In short, you can travel anywhere alone. But as a single girl, I am here to tell you that I felt very safe on these islands.
Below is a glimpse at my itinerary if you’ve been toying with the idea of visiting the USVI.
Day 1: Arrival and Relax
I stayed at the BlueBeard Castle located right above Charlotte Amalie. A quick 15 minute downhill walk to the downtown shopping centers. I really enjoyed this stay due to the history (castle tour), food, and views out of Frederiksberg Point. The food was phenomenal, I did not have a bad meal. No Uber, so join the Taxi line when you arrive.
Day 2: St. John Island Hop
One thing I valued about this island is how easy it was to get around via taxi. It’s small relative to Jamaica or Puerto Rico. To get from one side to the other could take you a good hour. I took a taxi to Red Hook in the morning and hopped on the St. John ferry. The ferry runs every hour. I grabbed breakfast at Tarpon’s Table, which was a short walk from the ferry terminal. Big fan of their breakfast, views, and freshed pressed juice.
Once you arrive at St. John you really can’t go wrong with which beach you pick. There are three big touristy beaches that the taxis will drop you off at. Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay, and Maho Bay are all great options. Trunks bay is famous and has a $5 entrance fee. Bring or purchase a snorkel to free swim to catch some turtles if you’re lucky. Taxis will be at each beach awaiting for your ride back to the Ferry terminal. There is usually pop up shops around the terminal as well of local vendors.
Day 3: Morning on Main Street + Afternoon Turtle Snorkel Excursion
I had myself a downtown morning by walking the surrounding area of cobble stone Main Street and grabbing breakfast and coffee from the alley way shops. You will see tons of chickens roaming free in the city center. Tourist shopping is really big in USVI due to their duty free rules. Up to $1,600 in duty free purchases for each U.S. Resident. Aka no tax. I was looking for official documentation on the why. Basically when the US purchased the land rights from Denmark, they did not yet buy the water rights. So in good ole’ cruise fashion, you can pull up and shop diamonds, gold, and jewelry free of tax.
I spent the afternoon with Someday charter excursion and really enjoyed my experience. We started off with a history lesson of the island and water rights as we were leaving the dock. We spent an hour snorkeling a shipwreck. Followed by another hour in Water Bay snorkeling with sea turtles and sting rays. It was really something special.
Day 4: Coki Point Beach
In an effort to be a beach bum, I caught a taxi to Coki Point Beach. I chose to skip Magen’s Bay Beach due to the 3 different cruise ships arriving that morning. On cruise days, expect to be laying on top of each other in St. Thomas. Cruise days are good island hopping days to avoid the masses. Beautiful clear waters for easy snorkeling. I overheard my beach neighbor seeing an octopus a few feet past the swimmers.
Day 5: Castle Tour + Departure
I was in for a quick Mon-Fri trip. The morning of departure day I had a lovely hotel breakfast. I then stopped by the shop to do a self guided Castle Tour ($5). All of the artifacts came from the owner of the shop, who free dove ship wrecks and hand collected everything himself. It was truly a treasure chest. He was from Massachusetts which I thought was extra ironic.
USVI is a perfect Caribbean option for the quick getaway. I can understand why Jeffrey Epstein frequented it so much…It’s a U.S. territory so there are no customs involved for U.S. Residents. Carry cash as most of the Taxi’s don’t accept card. The beaches are incredible and it’s quiet easy to island hop to surrounding landmarks. I was skeptical, but it’s pretty guaranteed to see sea turtles, which was a selling factor for me.