My wife and I were in St. Thomas from 05/19/07 thru 05/25/07, I must say it was a love/hate affair.

We are in our mid-thirty's, middle-class, live in Western North Carolina and both of us have always lived in the south (she-North Georgia, me-East coast Florida), so neither of us are strangers to heat and humidity. I give you this information for reference only.

Day 1: We flew out of Charlotte so it was a direct flight on U.S. Air,
we arrived at 1:15. The view on the flight in was stunning; the islands just jump out of the blue-green water. Getting off the plane was something out of a movie (and my first hint I wasn't on the mainland), no terminals ramps, we off loaded onto stairs wheeled up to our 757 on to the hot tarmac and are herded half way around the airport, which has no a/c, to baggage claim. We went straight to Hertz and walked right up to the counter, no line. Communication for me was rough, even though the locals speak a broken English I had a hard time understanding what was being said. This is MY problem NOT the locals I am in their home and just did the best I could. The whole airport experience was painless and in less than 20 mins. we were headed out of the car rental parking lot in our Honda Fit.

Driving in St. Thomas: my advice-
1) Follow the cars in front of you until you get the feel for driving on the left, it comes almost natural after about five-ten mins. 2) Have a drink or three, every one else has. 3) Opt. for insurance for the piece of mind, people drive like Mexican cab drivers, drunken Mexican cab drivers.

The drive to our hotel took about 20 mins. We stayed at the Mafolie Hotel on the hillside above Charlotte Amalie. The roads are super curvy and steep once you get off the main drag and are actually quite fun to navigate once you get the feel for cars flying by you on the wrong side at break-neck speed. The Hotel was nice, it is old and could stand some rehab, but our room (110) was fairly clean. For the most part everyone at the hotel was friendly and professional, they let us in our room early and again, the process was painless. I dropped off my bags and ran down four flights of stairs to the pool bar. This is my first experience with the "Virgin Island pour", my vodka tonic was a solo cup of Absolute with a mere hint of tonic, I know this because I watched in awe as my new best friend up-righted the bottle and let it flow right to within a ½" of the rim. Upon returning to the room my wife had unloaded her stuff and had the window a/c unit in our bedroom humming (we had a two room mini-suite), no a/c in the main area just big windows we kept open all the time. There was always a breeze so it was quite comfortable until around 2pm - then it was hot until evening.

We headed to town for lunch at The Green House. It was descent but over priced as was to be the case with all restaurants. I stepped out to the street to smoke a cigarette and was harassed by a toeless panhandler and offered coke and/or pot twice and was cused when I said that I was not interested. I'm a big boy, this did not bother me, but just as a warning- it's there. We grabbed a bottle of Absolute (we were just giddy about paying $16.00 for liter, later found out we paid $6.00 to much) and headed back to the hotel. Did some pool time, met Hoppy the three legged cat and headed for dinner at the hotel Restaurant Mafolie. Great dinner, better service and the view can't be beat! A must do when you are in STT.

Day 2: I'm cursed with an affliction known as early riser- I wake between 4:00 & 5:30 every day. The Mafolie does not open their continental breakfast until 8:00 so three hours in the morning without coffee does not make for a good start. They do not close the pool so it was swimming and cigarettes at the pool till 8:00. The breakfast was nice, we had bagels, coffee and juice every day over looking the Bay (and the huge iguanas just over the railing). We went to Coki Beach on day two which means we drove around the east end, it is a ghetto, plain and simple. Coki was great (better than Magens Bay by far) and we had a great day! This was our unwind day- what a fantastic day! Lot's of drinks and sun, hated to leave. We stopped by Duffy's Love Shack on the way back and drank out of coconuts and had a good lunch ($75.00 dollars later). We stopped by the grocery and picked up beer, limes, instant coffee & bananas. Light dinner at our hotel.

Day 3: Shopping. Day three sucked for me and my credit cards, but no taxes and good prices makes the wife happy!. Ate at Wikkid at the new mall, Yacht Haven Grande, way over priced and not that good - again no a/c. Had a light dinner at the hotel and lots of drinks to help me forget the husband torture known as duty-free shopping. Light dinner at our hotel

Day 4: Magens Bay- a lot like being on a cruise ship. It may be just us, but my wife and I agree that Magens Bay is highly over rated, unless you like cruise ship people, then you may like it a whole bunch. Oh, beers cost more here then they did at Coki Beach - $10.00 for 2 local canned beers. Had lunch at Subway (they do have a/c - go figure!) lingered in the a/c. Dinner was at Iggie's at Bolongo Beach Resort for all you can eat crab legs, again over priced for food not much better than a cheap Chinese buffet. The resort looked beat down - we wouldn't suggest it.

Day 5: Somehow or another, my wife talked me in to going to Tiffany's and just that easily day 5 was ruined. After a long day of drinking away the pain, we decided to have Wendy's in our room. I drove down to the store, about a 10 min. drive, and went in to pick up some burgers. While I was in line a bum asked me for .85 cents (this was only the second time I was asked for cash). Normally I don't hand out money, but I was feeling guilty about all the money my wife was spending so I tossed a buck his way. He got down on his hands and knees and told me all my sins had been lifted blah-blah-blah. I told him to stand up and then I turned around, oh boy, there stood a local women in her late 50's and she proceeded to tear in to me about being an enabler, and she was right. I stood there and took my medicine for about 5 mins (all service places are slooowww in STT). We ended up talking for a few mins. after the blow-up and she was really quite nice. She asked me what I thought of her island and told me to be honest, at this point I had nothing to lose, and told her exactly what I thought. She thanked me for being honest and said good evening, it was a conversation I will never forget.

Day 6: St. John day- left the house early to make the 7:30 ferry in Red Hook, missed the first one and went over on the 8:00. We had made reservations for a ½ day dinghy rental at Noah's Little Arks (we rented a 12'-15hp, next time we will do a 14' - 30hp for a whole day), we went out from 8:30 till 12:30 and had the best time! My wife, who I thought would hate it, loved it! Snorkeling is amazing! We saw lots of neat stuff swimming around and it was nice to be on the water. St. John was gorgeous, I wished we had spent more time there. We had lunch at some place the dinghy girl recommended, Woody's I think, it was good and the beer was cold. After the ferry ride back to STT we stopped back at Duffy's and drank out of monkey heads. Duffy's really is a shack in a parking lot but a must do in STT. Back to the hotel for some pool time and drinks, by this time we were ready to be done with vacation- 6 days may be to much for us. We headed to Frenchtown hoping to find a cheap dinner, obviously we had not learned yet, no cheap dinner in STT. For whatever reason we ended up back at The Green House in time for the end of happy hour and dinner. I had nachos (not bad at all) and beer, my wife had the small fried shrimp plate - I kid you not, five small shrimp, 6 plantain slices and a small baked potato for $15.00 dollars. We were seated at the rail and all through dinner we watched bums on the sidewalk. Only one approached us asking if he could draw our picture, he was polite when I told him I did not have any cash. About this time our waiter started screaming at the bums to leave, this worked for maybe five mins. I think we watched T.V. in our room to finish the night.

Day 7: Never been so ready to go home. Check out was at 11:00, we asked if we could check out later and they said the latest they could do was 12:00 but they would hold our bags if we wanted. My wife wanted to do a self guided historic walking tour of Charlotte Amalie, not the smartest move in 90 degree heat before a plane trip. Walking up the "99 Steps" in the heat opened up the sweat valves like a broken faucet! Our flight was at 4:05 and we had just enough time to run back to the hotel and strip down in front of the a/c for a few mins. Check out was a breeze, we opted to take our bags with us and headed to town for Subway for lunch and more a/c, did some last min. souvenir shopping. There were no cruise ships in so very few shops were open but we found what we needed and headed for the airport. I dropped my wife and our bags off in front of the ticket counter and dropped off the rent-a-car (5 mins.). We got our boarding passes and made it through customs in less then 45 mins. There is no a/c at the airport so we waited in the terminal for about an hour searching for a fan. Boarding was a little confusing but we made it to our plane- they were loading two planes at once and had not announced that they had changed our gate (maybe they did and we just did not understand). Our plane left on time and we made great time heading back, I think we landed about 30 min early, none to soon for us.

Vacation Grade: B-