Beaches · Caneel Bay

Scott Bay Beach

Scott Bay is one of seven beaches on the former Caneel Bay Resort property, and its access has become a genuinely live question rather than a settled fact. The resort has been closed since Hurricane Irma in 2017, and for years the only way to reach Scott Bay was by boat or by swimming over from neighboring beaches. In April 2024, the land making up the Caneel Bay peninsula transferred from its private corporate holder to the National Park Service, and by mid-2025 informal land access had opened up again for some of Caneel's beaches via a walk-in route from a Cruz Bay parking area. But a 2026 National Park Service request-for-proposals covering the property's redevelopment complicates that picture going forward: reporting on the RFP's language indicates any future developer would only be required to let the public use the "wet sand" foreshore of Scott Bay and the property's other beaches, with no guarantee of dry-sand or land access preserved beyond that minimum. For now, Scott Bay remains reachable by boat or a snorkel/swim from Caneel or Honeymoon Beach, with calm, shallow, sandy-bottomed water and sea grass known for turtle and ray sightings just offshore — but land access here is worth double-checking before a visit rather than assuming it's unchanged.