at the gate. Driving, the road over the hill is steep and twisting — and on the left.
| From | 1 passenger | 2+ (each) | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Havensight | $15 | $12 | 21 min · 7.8 km |
| Crown Bay | $18 | $15 | 19 min · 8.3 km |
| Charlotte Amalie | $15 | $12 | 13 min · 5.7 km |
| Airport (STT) | $18 | $15 | 23 min · 10.2 km |
| Red Hook | $18 | $14 | 21 min · 11.3 km |
| Frenchman's Reef | $18 | $14 | — |
| Ritz Carlton | $23 | $15 | — |
| Mountain Top | $15 | $12 | — |
Per person, one way: fares set by the VI Taxicab Commission (rates revised October 24, 2022); night, luggage and waiting surcharges apply. Drive times are Google's for an ordinary day. Fare calculator for any two stops
Ships in St. Thomas today · Rent or take taxis? · The St. Thomas guide
By private boat: Magens Bay by day charter on BoatCharterBid, with what captains bid to go there.
Magens Bay is a public park, run by the Magens Bay Authority — a government agency, not a resort — and everyone pays at the admissions booth at the gate. The Friends of Fairchild at Magens Bay say cards and Apple Pay are taken, and that exact cash keeps the line moving fastest.
| Visitor (non-resident), per person | $7 |
| Children 12 and under | Free |
| Parking, per vehicle | $2 |
| Virgin Islands resident, with local ID | $2 |
| Military and veterans with ID | Free parking |
| Visitor monthly pass (couple $70) | $40 |
The visitor fee went from $5 to $7 on October 1, 2023; a senator raised another increase in August 2026, but none has been set. There is no separate cruise-passenger rate. The Authority's website says children under 12 go free; the sign at the gate says 12 and under.
| The park | 7:00 am – 5:30 pm |
| Lifeguards (no set schedule) | ≈ 9 am – 4:30 pm |
| Chairs and cabanas | 8:00 am – 4:30 pm |
| Fairchild's (food till 4) | 10 am – 5 pm |
Every day. These are the Authority's hours since September 1, 2020; the sign at the gate says 7 am to 6 pm and some listings still give 8 to 5. After closing the gate is left open, but there are no lifeguards and no services — you are there at your own risk.
Checked October 14, 2026 against the Magens Bay Authority's passes and contact pages, the rules posted at the entrance, Fairchild's and the Magens Bay Beach Club. Fees and hours change: the sign at the gate is the final word, and the Authority answers on (340) 777-6300.
Everything on the sand sits between the gate at the north-east end and the quiet south-west end, along the park road behind the palms. Prices are the concessions' own, as listed in October 2026.
Toilets, changing rooms and outdoor rinse showers — semi-salt water, the Authority says, not fresh. The main bathhouse is in the middle of the beach by the taxi stand, another is at the south-west end, and the north end has two single bathrooms while Bath House 1, lost in the 2017 hurricanes, is rebuilt: work began in September 2025 and was due to finish around the end of September 2026.
The beach's bar and food concession, near the gate: pizza and beach food, cocktails and beer, 10 am to 5 pm every day with the last food order at 4 (later when ships sail late). The Friends of Fairchild note that a 15% gratuity is added to the bill.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 4.0The Magens Bay Beach Club, next to the bar, rents lounge chairs at $20 a day ($40 for two, $30 with shade) and five two-person cabanas at $100, from 8 am to 4:30 pm; booking online adds 18%. Its boutique sells swimwear and cover-ups. The coconut grove behind the sand is free shade.
WOW Water Sports — the Walk on Water stand, back in business since 2025 — rents by the hour at the north-east end: a paddleboard $35, a single kayak $30, a double kayak $45, a Sunfish sailboat $45. Snorkel gear is rented at the Beach Club. Boats stay outside the outer buoy line; the buoyed dinghy lane at the north-east end is for pick-ups and drop-offs only.
Photo: socaltraveler, CC BY-SA 3.0Seven lifeguard stands line the beach, but not all of them are staffed: there is no published schedule — roughly 9 am to 4:30 pm, with more guards on big cruise days. Swim inside the inner buoy line; the far ends of the beach are outside the patrolled zone. When big swells run into the bay the red flag goes up and no lifeguards are on duty, as in November 2024, August 2025 and February and April 2026.
Four covered pavilions with charcoal grills, picnic tables and power outlets, rented from the Authority for the day ($150) — book ahead for a party. There are picnic areas besides, first come, first served.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 4.0In 2021 Magens Bay became the first beach in the territory with a walkway for wheelchairs to the water: about 200 feet of mat from the path by the main bathhouse, and floating beach wheelchairs to borrow, first come, first served — ask at the gate. The bathhouses are wheelchair accessible, and there are accessible parking spaces along the park road.
In beach hours taxis drop off and wait at the stand by the main bathhouse; after hours the taxi stand is at the gate. The fare back is the same official per-person fare as the way out.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 4.0The Discovery Trail runs 1½ miles between the beach and a trailhead on Magens Bay Road at Canaan, with a bird-watching platform near the top: dry forest, then moist forest, then a boardwalk through the mangroves behind the sand. The Authority suggests starting at the top and walking down. By the beach is the arboretum Arthur Fairchild planted, a shady grove restocked with 160 rare and exotic trees in 1997.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 3.0The bay shelves gently over sand, and on most days it is flat enough to float for an hour — the Authority calls the shallow water perfect for children. Swim inside the inner buoy line, where the lifeguards watch; the outer line keeps boats away.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 3.0From the watersports stand at the north-east end, paddle the length of the beach or along the rocky shore of Peterborg, the peninsula on the bay's east side. Calm most of the year; on a winter north-swell day stay close in.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 4.0Magens is a swimming beach first: the middle of the bay is sand and seagrass. The fish are on the rocks at the edges — small reef fish at the south-west end, and better coral toward the north-east, out past the little cove of Little Magens. For reef right off the sand, Coki Beach on the east end is the island's easy snorkel.
A mile and a half through the forest the Nature Conservancy protected in 2002, between the beach and Magens Bay Road at Canaan, with a bird-watching platform over the bay near the top and a boardwalk through the mangroves at the bottom. Start at the top and walk down, as the Authority suggests — and arrange a taxi from the top, or walk back up.
Photo: Danivpat, CC BY 4.0The lookout at the top of the ridge, where Route 35 crosses on the way over from town, looks straight down the bay — the view on the postcards. It is part of the land the Nature Conservancy bought in 2002, and the Magens Bay Authority looks after it. Ask your taxi to stop.
Photo: Gruepig, Public domainHigher up the north-side ridge, at about 1,480 ft, Mountain Top has a deck over Magens Bay and the north shore and out to the BVI on a clear day, with a shop and a bar. Taxis run between it and the beach at the official fare.
Photo: Gruepig, CC BY-SA 4.0The next bay west: fishing boats pulled up on the sand, the island's best surf when a winter north swell runs, and The Shack, the bar next to The Hideaway at Hull Bay. It is round the headland by road, not along the shore.
Fairchild's, by the gate, is the only food in the park, and it is a bar and grill rather than a restaurant: pizza and beach food, cocktails and beer, until 4 pm for food. You are welcome to bring your own food and drinks and a cooler — just no glass — and the four picnic sheds have charcoal grills.
For a proper meal, Charlotte Amalie's restaurants are a short taxi ride back over the hill, and Mountain Top's bar is up on the ridge.
Warm all year: highs in the mid-80s °F in winter and around 90 °F in late summer, with a steady easterly trade wind and short tropical showers rather than all-day rain. December to April is the dry season — and the heart of the cruise season, when Magens is busiest.
Magens Bay faces north-west down a long bay, with Peterborg on its east side, so the easterly trade-wind swell that churns the island's east-facing beaches rarely reaches its sand: most days the water is flat and clear. The exception is winter. Swells from storms far out in the North Atlantic can run straight down the bay and break on the beach for a day or two; on the biggest days the red flag goes up, and the call at the top of this page reads the swell every half hour.
| Day | Sky | High / low | Rain | Wind | Seas offshore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | Thunderstorms | 84° / 78°F | 95% | SW 17 mph, gusts 24 | 3.1 ft |
| Tomorrow | Thunderstorms | 82° / 79°F | 88% | WSW 19 mph, gusts 26 | 3.3 ft |
| Sun, Nov 8 | Drizzle | 83° / 81°F | 67% | WSW 13 mph | 3 ft |
| Mon, Nov 9 | Partly cloudy | 83° / 81°F | 41% | NNW 7 mph | 2.4 ft |
| Tue, Nov 10 | Drizzle | 83° / 80°F | 31% | NE 14 mph | 1.8 ft |
| Wed, Nov 11 | Overcast | 83° / 82°F | 25% | E 14 mph | 2.2 ft |
| Thu, Nov 12 | Drizzle | 84° / 82°F | 25% | ESE 12 mph | 2.6 ft |
Open-Meteo forecast for St. Thomas, refreshed every half hour. The seas are offshore; how much of it reaches the sand is the call above. NWS alerts & marine forecast · North swell season
Daily-mean sea-surface temperature off St. Thomas, averaged 2021–2024 (Open-Meteo marine reanalysis): warmest in Sep (86.4°F), coolest in Feb (79.8°F).
Magens Bay is the beach St. Thomas's cruise passengers come to — the island's top cruise-excursion beach, where they brought in about 40% of the gate's revenue, the St. Thomas Source reported in 2020. On a day with several big ships in Charlotte Amalie the buses and taxis start coming over the hill from mid-morning, and the beach fills between about 9 am and 2 pm, the Beach Club says.
25 of the next 31 days have a ship in Charlotte Amalie. The busiest at Magens Bay, by our model:
Our crowd model, not a head count: it puts about 30% of each ship's passengers on Magens Bay, starting about 75 minutes after the ship is alongside and gone 90 minutes before it sails; past 2,500 on the sand we call it packed. The same model makes the call at the top of the page and on our beach report.
No — there is no public live webcam at Magens Bay that we can embed. It is the most-searched camera view on St. Thomas, and we would rather say so than show a still photo dressed up as live. The nearest live camera on the island is at Sapphire Beach, on the east end.
The Magens family own the estate behind the bay, then called Zufriedenheit — 'contentment' — and the bay keeps their name.
Arthur S. Fairchild buys the Magens Bay estate (his own account of the year; other histories say 1916) and plants the trees that become the arboretum. On the ridge, on the ruins of Louisenhøj, he builds the house known as the Castle.
Fairchild offers the park and the beach — all but a stretch at the south end — to the people of the islands.
An ordinance creates the St. Thomas Park Authority to receive the gift; today's Magens Bay Authority descends from it.
The deed is signed: about 58 acres, to be 'a Public Park for the use of the people of the Virgin Islands in perpetuity without discrimination of any kind as to race, color, creed, or natural origin.' A plaque by the gate remembers it.
President Harry S. Truman, visiting the Virgin Islands, is driven up to the Drake's Seat overlook with Governor William Hastie; the National Archives keep the photograph.
160 rare and exotic trees are planted in Fairchild's arboretum, which is again home to genip, turpentine and mahogany.
The Nature Conservancy buys 228 acres around the bay, including Drake's Seat and the western end of the beach, for a preserve of about 318 acres.
A mile and a half through the preserve, from Magens Bay Road at Canaan down to the beach.
The two hurricanes strip about 95% of the park's vegetation. It reopens on December 7, 2017, and about 530 new trees are planted with Royal Caribbean's help.
Magens becomes the territory's first beach with a walkway for wheelchairs to the water, with floating beach wheelchairs to borrow.
Entry for visitors goes from $5 to $7; children 12 and under stay free.
Work begins on replacing the bathhouse lost in 2017, with federal disaster-recovery money.
Sources: Deed of conveyance, 1946 · Friends of Fairchild at Magens Bay · Magens Bay Authority: trail and arboretum · U.S. National Archives, 1948 · VI Source, 2002 · VI Source, 2004 · St. Croix Source, 2017 · VI Consortium, 2021 · St. Thomas Source, 2023 · St. Thomas Source, 2025
The Beach Club says the beach fills between about 9 am and 2 pm when ships are in: come before or after and you will have room. The call at the top of the page shows today's ships and when their passengers are on the sand.
The U.S. Virgin Islands ban sunscreens with oxybenzone, octinoxate or octocrylene. Bring a mineral (zinc or titanium) one.
Bring a cooler and your lunch by all means, but leave glass bottles at home; only service dogs are allowed in the park.
The coconut grove behind the sand gives real shade all day. Chairs and cabanas rent from the Beach Club if you want them.
Most years, tiny sea snails called sea butterflies drift into the bay, especially at the south end. They are not venomous, if surprising.
From about November to March a north swell can close the beach to swimming for a day or two. The call at the top of the page reads the swell every day.
Skip today todaySt. ThomasCoki BeachThunderstorms in the forecast · Choppy — NW swell into the bay
Skip today todaySt. ThomasLindquist BeachThunderstorms in the forecast · Sargassum offshore
Skip today todaySt. ThomasSapphire BeachThunderstorms in the forecast · Sargassum offshore
Good todaySt. ThomasSecret HarbourGlassy, snorkel-clear water · No cruise crowd today
Skip today todaySt. ThomasMorningstar BeachRough — 2.8 ft SW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast
Skip today todaySt. ThomasBrewers BayRough — 2.8 ft SW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecastSkip today todaySt. ThomasHull BayRough — 3.3 ft WNW swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast
The island guideSt. ThomasThe airport, the cruise docks, the Red Hook ferries, taxi fares and the best beaches on a true map of St. Thomas — with today's weather and the next boat to St. John.Visitors pay $7 a person to enter Magens Bay, and children 12 and under are free; parking is $2 a vehicle. Virgin Islands residents with a local ID pay $2. You pay at the admissions booth at the gate. The fee for visitors rose from $5 to $7 on October 1, 2023.
The Magens Bay Authority opens the park from 7 am to 5:30 pm every day (the sign at the gate says 6 pm). Fairchild's bar serves food until 4 pm and closes at 5, chair and cabana rentals run 8 am to 4:30 pm, and lifeguards are on duty roughly 9 am to 4:30 pm.
About 21 minutes (7.8 km) by road from the Havensight cruise dock, and 19 minutes (8.3 km) from Crown Bay, over the hill past Drake's Seat. The official taxi fare from Havensight is $15 for one rider, $12 each for two or more.
Taxis charge fixed per-person fares set by the VI Taxicab Commission. From Charlotte Amalie it is $15 for one rider, $12 each for two or more; from the Crown Bay cruise dock $18 for one rider, $15 each for two or more; from the airport $18 for one rider, $15 each for two or more. Night, luggage and waiting surcharges apply.
It is a swimming beach first: the middle of the bay is sand and seagrass. The snorkeling is along the rocky edges — small reef fish at the south-west end, and better coral toward the north-east, past Little Magens. For reef straight off the sand, Coki Beach on the east end is the island's easy snorkel.
On cruise-ship days it is St. Thomas's busiest beach: it fills between about 9 am and 2 pm, when the excursions are there. Early mornings, late afternoons and days with no ships in Charlotte Amalie are quiet. The call at the top of this page reads each day's ships.
Yes. Food, drinks and coolers are welcome, and the park has picnic areas and four rentable sheds with charcoal grills. Glass bottles and containers are not allowed, and neither are pets (service dogs excepted), smoking between the tree line and the water, or drones without written permission.
Yes, along the park road behind the beach, for $2 a vehicle paid at the gate; military and veterans with ID park free. Parking on the beach itself is not allowed, and the park road's limit is 10 mph.
Yes, from stands along the beach, roughly 9 am to 4:30 pm, though not every stand is staffed and there is no published schedule. On red-flag days, when big swells run into the bay, there are no lifeguards on duty, and the far ends of the beach are outside the patrolled zone.
The bay is long and opens to the north-west, away from the easterly trade winds and their swell, with the Peterborg peninsula along its east side. Only winter swells from the north reach the sand, and on those few days the waves break on the beach and the red flag goes up.
The people of the Virgin Islands. Arthur S. Fairchild gave the beach and about 58 acres behind it in a deed signed on December 27, 1946, as a public park for the people of the Virgin Islands in perpetuity, and the Magens Bay Authority, a government agency, runs it.
No public live stream we can embed. Magens Bay is the most-searched camera view on St. Thomas, but there is no embeddable public feed for it. The nearest live camera on the island is at Sapphire Beach, on the east end.