We will be staying in St Thomas for several days and would like to find handcrafted jewelry and art by local artisans. Any suggestions? Also, since we will be visiting St. John and St Croix separately we would like to know the beaches on St. Thomas we should check out. We will have a rental vehicle and will be on St. Thomas for 5 days and have a day sail on only one of those. Thanks for any info.

One little store likely to enchant you is "Water Candy" in the Tillett Gardens complex. Owner Barbara creates some beautiful jewelry from locally-collected sea glass but there is much more that she does and it's a veritable little treasure-trove of hand-crafted delights! The complex houses other very talented artists and you'll find all sorts of things there to interest you.

We saw some good work by Tulip Fleming at Tropical Creations 5144 International Plaza Ste # 12.

Gallery St Thomas in Palm Passage on St Thomas has arts/crafts from some of the best artists in the Virgin Islands. Check their website for a visual delight.

The Virgin Island Craft Coop across from Emancipation Park on the waterfront has some nice local crafts - The St Thomas Gallery in Palm Passage has excellent art and good quality crafts.
Smith Bay Park is a wonderful beach to check out - bring food and drink.
Brewers Bay Beach is a flat calm swimming beach that is rarely crowded during the weekdays.

Thanks for all the information. We are looking forward to our visit on your beautiful islands.

On St. John... my store has a local designer. Krall Designs is Tom and Alice Krall and they have been on St. John a long time, St. Croix before then. They are both jewelers and they make a lot of different designs for us. My store is Verace, located in Wharfside Village, just around from the ferry dock. They used to have their own retail location (Coral Bay Jewelers) but recently closed up their shop (they were tired of retail and just wanted to be artists).

For some really beautiful art, I suggest you go to Coconut Coast Studios. Elaine does some beautiful work and has many originals, prints, and her yearly calendar for sale. Her studio is about a 10 minute walk from town right on Frank Bay.