Yes, poor old St Thomas has the duty of being the welcoming mat for the down islanders who come to STT seeking work. Of course, the US, unlike the BVIs, is very welcoming of foreign islanders from far southern islands. They're there to earn a living and send money back home. They're not there to be proud and representative of St Thomas - and they generally don't try. It is sad that the true St Thomians have to have their reputations tainted in such a way, although it has nothing to do with them.

You don't find it as much on STJ because STJ isn't the target of people looking for work from other islands - not yet - but that is coming, too. The large condo projects can't be fought off forever and the development is, unfortunately, sure to move forward in the near future.

Next time someone gives you the cold shoulder on STT, ask them where they're from. You'll start to get the picture.

Not everyone has this experience. Some travelers have only experienced smiles and hospitality on STT. That hasn't been my experience, but I think I hear all positive reports about social interaction about 70% of the time and not so positive reports the other 30%. People who stay longer tend to have more negative things to feed back - probably due to the fact that they've spoke with more people (longer trip) and had more chance to find the grumbly old woman from St Kitts.

If you want to spread the word about something that will help, spread the word about not letting anybody and everybody take up refuge on STT. Some changes in the laws are needed.

Hi Matt
That is a shame that you experience this while in STT. We been going for last 5 years & found them to be very outgoing & friendly. Even when my husband was in the Navy & the aircraft carrier stopped in STT for R&R the islanders made it a point to be friendly to the sailors , enlisted & officers. I can't say why this happen as Bluwater pointed out maybe they were not from St Thomas but another island. But I found them very friendly & I have made many friends that we keep in contact with. Sorry for your experience with not so nice locals.

Matt -

It's all over - and I too may take some flak here - but I am on STX. Sometimes I just feel pretty second class because of the way I am treated, and I live here ... but then I listen to the way some tourists treat the locals and I get a better picture. Not all tourists, of course - but some are just obnoxious and treat the locals badly, like they are here for entertainment value only.

These are Caribbean islands - those who visit or live here need to be respectful of that fact and value the differences in culture and the general way of life. It is unfortunate that occasionally everyone gets judged by the same yardstick, but it happens - and it goes both ways.

Good point Becky. It IS a different culture, US territory or not. Even my most friendly local buddies are more formal and not as "friendly" as statesiders. It isn't that they're being mean or nasty, it is just the culture - more reserved, more low-key, more easily angered (or what I would perceive as anger, which may not be the case). Their tone can be more harsh, even when they aren't meaning ot sound harsh. Even seen two locals debate something....you would think they were about to knoch each other out. Yikes!

I once offended a friend from STT because he was telling about his very bad day and I said "wow, did you have a bad day or what?" (an expression we use here). He replied, "I just TOLD you I had a bad day, so why are you questioning it?" (gulp - sorry 🙁 ). We then had an interesting discussion about cultural differences and how what I say sounds to him and vice versa. You can often pick that up on these message boards, too.

I used to get offended by some of it, but now chalk it up to cultural differences. It has helped me deal with people from other lands as well, as the Caribbean doesn't have a monopoly on this.

It is helpful to keep in mind that I am a visitor. I then try to appreciate and respect the culture, rather than expecting the culture to adapt to me. And definitely some resentment does exist---local people are not Disneyland employees and tourists can become annoying. There are degrees of racial tension in addition to class and economic tensions. Tourists sometimes do act in culturally inappropriate ways without realizing it. Guy Benjamin wrote about the importance and significance of formal greetings in West Indian culture. He stresses that just because I greet someone, they aren't necessarily going to want to become my friend, but they will know that I was raised properly.

Also I keep in mind that throughout my day here at home I do run into disinterested store clerks, rude bus drivers, waiters with an attitude.

I've lived in two very touristy places in my life and I hated tourists.

I hated the traffic caused by the influx of people and the lack of knowledge of the traffic flows. I hated the amount of trash strewn around. I hated the lack of respect for the locals. I hated the "I'm on vaction so I can do whatever I want" attitude. I hated not being able to enjoy the place I lived during tourist season.

I lived in Salem, Massachusetts ("Witch City")for 5 years and Halloween in Salem is a NIGHTMARE. My car was vandalized one year on Halloween night (I went elsewhere on Halloween after that year). It can take up to an hour to move a mile during October and people would literally walk out in front of your car while driving.

I also lived in a beach community in Massachusetts and during the summer, we could not enjoy our own beach and after season ended, we had to do a community clean-up the beach was so trashed. The traffic was so bad in town that we never went grocery shopping on nice days (forget weekends). We owned a video store and people from out of town, only staying for a week, would get all in a huff when we asked for their credit card number to rent movies. It was like "What do you mean, we can't rent movies without a credit card, we are on vacation!".

Due to my experience, I don't get my pajamas in a knot because someone is rude to me in Charlotte Amalie and gave me 'tude about boxing up my rum bottles. Hubby thought it was horrible. I told him to shut up and that maybe the lady was having a bad day and to remember that she is NOT on vacation. He never lived in a tourist town so he didn't understand.

Please keep everything in perspective. Just cuz we spend our tourist dollars in the islands DOES NOT MEAN the residents have to kiss our asses. It sucks living in a tourist trap regardless if that is why they are employed or not.

That's my rant.

Just my 2 cents, but we had an excellent reception in St. Thomas and St. John.

3 stories and I know some of you read this before.

We wanted to go to Red Hook, but didn't want to drive because we would be drinking. We ended up getting a ride with a local who was coming home from work. He wouldn't take a dime from us.

That same night after ALOT of fun at Duffy's, before I knew it, one girl got her jeep and drove us back to Sapphire Village.

We also had a great argument back and forth with 2 locals about whether a man should open a door for a woman. We had so much fun with these two guys, that I could of stayed all night hearing them go back and forth.

These are just small things, but these are things that we'll always remember.

I feel that people are basically the same all over the world. Good and bad, nasty and sweet. You'll find them everywhere, but in general I will go back to St Thomas/St John. Wouldn't catch me in Jamaica EVER again.

When we visited STT and STJ, we treated people nicely (as we always do anywhere we are, visiting or not), and were treated the same way for the most part. We did notice, however, that the younger folks seemed to almost have a chip on their shoulder for something. On several occasions, the younger folks (maybe early to mid 20s) were almost rude (I got pushed in line several time, almost stepped on), and when we'd ask a question, we were ignored. However, the older generations were never that way. They were extremely nice, friendly, outgoing, and seemed to appreciate that we were loving their island and putting money in their economy. Several even asked us "you going shopping today and put money in our local economy?" We had a really nice older gentleman for a taxi driver on STJ who was an angel...loved him. He seemed to really appreciate the beauty of where he lived. Seems like maybe the younger folks don't appreciate it...maybe they haven't ever left, so they don't realize what a good thing they have..?

Nick
Even the cast members at both Disneyland & Disney World can get cranky & rude. LOL . You are right we need to be respectful of their culture while on any Caribbean Island

Lysa
I can relate to what you went through but the opposite. We live in Newport RI for a year while my husband ( not a military personal, a great honor for him) went to the Navy War College. We went up in July & the local treated us very rudely to say the less even though we were very outgoing. It was until after Labor Day that they treated us like locals. I think also they saw us using their restaurants & coming back each day for their breakfast specials etc they got to know us.

Island,

That stinks and I'm glad you were able to relate to those loclas post-season. It's so overwhelming to be going about your daily routine one day and then having "tourism obstacles" in your way another day. Something as simple as your daily commute can be so mucked up during tourist season.

I am in no way saying that being a resident of a touristy area is an excuse to be rude. I wasn't outright rude to people. But, when I'm frustrated, I probably come across as rude. And that's not right.

It's all about seeing a situation from someone else's viewpoint. I chalk most rudeness up to someone having a bad day unless the rudeness is continual and consistent. In those cases, I just write that person off.

Hmm, Matt...Was I mean to you? 🙁 Well, I will have to say that there may be a segment of our population that could give you that feeling, but I believe it is a small percentage. Not that it matters, because what you remember is those few bad apples.

I must disagree with Bluie. There is a very common belief that the "garrots" are the problem in the USVI. However, I argue that it is the entitlement culture in which we live. Many Virgin Islanders believe that they have a right to many things- free breakfast and lunch for all children, free health care, free burial, free or very low cost housing... Unfortunately, some of the leaders encourage this line of thinking. That someone would ask a visitor, "Are you going to contribute to our economy?" shows the extent of this problem.

Again, I am sorry that you were left with this feeling. If you could come up with some specific examples of this behavior, I would love to see you write a letter to the editor of the Virgin Islands Daily News or to the on-line paper, the Source. Those letters do get read and discussed, I promise you.

I live in Hershey Pa and although Hershey park gives my sons ample summer job opportunities, it is SUCH a pain to live here in the summer. I'm sure it's not as bad as living at the beach in the summer but it's quite hard to get to certain places. We try SO hard when we go away to be friendly and we found sometimes you have to try a little harder in foreign places. While in STX this past month, it took us quite a few days to have some of the locals warm up to us. I think it was b/c of their culture, hesitation to us foreigners, etc. Maybe someone was just just having a bad day. Just keep smiling.

Thanks Blu for bringing this situation into perspective. East Ender I don't know what local you are talking about that are looking for something free. That is the same mentality that has been place on African Americans. I am not saying that all of the down islanders are negative because many of them have contributed tremendously to economy of the U.S. Virgin Islands. but it is a fact that their loyality is not the St thomas, St John or St.Croix it is with their place of birth. I know for sure that Virgin Islanders would not be welcome with open arms in many of those other Caribbean islands if we were moving their in great numbers. East Ender would you say that all Americans want free stuff or are lazy when they complain about the Mexicans coming over the border and working for lower wages, taking American jobs and straining the school system etc.

Been there numerous times and never had a problem. Of course there's always going to be people who are grouchy or rude. That's ANYWHERE.

I think it is the "tourist destination" thing that really adds to the division of the classes on STT. I ran a shop in downtown for a about a year and I certainly can understand why some tourists might feel they are mistreated by the residents. The cruise passengers can seem to descend like a flock of hungry locusts (these are the "entitlement issue" problem IMHO). They are often rude in dealing with the store keepers, asking "what the price" & "that's too much, how about (insert some offensively small amount here)".Since they are only on the Island for a few hours many buzz about ignoring local customs such as greetings and appropriate public attire. Many times it can feel like they are saying "Hey , we are giving you our money, now do what we want you to do". Which, of course, since I was in the retail/service industry, that was actually my job. I think some resentment is not uncommon in this dynamic, and when the "cruisers" mentality is is directed toward the natives (like they are their for the the tourists' entertainment), it is not surprising that some animosity can build up. Maybe a real jerk, off the boat, had just come into my store with a "rasta wig" hat doing a horrible Jamaican accent and swaggering around drunk asking for a discount on cigarettes. It is hard in those kind of situations to be your best and most courteous to the NEXT person you run into. It is like you have to constantly remind yourself that MOST tourists are really pleasant, especially the ones staying on Island since they have the opportunity to SLOW down and be mellow. So the workers and natives and locals all have some experiences like these that can colour their view of tourists and it is really a reciprocal kind of thing. A tourist is rude to a local, a local is rude to a tourist, completely nice people of both sorts are caught in the wake. When local economy is reliant of tourism dollars, locals can feel they themselves are being bought. I think that is where the chip comes from. There is just such a massive amount of people that move through STT on any day (especially high season) and such a disparity between lifestyles and $ of tourists and that of the workers who wait on them and that of the natives who navigate their lives through all that bustle. It's not surprising then that Islands that receive less traffic are more appreciative of their tourists and kinder to them.They don't get so overwhelmed, and do get to have that laid back hospitality that both Islanders and Island visitors love to share. I think downtown CA, although small, is more like a big city because of all the foot traffic it receives. Some people on STT are rude and some are really great and kind and helpful just like any other BIG CITY. Who and what you choose to remember from your time on the Island, the good or the bad, can tell, ultimately, the most about who YOU are.

Who and what you choose to remember from your time on the Island, the good or the bad, can tell, ultimately, the most about who YOU are.

Amen!

I've read threads similar to this one many times on this board. Time and time again, visitors express the same frustration as Matt's. True to form, responders fall into three groups: (1) those who agree, (2) those who basically agree, but excuse or justify it, and (3) those who disagree - the select few who have had nothing but great experiences with locals. Personally, I used to be in Matt's camp, but over the years I've moved more toward excusing it and a lot more toward ignoring it. I remember taking to heart the comments of a responder a couple of years ago who sized it up this way. He noted that one of the things we appreciate about the vacation experience is being treated special by those who serve us. It's the "king/queen for a day" feeling that we don't typically experience in our every day lives. You see it's importance every time you read a glowing traveler's report - "the staff went out of their way to accommodate us", "by the end of the week we felt like we were part of their family", "our waiter was extremely attentive", "they were there within 5 minutes to fix the problem", they upgraded us at no extra charge", etc., etc., etc. The people who provide that kind of service might grumble endlessly behind the scenes, but when they go work they put their game face on and treat you as if you're the most important person/group in the world. If that's what you're looking for to enrich your USVI vacation experience (and there's nothing wrong with wanting it), you will probably be disappointed many times over. On the other hand, IMO it's the one (and only one) negative in an otherwise spectacular place to visit. After we learned to "dial down" our service expectations from USVI locals, everything became a bed of roses. Just my 2 cents.

I have to agree with you, I never find that locals to be very welcoming when I visit St. Thomas or St. John. I do find that the locals on Virgin Gorda and Tortola to be very nice.