Ha'Penny Beach
Around St. Croix
Photo: Jason P. Heym, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Matt H. Wade, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ha'Penny Beach, pronounced 'hay penny' and also called Halfpenny Bay or Manchineel Bay, is about a mile of mostly soft sand on St. Croix's South Shore, popular with residents and busy on weekends. Turn south off South Shore Road at the pink pillars and follow the dirt road to the beach, where you can park beside the sand. There are no facilities, so bring water, sun protection and a chair or towel. The water ranges from calm to rough, over a mostly sandy bottom deep enough for swimming. In calm, clear weather, snorkeling is good at the east end, where spotted eagle rays are sometimes seen; enter over sand to avoid the sea urchins there. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources tests the water weekly; its advisory of October 30, 2026, listed the beach as unsafe for swimming because of high bacteria, so check the latest advisory.
Services
- Parking beside the beach at the end of a dirt road
- No facilities
- About a mile of sand for walking
- Snorkeling at the east end in calm weather
How we checked
Last verified on October 30, 2026. We checked it against the sources below.
Source: GoToStCroix, https://www.gotostcroix.com/discover/beaches/hapenny/ (copyright 2026; other names, pronunciation, length, crowds, directions by the pink pillars, parking, no amenities, water conditions, snorkeling and sea urchins at the east end); DPNR beach data, https://dpnr.vi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Beach-Data-10.30.26.pdf (Ha'penny Beach, 354 enterococci per 100 mL against a limit of 70), advisory release https://dpnr.vi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Beach-Advisory-10.30.26.pdf (Ha'penny Beach among the beaches that did not meet water quality standards in the week of October 26 to 30, 2026) and https://dpnr.vi.gov/beach-advisory/; all accessed 2026-10-30. Map point: GNIS feature 1613989 (Bay), 'Halfpenny Bay'; GNIS has no Beach feature for Ha'Penny, and its 'Manchenil Bay' (1614121) lies about 0.7 mile west of that point.
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