There are several car rental agencies to choose from. Amalie, Dependable, Discount and Avis all receive good reviews - and you don't need a 4WD drive vehicle on St Thomas. A small compact will get you around just fine and will also be fine for a day trip over to St John if you decide to take your vehicle over there on the car barge to explore (Hertz doesn't allow their vehicles there but the rest are fine). Sapphire is one of the most lovely beaches on St Thomas and you're in close proximity to the other good beaches such as Coki, Smith Bay Park and Secret Harbour which are all on the East end - and a short drive to Magens which is a must-see/do. When you leave Magens, be sure to stop at Udder Delite (you can't miss it) for the best "loaded" milkshakes ever!

Your advance choice of restaurants is excellent although a couple of them are, in my opinion, rather overpriced! But you won't be disappointed. In any case, there are loads of dining options all over the island and also a few in Red Hook which are pretty decent and only a short drive from Sapphire. For basic hamburger/steak/salad fare Caribbean Saloon does a good job and is a sports bar; Island Tyme serves very good pizzas and sandwiches overlooking the marina; Fish Tails is right by the water and has a nice menu with, obviously, a lot of fresh fish. The restaurant whose name you can't recall is probably Craig and Sally's in Frenchtown which closed recently but has now re-opened with new owners under the name, "The Twisted Cork" (I think that's right!).

Enjoy your visit and, if you haven't seen the webcam at Sapphire, here's a link to it:

http://www.sapphireinthesun.com/

Top right under "Quick Links" you'll find the inter-island ferry schedule which will probably be useful too. There are several charters out of Sapphire Marina and taking a daysail is usually a highlight of visitors' trips here.

Hi 🙂 and HaPpY tRaVeLs!
I had a BLAST with my son on both STT and STJ and since I've been there, I can give great advice for newcomers.

When we first got to the Island we hadn't thought about renting a car but then checked into the hotel and found that the food prices were OUTRAGEOUS, my stomach sank and we weren't going to be able to eat LOL! I fed my son lunch ($18) at the poolside grill and quickly decided that renting a car would be the most economical thing if we wanted to eat and a bonus of being able to explore both islands.

RENTAL CAR: BUDGET AT THE AIRPORT

We had some trouble renting a car from downtown Charlotte Amile due to them not accepting my (good) credit card. We went to BUDGET at the airport and had a nice brand new Mitsubishi in 15min (with the same credit card) and I don't believe they put a "hold" on any money. We Looooved driving on the Left side. It was so much fun and not hard at all. Don't let the "left side driving" intimidate you from renting. Most speed limits are 25-35mph and while we were there everyone drove very laidback and respectfully. Don't let the hills and winding turns intimidate you, just stay to the left and you will have the laughiest drive of your life, very fun for someone new to this type of driving. Be careful, some car rentals on STT are not allowed to go to St.John. But BUDGET at the airport allowed the cars to be taken by Ferry to ST.John (not pricey either). If you venture out on ST.John countryside, watch out for the donkeys alongside the road, they surprised us. My son got out of the car and was able to go right up to them for a picture.
BUY A DETAILED ROAD MAP!! We didn't have one. We only used a map from the little travel guide which showed the main routes but if you are going to venture off you may spend more time driving than "beaching". We headed out in the late afternoon to take a look at the northwest part of the Island (Megans Bay but don't really know if we found it, was driving in circles and couldn't figure out where we were) it got dark and our picture on Sir Drakes seat was at dusk, almost too dark).
On STJ we drove down to the Southside of the Island and using the travel guide map decided to take what looked like a shortcut to get back to the car ferry. Two tracking in a Mitsubishi when we finally arrived at what the guide showed was a road, was a STEEP UPHILL unfinshed dead end (for us) but i don't know if anything could've gotten up there. needless to say, we had to take the LONG way back and missed the Car Ferry back to STT.
Sigh, whatcha gonna do??! Don't let that happen! If it does don't panic. Take the passenger ferry back, then a taxi ($5) to the hotel and go back the next day to get the car. Unless you are rich, the option of sleeping on the island of STJ isn't an option. $$$$$

RESTAURANTS:
We stayed at Wyndam Sugar Bay and Sapphire Beach is just down the road. Go into RED HOOK, just about 5miles east of Saphire Bay and there you will find a strip of nightlife and restaurants. We ate at Amigos Cantina and Molly Malones. the food here is very good and prices great! Prices are your typical Applebee/Ruby Tuesday/Bennigans type prices. We ate at "Froggy's Pizza" (not great) but was told there is a bar across the street that has really great pizza, we went there too but I can't remember the name.

There is a McDonalds and Pizza hut on the island if you are on a budget or just want to grab a cheap quick bite in the morning.

BEACHES:
COKI BEACH by Coral World on StThomas (same parking lot) (about 3-4 miles west of Sapphire) was fun for us. The water was calm and pristine.
We saw a few (3-5) 6ft Tarpon swimming below us, along with sea turtles, a ton of fish and a school of silver fish in the BILLIONS, it was so dense with fish you couldn't see through them. They move of course as you swim through them. When the tarpon came swimming fast up through the school (to feed) we quickly got out of the way and found something else to look at 🙂
There are a couple of shack type food-fare on the beach at Coki with pool tables and music but as we got up there and walked through, i thought i should be in Jamaica with a dooby. HaHa there was a little more burning than the BBQ ribs!
Coral World was pricey admission and only takes about 40min to walk through. When going back to STT with my son i'm not sure we would pay the $ since we'd already been there but if i was going with someone that hadn't been there..mmm, maybe for the "experience" of it. They do have a "touching aquarium" very small, where we held a sea cucumber and a star fish.

I think it was at Sapphire Beach (almost sure but could be wrong) that my son got stung by a Jelly tentacle. We had been told by some other ppl that Sapphire Beach once was very nice but a few years ago with a (hurricane i think) it caused alot of eco damage and the waters/plants/fish had declined in "living". We decided to go there anyways. It was a quick "before we left for the airport swim at 8am" so we didn't have time to really explore. The water did seem to have some debris/churned up, but the water was somewhat choppy that day too. I didn't know that a person can still be stung by a "broken off" tentacle. The resort and sandy beach at Sapphire was beautiful though and the water could have just been that way from the choppy water.

BEACH on STJohn
We went to Trunk Bay where they have a snorkeling reef which was very awesome and i've never seen more beautiful crystal clear turquoise water in my life.

I am planning on going back to STT in FEB/March '13 so i've been researching some other beaches. Leinster Bay/Beach has great reviews from TripAdvisor.com for snorkeling.

If you'd like to look at pictures of St Thomas/St John you can view them at Facebook : Caroline Sonnichsen and look in the album "spring break 2010" I think there's like 190 pics.

If you have any other questions feel free to email me back @ [email protected]

I don't have to wish you a great time because it's a given!! When I came back from STT, I couldn't get it off my mind. I even looked up rentals thinking of a move lol
I've been to Mexico and Bahamas and I just love the USVI. I had the freedom to travel around the Islands even at night and felt very safe.

Car Rental is a MUST, but a 2nd runner up is buy an underwater camera. I took a FUJI WP (on sale $95) its a digital 10mp but the newer version out now is 12mp. It can be used as a "dry" camera or "wet" and is awesome. I researched between FUJI and Cannon and I was quite happy with my FUJI. It takes video with sound too.

The only con:
1) Buy 2-3 batteries. ( i had 2) Depending on the setting you have it on, it eats up the battery, but if you have others waiting, you can just swap it out and keep snapping away.

2) it doesn't float, it sinks! buy a "mountain climbing clip" kinda thing and clip the camera strap to your swimsuit.

All my pic's on Facebook are taken with the Fuji and if you want to see video's of the tarpon, go to my Facebook "videos" you'll see the quality of video from the Fuji.

Facebook: Caroline Sonnichsen (Holland MI)