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St. Thomas and St. John, Virgin Islands
Close to Perfection in Paradise
By Mike McLeod
 St. Thomas truly is a tropical
paradise…in many places. Palm trees
and beautiful beaches and sweeping
ocean views from mountain lookouts
are reasons why from two to thirteen
cruise ships dock there every day.
To a landlubber and a beach lover
like me, St. Thomas appears idyllic.
Yet after visiting for almost a
week, reality began to set in.
But let’s not go there yet. Let’s
focus on the paradise places for
a few moments.
St. Thomas is known for its beaches.
In fact, Magen’s Bay Beach on the
north side of the island was voted
one of the top ten beaches in the
world. But be forewarned. If you
are expecting to find the wide,
white sand beaches of Florida, prepare
yourself for something different.
They are still beautiful, just different.
 The beaches of St. Thomas do
not go on for miles like those in
Florida often do. Most on the island
are in bays, and the beaches are
very narrow depth-wise. Often, there
are only a few yards of sand from
the surf to the lush shrub foliage
that surrounds every beach. Consequently,
when more than two or three cruise
ships are in port, the beaches can
get crowded, as Magen’s Bay Beach
was when my family and I visited.
Still, I loved the palm trees and
the shade provided by the trees
and shrubs. It seems like palm trees
are symbols of paradise.
To reach Magen’s Bay Beach, we
traveled narrow, windy roads over
the mountain (I’ll call it a “mountain”
even though the highest point on
the island is just under 1600 feet)
and passed cars and truck-taxis
driving on the left side of the
road. We were adventurous and rented
cars for our stay, so my wife Marla
and I experienced British-style
driving in American-style cars with
steering wheels on the left. (We
had several near misses during our
stay, but no accidents—which was
a miracle because scrapes and dents
were common on the sides of most
of the cars there.) Why they still
drive on the left side of the road
is a mystery to me. St. Thomas became
an American Territory in 1917.
 Along the way, we missed a turn
but found a scenic overlook. These
overlooks are not to be missed from
the mountainside. This one gave
us an “aerial” view of Magen’s Bay
Beach. While there, a local pointed
out a large dark spot in the water
out from the beach, saying it was
actually a school of fish. I wouldn’t
have believed him, but the spot
slowly changed its shape from circular
to an ellipse while we watched.
But on to Magen’s Bay Beach.
It was the only one we visited that
charged admission ($3 for adults
and $1 for the car), but it also
provided picnic tables and a covered
pavilion for public use free of
charge. Magen’s Bay Beach has a
beautiful view of the ocean and
is bordered with tree-covered hillsides.
The water was pretty clean and just
a little cool, which is to be expected
since we visited in January. It
is a swimmer’s beach and not very
good for snorkeling. You can buy
fresh coconut milk in a handy green
coconut container that’s had the
top lopped off with a machete for
$2, which my son Ethan did. There
is also a seaside café and a place
to rent snorkeling equipment, but
I wouldn’t if I were you. There
are better beaches for snorkeling.
As we left Magen’s Bay and headed
back up the mountain, the kids wanted
to stop at Udder Delight, the St.
Thomas dairy and ice cream shop.
I say “dairy,” but I only saw one
cow on the whole island while we
were there. I think this is where
the milk is trucked to after it
is shipped in. (Milk was $5.15 a
gallon on St. Thomas.) It was worth
the stop at Udder Delight. The milkshakes
were excellent, particularly the
pistachio and coconut shakes. We
passed on having ours spiked with
rum from the inverted bottles mounted
near the shake machine.
From Magen’s Bay Beach, we headed
eastward to Coki Beach where the
snorkeling is really good. Some
say the water at Coki Beach is three
times clearer than Magen’s Bay.
My eyes aren’t sharp enough to tell
the difference, but I can say the
snorkeling is fine. Fish feed among
the many coral formations on either
side of the beach. I learned an
interesting trick there from some
scuba divers for attracting fish—crumble
dog biscuits into tiny bits. This
attracted a school of sergeant major
fish (which have stripes like zebras
or a sergeant major’s chevrons)
around us to dine on Milk Bone.
 At Coki, I was enthralled with
the fish and the coral and plant
formations. The coral here is different
than what you see in the documentaries
about the Great Barrier Reef. It
isn’t red or other colors; it is
off-white or light gray. But growing
on it in several locations was Elkhorn
coral that was a beautiful dark
mustard color. One formation I saw
was more than a yard wide. Purple
sea fans (as I call them) caught
my eye as they waved with the current.
The sea life there is exotic,
of course. My son Seth saw an eel
and a manta ray while snorkeling.
A word of caution when snorkeling—sea
urchins are common among the coral.
They are easily recognized by their
spines, and when stuck in a hand
or foot, their reverse barbs require
you to dig them out or bear the
pain until the body dissolves them—as
my son Ethan learned. Fortunately,
he had a small one stuck in his
finger, which his mother removed
with a safety pin. (Hint: if
you are going snorkeling, take a
sewing kit with real needles and
some Band Aids.)
I just missed getting stuck by
sea urchins a couple of times when
I allowed the waves to push me into
shallow water over coral. I was
able to avoid them, but I had a
few close calls. Still, the snorkeling
is worth it, and Coki Beach is also
good for swimming.
One other caveat about Coki Beach.
There aren’t any parking lots there,
and access to the beach is by a
narrow road. The locals are happy
to guide you to places to park on
the side of the road and behind
the ramshackle shops among the trees
and foliage. (They are also happy
to rent you gear and sell you drinks.)
This is one of the places where
reality sets in—the area behind
the beach isn’t pleasant, but the
snorkeling makes up for it.
The general lack of parking near
the beaches struck me as unusual.
When you have that many tourists
on a daily basis, it would seem
that the local government would
create some parking lots. When we
were leaving Coki, there was a traffic
jam of cars and truck-taxis trying
to get in and out on that narrow
road. Fortunately, I had gotten
the inside scoop from a time share
seller earlier in the day about
where to park at our next stop,
Sapphire Beach. (I’ll get to the
time share sellers below.)
 Sapphire Beach has a public parking
area (a dirt lot) on the grounds
of the Sapphire Beach Resort. But
you wouldn’t know that unless someone
told you. There were no signs pointing
to the parking lot.
Sapphire Beach was another picturesque
beach like Magen’s Bay. Lined with
palms and other trees, the blue
waters give the beach its name.
On the east end is Wedding Point,
a finger of land that extends out
into the bay and is a favorite spot
for wedding ceremonies. On either
side are jagged rock formations
with waves crashing against them.
Just like you see in the movies.
Sapphire Beach was a better beach
for snorkeling than swimming because
of the amount rocks and coral in
the water, which are rough on the
feet and the knees. While snorkeling,
I saw a couple of schools of “Dori”
fish. (This is what my kids called
a blue fish because it looked like
Dori in Finding Nemo.)
Sapphire Beach was better than
Coki in the respect that public
restrooms were available for changing,
and there was an outside shower
pole for washing off the sand.
 Besides the beaches, shopping
is a major sport in St. Thomas.
The main town, Charlotte Amalie
(uh-MAL-yah), has an overabundance
of jewelry shops where gold, silver,
pearls and coral are plentiful and
reasonably priced. Many of the shops
and “malls” are interconnected with
inside walkways, which is nice when
it rains. Fortunately, the ocean
breezes blow rainstorms away pretty
quickly.
It was while I waited outside
a jewelry store that the owner told
me they’d had up to thirteen cruise
ships in the harbor at one time.
When five are there, it is crowded,
so this is why we decided to take
a ferry to the island of St. John
the day five ships were due in.
Ferries take people and cars
to St. John every day. The cost
is about $10 per person or $40 per
car and riders for the half hour
trip. The car ferry leaves from
Red Hook on the eastern end of the
island.
 The ferry dropped us off at Cruz
Bay, a quaint little town with narrow
streets and small shops. St. John
was once owned by Nelson Rockefeller.
He later donated it to the people
of the Virgin Islands, and today,
most of the island has been set
aside as the Virgin Islands National
Park. We visited Hawk’s Nest Beach
and Cinnamon Beach, which are maintained
by the U.S. Park Service, and they
both have actual parking lots, restrooms
and changing rooms. Of the two,
Hawk’s Nest has better snorkeling;
Cinnamon (named for its light brown
sand, no doubt) is great for swimming.
Both are very photogenic. While
at Cinnamon, a tourist told me that
Salt Pond Bay on the southeast corner
of the island is the best place
for snorkeling. He said in the early
evening sea turtles swim in to feed
there. Unfortunately, we didn’t
have time to meet and greet them
before our ferry left, but we did
take a drive along the western side
of the island. I loved driving along
in the shade of overarching trees
and seeing the majestic views at
the scenic overlooks. Other than
a few houses here and there on the
hillsides, St. John is pristine.
 Near the jewelry shops in town
is a small open air market which
caters to tourists. Not a lot of
native handcrafts, but you can get
three or four St. Thomas t-shirts
for $10. It’s worth a visit to buy
the required souvenirs.
It is also here where the time
share sellers swarm people coming
off the cruise ships. They offer
a free ride over the mountain to
the condo/hotel, a free lunch or
dinner, and free overnight stays
and sometimes free airfare. It surprised
me to see so many of them hawking
their time shares, which means they
are probably successful.
A couple of tourist sites:
*
The 99 Steps—there only claim
to fame is there are actually 103,
they were made from bricks used as ballast
in old sailing ships.
*
Blackbeard’s Castle
- a stone
tower built in 1679 by the Danes;
Blackbeard the pirate having used it as
watch tower is island lore. There
is a charge to tour it.
The highest point on St. Thomas
is Mountain Top, supposedly the
place where the banana daiquiri
was invented. I was surprised to
find an air conditioned mini-mall
there and clean restrooms. Through
the mall and the bar/restaurant
is the observation deck, from which
we saw St. John, Tortola (British
Virgin Islands), Magen’s Bay Beach
and several other islands. The impressive
view is worth the drive—and the
fact that the temperature was about
ten degrees cooler than down in
Charlotte Amalie.
 Traveling down from Mountain
Top and from the beautiful vistas,
our travels around the island also
showed us the reality of St. Thomas.
As with just about all Caribbean
islands, there are the less fortunate
here, too. The road to Red Hook
and the car ferry took us through
a couple of these areas.
Tourists are warned about not
walking from the cruise ships to
Charlotte Amalie because of crime,
but we did not witness any while
we were there. Most of the shops
close at five o’clock so people
can get home before dark. Bars on
windows and doors are common, and
I saw a Coke machine that dispensed
drinks from inside in a metal cage.
I was warned by another tourist
from going out at night like he
did. He saw enough to understand
why the shops close at five.
I think the government and the
police cater to the tourists and
keep the crime off the street as
much as possible. I was asked for
money once from a man, and while
in Wendy’s (see below), a man asked
me for a hamburger, which I gave
him.
In addition to the traffic, which
was very heavy in the mornings and
afternoons, another experience took
the shine off this paradise. It
took us an hour to order and get
food for our family from Wendy’s,
and there were only four or five
people ahead of us in line. Just
bear in mind when you visit St.
Thomas, people often work on island
time.
We met some friendly people on
St. Thomas, and we experienced some
with an attitude. So don’t go expecting
perfection, and you won’t be disappointed,
and you can enjoy a place that is
close to paradise.
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