Travel Here: The US Virgin Islands, St Thomas

One week ago, exactly, we arrived back home from our trip to St Thomas. It’s so weird that it’s only been a week though – Jeff and I were talking over the weekend about how it felt like so long ago already. So, before I start to forget all the little details, I thought I would share some photos and a few spots that we really loved, for anyone that may be interested in a Caribbean vacation.

For those that don’t know, the Virgin Islands are split into a British side and a US side. We stayed on the US side, but we also took a day trip over to the British side, which I’ll be talking about in another post later this week (There were just too many photos to pack ’em all into one post).

Before I even get into the trip though, I think it’s worth mentioning that the weather is seriously unpredictable. As we got closer and closer to the day that we would be flying out for our trip, the weather forecast became a big ol’ bummer. Thunderstorms, rain, and cloudy days the entire time we were going to be there was what was predicted. And actually, we were so nervous about it, we almost cancelled our trip. It was a pretty pricey vacation and we didn’t want to spend all that money to sit in a hotel room. After thinking it over (and over and over), we decided to take a chance though, since we had heard that the weather is a bit unpredictable. And I am SO glad we did. The weather ended up being beautiful pretty much the entire time we were there. It didn’t rain once! So much for an accurate weather forecast, huh? So, definitely keep that in mind if you’re planning a trip. I’m pretty certain that most of the Carribean is like this.

Okay, so onto the trip details… The first beach we checked out was Lindquist Beach, which was only about a ten minute drive from our hotel and one of the top rated beaches in St Thomas as well. It was so amazing! We ended up going there three times in total before our trip ended. There were hardly any people there every time that we went and the water is that turquoise-y color that dreams are made of.

After a couple of days at the beach (and the pool), we spent the day in Charlotte Amalie. We ate at a little restaurant called Greengos Caribbean Cantina. The chicken tacos are delicious! And then we walked around taking pictures of all the colorful walls. There were a ton of jewelry stores there, if you like that sort of thing, and a few historic sites too.

As a side note, this seems like as good a time as any to say that I would highly recommend renting a car. As long as you feel comfortable driving on the wrong side of the road, definitely do this. It was so nice to have the freedom to go wherever we wanted at a moments notice, and not have to pay for a cab every time. Plus, it made the whole trip feel like more of an adventure.

We stayed at The Ritz-Carlton, which as you can probably guess, was pretty dang fancy. Everyone was so, so nice and the hotel grounds were really pretty. It wasn’t a cool boutique hotel, obviously, but there aren’t a ton of choices in St Thomas. At least not when we were going to be there.

The only negative I would say about The Ritz is that the food selection wasn’t the greatest. We ended up driving to Red Hook for lunch and dinner most of the time. XO Bistro was my favorite place to eat for lunch. It’s kind of a hole in the wall place (their website makes it look much fancier than it is), but their goat cheese salad was so, so good.

And finally…the sweets! I don’t know about you, but a vacation that I’m involved in would not be complete without satisfying my sweet tooth.

It was really hot, so we opted for ice cream most of the time. And definitely had our fill. In cone and sandwich form. I don’t discriminate.

That’s it for part one of our vacation. I’m planning to share the rest of the trip (St John, Jost Van Dyke, and more) later this week. So stay tuned for that. UPDATE: Part 2 of this travel guide is now up. You can read all about St John, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda, and more right here.

And if you have any questions about our trip, let me know. I’m happy to answer.

P.S. If you’re curious to see what I packed for our trip, you can take a peek at this post.