St Croix, USVI vs. St Thomas, USVI vs. BVIs ?

stay away from St. Croix I lived there, jost van dyke and virgin gorda are where its at. St. John is my favorite though as for a scenery, it's 2/3 nat. park.

 

We always called St. Thomas the armpit of Caribbean and scooted to the BVIs or St. John as quick as possible. Then I helped deliver a boat to St Croix. It's an armpit too.

Coral Bay on St. Johns was nice when it was a primitive place. Anywhere from Coral Bay east to the Bitter End is fine with me.

 

Just a guess, but the size of the land mass and fewer resorts, with a larger population not involved in tourism gives it kind of a 3rd world feel. That would be fine if you felt safe there. At night I didn't.

 

Frank, St Croix has a HORRIBLE Reputation. The place is saturated with drug crime and racism. You, as a white person, will be an outcast and subject to open ridicule. You will also get robbed and the authorities will figure you deserved it.

St. Thomas isnt much better, but at least there are areas where its nice and safer. Charlotte Amalia is a disgusting armpit that is simply unsafe for a white person after dark. But Red Hook is nice enough.

On the topic of racism in the caribbean..... read through this thread:

http://207.36.230.32/forum/viewtopic.php?t=599


I think you will find an overwhelming consensus that the BVI is by far the best your going to find. St. Thomas is so overcrowded and has so many problems rooted in decades of entitlement and the influences of the drug trade that the only reason I would go there at all is just to get to my boat. St. Croix suffers much the same problem. St. John is much nicer and in places like Francis bay its stunning. But still, when we go back in December we will be spending the bulk of our time in the BVI.

I am giving thought to a 52' sailboat and if I do it we will be keep it on a mooring in Red Hook 6 months out of the year. For hurricane season we will move it to New England for some nice summer cruising. When we are not using it, it will be in crewed charter service.

I absolutely love the BVI and Bahamas. Being in the Islands is just a whole different way of life and one that appeals to me more than I can describe. But there is clearly much wrong in paradise and some places like St. Vincent are so far gone its just not worth going at all.

Even the BVI has some issues. In April when I was on Jost, a kid was trying to sell us weed and he got pissed off when we didnt want to buy a giant bag. He said we were "disrespecting" him..... typical punk. This was right outside Foxys. Oh well, we went on down the beach to Corsairs had not only had a fantastic meal (at 1/2 the prices of Foxys) but they had an amazing blues/reggae guitar guy playing and the place was HOPPING until about 3am. Stick with your plans for Jost. Its got the right mix of tourism, limited population, limited access and beauty.



Terry

 

locals in St. T avoid going to St. Croix, that should tell you something, I lived there in 95, it was different then.

Read some on the local papers, 3/4 murders and robberies are on St. Croix,

there's a reason it's cheap.

It all goes back to the oil refinary, they never had to rely on tourism like the rest of the islands, now they are trying to play catch up, but the island had falling so far down it's not gonna be easy.

LOTS of US bound drugs clear customs there from Columbia.

Terry pretty much nailed it with his post.

 

Stick with your plan Frank, you'll be glad you did.

If my kids were older, I'd be doing the same thing. I love Jost, and have the tall stack of cups from the Soggy Dollar, the tshirt from Foxys, and the hat from Sidneys to prove it. If I were ready to buy, I'd probably swing towards Tortola or VG, I need at least a little bit of civilization.

Jost is as close to a desert island as anywhere I've ever been, but it's one of my favorite places in the world. I could spend days just staring out over White Bay.

 

I was on St John for a week last summer, spent 2 days on Jost by chartering over there. I spent quite a few hours on White Bay and saw the 'road' they'd cut up the side of the hill to the West End. Pretty steep climb. I didn't realize they were building a resort there, it's too bad. I was surprised at the amount of development off of Georgy Hole, it had grown a lot (relatively) since I was there 2 years earlier.

If you're buying there, your timing is probably good.

 

Jost is already touristy if you ask me. Foxy Callwood is a very smart and wealthy man... but his bar is as big a tourist trap as any I have ever seen. Still, Jost has guys like Foxy keeping a close eye on development and they are at least making a serious effort to limit expansion so as to not destroy the aspects of the place that made is so attractive to begin with.

The ever changing face of the islands is one of the reasons I will be getting a largish sailboat rather than a resort home. When one island becomes a tad boring.... hoist the anchor and resume the adventure! To anyone who thinks Jost is somewhat like a deserted island.... there are literally hundreds of islands stretched from the Bahamas to the Windwards that are uninhabited tropical paradises. Some are very small, others are just very remote. Your not getting there without a boat!

Check this out:

http://www.sailingdream.com/index.htm


Comfortable for up to 8.... energy and provisions self sufficient easily for weeks at a time... my idea of how to approach paradise!



Terry

 

The only problem with your plan is that it requires.....um......effort. Yeah, effort. Effort to sail, effort to maintain. Some of us are too lazy for that.

 

I've been going to St.Croix since I was like 9. I've been there about 10 times. I know it had a bad rep from gangs and stuff but I think that was more like 7 years ago or so. I've never seen anything bad happen there. I like St. Croix because it's not really a tourist place (like Thomas and John), it's really quiet and empty, you can drive around the entire island in like an hours time and they have some pretty good restaurants too. It's a really chill place.

pics: condo, sunset, st.croix's only casino
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I will be flying to St. Croix on the last weekend of September.