I was recently able to spend time on the Caribbean islands of St. Thomas and St. John for an incredible Virgin Islands vacation. We had an incredible time on some world-class beaches, swimming in warm, clear water, eating surprisingly good food, and learning about the interesting history of this U.S. territory. We didn’t get to St. Croix this time, but I fell in love with the USVI so I know I’ll be back to explore more! Here are a few of the things I learned on my trip that I can pass along to make your Virgin Islands vacation an incredible one!
Bring Mineral Sunscreen on your Virgin Islands Vacation
Sunscreen is a must when you’re in any Caribbean destination, but mineral sunscreen is the new norm. Mineral sunscreen contains only zinc oxide and titanium oxide as its active ingredients, instead of the typical chemicals in non-mineral version (stuff like avobenzone and oxybenzone).
These chemicals are harmful to the precious coral reefs that the Caribbean is famous for, so many islands are taking steps to minimize damage. Even sunscreens that claim to be reef-safe, if they have anything other than those 2 ingredients listed above they’re still not totally safe for the coral (sorry, Sun Bum).
The U.S. Virgin Islands have actually banned chemical sunscreens, so you’ll only find the mineral variety in stores. I would, however, recommend bringing your own mineral sunscreen from home, since a 5oz bottle that you can get on the mainland for $10 or $12 will run you $20+ on the islands.
Not only do they not even sell the chemical stuff on the islands, if someone catches you using the stuff you could be facing a fine of $1000 USD for your first offense. Not worth it, if you ask me!
So save yourself a few bucks at an already pricey destination and bring your responsible, reef-safe from home.
You Don’t Need Reservations for the Car Ferry
St. Thomas and St. John are close enough to have ferries that go between the islands multiple times a day (there’s one to St. Croix from St. Thomas as well, but it’s a 2-hour ride). You can either take the passenger ferry or the car ferry (or ‘car barge’, as they say).
Kevin and I had originally planned to return our rental car on St. Thomas and get another on St. John. It proved difficult to get a rental car reservation on St. John, so we ended up keeping the car we rented in St. Thomas and taking it over on the car ferry.
The car ferry situation on St. Thomas is a little confusing and not incredibly organized. There are several companies that have barges that will take you over to St. John, and you can make reservations with any of them for either one-way or round-trip.
The frustrating thing is that they’re required to fill up the boats, even if you don’t have a reservation and just show up. It seemed to not really make much sense to make a reservation if they would load you on the barge first come, first served anyway. Especially since we heard that often you’d be waiting 2 or 3 cycles before getting on a boat if a lot of people showed up with no reservation.
So, as with many things in our lives, we just winged it. When you show up at the port in Red Hook on St. Thomas, you’ll pay a $4 port fee. Then, you’ll reverse your car into line and they’ll load the boats up from those lines (you reverse onto the ferry, as well).
This was another reason to not make a reservation, as we wanted to get on the first boat we could and not have to wait for our particular company. If the first barge that showed up wasn’t the one we had a reservation with, we would have had to wait longer. No one asked us about any reservations, anyway!
We paid on the boat, it was $35 for one-way or $50 for a roundtrip. Using the same logic, we didn’t want to be beholden to one company on our way back, so we coughed up the extra money for a one-way.
Going to St. John we used Big Red Barge, which took credit cards, but on the way bay we took Love City Car Ferries, who only took cash. Make sure you have enough cash on hand just in case!
My advice would be to get to the port early, so you can either show up before the rush or in case you have to wait a long time to get on a barge.
Make Sure You’re a Confident Driver!
I’m honestly surprised I didn’t find any information about this when I was doing research for our trip, but the roads in the USVI are CRAZY. First of all, the cars are the same as on the US mainland (driver on the left side of the car), but they drive on the left side of the road like they do in the UK. Like, what???
Secondly, the islands of St John and St. Thomas are MOUNTAINOUS. Like, steep-ass roads with hairpin switchback turns that you’re supposed to navigate while avoiding the 10 MILLION potholes all over the road and can barely fit 2 cars side by side. It’s seriously insane! St. Croix is reportedly less scary to drive on, but the other 2 islands are…interesting!!
While we didn’t have a 4WD vehicle, we did have a truck that sat higher up, so it was a little easier to see the road in front of us (and when it dropped out of sight going down a 35 degree slope of road).
The most popular vehicle to rent on the islands are Jeeps and although you’ll definitely stick out as a tourist, I can see why they’re the best choice for island driving.
I recommend renting a vehicle that will make driving easier, such as something that sits higher up and/or has 4WD. Don’t get a minivan!
Also, you might notice that the rules concerning alcohol and cars are quite a bit more relaxed on your Virgin Islands vacation. Keep this in mind as you’re navigating the insane roads. I do not condone drinking and driving in any way, I’m merely suggesting you be aware that others may take advantage of the more relaxed attitude towards alcohol on the islands.
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So, if you’re going to rent a car in the USVI, make sure you’re not a nervous driver in the least (and give the extra painkiller cocktails to the nervous passengers instead of drinking them yourself).
Arrive Early to the Airport on the Way Home
When you fly into to the US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas specifically, I’m not sure how the process is in St. Croix), the airport personnel meeting the plane will recommend arriving back at the airport 3 hours before your flight.
At first that seemed excessive to me, since the St. Thomas airport is small with only 10 or so gates. But when we got back to the airport to leave the island, I saw why they suggest that.
First of all, several flights all go out around the same time, they’re not exactly spaced out throughout the day. Tons of people are at the counters trying to check in at once.
Then, you have to go through Customs as if you’re coming back into the United States from a foreign country. You’re not, you’ve been in the U.S. the whole time, but they make you talk to a CBP officer (Customs and Border Patrol). You don’t need to have your passport (since you’ve been in the U.S. the whole time), but they say that having it makes the process go faster.
Then, if you have bags that you’re checking, you have to stand in another line to hand those bags over to be scanned (they make you bring all bags through Customs). It was faster for those who only had carry-on bags, so maybe consider only bringing a carry-on to the islands (you’re just packing bikinis and 3oz mineral sunscreens anyway, right?).
Then, you have to stand in line for the regular TSA security check. This is where TSA Pre-Check is a nice thing to have!
The process took a pretty long time, and we were really glad we were at the airport early. As much as you might want to spend an extra hour at the beach, use it instead to make sure you have enough time to get through the crazy St. Thomas airport process.
All Beaches in the USVI Are Public
Many of the nice beaches on St. Thomas are in front of huge beach resorts. Fear not! You’re perfectly within your rights to visit these beaches and shouldn’t have any trouble parking at the resorts in order to do so.
According to U.S. Virgin Islands law, all beaches are open to the public. Kevin and I tested these laws out by heading to resorts just to use the beaches there.
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Being Californians, we’re used to resorts forcing you to pay money to be there in order to access the public beach, such as charging for parking or forcing your to spend money at their restaurants. Although the California beaches are public, sometimes it’s a huge hassle to get through the private beachfront property to get to the beach.
During our Virgin Islands vacation, we had no trouble accessing any beach that we went to! A select few charge a small entry fee and/or parking fee (such as Magens Bay Beach, $5pp and $2 for parking), but we never had an issue at any of the resort beaches.
Remember that even though all the beaches are public, some of them still charge a small entry fee.
We simply drove up, told the person at the entry station we were there to visit the beach, and voila! We were there. Easy peasy…so don’t let anyone tell you that a beach is private!
Are you ready for a Virgin Islands vacation yet?
The Virgin Islands are unlike any part of the US I’ve visited so far. It definitely feels more like a part of the Caribbean than it does the US.
But that’s part of it’s appeal! It’s easy for Americans to visit, but it’s just different enough that you feel like you’re in another country. Plus, the insanely beautiful beaches definitely don’t hurt.
So pack your mineral sunscreen and leave your worries back on the mainland, because when you’re on your Virgin Islands vacation, you’re on island time!
