A strip of sand along Route 63 about a mile north of the Frederiksted pier, on the sheltered west side of St. Croix, facing the sunset. At its south end a beach bar runs the food, drinks and bathrooms and a water-sports stand rents chairs, umbrellas, kayaks and jet skis; there is no gate and nothing to pay to use the beach.
Think twice Sargassum offshore · Choppy — NW swell into the bay. The best stretch left today is 8 am–11 am.
| Day | The call | Why | Best time | Cruise guests here | Sea at the beach | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | Think twice | Sargassum offshore · Choppy — NW swell into the bay | 8 am–11 am | None | Some chop · 2.3 ft | 99% |
| Tomorrow | Skip today | Rough — 3.0 ft W swell, shore break · Thunderstorms in the forecast | 8 am–11 am | None | Some chop · 2.8 ft | Thunder |
| Sun, Nov 8 | Skip today | Sargassum offshore · Choppy — NW swell into the bay | 3 pm–6 pm | None | Some chop · 2.2 ft | 82% |
| Mon, Nov 9 | Think twice | Busy 10 am–3 pm with ~650 cruise guests · Sargassum offshore | 8 am–11 am | ~650, 10 am–3 pm | Calm · 0.3 ft | 91% |
| Tue, Nov 10 | Think twice | Busy 10 am–3 pm with ~650 cruise guests · Sargassum offshore | 8 am–11 am | ~650, 10 am–3 pm | Calm · 0.2 ft | 74% |
The call is the same one our beach report makes, refreshed every half hour: the swell reaching the west shore (Open-Meteo's marine forecast), 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: look at the water before you go in. The bars under each call are the hours from 8 am to 5 pm. Today's beach report
The ships at the Frederiksted pier, the taxi fares, today's beach and weather reads and the island around it — each one opens the full page.
Rainbow Beach from OpenStreetMap: the sand along Hams Bluff Road (Route 63), the bar at the south end where Prosperity Road comes down to the shore, and the street-side parking and the short path to the sand that OpenStreetMap's mappers have drawn. The water-sports stand, beside the bar, is not on OpenStreetMap. Tap a pin for its section.
Rainbow Beach is on Hams Bluff Road (Route 63), the coast road that runs north out of Frederiksted along the west shore. From the cruise pier it is about 1.2 miles (2 km) by road: north along the waterfront past the fort and Frederiksted Beach, then out of town past La Grange, to the bar and the rental stand at the south end of the sand, where Prosperity Road comes down to the shore.
The Taxicab Commission posts no fare to Rainbow Beach — its sheet has rows to La Grange, just south, and Sprat Hall, just north, which a driver may use as a guide. Agree the fare, and a pick-up time, before you set off. Driving, there is street-side parking along the road behind the beach.
Ships at Frederiksted today · St. Croix taxi fares · Rent or take taxis? · The St. Croix guide
There is no gate at Rainbow Beach and nothing to pay to use it: it is a public beach with no park authority, no attendant and no posted hours. What costs money is the gear. The prices and hours below are West End Water Sports' own, as listed in October 2026; Rhythms, the bar beside it, publishes no prices we could find.
| The beach | Free |
| Two loungers and an umbrella, for the day | $40 |
| Umbrella / lounger / float, each | $20 / $15 / $10 |
| Jet ski on your own, 30 min / 1 hour | $85 / $160 |
| Guided jet ski tour, 45 / 75 minutes | $160 / $220 |
| A passenger on a jet ski | $20 |
| ATV or side-by-side tour, 2 hours | $165 |
Beach rentals are for the whole day and the stand sets them up and collects them at sunset. Kayaks (single and double), paddleboards and snorkel gear are rented by the hour, but no price is published — ask at the stand or on (340) 277-8295. Jet-ski drivers must be 16 or over, with a parent or guardian of 21 or over signing for them, and bring a card and matching ID; one rider per ski on the tour. Cancellations inside 24 hours are not refunded.
| The beach | Open access |
| Chairs and umbrellas | 10:30 am – sunset |
| On cruise-ship days | 8 am – sunset |
| Rhythms (food, drinks, bathrooms) on ship days | From 10:30 am |
West End Water Sports says it may close early in the off season, September to November, and asks for a reservation then. Rhythms publishes no opening hours of its own that we could find; the 10:30 am opening on ship days is West End Water Sports' note.
Checked October 15, 2026 against West End Water Sports: beach rentals, jet ski rentals, jet ski tours, ATV tours, DPNR's beach advisory of October 9, 2026, of September 25, 2026 and the St. Croix Source on the sunscreen law. Prices and hours change: call the stand before you plan round them. DPNR tests the beach each week and posts the result as a beach advisory; it also tests Prosperity Beach separately; (340) 773-1082 on St. Croix.
Everything is at the south end, where Prosperity Road meets the shore: the bar and the rental stand side by side, with the loungers and umbrellas on the sand in front. North of them the sand runs on along the road, with street-side parking behind it. Prices are West End Water Sports' own, as listed in October 2026.
About half a mile of sand between Route 63 and the sea, by OpenStreetMap's outline, busiest at the south end by the bar and quieter as you walk north. It faces west, on the lee side of the island away from the trade-wind swell, and the water is usually very calm, West End Water Sports says. We found no lifeguard service listed for Rainbow Beach: swim with someone, and stay clear of the jet skis' ride area.
The beach bar and grill at the south end. West End Water Sports, next door, says Rhythms runs the bathrooms and the food and drinks on the beach and opens at 10:30 am on cruise-ship days. Rhythms publishes no website, menu or hours that we could find, so check before you plan a meal round it.
Photo: Андрей Бобровский, CC BY 3.0West End Water Sports, beside Rhythms, rents for the day and sets up and collects for you: two loungers and an umbrella $40, an umbrella $20, a lounger $15, a float $10, side tables too. It opens at 10:30 am, at 8 am on cruise-ship days, when guests who booked ahead get a spot near the front, and packs up at sunset. Book online or on (340) 277-8295.
The same stand rents jet skis to ride on your own — $85 for half an hour, $160 for an hour, inside a ride area of about a square mile, it says — and runs guided tours down the coast to Sandy Point and up to Hams Bluff ($160 for 45 minutes, $220 for 75). Single and double kayaks, paddleboards and snorkel gear go by the hour; those prices are not published. Drivers must be 16 or over, with a parent or guardian of 21 or over signing for them.
OpenStreetMap maps street-side parking along Route 63 behind the beach, one stretch of it named Rainbow Beach Parking, with a short path from the road down to the sand. It is free; we found no posted charge. The road is the island's coast road, so pull right off it.
Photo: Андрей Бобровский, CC BY 3.0The west shore is the sheltered side of St. Croix, and on most days the water off Rainbow Beach is calm enough to float in — the rental stand rents floats for exactly that. The beach faces due west across open sea, so the sun goes down over the water; the stand's rentals run until sunset.
Photo: Eoghanacht, CC0West End Water Sports' guided tour runs south from the beach past the cruise pier to Sandy Point, the turtle-nesting refuge at the island's south-west tip, about three and a half miles, then north to Hams Bluff at the north-west point, where the old Danish-era lighthouse stands on the cliffs. 45 or 75 minutes, one rider to a ski.
Photo: N2theBlue Scuba Diving, CC BY-SA 4.0A mile south, the red-walled Danish fort by the pier was built between 1752 and 1760; on July 3, 1848, the governor-general proclaimed the end of slavery in the Danish West Indies there. It holds a museum today. Frederiksted's waterfront, its restaurants and the pier are round it.
Photo: Prayitno, CC BY 2.0The beach just north of the fort, a short walk from the pier, is the nearest sand to the ships. Rainbow Beach is the next stretch north, past La Grange, with the bar and the rentals.
Photo: Андрей Бобровский, CC BY 3.0South of town, past the pier, the island's south-west tip is a national wildlife refuge kept for nesting leatherback, green and hawksbill turtles. Its long beach is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays, September to March, from 10 am to 4 pm.
Rhythms, at the south end of the beach, is the food and drink on the sand: a bar and grill that also runs the bathrooms, West End Water Sports says. It publishes no menu or hours we could find. You can bring your own food and drinks to a public beach; take your rubbish home.
For more choice, Frederiksted's waterfront is a mile south, round the fort and the pier.
Warm all year: highs in the mid-80s °F and a steady easterly trade wind, with short tropical showers rather than all-day rain. December to April is the dry season and the heart of the cruise season. June to November is hurricane season, with the peak from mid-August to mid-October — and September to November is the water-sports stand's off season, when it may close early.
Rainbow Beach faces west, on the far side of the island from the trade wind, so the easterly swell that works on St. Croix's east and south shores rarely reaches it, and the water is usually calm. Now and then a big swell from a distant storm still reaches the west shore. The call at the top of this page reads the swell every half hour.
| Day | Sky | High / low | Rain | Wind | Seas offshore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | Showers | 85° / 77°F | 96% | SW 13 mph, gusts 29 | 2.6 ft |
| Tomorrow | Thunderstorms | 84° / 76°F | 96% | SW 14 mph, gusts 32 | 3 ft |
| Sun, Nov 8 | Thunderstorms | 85° / 76°F | 75% | WSW 10 mph, gusts 22 | 2.7 ft |
| Mon, Nov 9 | Drizzle | 87° / 79°F | 90% | NW 4 mph, gusts 10 | 2.2 ft |
| Tue, Nov 10 | Drizzle | 85° / 79°F | 81% | ENE 10 mph, gusts 19 | 1.9 ft |
| Wed, Nov 11 | Overcast | 87° / 81°F | 75% | ENE 10 mph, gusts 24 | 2.1 ft |
| Thu, Nov 12 | Drizzle | 87° / 81°F | 53% | ESE 8 mph, gusts 21 | 2.8 ft |
Open-Meteo forecast for St. Croix, 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. Croix, averaged 2021–2024 (Open-Meteo marine reanalysis): warmest in Oct (86.5°F), coolest in Feb (80.2°F).
Cruise ships call at the Frederiksted pier, a mile south, and Rainbow Beach is one of the nearest beaches to it — passengers come by taxi, on a booked beach day or on foot. On a ship day the rental stand opens at 8 am instead of 10:30 and Rhythms from 10:30 am. The days below are our crowd model's.
13 of the next 31 days have a ship in Frederiksted. The busiest at Rainbow Beach, by our model:
Our crowd model, not a head count: it puts about 30% of each ship's passengers on Rainbow Beach, starting about 75 minutes after the ship is alongside and gone 90 minutes before it sails; past 800 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 Rainbow Beach, and no embeddable camera anywhere on St. Croix at the moment. We would rather say so than show a still photo dressed up as live. The nearest live cameras are on St. Thomas and Water Island, about 40 miles north.
The estate behind the beach is founded as a sugar plantation and rum distillery, Olasee Davis writes; it is first called Prosperity in the 1780s.
Denmark-Norway builds the fort at Frederiksted, a mile south, to guard the town's deep-water anchorage.
Prosperity's owners record 450 acres, about 350 of them in sugar cane, worked by about 113 enslaved Africans.
Frederik von Scholten draws Plantation Prosperity: the windmill, the works and the great house under the hills.
Some 8,000 enslaved people march on Frederiksted, and Governor-General Peter von Scholten proclaims emancipation at Fort Frederik.
A labour revolt sets much of Frederiksted on fire.
Frederik J. Christensen and his wife Frances Elcock buy Prosperity; for a time it is a nightclub, the Plantation.
Hugo wrecks about 85% of St. Croix and destroys Frederiksted's old pier.
Robert Apfel buys Estate Prosperity and grows sugar cane on more than 100 acres of it.
Sources: Olasee Davis, St. Thomas Source, 2026 · Wikipedia: Fort Frederik · Wikipedia: Frederiksted · Frederik von Scholten, 1838 · Danish National Archives, 1848 · St. Croix Source, 2026
West End Water Sports opens at 8 am when a ship is in, and guests who booked ahead get a spot near the front. Without a ship it opens at 10:30.
There is no posted fare to Rainbow Beach. Agree the total and a pick-up time before you set off — or walk the 1.2 miles from the pier along Route 63.
The rental stand's jet skis run off the beach. Keep clear of them when you swim, and stay where the drivers can see you.
The U.S. Virgin Islands ban the sale of sunscreens with oxybenzone, octinoxate or octocrylene. Bring a mineral (zinc or titanium) one.
From September to November the rental stand may close early; it asks for a reservation then.
The beach faces west over open sea. The rentals stay out until sunset.
Think twice todaySt. CroixBuck IslandSargassum offshore · Choppy — SSW swell into the bay
Skip today todaySt. CroixProtestant CayDPNR water test failed — unsafe for swimming (advisory of Oct 16)
Skip today todaySt. CroixCane BayDPNR water test failed — unsafe for swimming (advisory of Oct 16)Good todaySt. CroixFrederiksted BeachNo cruise crowd today · Choppy — SSW swell into the bay
St. CroixSandy PointWild & empty · Sea turtles · Check opening days
The island guideSt. CroixGetting from St. Thomas to St. Croix by seaplane or ferry, the airport, taxi fares, Buck Island, Christiansted, Frederiksted and every main beach on a true map.Nothing: Rainbow Beach is a public beach with no gate or entry fee. West End Water Sports rents two loungers and an umbrella for $40 for the day, an umbrella for $20 and a lounger for $15, as listed in October 2026.
About 1.2 miles (2 km) by road to the south end of the sand, north along Hams Bluff Road (Route 63) past the fort, Frederiksted Beach and La Grange. Most people take a taxi; some walk it along the road.
The VI Taxicab Commission posts no fare to Rainbow Beach. Its St. Croix sheet has fares to La Grange, just south of the beach, and Sprat Hall, just north, which drivers may use as a guide. Agree the total — St. Croix fares are a flat rate for one or two riders, then per person — and a pick-up time before you set off.
Yes. Rhythms at Rainbow Beach, the bar and grill at the south end, runs the food, drinks and bathrooms, West End Water Sports says, and opens at 10:30 am on cruise-ship days. Rhythms publishes no hours or menu that we could find.
Yes, from West End Water Sports: $85 for 30 minutes or $160 for an hour on your own, or a guided tour to Sandy Point and Hams Bluff at $160 for 45 minutes and $220 for 75. Drivers must be 16 or over, with a parent or guardian of 21 or over signing for a minor, and bring a card with matching ID.
Usually. It faces west, on the sheltered side of St. Croix away from the trade-wind swell, and the rental stand calls the water usually very calm. Swells from distant storms can still reach the west shore; the call at the top of this page reads the swell every half hour.
DPNR tests it for bacteria every week. It met the standard for October 5–9, 2026, and in the August and September tests we checked. DPNR advises staying out of storm runoff and thick sargassum, and we found no lifeguard service listed at the beach.
Yes, along Hams Bluff Road (Route 63) behind the beach; we found no charge posted. Pull right off the road, and leave nothing in the car.
It is one of the beaches closest to the Frederiksted pier, so yes: on a ship day the rental stand opens at 8 am and the passengers arrive through the morning. The call and the cruise days on this page come from our crowd model and the ship schedule.
No. There is no public live webcam at Rainbow Beach and no embeddable camera on St. Croix at the moment; the nearest live cameras are on St. Thomas and Water Island, about 40 miles north.