St. Thomas Vacation Ideas/Stories

Well, the Missus and I are going to St. Thomas for a few days this summer. This will be our first time on the island (or anywhere in the tropics) and we’re looking for exciting things to do.

I’ve checked out several of the tourist websites and seen some of the things to do. However, I always find that personal stories and experiences are more reliable than websites.

That said, who here has been to St. Thomas? What did you do? What did you like/dislike? And what advice would you give a newbie going for the first time?

Thanks,

Zev Steinhardt

My husband and I went to St. Thomas last October for our anniversary. We loved it. We stayed at the Marriott which has a great beach. I really enjoyed Megan’s Bay which is a sleepy little beach great for swimming (it’s very flat) and they will serve you drinks in the water! There are some fantastic restaurants - I’ll try to remember the names of some but we just went with what the hotel recommended. We did make the mistake of walking through the main street/shopping area right when a cruise ship had docked and it was no fun at all - toally crowded with both tourists and hawkers.

We didn’t go to any of the other islands but when my sister and her husband went, they took a day trip to St. John’s and really enjoyed it.

Have fun!

My St. Thomas experience involves a too-brief business trip (with afternoons off) to the Marriott Frenchmans Reef Morning Star. Which is quite nice if a bit overpriced. A good thing they had was a ferry straight across the harbor into downtown.

I second the hop over to St. Johns (a reasonably short trip, if you take the local ferry from Red Hook in the E. of St. Thomas rather than from CA harbor). That’s the “park” island, more for the nature lover. Also agree on Megan’s Bay as a good beach location.

Charlotte Amalie’s downtown has two clear components – the historic zone and the duty-free-shopping-zone (BTW: The packing box they put my booze into DID survive riding in my checked luggage just fine). A good visit to the historic zone will however require some vigorous exertion as after a couple of blocks away from the water the town turns radically uphill. The historic zone has a number of small historic places that are easy to miss if you’re not looking hard, such as Camile Pisarro’s birthplace and what is claimed to be one of the oldest Synagogues under the US flag.

One thing about Charlotte A, though – on the day the big cruise ships are in port it can develop surprisingly contintent-like rush hour traffic and the shopping district can be a serious challenge. But that is just relative to other small islands – for someone who has dealt with NYC, even the peakest peak time in Charlotte Amalie may look bucolic :stuck_out_tongue: .

Old Stone House, a restaurant some distance in the hills outside of town, was reported to be superb dining although at prices that made folks glad we could write it off.

I enjoyed my brief “business” jaunt over there. Of course, to many here in PR, the VI are fundamentally a place to take the boat over on a good-sailign-weather weekend to fill it with the max allowances of tax-free high-brand booze, cigars, bling & optics, seeing as how we got the the tropic-and-history department pretty well covered ourselves :wink:

Slather on the sunscreen heavy, and make sure you fill your daypack with water bottles – it’s been a hotter than usual spring here in the NE Caribbean and I expect a similar summer. Plus some days we get haze that blows all the way from Africa. And oh, yeah, BTW: look twice before crossing the street. It’s a US territory and the cars have the steering on the left, but they drive on the left side of the road.

My wife & I honeymooned there many years ago. We stayed at Frenchman’s Reef (it was a Holiday Inn back then) and enjoyed Megan’s Bay and the Old Stone Restaurant as well. I agree with all the tips given above. I would add that the Harbor Cruise in the evening is worth doing. I would add one bit of caution, though - if they serve you popcorn & rum punch on that cruise be very careful. That punch has a lot of punch. We did not realize that until we tried to climb the steps from the dock back to the hotel – we almost had to crawl up the steps.

Also, remember than on Sunday there is pretty much nothing to do as the stores are closed - or at least they were then. (Not that having nothing to do was a real problem when on a honeymoon, of course. YMMV.)

We took our honeymoon there 12 years ago. One day we did a booze cruise/snorkel over to St. John that I remember as a lot of fun. For me it was especially memorable, because it was that snorkeling trip that convinced my wife to get SCUBA certified.

I was already certified and, frankly, thought it was some fairly boring snorkeling. But, the water is gin clear, warm, and there will be fish to see. And good rum punch. I honestly couldn’t tell you who we sailed with, but I’m sure a quick Google will reveal a few options.

My recollections:

-They drive on the wrong side of the road, but in left-hand-drive cars.
-The city Charlotte Amilie(sp) was quaint in places, but pretty much like any other city in many other parts.
-The residents speak Spanish really fast.
-The water was like bath water, very nice.
-If you want to go somewhere less crowded and do some great snorkeling, go to St. John. I mean like a day trip, I don’t know if there are any hotels there.

And they have topless beaches there. I was about 12 at the time. :smiley:

I was in the wedding party of a ceremony that took place in St. John’s, and while everyone else stayed in the same fancy hotel, we stayed at the Maho Bay Eco-resort and had a total blast. Much nicer than you’d expect, with only a nominal amount of “roughing it”, but a lot of fun and overlooking as gorgeous a beach as the island has.