Budget will give you a map and basically you'll turn right out of the airport road, go on Route 30 to the very end of the waterfront then turn right at the last light and continue on 30 all the way into Red Hook. If your arrival is on a weekday you'll be running into commuter traffic leaving town but it's usually worse on Rte 38 than 30. I would figure it's about a 35 minute drive at that time of day. If you need to check the ferry schedule it's listed under "Quick Links" top right this page. Sunset is around 6:30PM so you'll be on STJ way before it's dark. Have a wonderful vacation!

Counting on being at your condo "way before dark" is very ambitious.

Allow 2.5 hours from touch down to check-in. 1.5 hours to claim bags, fill out rental paperwork, load up car and drive through town in rush hours. Ask the car rental agent for map. Red hook is also busy that time of day too. Please chek the ferry schedule and confirm by phone in advance. The ferries don't always run on schedule. I would also suggest having a back-up plan in case your flight is delayed and you won't make the car ferry (passenger ferries run into the night). The car ferry takes 30-45 minutes. I guess your condo is close to Cruz bay. If all goes smoothly, with no glitches, you'll be checking-in just as the sun sets.

Have a great trip!

Do you have a GPS that you can use? If you are unfamiliar with the roads, in my opinion using a GPS would be your best bet. The roads are winding, cross streets are often poorly marked, and there are roads that don't appear on the maps, all of which can be confusing the first time you drive there. For my first visit to St. Thomas, I used a paper map and tried to follow the directions provided by Budget to get to the east end (Secret Harbour, specifically) and I made many wrong turns. What should have been a half hour drive took roughly twice as long and included several stops for directions--include twice at the Ritz!

johnnyslimane wrote:
Do you have a GPS that you can use? If you are unfamiliar with the roads, in my opinion using a GPS would be your best bet. The roads are winding, cross streets are often poorly marked, and there are roads that don't appear on the maps, all of which can be confusing the first time you drive there. For my first visit to St. Thomas, I used a paper map and tried to follow the directions provided by Budget to get to the east end (Secret Harbour, specifically) and I made many wrong turns. What should have been a half hour drive took roughly twice as long and included several stops for directions--include twice at the Ritz!

My apologies for getting a big chuckle from your post! As much as you might be used to the aid of a GPS stateside to get you from A to B, you might just find that the old paper map routine works a lot better than any GPS here. Sorry you didn't find Secret Harbor as easily as you expected but getting there really isn't that complicated at all. Sounds as though you got onto the right turnoff from Rte 32 to 322 but then missed the right (and pretty well marked) turn to Secret Harbour and ended up going all the way down the road to the Ritz. Twice. But you got there eventually, and hopefully thereafter managed to get around with no problem?

That was several years ago and after getting mixed up the first time, I had no problems finding my way to and from Secret Harbour. The biggest confusion was trying to find the correct place to turn off of Route 322. There was construction going on in the area at the time and the sign was either missing or obstructed. And it was around 8:00 pm so it was dark out. The next time I was on the island was two years after this and I managed to make it from the airport to the condo by memory, so looking back I would agree that it isn't that complicated. That said, when driving to somewhere unfamiliar on the island, I always managed to find my way when using paper maps, but for me it was definitely easier when I had a GPS to use.

STT Resident wrote:
[quote=johnnyslimane]
Do you have a GPS that you can use? If you are unfamiliar with the roads, in my opinion using a GPS would be your best bet. The roads are winding, cross streets are often poorly marked, and there are roads that don't appear on the maps, all of which can be confusing the first time you drive there. For my first visit to St. Thomas, I used a paper map and tried to follow the directions provided by Budget to get to the east end (Secret Harbour, specifically) and I made many wrong turns. What should have been a half hour drive took roughly twice as long and included several stops for directions--include twice at the Ritz!

My apologies for getting a big chuckle from your post! As much as you might be used to the aid of a GPS stateside to get you from A to B, you might just find that the old paper map routine works a lot better than any GPS here. Sorry you didn't find Secret Harbor as easily as you expected but getting there really isn't that complicated at all. Sounds as though you got onto the right turnoff from Rte 32 to 322 but then missed the right (and pretty well marked) turn to Secret Harbour and ended up going all the way down the road to the Ritz. Twice. But you got there eventually, and hopefully thereafter managed to get around with no problem?

STT Resident, I don't think its funny that tourist become confused by lack of signage and un-marked intersections on St Thomas. The turn off for Secret Harbour is not overly obvious. The sign post is not lit at dark nor is the lettering painted with a reflective material. Arriving at night, driving on the left and finding your way around a unfamiliar island is understandably confusing. Secert Habour is one of the nicest resorts and beaches on the island.

The purpose of this forum is to help visitors not make fun of them. Personally I believe you do our visitors a dis-service by painting an "idealized picture" of travel to STT. STT has many strong points, but it is not "perfect". Visitors should understand what to expect so that they can adiquetly prepare and avoid potential hassles and spend thier time and hard earned vacation dollars relaxing.

Oh DO button up on the snarky comments and jibes. I wasn't making fun of the poster but my apologies for even thinking of introducing a little levity into a post. I'll do my very best in future to refrain from doing anything like that again and will definitely start pointing out all the negatives of St Thomas I can think of in order to dispel the very notion that it's a perfect place. 😀

Thank you STT Resident. Our visitors will appreciate your new found accuracy and candor.

STT Resident wrote:
Oh DO button up on the snarky comments and jibes. I wasn't making fun of the poster but my apologies for even thinking of introducing a little levity into a post. I'll do my very best in future to refrain from doing anything like that again and will definitely start pointing out all the negatives of St Thomas I can think of in order to dispel the very notion that it's a perfect place. 😀

Why do that? It is the perfect place to live and visit just me!!! 🙂