Hi Michael,

We will be staying on St Thomas but have scheduled a plane ride via Cape Air to STX. We are actually only going for the day which I know is crazy. We will arrive STX around 8:30 AM and depart around 6:00 PM. We rented a car from the airport from Budget. Our plan is to drive the Heritage Trail. Have you heard of it--I guess there are signs along the island roads which let you know you are heading in the right direction? We got a map from the St. Croix Landmarks Society which points out many of the highlights of the island. For times sake we are saving water activities, i.e. snorkling, for STT and STJ. Realizing we will only be there for 8 hours we wanted to try and see: Christianhead National Historic Site, Government House, Estate Little Princess, Estate Rust-Op Twist, Salt River National Histrical Park, Estate Whim Plantation Museum, Lawaetz Museum and St Croix LEAP. What do you think? Is seeing all of the above realistic? If you had 8 hours, which of the above would you do?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Wow, good question. What would I do if I only had eight hours on STX? Well, not to sound negative, but I would forgo trying to follow the Heritage Trail. Street/road signs on STX leave something to be desired as a lot of them are missing. I would definitely do the Estate Whim Plantation Museum (about an hour tour) and Lawaetz Museum (about a 45 minute tour). But I would also recommend the Cruzan Rum factory tour (about an hour) as whether you drink or not, the process of how they make rum is quite interesting. The Whim and Lawaetz as well as the Cruzan factory are all on the west end of the island, so you can knock them all out by noon or so, just in time for lunch at Changes in Latitude just a few miles from Lawaetz on the coast. They have great hot dogs there and cold Coronas! Or you can head back towards Christianstead, drive through it and have lunch at Cheeseburgers in Paradise, they have burgers there that melt in your mouth! After lunch I would suggest a quick trip out to Udall Point at the easternmost tip of the island, the view out over the ocean is breathtaking. All of this together should be a great day out and you would get to see the island end to end. You’d also have a little extra time for travel and an inevitable wrong turn, checking out and returning your car and having an extra beer before you leave for the day. Have fun!!!!

Thanks Michael! I really appreciate your input. We will probably cut it down to 3 or 4 places just so we can really appreciate and soak up those 3 or 4 rather than trying to cram too much in.

Thanks again!

One more thing Michael, where did you get your water shoes that have a "sole made of rubber that is supposedly tougher than car tire rubber?" We bought new snorkles and masks to bring with us but I am thinking we better get some water shoes too after reading your advice!

Michael,
Did you get married early one morning on the beach at the Buc?

If so I was out running and stopped for a moment to watch. What was the date?

Jim W

SoCalGal, try SwimOutlet.Com. Prices are very reasonable. Just remember, just 'cause you have water shoes on does not mean you can walk on sea urchins and crunch them like Fruit Loops on a kitchen floor! 🙂 Use caution and wear them every time you are on the beach! I don't know if you read Ric's post the other day, so don't become a statistic.

Hiya Jim!
We married on the Grotto beach at 6AM on the morning of May 5th. There are lots of weddings at the Buccaneer, we saw five other couple tie the knot there over the few weeks we were there. One of them even hired Bill Bass to play during the ceremony on Mermaid Beach. Our ceremony was lovely...when we weren't swatting at gnats! 🙂

For the snorkelers out there...Disposable underwater cameras are available all over the island (Kodak brand) for about $15 to $25. Prices vary, shop around. I bought one and though the blue came out a bit strong, it did a fantastic job with underwater photographs. My only tip is to hold the camera as still as possible before taking the picture...easier said than done in the surf!
For any of you staying at the Buccaneer, there is a little point of rock outcropping that divides the Grotto and Mermaid beach that has SUPERB snorkeling. Swim out from the beach and come back towards the rocks. Its amazing. (Even those who are not staying at the Buccaneer, remember that ALL beaches on STX are public, so you can still go there!)

P.S. Yes, I know ‘snorkelers’ is not a word, but you know what I mean! 

If I only had eight hours on St. Croix I'd do mostly what Michael suggsts with a slight change. I'd hit the Whim, Laewetz and possibly the Cruzan Rum factory and/or the Botanical Gardens and/or the Domino Club (to see the beer drinking pigs and have some of their home brew) because they are all on the west end. Lunch at Changes in L'Atitude sounds good too, or head back along the norht shore and have lunch at the Cane Bay Beach Bar or Off the Wall - both are great. In any case I'd make sure to take the north shore drive back towards Christiansted - the vistas are gorgeous. While the view at Point Udall IS wonderful, I'd probably do the historic area in Christiansted and then grab a drink and/or snack on the waterfront at either Rumrunners or the Brew Pub. Then I'd kick myself that I didn't have more time on this beautiful island (26 trips and I still haven't gotten to the Laewetz Museum!)

Thanks Michael! Hey, by the way, where are all those pictures you took? We would all love to see them!

Hey SoCal,
As I am new to this board I am not sure how to post photos. In fact I didn't even know you could. I will look into that!

Micheal
There is no facility for posting pictures on this board. You will need to use any of the web based sites like flickr or similar and direct everyone to that web site.

Hello Michael,

Sounds like you covered a lot of ground on St. Croix. Wow. Thank you for sharing your experiences. We love vacation reports/reviews here. 🙂

I'll ask some questions of you. What did you think of the Buccaneer? Who did you rent a car from, how were they? Did you find driving there easy/hard? What were your favorite restaurants? and top attractions? Did the resort do the wedding planning? How were they in that department? Top beach choices? Inquiring minds and vacation planners want to know ;).

Congrats on your wedding!! And thanks again for sharing your experiences.

--Islander

Actually, my wife is planning on a full, in depth review of all the services within the next few days. Being the bride (and you guys know what I mean when I say this!) my wife was in charge of planning things. As far as the driving was concerned, I had no trouble adapting to driving on the left. Its a bit scary at first, but you adjust within a day or so. We found road signs/directions and the available maps to be very poor. There were numerous roads on the island that were not on the maps and some road signs contradict one another. However, once you get the hang of things we had no problems. If you are planning on asking directions on how to get to place ‘X’, get ready for an explanation that goes something like this… “Drive down the road to the big tree, drive two more streets past till you see a brown cow on the left, turn at the next shanty and drive till you see a blue car and turn right, turn there and you will see a big palm tree, drive past that till you come to a big hill…it should be right there” It took us a while to learn how to follow directions like this, but you ‘get the groove of it’ after a while!
Best beaches? They were all equally as wonderful and found none better than the other. If you have the time, explore them all!
The only negative experience we had on the island was dinner at the Buccaneer Terrace Restaurant. From what I understand, the Buccaneer leases out its kitchens to an outside company for dinner service. We were disappointed. My shrimp dish was rubbery (overcooked the shrimp) and my wife’s beef dish was lukewarm at best, the food quality was just not good. (It is hard for me to say that because I am just not into ‘ambiance’ at all. Some people judge a restaurant solely on ambiance, some solely on food quality and some a combination of both. I judge 100% on food quality. A sexy waitress does not make my food taste any better, neither does crystal drinking glasses.) The best food on the island, in our opinion was Dugan’s Reef. Their coconut shrimp are jumbo shrimp, delicious and a better value than anyone else on the island. Four jumbo shrimp for $12. (H2O had three coconut shrimp for $15…how they justify a $5 shrimp is beyond me when the ocean is a stone's throw away. We walked out of H2O after seeing their portion sizes and prices.) Dugan’s Reef also had the absolute BEST filet mignon I have ever eaten in my life. The food excellent, service superb. We went three times, including our last dinner on the island before leaving. I also had a baked Mahi that was buttery and out of this world as well as crab meat fritters!
Other fantastic restaurants were Rum Runners (peel and eat shrimp and sashimi), The Cultured Pelican (OUSTANDING fried calamari!), Cheeseburgers in America’s Paradise (for mouthwatering burgers of course!), Savant (superb blackened Mahi but do NOT order the pan seared calamari, it smelled and tasted like ammonia, I had to send it back to the kitchen) and Tutto Bene’s (EXTREEMLY expensive but some of the best Italian food I have ever had). We went to a lot of other places, but these stand out as being the best. In all honesty, other than the Terrace, all meals out were fantastic. Also, try the microbrew beer at the Fort Christian Brew Pub, I had a beer there that was like nectar!
Overall, despite the lovely sights, sounds, sun and surf, the most memorable aspect of the island were the people. I come from Chicago, where EVERYONE is either angry, bitter or hatful and that was just not the case in STX. There were a few rude tourists but we did not run across even one islander that was not friendly, outgoing and considerate. If you stay at the Buccaneer ask for Patricia when you have breakfast at the Terrace. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever want to meet. I cannot recall the number of wonderful conversations we had with waiters and waitresses, store and shopkeepers and other islanders we talk to during our stay. It was simply wonderful. Don't be afraid to just walk up to a shopkeeper and talk to them about life on the island, they are more than happy to drop everything they are doing and talk with you, this goes for all islanders..they are just simply happy people!
If I had on single tip for anyone going to STX it would be this…When your plane touches down and you are waiting for baggage claim, do yourself a big favor, close your eyes, take a deep breath and tell yourself over and over to r-e-l-a-x! Time moves slower on the island, it is a laid back relaxed atmosphere. Enjoy your time there, don’t make a lot of plans, just go with the flow. I’ve been home now in Chicago for five days as I write this and I am still in withdrawal. My wife and I are not party people and are very relaxed as it is and are considering moving to STX within the next year or so. STX gets into your blood and you either ‘get it’ or ‘don’t get it’. Well, we ‘got it’ big time and when we left we both agreed it was like leaving home.
Like I said, my wife will post soon on reviews of all the detail stuff, so look for that soon. In fact, I’ll also repost it under my name as well so everyone will see it.

I was also at the Buc the same time Michael was there. I agree with about 99% of what he's stated. It sounds like we probably crossed paths i.e restaurants, site seeing etc. many times! I will add the diving on St Croix is SUPER & I probably had a FEW more beers than him at the Brew Pub!:) I may try to put more of our trip info together this weekend.

Jim W

Jim! LOL!
Are we betting on beer consumption? 'Cause if you include rum in the overall factor I'd give you a run for the money! LOL

Go to Photobucket.Com and enter 'TGMDS' as the album name. Just a small sample of the over 600 photos we took. Enjoy!

I think I had two rum punches at the Buc & 2 painkillers at Cheeseburgers. But I was at the Brew pub for a beer or three maybe more 🙂 7 out of 10 days. Good Stuff!

JW

makes me wanna go back so badly! was there in april & going in october...and then moving 01/07.........can't wait ;0)