Jimmie

I know St. Thomas is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I have inlaws who live there so we visit once or twice a year. We were just there for 12 days over Christmas, and rather than an official trip report, I’ll pass along a few highlights from this trip.

Secret Harbour Beach: was lovely, as always. Quiet when the swell was up in other parts of the island. Not a lot of live coral for snorkeling but a lot of beautiful fish in the reefs to the left of the beach. Rented a standup paddleboard, which was fun. Frequent trips by beachside waitress and the new management at the onsite restaurant seems to be doing a good job. Parking is more restricted than it used to be, so if you’re driving I would come earlier in the day if you can.

Lindquist Beach: this is my favorite beach on the island now. Relatively isolated and beautiful sandy beach. $3 per adult. There can be occasional seaweed when the swell is up, but most of the time it is peaceful and lovely. Picnic tables and plenty of shade.

Lady Lindsey Sunset Sail (Ritz): this came our way as a gift. They served sangria and tapas that night in addition to regular beach drinks. We had plenty to eat and drink. Friendly and organized crew. We sailed around to Christmas Cove and saw the green flash. The sail is open to anyone, not just Ritz guests. The Ritz is always a pleasure to walk around and check out the scene.

The Cellar (Red Hook): my inlaws go there often, so my wife and I went by for happy hour on a Friday. Tasty and inexpensive ($6) appetizers and fun drinks.

Hull Bay: never been there before. A little funky but neat area. Pretty good beach restaurant there with fish and chips made from fresh fish. Lots of boats.

Mahogany Run golf: played a round with rented clubs. Great course, and there was barely anyone on the course – perhaps because it’s quite expensive, but a fun time if you want to treat yo self.

Cinnamon Bay (St. John): we hopped the ferry with the kids and spent the day at Cinnamon Bay. Stunning beach, less crowded if you walk to the left when you get to the beach. Decent snorkeling off the cay. The onsite restaurant there was not great, however – poor food and expensive for what it was. Bring cash to St. John for taxis and the ferry, which does not take credit cards!

Wanted to try the Ecotour, but ran out of time. That will have to wait until the next trip!

TPAYT

Glad to hear Secret Harbour is as good as in the past. We enjoyed our time there.

Any other reasonably priced gold courses nearby? That's one of the resons we now go to TCI--more reasonably priced golf. We would like to return to SH again sometime. I remember the restautant at SH to be quite good. Is that still so?

I'll keep your other tips in mind. Thanks for keeping us up to date.

KVR

Thanks for the report.

What was the Ecotour? We are looking at a cruise this year and St. Thomas is one of the stops. We've already been to St. Thomas/St. John on a land vacation so looking for something we haven't done yet there.

I saw something about a guided jet ski tour. Do you know anything about that?

Jimmie

Answers to your questions:

Mahogany Run is the only golf course on the island.

We went to the more casual restaurant at Secret Harbour, the Cruzan Beach Club. Good burgers and sandwiches. The ahi tuna nachos were also really good. We didn't go to the higher end restaurant, the Sunset Grill.

The ecotour is called Virgin Islands Ecotours:
http://www.viecotours.com/
They got great reviews on Tripadvisor, so I wanted to try the kayak and snorkel with my son.

I have seen the jet skis out on the water, but I'm not sure where they launch from.

KVR

Thanks for answering. Here is the jet ski tour I was referring to:

http://stthomascruiseexcursions.com/...Snorkeling.htm

eastenderusvi

KVR: Jet skis are only available at a limited number of places. Sapphire (I think that is your ad), MorningStar Beach and Bolongo come to mind. A large part of the east end of St Thomas is a marine reserve and PWC are not allowed.

Jimmie: I think that there is something on St Thomas to suit everyone. If someone says it's not their cup of tea, they just may have missed the spot they would like. ;-)

chris1

hmmm, waited 3 hours for a car at airport with many other angry travelers, held up at Point Pleasant in broad daylight, saw local man urinating against fence at entrance to Coki beach, harassed on the beach by strung out local guys, treated like garbage by locals at almost every venue, ate "okay" food for high prices, and did some not-so-great snorkeling. We visited over 20 warm vacation destinations and by far this was the worst. The highlight of the stay was the ferry ride to St. John. Don't bother with St. Thomas. It is totally run down and quite frankly, i don't think the locals want us to visit their island any more. Too bad, I was looking forward to keeping my money in America instead of supporting foreign countries.