St. Thomas USVI Travel Guide

So you are planning a trip to the beautiful Caribbean Island of St. Thomas? And you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the Covid-19 guidelines, figuring out where to stay and more importantly, what beach to go to? Then I have some good news, this blog post and YouTube video below will help you figure all that out! Today I’m going to share my top 10 things you need to know before you travel to the US Virgin Islands.

After visiting the US Virgin Islands for the last 4 years I wanted to put all my knowledge into a designated safe travel guide for you guys! Jon and I have also traveled to St. Thomas 2 times during Covid-19, so I will give you info about that throughout the blog post too. To be clear, the US. Virgin Islands is open to travel, you just need to show a negative covid test before departure, no older than 5 days.

S T . T H O M A S

1. COVID-19 RULES & USVI TRAVEL PORTAL

Before you start looking at plane tickets and accommodations, make sure your local doctor or pharmacy provides Covid -19 molecular or antigen tests. It is required to have a negative covid test, no older than 5 days upon arriving. However I did read online that a woman and her husband got stopped by American Airlines saying the test needed to be no older than 3 days. To be safe, make sure you double check the rules in the USVI and your airline provider. Before you leave, you also have to upload the covid results to the USVI Travel Screening Portal, and get approved before you leave. This usually takes 24 hours. When you are approved you will receive a green QR code that you scan at the airport.

2. HOW TO GET TO ST. THOMAS?

So how do you get to this beautiful place? The USVI is located to the east of Puerto Rico, and west of the British Virgin Islands. We usually go to St. Thomas, but the USVI consist of 3 main islands, St. Croix being the largest, St. John, and St. Thomas, home to the capital Charlotte Amalie. Because of its location, it’s become one of the most sought-after travel destinations for Americans, mostly because you don’t need a passport, and for us who live in New York, it’s only a 3 and a half hour flight away! If you are not an American citizen - Like me, then you of course need to bring a passport and the correct documents, as you will be screened by customs upon returning to the mainland.

Flights to the USVI are a bit more limited now because of covid, but there are still plenty of airlines that go there. We flew with Delta last time we were there in December 2020. Since we flew during the holiday, literally on the 26th of December, it was a bit hectic at the airport in New York, so we almost missed our flight. I recommend looking for your plane tickets at Skyscanner.com. We always try to see what dates are cheapest for tickets, then we try to find accommodations that are available for those dates.

The airport where you land when flying to St. Thomas is called Cyril E King, and the airport code is STT. Our flights to the USVI have been pretty smooth, we show up 2 hours before at JFK in New York and never had any problems. On your way back home though, I’ve heard several people say you should at least be at the airport in st. Thomas 3 hours before your flight. This is because they often book a lot of flights to depart at the same time, so it’s chaos at the checkin area. Luckily, we have never run into any heavy crowds at the airport in St. Thomas, but better to be safe than sorry!

3. WHERE TO STAY IN ST. THOMAS?

So where should you stay, and where do you find the best accommodations? Honestly we have stayed in the same area almost every time we have been there except last time, when we stayed at Margaritaville near Coki beach. I might be a bit bias, since I haven’t stayed in the other areas, but we love to stay close to Magens Bay. If you look on the map below, you see we stayed in the Mandahl area and close to Peterborg. Keep in mind, St. Thomas is pretty hilly, so it’s easy to find a place with a nice ocean view! If you google places to stay in St. Thomas, you will also see people recommending Downtown Charlotte Amalie, Charlotte Amalie West and Magens Bay.

But all this might sound confusing to first time travelers, so if you are going for the first time, I would try to decide, do you want a beach front or a villa with a view? Do you want to stay at a hotel or an Airbnb? We’ve honestly had the best time with renting airbnb villas, the privacy is priceless, and if you split it with other friends or couples, the price will be cheaper per person compared to hotel rooms. But yeah, to not overwhelm yourself, I would browse on Airbnb, they have a bunch of timeshares, and hotel rooms there too, and it’s easy to navigate the site. If you want to be super fancy, you can of course stay at a high end hotel like the Ritz-Carlton!

4. HOW LONG SHOULD YOU STAY?

Okay, so now you have your plane tickets and preferred accommodation in mind, how long should you stay in St.Thomas? We always stay a week, and we think that is a fine amount of time. Of course when it’s time to leave it’s really hard to accept it, but 7-8 days gives you enough time to beach hop, do a day trip to St. John, relax and eat a lot of good food before going broke. Because as I mentioned in my earlier blog posts, it is expensive down here! For those of you who have already been there, how long do you usually stay?

5.BUDGET

How much money will you be spending? This is a hard question to answer. Because it honestly depends on what you want to do, where you want to stay and what activities you want to do. Yes the USVI is expensive, even though it is a tax free region. It is however possible to do St. Thomas on a budget, if you stay at a hostel, or find a cheap airbnb for $70 a night. Eat at more local places, and skip the high end restaurants etc. But more realistically, it’s 2021, and you have been locked inside for almost a year now, it’s only natural that you want to treat yourself. So let’s add up our expenses in December, 8 days in St. Thomas. We used around $2000 for 9 days at Margaritaville in December, and around the same price for our Villa in August that we split with a few friends. Then we rented a car for $400 split on 2, so $200, then we did take a few taxis at night, plus back and fourth to the airport etc so let’s say $100 there.

On food - We ate out every single night. But we also bought groceries at the supermarket on day 1 so we could make our own breakfasts. Groceries were pretty expensive there too! But for example we had 3 dinners at Lanai Restaurant, so a meal there plus 3 drinks comes out to around $100 pr pers I would say. So with the grocery store, restaurants and lunch and drinks at the beach we used around $1500 on food for 2 people for 9 days. 

Then it’s all the activities, like renting snorkeling gear, ferry trip over to St. John, A day trip to water Island etc etc it all ads up a lot. So let’s say we used $500 on that all together. So including housing and everything else for a pretty comfortable trip where we allow ourselves to fully enjoy our time there, we probably spent around $4000 together for Jon and I for 9 days. 

6. RENTING A CAR - TRANSPORTATION USVI

I mentioned in my other blog post “Top 10 Things to do in St. Thomas” that we rented a Ford Fiesta back in December, and we paid $400 for it for it for 7 days. We usually rent larger cars when we are there, you should preferably rent a jeep. This is because the roads in St. Thomas are so sketchy, really bumpy and a lot of uneven ground. We rented our car from CowPet rentals, but you can also rent cars at the airport. They have Avis, Budget and hertz there. I’ve read in the St. Thomas Travel group on Facebook that you should arrange car rental before you get here because it often sells out. But keep in mind, they often sell out and don’t keep your reservation, so don’t bet on it 100%. But most importantly! You should be an experienced driver if you chose to rent a car, and they drive on the LEFT side of the road there! So it can be a bit confusing, but you quickly get the hang of it! If you don’t want to rent a car, they have taxies everywhere, either ask your airbnb host for the number of your receptionist at the hotel, or ask in the St. Thomas Travel group, a lot of people share the number of their previous drivers there!

7. CELL PHONE AND WIFI SERVICE

Another important thing to keep in mind is cell phone service. I can only speak about how it works for the American cell phone providers. So those of you with AT&T and Sprint are best off here, since they have their towers at the island. Jon and I have T-Mobile, and we have incredibly low service most places. We usually have to rely on the wifi from the airbnb or hotel. So if you are working remote, keep this in mind as it’s very challenging to get good service with T-Mobile.

8. WHAT SHOULD YOU PACK?

A lot of people in the comment section on my YouTube Channel has asked, what to bring with you etc. I would say, a good sunscreen because it’s way cheaper in the states than on the island. Insect repellent, the mosquitos there are true gangsters, and they will swarm you. It also depends if you are going during the rain season or dry season. But I always bring a light jacket, in case it rains or gets windy at night. Then it’s important to know that some of the people in St.Thomas find it disrespectful if you wear a bikini and a cover up to a restaurant, or in the shopping street. So please respect that, and cover up in some nicer clothes when you go out to eat and go sightseeing around town. And you only need sneakers if you are planning to go hiking, if not flip flops are fine, and some nicer shoes for dinner. Then More importantly, bring a camera to document your travel! I’ve recently been loving my polaroid camera, for more candid moments where you get the pictures instantly into your hand. And yes, you could just take a picture with your phone, but how often do you actually print out those pictures? So a polaroid camera is perfect for that. Then for all your electronics, the USVI uses the same plugs as we do here in New York, so unless you are from another country you don’t need to bring a plug.

9. THINGS TO DO IN ST. THOMAS

With all this out of the way, let’s move on to something a bit more fun! What to see, and do, where to eat and more importantly what beach should you choose? So for those of you who want a detailed what to do in St. Thomas guide, I of course got you covered with that. I’ve linked my Top 10 things to do video in the description box below, or you can press the card in the top right corner there. That video has the perfect mix of everything, and I think it would be really helpful for you to check it out. It includes boat trips, snorkeling, sightseeing, beach hopping, lookout points, day trips and so much more!

For all you foodies out there that consider the culinary experiences the most important part of the vacation, I got you covered too, don’t worry! I also made a Restaurant guide to St. Thomas, it will show you all the beautiful restaurants the island has to offer. Some of the most popular places in the YouTube video “Food Guide” will of course be Lanai Restaurant. It’s actually my favorite, we went there 3 times in a single week even though it was out of the way, they also have great vegan and gluten free options. The video will also feature other well known places like Prime, Old Stone Farm house, and Duffy’s Loveshack. So yeah, watch that one if you want to see all the great food you could be eating on your next trip! 

Then lastly, as I mentioned, how do you know which beach to go to when St. Thomas has over 40 beaches to choose from? Not to mention all the nice beaches at the other islands like St. John and Water Island! Well, I got you covered there too! I made a designated Beach Guide video to St. Thomas so it will be easier for you to see what beach fits for you! Do you enjoy more of a lively beach with a lot of locals and good music? Or do you enjoy the little secluded beaches where you have more privacy? I am a mix of both, so I included all of them for you. The guide is pretty comprehensive, so it should be easy for you to chose one, gif not you can just go beach hopping and try to visit as many as you can! The crystal clear blue water and white sandy beaches never gets old, so pack your beach bag and get ready for some serious exploring!

10. SAFETY IN ST. THOMAS

Lastly I just wanted to touch upon safety! While we felt safe every time we are there, you never know. Articles from St. Thomas, says that crime against tourism has been on the rise, especially muggings. So keep an eye out, and be aware of your surroundings. It’s not advised to walk around at night, especially not on the back streets of Charlotte Amalie.

SUMMARY

I think that was all I could think off in todays travel guide! To sum it up, make sure you get a covid test 5 days prior to departure, then upload your result to the travel portal, use Skyscanner.com for flight, and Airbnb for accommodations. Join the St. Thomas Travel group, and keep in mind that the USVI is pretty expensive compared to other tourism destinations! And remember to drive on the left side of the road if you rent a car. And watch all my previous videos, like top 10 things to do, my food and beach guide, and you will be 100% prepared for your next holiday! Let me know if you are planning to go or if you have been there before?

We’ve been having some great conversations in the comment sections over on YouTube on my latest videos, and I love it! I see so many of you visiting St. Thomas now, and it makes me incredibly happy for you, but also for all the small businesses in St. Thomas that benefit from your visit! Please don’t hold back on the tip this time, 2020 was a hard year for tourism and all the local businesses that depend on it, so I try to be mindful of that when tipping. But okay, with all that said I will let you go now so you can start planning your next trip!

Safe travels, xo Camilla