Please Register / Login to take part in discussions about the Virgin Islands.
Hi All,
We're staying in St. John for 9 days and wanted to ferry over to St. Thomas one morning to shop. We're looking at the Sunday morning we're there. Is the market place in C.A. and all the stores downtown open on Sunday mornings?
Thanks! (2 weeks to go!)
Sunday is not the best shopping day on St Thomas. Saturday is the traditional "locals" shopping day downtown. Many stores open late or not at all on Sunday.
Thanks East Ender. Glad I checked!
We stayed in St. John and on our return to St. Thomas (on a Sunday) to catch a plane there wasn't a single store opened except this tiny little quick mart inside a strip mall. I highly recommend if you want to shop don't go on a Sunday, check when there are ships in port and you can pretty much be guaranteed the stores will be open for the ship passengers.
When are you going to be in the V.I. ? I can check the cruise ship schedule and let you know what the best days to shop in STT are. Generally Friday and Sat in the summer have the least crowds.
Hello ByRequest1,
If you scroll to the top of this page there is a link 'Cruise Schedule" - click there and visit June's schedule. I'd pick a day with one ship; all the shops & vendors will be open. A weekday with no ships for downtown will be fine too, but if you wanted to go to Havensight for shopping there is a chance the shops there might be closed on a day with no ships.
Enjoy!!
--Islander
Just out of curiosity, do any cruise ships stay in port longer than one day?
not usually
Thanks everyone for all of your advice. We'll be there from June 15-24, so that gives us plenty of time to get over there. I'll check the cruise ship schedule.
If you're interested in savouring the history of Charlotte Amalie, Sunday is a marvellous day to choose for such an adventure and the photo-ops are awesome.
Pretty much devoid of the hustle and bustle of the cruise ship tourists and the barkers and the traffic, you can enjoy a relative tranquility which the majority of tourists never see. The old buildings take on a whole new meaning when you can actually take the time to really see them.
There certainly are stores which are open on non-cruise-ship days. You can spend time strolling around and poking into the stores which are open, maybe duck into a bar/restaurant which isn't advertised in any of the tourist publications and enjoy a bite or a drink or both.
To savour the essence of STT I recommend that. This may not fit into your plans or expectations but that's just my two humble cents.
Enjoy your holiday! Cheers.
Thanks STT. It would be nice to avoid the chaos of the barkers and just soak in the surroundings.
