Virgin Islands Getaway

With big resorts and tons of marketing dollars in other places, the US Virgin Islands are often overlooked as a tropical getaway, but the slow pace island flavor available there is authentic Caribbean, and you don’t need a passport.

What are the US Virgin Islands?

It is often a surprise to people that part of the Virgin Islands are a US territory. The islands of St. Thomas and St. John, nestled right up along the British VI are in fact, part of the United States. As is the Island of St. Croix, standing alone 30 miles to the south. Relatively unthought of on the mainland, St. Croix is actually the only part of the United States that Christopher Columbus landed during his voyages of discovery.

Sometimes called the Spanish VI, The islands of Culebra and Vieques are also US territories, and round out the island chain to the west. Municipally, they are considered part of Puerto Rico. Since all are US territories, travel to and between them is fairly painless, and does not require a passport.

As a whole, the islands are part of the Lesser Antilles, forming part of the northern boundary of the Caribbean Sea along with Puerto Rico and the British VI. Unlike the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands are quite rocky and steep. Considerable elevation changes can be found, making great opportunities for hiking and diving. To put this in perspective, to the North of the islands lies the Puerto Rican Trench. At 27,477 feet (5.2 miles) deep, this is the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean. Shooting up from the deep, St. Thomas peaks at 1,555 feet.

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What Virgin Island is the Best to Visit?

This is a tough question. In my opinion, you should visit several. They all have different feels and things to do. For easy accessibility, St. Thomas and St. John are only a short ferry ride apart. The airport for both is located in Charlotte Amalia in St. Thomas and is the only way to the islands from the mainland. And while St. Thomas has much more in the way of tourist accommodations, St. John is largely National Park land, and most of it’s waters are a National Marine Monument. Which means that they are very heavily protected, and the snorkeling/diving opportunities are amazing. There are also campgrounds on St. John, which is more my travel speed. And the kids love any chance to be in the outdoors chasing lizards and hermit crabs.

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I also have a soft spot for St. Croix. This island is a little rougher around the edges than the others, and usually just over the horizon, both in sight and thought. The tourist traffic on St. Croix is fairly light, and the island is larger than St. Thomas and St. John combined. This does make a rental car fairly important on St. Croix if you want to be able to get the most out of your experience. It offers abundant hikes up through the rainforest, a smattering of sandy beaches, and some of he most accessible diving in the Caribbean. Off the north shore of the island a vast coral reef exists. It can be easily reached by walking in off the beach, and with a reef face that drops off from 40 to over 1000′ deep, all levels of dive excursions are possible. at the east end of the North Shore things are a bit less extreme in terms of depth, and incredible snorkeling is possible in the Buck Island National Marine Monument.

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St. Croix also has a variety of excursions available that don’t require you to be in the water. You can spend the evening sailing on top of it with the Schooner Roseway. Kayak through a bioluminescent bay with Sea Thru Kayaks. Or avoid the water entirely and explore the rainforest with Gecko’s Island Adventures.

No Passport needed

As a US citizen there is no requirement to have a passport to visit the USVI or Puerto Rico. This makes travel much more simple, especially with children if you want to avoid the cost and time associated with getting them passports. I would recommend getting at least a passport card for your trip however. These are substantially less expensive than passports, and will allow you to travel by boat throughout the caribbean. There are many amazing places in the British VI that you can visit from St. John or St. Thomas on day trips, and as St. John and Tortola are only about 200 yards apart, it is a very easy way to expand your trip.