Seems there is no place safe anywhere.

Seems like some places are safer than others.

...or maybe some islands that don't have the free and open press that is a tradition in the US and USVI are more concerned with suppressing information that may harm the island's tourist economy than in allowing open discussion of issues.<BR><BR>

Easy to find statistics on any island if you just look. Here's a current article on Jamaica<BR><BR>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1737000/1737306.stm<BR><BR>which is described as having "one of the worst murder rates in the world." The irony is, their 30% increase in 2001 is way below the rate of increase that occurred in the USVI!

If it were me, I would keep the flight, cancel the hotel, and upon arrival in STT, take a taxi to town and get on the first boat to St. John.<BR>Crime is lower, merchants don't come out of the stores to bring you in, no cruise ships; it's really like a different world. People who I have met in St. John told me they would just as soon live in NYC than in St. Thomas (New Yorkers, don't get in a huff about that, I'm just the messenger).<BR><BR>By the way, the way to lower the number of armed bank robberies in any given town is to arm the tellers. (Liberals, don't get in a huff about that, it's the truth)

In my 25+ years of traveling to St. Thomas at least three or four times a winter, I did not experience the same that the "others" are reporting. Sure there is crime, no one denies it, and there are socio economic problems. But, afraid you might run into that anywhere in the Caribb basin or even Hawaii. There seems to be few places to escape from it nowadays unfortunately. For example, on my first trip to St. Thomas I was niave enough to wander the streets of CA alone after dark. I was immediately surrounded by a machete-wielding mob who sodomized me for all I was worth! But I just shrugged (or should I say limped) the incident off, realizing this would've been even worse if I have been on one of the bad islands like Tortola, PSV, or Aruba where I would've most certainly been butchered to boot! As for the steadily worsening crime problem, do educate yourself as to where to go and where NOT to go, what to do and what NOT to do. Just like any new location, be smart and look past a few disgruntled visitors and residents and you will have a lovely time! ;-)

New york city to st. thomas? What kind of moron are you?<BR>Where are the green mountains and caribbean sea in nyc?

Here's an article that claims that gunfire is heard fairly routinely on parts of St Thomas<BR><BR>http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?...ALocal&p=47033

The State Dept recently revamped their consular info sheets, they reflect reality much better now then the sugar-coated old versions did:<BR><BR>http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html<BR><BR>..of course they don't keep one for the USVI since they're part of the US and they don't want to discuss crime there but they do have reports for the rest of the Carib including Jamaica (not so bad, just kingston really), Mexico (yikes!), St. Maarten/Martin (so-so), Cayman (pretty good), St. Lucia, etc etc.

Ref the last two postings on this site. First, about the gunfire. Well, we've always had a problem on New Year's Eve with guns going off. Fortunately nobody's ever been hit but it IS a little bit disconcerting and the idiots who do it should know better but don't. And, yes, there are several times when residents have heard gunfire at odd times but nothing much has come of it, as in nothing BAD has happened. If I sound as though I'm making light of that, please don't misinterpret. I happen to abhor guns and don't subscribe to the good old boy alleged right to bear, etc.<BR><BR>To the last person who wrote about the consular reports on crime - the person who started this off was specifically asking about St. Thomas crime so I don't really understand why you responded in the first place.<BR><BR>Insofar as the crime on St. Thomas is concerned, the news is well spread through the local media and, unfortunately, most of the crime is associated with and related to drug deals gone wrong or amiss, family squabbles and a lot of nonsense - and (percentage-wise) almost nil insofar as tourists are concerned.

..because I think it puts the USVI crime reports in perspective. <BR><BR>If someone is interested, they can click through and see what the state dept says about St Thomas' neighbors and competitors for tourism. If one is not interested, one can ignore the post.

I think "observer" is trying to misconstrue the data reported in the article listed above about gunfire in St. Thomas. It is not just something that occurs on New Years Eve. The story points out that of the 171 reported incidents of gunfire, only ONE was in Hull Bay. The surprised resident pointed out that in Hull Bay gunfire is a ROUTINE occurrence, so the 171 figure was obviously way below what was really happening.<BR><BR>The other statistic that was amazing was that 2,165 calls were made requesting police assistance in ONE month in Zone A alone!!! Even though some of those were false alarms, it is incredible that an island the size of St. Thomas is experiencing a crime wave of that magnitude. "Observer" claims the effect on tourists is small, but failed to provide any hard statistics to back that opinion up.

I'm amazed based on what is posted here that any tourists on St. Thomas are ever able to make it to the beach through the piles of dead bodies that must be laying all over streets down there.

Sorry, Mr. Mason, I don't have "statistics" to offer - someone like yourself who knows how many calls are logged into Zone A in any period is much more capable than I of dealing with stats. Did you get the figures on Zone C as well? Just curious. I've just lived here for over two decades so know that "statistically" the impact of crime on tourists is minimal. I'm sure this thread will go on forever. Frankly, I think everyone should just stay home in their own backyards rather than take on the perils of travel. Darn it, it's starting to snow - better get out and put the old chains on my Jeep tires.

Somebody is sleeping. There was a murder on St. Croix. It was not tourist related nor in a tourist area and a perp pleaded guilty to a murder on St. Thomas. Of course neither the victim nor the perp was a tourist there either.

What's the big deal about all the supposed crime on St. Thomas? It is obviously just the natives and never affecting the tourists at all. We just got back from there and we walked the beaches and town at all hours of the night and never had any problems!! St. Thomas has the best beaches and food we have ever experienced, and the people are also the friendliest we have ever had the pleaseure to know. Please don't read the articles in the St. Thomas Source - the CVOA has assured me that those statistics are all false!! Come to St. Thomas, you will love it!!

"It is obviously just the natives "<BR><BR>Oh as long as it's just the "natives"...

So you walked the beach at all hours of the night and nothing happened. Did you ever consider that maybe you were just lucky and the next person who does it might get attacked, or the person after that? Just cuz it didn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

An it doesn't mean that if someone is murdered somewhere on an island, you are sure to be a target either - whether it is Manhatten Island or STT! Common sense and good judgment goes a long way anywhere you travel.

But why the hell would anyone want to take that risk when there are safer places to go. There are bad areas not far from my home town and guess what: I DON'T GO THERE--for obvious reasons.