Please take no offense to this but if you wish to experience island life you will need to rent a car.

Thanks for your feedback. We've been to St Thomas before and had a car. We wanted to do something a little different but depending on other feedback, a car is probably the way we will go.

Absolutely rent a car! The Reef isn't on any public transport route and even at Point Pleasant where you can grab a safari, they only travel in one direction on a circular route west to east. You will miss out on SO much trying to rely on any kind of public transportation and will spend a lot of time standing on the side of the road in the heat waiting for that "maybe" bus to arrive. Taxi fares run up very quickly (see top of this page under "St Thomas/Transportation/taxi rates.) Driving here is VERY simple to adjust to, particularly with a 35mph speed limit and your usual speed around 25mph. If you plan to eventually move here you'll have to get used to driving anyway. Cheers!

My dad just got back from staying at our place for two weeks. We are next door to Point Pleasant at Pineapple Village. He rented an SUV for 3 days and returned it. He said that it was less stressful and more fun to ride the safari. He said that once he figured it out it was no problem. STT Resident is right that the safari's travel in only one direction, but I'd like to add that if you want to go downtown to Charlotte Amalie you have to change safari busses at the Tutu mall.

With that said, I'm renting an explorer myself to help transport the group that we're bringing. If I wasn't traveling back for business and I was in no hurry, I think that I'd like to give it a try. If you find that the safari's are too much trouble, you can always rent a car later. I think that Budget rents out cars at Sapphire Beach which is also close by to Point Pleasant.

Molly

I think that I've already decided that one way travel is not for me/us, unless it's a one way airplane ticket to STT. 😎 It was mostly my husband who wanted to experience the bus/safari as we did this in Antigua and it went great. But after telling him what STT Resident said, I think it'll be a car or jeep.

Thanks to you all!!

Just wanted to add one small point about deciding to rent a car after a few days of reliance on buses/taxis. A recent poster on a VI forum decided not to rent a car (against all advice!) but after a few days realized his error and tried to rent a car for the remaining few days of his visit. He was unsuccessful in finding any agency that could rent to him for just a couple of days. He really ejoyed his visit here and said he would be back again but would definitly rent a car for his total trip. Cheers!

Our posts butted each other. A Jeep is fun but a less expensive compact will get you around just fine. If you plan on going over to St John, Hertz is the one rental agency which will not allow their vehicles to go over there on the car barge. Cheers!