Hi - my husband and I will be at st. thomas for 1 day as part of a cruise. I have just started researching and trying to figure out what interests us on St. Thomas...if you had to choose between Paradise Point Tramway vs. Mountain Top to get beautiful views ...which would you choose? We obviously don't feel the need to do both. Which would be easier to get to from the Cruise docks? Better Views? More to Do?

TIA.

Paradise Point is closer to the cruise dock and provides views of Charlotte Amalie and the cruise ships. It has a resturant/bar and a few tourist shops. During the day, they offer a bird show. We went a night and had bar food/drinks and listened to a live band.

Mountain Top is a duty free shopping center with a view of Magens Bay. There is a bar also that sales infamous banana daquires and other mixed drinks. I purchased some table linens, perfume, and liquor there. There was a photo booth that we had a pic made of us for $5.00.

We enjoyed both for different reasons. If your just going for the day and want to shop go to Mountain Top. If you just want to see views and get something to eat/drink go to Paradise Point.

We have pics on our web-site if interested:

http://community.webshots.com/user/kvrlvn

I agree with KVR but if you go to Mountaintop you'll see a ton of gorgeous views going & coming & the north side of the island is beautiful. With Paradies Point you get one spectacular view.

thanks for the replies. Sounds like Mountain top might have more for us. We'll have to base it on how much time we have. A couple more questions - For Paradise Point - you can walk to it and go up immediately, I assume. For Mountain Top - how long does it take by taxi? Do buses go up there?

I'm asking because I think other things we want to do are - Magens May, Coral World, Coki Beach, and Charlotte Amalie town - all in a matter of a day (10 hours to be exact)...so I am trying to get travel time ideas so we can do as much as we can without being rushed.

We took an Island Tour with Tropic Tours. Here's a synopsis of the tour:

St. Thomas Island Tour
This tour is an excellent way to get an overview of the entire island, enjoying the history and fabulous panoramas found at Mountain Top, Drake's Seat and St. Peter Great House & Botanical Gardens. The tour ends in Charlotte Amalie, with approximately 3 hours to explore town, have lunch and enjoy some great duty free shopping. Lunch not included. Monday - Saturday. 9:00am - 3:30pm. $30.00 per person.

I'm sure you can just grab a cab at the end of the cruise pier and have them take you to Mountain Top and then to a beach. Magen's Bay is closer to Mountain Top.

It cost us $5 p/p to go on the tram to Paradise Point, but we went on a Wed night, which was their special live band night. Other days it's $16 p/p.