Hi,

I met a couple at Hard Rock Cafe last month who did many of the things you want to do while on St. Thomas. They rented a jeep, got a map and away they went. Thought the roads here were the best of all of the islands thay had visited so far.

Rita

Hello,

Many times the cruise ship excursions charge a bit more then what it would cost if you did it on your own or if you did it through on island operator - not always - sometimes they are just about the same price. Let me give examples.

Magens Bay excusion via ship... its cheaper to just take a cab and go on your own - it is not hard and it is not far and you stay as long as you like - there are cabs there when you are ready to leave.

St. John - easy to do on your own as well... it sometimes depending on the size of your group might work out to be the same as the say Trunk Bay excursion ... but some like the freedom so do it on their own and others like the convience of not worrying about any details so do it with the excursion...

What you described for what you want to do.... here my suggestion. Take a taxi to Sapphire Beach... you can relax there, there is a beach bar, snorkel there... walk over to the marina and rent a waverunner, if you want to kayak thats available on the beach... buy a drink at the pool bar and then swim in the pool (the pool is for guest- but figure if you buy a drink at least you are a customer!! LOL)... walk back to the beach, change in the bathrooms there. Grab some lunch there, they also have food at the pool bar... and then get a taxi and do an island tour for an hour or hour and a half up to Mountain Top, Drakes Seat, Skyline Look out...- that runs about $20 suppose to be for 1 or 2 persons... and then around $12 for each additional person... depending on how much time is left you can head to Paradise Point for the view, pictures, drinks before returning to the ship or if you want to shop - do some shopping in Havensight.

I think that will cram in as much as you can.

--Islander

Islander: Where is Skyline Lookout? We're arriving by cruise ship renting a Jeep and going to Magen's Bay, where we were married on the beach back on Oct 8, 1998 (we promised ourselves we'd return there every five years we celebrate our marriage - this is our first time to return).

We have Drake's Seat and Mountain Top on our list of sites to drive to. But didn't see Skyline Lookout listed anywhere, so would like to know it's location. Also, what other locations might you suggest while driving around that area in the Jeep? Maybe a good spot you might suggest to drop in for lunch?

We're hoping we can swim some at Magen's Bay and then change back into casual clothes for driving around. Do they offer lockers, showers and changing facilities there?

Thanks for your advice/suggestions. 🙂

Shanny,

I took a cruise in Feb (no USVI stop) but Islander is right in saying that some of the on board excursions are little more spendy. I personally went and picked up the excursion info on the ship and read the daily papers that they put in your cabin, which gives you some great ideas of things to do and lets you see your options, but I opted to venture out on my own. This kept my on board credit card from being super charged up and there were tons of local folks at the dock with flyers, maps, and tourist type newspapers. I always grab those and look at the adds and for coupons for excursions, car/scooter rentals, etc.

I found my main problem to be that I didn't know my way around (although I stumbeled across some cool stuff that way) and that slowed me down based on the cruise ship time constraints. Sounds like you have a good idea of what you want to do and Islander now has me wanting to go to Sapphire beach to hang out! Have fun on your cruise! Also on a side note if you are going to do some duty free shopping, I made the mistake of buying stuff duty free on the ship before I got to a port (that on board credit card again). I found that the ports of call have the same things but are even less than the ship and the selection is much better than the ships. Enjoy!

Hello Le,

Congrats on your 5 year aniversary!!

Skyline Drive... opps sorry that is not the correct name - its the name locals use because the road used to be called Skyline Drive and is actually called the Valdemar Hill Scenic Drive now... (well just pulled out the map) The road officially is called the latter but locals call it skyline and the map from 2002 has it as Skyline... so the lookout is on the road with two names... 🙂 it is not far from Louisenhoj Castle which is easy to spot at the corner before getting to the turn off to Magens Bay and the road to Drakes Seat... the lookout is about a 1 minute drive from Drakes Seat. If you were coming up the road from Magens Bay and going to Drakes Seat (which would be a right hand turn) at that same turning point you could also go left - which would land you right in from of the the castle and then immediately after the stone wall to the castle parking lot is another left turn and shortly thereafter the lookout is on the right. It looks over Charlotte Amalie and is a nice spot to take pictures.

Ok how about... head up to Mountain Top, come down stopping at Drakes Seat, come around and stop at the look out... continue to Magens Bay (they have lockers, showers are salt water but they have them and they have changing rooms - usually really sandy) you could eat there they have burgers and salads and chicken sandwiches, pizza stuff like that... then you could head to East End area to look around... lots of places to eat there if you don't eat at Magens Bay... in East End there are lots of beaches to stop in and visit (Sapphire, Secret Harbor, Ritz Carlton, Coki.... not sure how much time you are spending at Magens so its hard to judge what you will have time to do.

So how much time are you planning to spend at Magens?? (1 hour, 2 hours, half the day...) perhaps you should just head there first since that is a critical part of the aniversary trip and then plan the other spots from there.

--Islander

islander: thanks for the location details and ideas. We're not sure about time ourselves. But I believe we have enough to take in. Your idea of Mt. Top, Drake's Seat on the way to Magen's Bay sounds like a good route. If time permits, after Magen's, we'll head East to at least see some of that area. And go from there. Thanks again. You're a big help on these boards. Hope you get as much out of it as those who, like us, appreciate your time and thoughts. 🙂