Vacation Home or Resort in St. Croix

[anonymus]

I need some help. I have never traveled to the Caribbean before. I am looking for a private getaway for me and my wife in July. We are both in our 40's and don't enjoy the extras provided by the resorts... We like the idea of renting a Vacation Rental Home in St. Croix.

The home we like is located on the North Shore.

Are we more vulnerable and at risk of being a victim of a tourist crime by staying in a vacation home as opposed to a resort?

We have heard that the USVI are dirty. Is this true?

Will we find many of the good restaurants and stores closed in July?

If you had to choose between St. Croix or Bermuda which would you prefer?


Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[anonymus]

Go to Bermuda. It is very clean, the shopping is great and the people are extremely friendly. Unlike many other islands, no one tries to sell you things on the beach. I love it so much that I lost track of how many times I gone there. I recommed the Stonington at Elbow Beach.

PS I keep hearing about a crime problem in St. Croix.

[anonymus]

Bermuda and St. Croix are very different. Bermuda is more developed and refined. St. Croix is more wild and not developed. Both have appeals. If you are looking for a private home on St. Croix, we rented through www.st-croix.com/rentavilla. It has a great site to view homes. The company is in New Jersey and the people we dealt with were great and gave us great direction on the parts of the Island to stay at. We felt pretty safe on St. Croix, but ask about the parts of the island to stay away from. Again, St. Croix is much funkier and non polished vs. Bermuda. Also, the Buccaneer Resort is a very gracious, beautiful, not overly commercial resort. Super place.

[anonymus]

I own two villas on St. Croix, Caribbean Dream & Villa Dawn. My wife and I love tropical destinations and have been all over the world to visit them. We have visited almost all of the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii, Mexico, Florida Keys and all the Tahitian Islands. We like St. Croix the best. The weather is wonderful year round. The people are very friendly and the island is not stuffy or arrogant like many other destinations. It truely is one of the last tropical tourist destinations that you can still go to without towering resort hotels and thousands of cruise ship passengers crowding every street and beach!

The recent reports of crime on the island are extremely exagerated. The crime issue was concocted by the cruise ship industry as a result of the US Virgin Islands government backing out of a proposed shopping mecca on St. Thomas. The USVI government felt that the deal as it was gave the cruise industry to much power over the development. The cruise industry in turn decided to punish the USVI in some way so they pulled out of St. Croix and blamed it on crime. The crime is ten times worse on St. Thomas but they have not pulled out of there. Why not you might ask? Because St. Thomas is a very profitable port of call for them! You don't see the cruise lines pulling out of Jamaica either where the crime is 30 times worse than in St. Croix! I would recommend St. Croix to anyone who wants to go to a beautiful Caribbean Island full of history, duty free shopping, great beaches, wonderful dining, awesome snorkeling and scuba diving, etc., etc., etc.

You can see our villas at www.villadawn.com and www.caribbeandreamvilla.com

[Donnamatrix]

We have stayed at both STC and STT as well as St John (STJ). All are great. I wouldn't walk around late at night in parts of Christiansted, Charlotte Amalie or NYC, you have to use good sense. We just returned from 12 days in STT staying at Sapphire Beach, Crystal Cove condos. It was FABULOUS. We swam with sea turtles every day right on our beach. Great restaurants. In STC, rented condo few years ago in Christiansted, but preferred beaches in Frederiksted, as the water is always very calm on the western side of all the islands in the Carribean. We rent through VRBO.com, and have done so for about 10 years or more. Always found a nice, clean condo, never had a problem. I really recommend them. Have fun!

[elslagerjl]

Just wanted to respond briefly to the post regarding crime in St Thomas and Jamaica. I was just recently (Nov 3) in St Thomas and found it to be typical of the majority of Caribbean islands in regard to "safety". You know where you should be and where you shouldn't be...common sense...
My husband and I own property in Jamaica, (Silver Sands) and have never had a problem. I feel perfectly safe even walking around our community at night. We have also traveled to Kingston several times and while I would not run around on my own, I did not feel for my safety at all, again, use common sense. But to say that Jamaica is 30% worse than the other islands mentioned, this is sending a wrong message...do your homework before you travel and don't rely on just one persons "opinion" or you will miss out on some spectacular islands.............

[kirbychristian]

I looked at the US State Department page to see if there were any specific warnings about St Croix because I've heard so much about the crime there and there are not any specific warnings at this time. It seems like it's probably just like anywhere else...you need to know where to go and where not to go, travel with others, be extra cautious at night...and so on.

I've heard horror stories about many different islands...Jamaica, St Lucia, St Croix, but have been fortunate not to have had a problem on any of the islands I've been to.

Some people leave do things on vacation they would NEVER do at home (do you think Natalee Holloway, the girl who disappeared in Aruba, would have gone off with 3 strange men at home in Birmingham, AL? Of course not!). People forget that even paradise can have a dark side...use your usual safety precautions even when on vacation. Always ask at the hotel about any off property trips/walks you plan to take and whether you should be concerned about safety. Safe travels!