St. Thomas: Cas Cay, Virgin Islands: Kayak, Hike and Snorkel

Last updated: May 30, 2024

I was impressed with how hard Virgin Island Eco Tours worked to ensure we got to experience everything we wanted. My mom used them to book two half-day activities so we could have an all-day adventure: the Cas Cay kayak, hike, snorkel adventure, and swimming with sea turtles! We went on my birthday, making this the most action-packed birthday ever. 🥳

Anslem Fletcher was the best tour guide. It was evident he had nothing else on his agenda for the day except making sure we were happy, and he certainly succeeded! We were treated like VIPs the whole day.

The first excursion we elected was the kayak, hike, and snorkel adventure on the island of Cas Cay. This was fun! My mom and I shared a kayak, and Anslem led the way to the island of Cas Cay, which took about 20 minutes of paddling to get there. He continuously took photos of our experience (we, of course, bought the photo package). I’m grateful for this because it’s usually either me or my mom behind the camera, meaning we don’t get many photos of us together unless we ask a stranger to take a photo or a selfie. While I still used my phone to take shots, having someone else take pictures was a nice treat!

Yes, we wore long sleeve upf sun shirts as we were not interested in sun damage or continuously reapplying sunscreen all day. These shirts worked brilliantly. I
only got a bit of sun on the back of my neck and hands. Recommended!

Along the way, Anslem shared all kinds of island-specific facts with us, which was interesting and educational! He even stopped when he would find marine life to give us an up close and personal experience. I almost didn’t put whatever this thing was in my hand (I can’t remember what he said it was!), but I did it. As evidenced by the photo, I could not wait for this slimy sea creature experience to be over.

My mother was very entertained with how squeamish I was to have that in my hand.

Here we are pulling into Cas Cay!

Cas Cay is a 50-acre island and has a mangrove lagoon. It is one of the largest mangrove areas in the Virgin Islands, which we kayaked through! We secured our kayaks and then explored the island shore.

Afterward, we walked a short way to a hermit crab village. When I say village, I mean an entire community of hermit crabs. It’s the absolute most I’ve ever seen in my life. It was astounding.

We selected a hermit crab and entered them into a race and watched mine win the gold medal.🥇 Here I am again holding something that took me five minutes to gain the courage to put in my hand. Mom didn’t even think twice.

We then started the mile-long hike to the natural blowhole on the island. On the way, we received more education about the island and the marine life there. Anslem also shared some island food along the way, homegrown by the island of Cas Cay! I was up to try anything, so I ate everything he gave me. Leaves he pulled straight from bushes, stuff stuck on the leaves, two types of fruit I’ve never heard of in my life. This was an outstanding experience!

Here’s Ansalem leading the way telling us all about the island vegetation and whatnot.

We stopped to look at the below rock formation that could be seen from where we stood on Cas Cay. When asked what this rock formation looked like, I immediately said – wait – before I tell you, what do you think this looks like?

I said a gorilla, and that was the correct answer. There are two gorillas; one is the whole rock part (don’t look at the grass) of a gorilla’s face pointed towards the sky. The other is a small gorilla (whole-body) on the end of the rock looking out into the sea. I saw the big face first.

Anslem waded into the water to get a sea urchin so we could see what it looked like. I honestly had no idea! This thing is alive and walked on Mom’s hand. The sea urchin is one I could not be persuaded into holding. Again, Mom did it without hesitation. I was happy to take photos, though!

We then came to the main attraction: the natural blowhole. This was a lovely place and made the trip worthwhile.

Anslem taught us sign language for Virgin Islands. VI.

The adventure was far from over because, after this, we went snorkeling! The gear was on point and didn’t leak or have any issues. Believe me when I say that the amount of salt in the water or whatever causes you to be buoyant is incredible! It took significant effort to dive down.

Anslem snapped photos of some interesting things we saw along the way.

Afterward, we headed back, and the owner met us and sang Happy Birthday to me, which was really sweet. We loaded up, and Anslem took us to lunch and then to Brewer Beach, where we swam with the sea turtles!

I would recommend Virgin Islands Eco Tours. While I wish there were some better detail paid to the photography (SO MANY photos were blurred due to smudging on the lens😟), I would use them again.

We enjoyed tackling two adventures on the same day, but this may not be for everyone. You can schedule more than one on separate days rather than doing everything in one day or just choose one. Because there are so many adventures, it will be challenging to choose just one, but sometimes that’s all you can squeeze into the itinerary, and that’s ok! Whatever you choose, I know you’ll enjoy it. 😊

Earlier this month, my niece insisted I have a TikTok account and created one for me (late to the party, I know). She made some videos of my trip (ohhh… so THAT’S the purpose of TikTok!) that I absolutely adored, so now I use TikTok to create content and have officially made my first TikTok video to recap this day. Also, I have no idea what I’m doing, so there’s that. Enjoy!