re: St. Thomas- USVI recs

We had a blast in St. Thomas- we enjoyed the mix of city vibes with the beautiful nature. Bluebeards is right between Main Street Charlotte Amalie and the Havensight/Yacht Grande area, both were walkable which was nice. The shops/bars on their Main Street mostly close early evening when the cruise crowd heads back to the ship. There are a lot of jewelry stores with pushy salespeople out front, we just politely told them we weren’t interested and kept moving.

We did a lot of just walking around, bar/shop/restaurant hopping but we did get a few daily activities in.

We took the ferry at crown point Marina over to Water Island one day. Stopped first at Dinghy’s and split conch fritters and had drinks. Decent beach there and a pretty cool little area. Wasn’t too crowded. We rented a golf cart from Dinghy’s to explore the island. It was $500 refundable deposit, and $125 for an all day golf cart. From there we had free rein to explore the island, which was amazing. Very secluded island. We checked out Fort Segurra which was a WW2 bunker. You can walk all through it. Really cool and a bit eerie. There’s a spot you can park and walk through a jungle trail that leads to limestone beach, just a gorgeous, entirely secluded rocky beach. From there we went to Heidi’s hilltop restaurant and had the best fish tacos I’ve ever had overlooking the island. After that we stopped at a little shaved ice stand. I had a beer, the wife had a frozen wine. In the end, we saw a lot of the island in 3 hours, so could’ve opted for the cheaper 3 hour rental.

The following day we zip lined at tree lime. Really fun with beautiful views of magens bay. Staff there was awesome. Would recommend and it only took about 2-3 hours.

To round out our trip we did the lime out snorkel on the catamaran Lady Lynsey. This left from the Ritz Carlton. There was a complementary breakfast on board. We took the boat to our first snorkel spot in St. John. This was a coral reef snorkel, just an incredible underwater scene. We snorkeled for an hour, and at this point when you get back on the boat it’s an open bar. From there we went to the lime out taco bar. Amazing tacos. We stayed there for an hour. After that we were taken to our next snorkel spot, this was a grassy bay known to be a turtle hotspot. We did see a few but I never saw any while in the water. Did see a lot of snapper and a huge barracuda up close. From there it was back to the Ritz- its open bar the whole time after that morning stop until you get back to the ritz. 10/10 would recommend.

Restaurant wise- Amalias Cafe in one of the passages off the Main Street was great. Amazing Paella and they had fresh grilled wahoo. Both excellent. We had smoking rooster in havensight one night, pretty good but not elite BBQ if you’re used to elite BBQ. Taphaus on main st is a great spot for drinks. All in all it was a great trip. We can’t wait to go back. I’d definitely recommend water island via golf cart though if you want to sort of explore on your own and see some cool shite in a secluded setting.


Tranportation wise- I’m glad we didn’t rent a car. Taxis everywhere were cheap, they drive on the left, and the streets are narrow and the locals all drive like it’s a go cart track. Steep hills, blind turns, big switchbacks, and everyone flying around in old shitty vehicles. The traffic rules aren’t rules there, seemingly more like suggested guidelines.

Maybe most surprising part to me, I saw like 1 homeless person the entire week. Parts of St. Thomas did look a little third world, but we never felt unsafe and everyone we met was incredibly friendly.