St. Thomas Travel Guide

When thinking about where to celebrate Maries birthday she had one request: to go somewhere out of the country. Being that St. Thomas was the cheapest flight to somewhere tropical we booked it asap. Now this was the first trip I have EVER gone with where there was no set plan. We relied on locals to help us find the best spots which was fun to do during a time when the island wasn’t very busy. September is not season for St. Thomas so we were among to only tourists on the island.

This trip was an experience to say the least. I’d recommend renting a car, it will be the easiest way to get around. Although the island is small things are pretty spread out. The island it a literal mountain so make sure tSt. Thomas has some of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever been to.

Quick note: the island is way more expensive than we would’ve thought. Being from south florida things are already pretty expensive where we are from. Be prepared to spend AT LEAST $20 on a lunch and more on a dinner. If you are drinking, drinks are also expensive so if there is ever a time to be a beer girl, a trip to St. Thomas would be it. Make sure to bring cash, locals like taxis and some beaches only accept cash, we ended up actually running out of cash so bring more than you’d think too.

We stayed in Charlotte Amalie - there is a city center with lots of yachts and restaurants so this was most definitely the safest area on the island, but most expensive. We went to the city center the first night just to explore and grab a bite to eat but quickly realized some of the restaurants had meals upwards of $100. We ended up finding a place to get chicken tenders and tacos, I can’t remember what it was called but they had delicious guava sauce that I drenched my chicken tenders in. After this we to Box Bar. Here we found the most affordable drinks on the island, they have specialty cocktails for $8 a drink. This was the mostly full of locals in their 20s, with some being a little older.

Things to do

Magens Bay Beach

This was our favorite place on St. Thomas. It had a good balance of being full on locals but not overcrowded by any means at all. There is an entrance fee of $2 per car and $5 a person, but the pass is good for the day. Magens had a nice beach bar with pizza, sandwiches, etc. Although I NEVER eat pizza, it was only a couple dollars so in an attempt to save some money, that was my lunch of the day. This beach was of the most beautiful beach on St. Thomas, I could not recommend it more.

Smith Bay

Was this a private resort? Absolutely! Did we somehow get in and have the BEST last couple hours before getting on our plane? Heck yeah! We drove to this beach not knowing it would be gated, I pulled up saying “oh I am so sorry we thought this was public” and he just said, “no problem go ahead and enjoy, you’re good.” I am not sure if everyone is allowed at the beach but we had a lot of fun. They had a pool bar with coal fire pizza and a dang good BLT.

St. Johns

We had no idea how close & easy it was to get to St. Johns. It was not even a twenty minute ferry (which cost $12 roundtrip). The ferry takes off from Red Hook, you’ll have to park in the parking garage (so account for that price, or Ubers there and back). We went to Maho Beach but we also heard great things about Cinnamon Bay and Honeymoon Beach. St. Johns is were you WILL NEED cash. Once you get on the island, you will be without a car and the taxis just charge whatever they feel like. We paid $7 each to get from the port to Maho Bay, $12 to dinner and another $7 to get back. Other expenses of the day was lunch at Maho Bay, it was overpriced but honestly I had the best burger of my life so I would 10/10 recommend.

My burger just needed her moment…

Maho Bay truthfully had some of the best food I ate on the trip. Kyle got the fish sandwich and she also said it was of the best she’s ever had.

The Windmill Bar - St. Johns

I would love to give an entire guide on food but honestly we cooked most meals at home or ate small meals + got Wendys on the way home… Although the Windmill bar was beautiful. My food was okay and very overpriced but watching sunset here was gorgeous.

Places We’d Avoid

Like any girls trip there were moments where we found ourselves in a couple areas that felt semi unsafe.This was likely due to many tourist not being here though so if you go or have been during busier times, you likely felt different.

Coki Beach - we drove all of the way across the island to go to this beach but when we got there we could not exactly figure out parking and there were too many men waving us down. If you’re a young group of girls just be cautious.

Red Hook (at night) - we heard Red Hook had a good bar scene but in sitting at outdoor bars we had some characters walk too close to us. This place is definitely still okay and more than safe during the day but I’d be cautious walking around at night.

Mermaid’s Chair - I was SO excited about this place and we drove SO FAR, (like thirty mins but our car didn’t do great on hills lol) just to find out this was about a mile into private property. It was a gaited community and they were nice, telling us we could park outside the gate but it was over a mile walk downhill, which meant a mile back uphill. We decided to pass and went to Hull Bay instead which was great!