U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Safety

The numbers, from the agency that publishes them.

The National Park Service instructs that in case of emergency you should dial 911, and from a cell phone dial 340 776-9110.

The first is the number to call. The second is the park's own line, published beside it because cell coverage and call routing on these islands are not what a visitor is used to. Put both in your phone before you need either, and do not treat the second as a substitute for the first.

Why this page is shorter than its neighbors, and that is a measurement.

Every other destination guide in this section is built on a foreign office advisory and a public health travel page. Neither exists for this territory, and not because they were not looked for: the UK foreign office publishes no advice for a United States territory, and the public health travel pages cover foreign destinations, which this is not.

So there is no crime assessment on this page, no vaccination schedule and no health advisory, because no source in this guide's register provides one. That absence is stated rather than filled in from general knowledge, which would read identically and be worth nothing.

What this guide can do is point you at the right authorities. For health, ask your own doctor and consult US public health guidance as you would for domestic travel. For current conditions and advisories, read them before you fly.

The road, which is the most likely thing to hurt a visitor.

The Park Service states that we drive on the left here in the Virgin Islands and instructs a driver to pay extra attention when making turns, pulling out into traffic or crossing the road. It adds that a pedestrian should walk facing traffic, which would be the right side of the road.

For an American visitor both instructions run against thirty years of instinct, on steep roads with blind corners and often no sidewalk. This is the ordinary risk of a trip here and it is worth more attention than the exotic ones.

The water, and one island you cannot walk off.

Buck Island Reef National Monument is, in the Park Service's words, an offshore island surrounded by coral reef and is only reachable by boat, with no accessible facilities available.

Read that as a safety fact as much as an access one. There is no walking away from a small island, no road out, and no facilities. Go with an operator, tell someone your plan, and take seriously whatever the crew say about conditions on the day.

The reefs themselves are protected and the Park Service names the elkhorn coral among them as endangered. Coral cuts badly and heals slowly, and standing on a reef damages something that takes decades to grow back.

Storms.

The National Hurricane Center publishes that the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, that an average season holds 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes, and that tropical cyclone activity sometimes occurs before and after these dates.

Inside that window, read the current advisories in the days before you travel and know what your insurance covers. Our weather guide sets out the season in full.

Ruins are ruins.

The photograph on this page is of a sign at Danish warehouse ruins on St John, reading unstable ruins do not enter. Historic masonry on these islands is genuinely old and genuinely unstable, and the signs are there because the structures are not safe to climb on. Read them.

Sources

• National Park Service: Virgin Islands National Park safety: the instruction in case of emergency to dial 911, and from a cell phone to dial 340 776-9110. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• 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: Buck Island Reef National Monument: that President John F. Kennedy called it the finest marine garden in the Caribbean Sea, that it holds a famous underwater trail and endangered elkhorn coral reefs, and that there are trails on the 176-acre island leading to an observation platform. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• National Park Service: Buck Island Reef National Monument accessibility: that it is an offshore island surrounded by coral reef and is only reachable by boat, and that there are no accessible facilities available. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• National Hurricane Center: Tropical cyclone climatology: that the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, that based on a 30-year climate period from 1991 to 2020 an average season has 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes, and that tropical cyclone activity sometimes occurs before and after those dates. Accessed 18 September 2026.