10 of 24

Write now Article Tools

Caribbean isle, St. Thomas has it all! Stay a while once you are there; you'll be glad you did. Many cruise ships dock in St. Thomas so passengers can spend a day on the island. I flew there in order to spend a week in a low-priced guest house at the top of a hill in downtown Charlotte Amalie. Having more time, I got to take advantage of beaches, restaurants and nightlife unknown to many visitors to this amazing island.

White-sand beaches, snorkeling and diving, wildlife, parasailing, golfing, tennis, duty-free shopping... Form its exciting nightlife to bustling beaches to enticing shops, St. Thomas has it all.

One of the most developed and visited islands in the Caribbean; St. Thomas is packed with fine hotels, villas and quaint restaurants. The island, along with St. Croix and St. John, has a population for more than 100,000 English, Spanish and Creole speaking people and makes up the 135-square-miles of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On St. Thomas, Charlotte Amalie-the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands-features exciting and historical places including Fort Christian, built in 1672, now the Virgin Island Museum. There's also the Government House, which contains interesting works of art. The popular Blackbeards's Castle, once the home of the infamous Blackbeard pirate Edward Teech, now serves as a hotel and restaurant.

A walk along the narrow streets meandering onto the hillside in Charlotte Amalie is captivating. "Barkers" dressed in brightly colored clothing wander about calling tourists into duty-free shops they represent. Popular items to purchase include jewelry, gemstones, cameras, watches, perfume, crystal, linens, designer clothes and liquor. Local handicrafts can be purchased in the many specialty stores and include clothing, art, jewelry, liquor, calypso and steel-band music recordings, leather goods and pottery from various Caribbean islands.

Visitors walking most any place in Charlotte Amalie at any time of the day can usually flag down a cab already occupied with eager tourists on its way over the mountain to Megens Bay. While en route to the beach, cabs and vans loaded with sight-seeing travelers from hotels and cruise ships usually stop at the to of St. Peter Mountain where many souvenirs and icy banana rum drinks can be purchased. St. Peter Mountain is the highest point on St. Thomas, reaching 1,500 feet above Charlotte Amalie and Meagens Bay.

The island's 44-plus beaches are considered its most beautiful attraction. Visitors go to Brewer's Beach for shelling, Great Bay Beach and Sapphire Beach for wind surfing, Limetree Beach for serenity, and Vessup Beach to hang out with island folks. The most beautiful beaches are Megens and Coki, which can get crowded at times. Coki and Sapphire are excellent for snorkeling.

Environmentally friendly and easy-to-maneuver ocean kayak tours of the Mangrove Lagoon and Marine Sanctuary, also bicycle tours, or offered by local guides. The two-week St. Thomas Carnival, filled with calypso competitions, is usually held in late April.

Christopher Columbus claimed the U.S. Virgin Islands, first inhabited by Carib Indians, for Spain in 1493. The land was unsettled until the early 1600s when the Dutch and English gained a hold on the islands. Over the next century, control passed to France, Spain and Denmark. The Danes took possession in mid-1700s, though the British occupied the islands on a couple occasions during that period. Plantations were operated by slave labor until the mid-1800s. The U.S. purchased the islands from Denmark for $25-million in 1917 for a naval base to help protect the Panama Canal and to prevent German expansion.

Learn more about this author, Patricia Lieb.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Best places to vacation in the Caribbean?
We want to hear your view. Write now!