Getting Around the U.S. Virgin Islands

You drive on the left, and a federal agency says so.

The National Park Service, on its basic information page for Virgin Islands National Park, writes under the heading Drive on the Left and Walk on the Right: We drive on the left here in the Virgin Islands.

That is a United States federal agency describing a United States territory, and it catches out almost every American visitor. The cars are ordinary left-hand-drive American vehicles; the road is the other way round. The result is that the driver sits on the side of the car nearest the middle of the road, which is the opposite of everywhere else either habit comes from.

The Park Service adds the practical instruction: pay extra attention when making turns, pulling out into traffic or crossing the road. Turns are where the habit reasserts itself, and junctions are where it matters.

Walking, which has its own rule here.

The same page continues: when walking on the side of the road, please walk facing traffic which would be the right side of the road.

That follows from the first rule and is easy to get backwards. If you drive on the left, you walk on the right. There are stretches of road here with no sidewalk at all, so this is a safety instruction rather than an etiquette one.

Why St John has no airport.

The Park Service records that there are no airports on St. John, so a visitor flies into the Cyril E. King Airport on St Thomas and travels on from there, renting a car or taking a taxi to the east end of St Thomas and then crossing by water.

Plan the connection rather than assuming it. An arrival at St Thomas is not an arrival on St John, and the last leg is a boat.

The car barge and the passenger ferry are different vessels.

From the east end of St Thomas you can take either a car barge to St. John or the people ferry. They are not the same service and the choice decides your whole trip.

The passenger ferry carries you; the barge carries your car. If you have rented a vehicle on St Thomas and want it on St John, the barge is the only way it gets there. If you have not, the ferry drops you in Cruz Bay, and the Park Service notes that from the ferry terminal you can easily walk to the visitor center and to the trailhead.

Arriving on foot, which is a real option.

The Park Service records that the 1 mile long Lind Point Trail provides hiking access to Salomon and Honeymoon beaches from near the ferry terminal.

That is worth knowing before you commit to a car. A visitor who ferries across can reach the visitor center, the trailhead and two beaches without one, which on a steep island with left-hand traffic is a genuinely attractive way to spend a first day.

What this guide does not publish.

No ferry timetable, no fare and no taxi rate. No source in this register holds one that could be verified today, and a schedule is exactly the kind of fact that changes quietly. Confirm departures with the operator on the day, and build slack into any plan that has to connect a boat with a flight.

Sources

• National Park Service: Virgin Islands National Park basic information: the instruction that we drive on the left here in the Virgin Islands, that a visitor should pay extra attention when making turns, pulling out into traffic or crossing the road, and that a pedestrian should walk facing traffic, which here is the right side of the road; and that the park is comprised of 7,259 acres of terrestrial habitat, about 60 percent of the island land mass, together with 5,650 acres of adjacent submerged lands and some 800 species of plants. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• National Park Service: Getting to Virgin Islands National Park: that there are no airports on St. John, so a visitor flies to the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas and travels on from there, renting a car or taking a taxi to the east end of St. Thomas and then taking either a car barge to St. John or the people ferry; and that the 1 mile long Lind Point Trail runs from the ferry terminal area to Salomon and Honeymoon beaches. Accessed 18 September 2026.