Tell us about it!! What beaches you went to, favorite restaurants, best buys you found, how was the place you stayed at. Did you take taxis or rent a car and how was that experience. Overall how did you like/dislike it? Any suggestions for someone going there soon? Look forward to hearing your "Review" of the VI.

What a great place to visit. My husband and I were there for a nice long visit this past summer. We stayed with friends so I can't comment on accomodations, but - oh - the restaurants! A bit pricey by our standards but worth every penny. Epernay was fabulous - particularly if you are a dessert lover. In fact, all the spots in that location (French town) were great - and don't forget to go in the back side to Betsy's Bar.

My husband had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go Marlin fishing - they brought in three the first day out, ranging from 200 - 400 lbs. He's still lording that over all his fishing buddies.

We spent time not only in St. Thomas, but St. John, St. Croix, and Tortola (BVI) as well. Tortola is absolutely worth the 45 minute ferry ride - and a nightime visit to Bomba Shack cannot be described.

Hope you have a great time! (I spent the first three days with my hands over my eyes driving around. That wrong-side-of-the-road thing is a little disconcerting!)

Yes, The Virgin Islands are a great place to visit. My husband and I had gone there once and decided to bring the children. This was quite a different experience since our children are younger.

If we had to do it over again, we would stay on St. John's. We stayed on St. Thomas and unfortunately found our accomodations (Point Pleasant on the east end) to be very non-children friendly and clearly lower standards than we expected. We moved three times within the resort due to problems in each room, (Rm 1- bad toilets, Rm 2-cockroaches, Rm 3- ants and little hot water). We did not know that these units are individually owned and not consistent within the resort (ie one unit may have a shower and tub, others not, kitchenettes also differ). Also they promote that you can rent a car for 4 hours per day , however whenever we tried to do this we were told there were no cars available and finally that the car program was discontinued. Overall the rooms certainly showed their age.

We also would rent a car for the whole week. We ended up renting a car one day in St. Thomas and a Jeep for 2 days in St. John's. Yes, driving is different than the States but certainly duable if you are careful as you would be anytime driving.

We loved the St. John's beaches and tried to get to the less touristy ones,
even though we made a brief stop at Trunk Bay.

Cinnamon Bay was great..lots of sandy areas for great sand castle making and warm waters for snorkeling. The archeaological lab there was also a great place to stop.

We made the hike to Water Lemon Bay beach...again a great place to snorkel and just have a picnic. You do need to park your car and walk about 30 minutes on a trail to get there. It also is near the Annaberg sugar plantation ruins which is a great place to hike and enjoy the views.

There are enough grocery stores available on the east end of St. Thomas and near the cruise ship port, so finding groceries was not a problem.
Shopping in general was better , we thought, in St. John's. More arts and crafty and pottery and fabric shops, although there were plenty of shops everywhere we went.

I would highly recommend taking a day sail or boat ride also. We took the Limnos day trip to the British Virgin Islands with a stop at Virgin Gorda
(the Baths- a natural wonder in itself) and a snorkeling stop at Norman Island caves. This was perhaps a highlight of our trip eventhough the waters at this time of year were fairly rough, and at least one person in the group became sea sick which was relieved with medicines.

Overall we though the Virgin Islands National Park to be a great place to visit and explore. The employees at the National Park office near the waterfront on St. John's were most helpful as well.

My husband and I go to St Thomas every year in March, and we absolutely love it! Everyone is always happy and very friendly. It is a very relaxed style of living, and that is how we should all be living. The restaurants we've been are all very good, too. Pricey at times, but one must take into consideration that it is a resort area, and everyone is trying to just make a living. We always take a cab, versus renting a car. As a result, we've become acquainted with our cabbie friends and we never hesitate to call them when we need to go somewhere. Overall, it is always a pleasant experience being on the island. I'd live there if we could.