St. Thomas Travel Guide

A recap of our trip sunny St. Thomas! #USVISTILLNICEI’ve covered a lot of romantic vacations for this blog (totally kidding, unless you count traveling for corned beef sandwiches as romantic, which I do of course.) But this trip to St. Thomas + St. John with my boyfriend was relaxing and one of the best trips ever. We even got a little Jewish history in! Hey-o.St. Thomas was definitely hit hard by the rough 2017 hurricane season, but they have done a ton of work to repair the island. I mean check out the view from our resort! Stunning. We spent a good amount of time at that pool. The first photo view was from our room! Crazy right? Heaven.

That’s not to say this trip was totally perfect. I’m happy we rented a Jeep because our Google Maps (and possibly my jet-lagged direction skills) took us to the edge of a cliff with spotty wifi instead of our home for the week. But we both remained calm and finagled our way to where we were supposed to be! But that’s part of the fun of traveling. Sometimes we get lost (or err lock ourselves out) but that’s why I love it- growing in the face of a challenge! And then rewarding yourself with a frozen cocktail. We stayed in an Airbnb, which was nice because not all hotels have re-opened after last year’s devastating hurricanes. But also, we got to cook a lot of our own meals (which I love) and eat alfresco on our wrap-around balcony (which I love even more, see the aforementioned view) and experiment with healthy-ish frozen mixed drinks. In case you were wondering, St. Thomas offers the entire trifecta (hattrick?) of Manischewitz wines, and although I was quite impressed, we struck to a lot of rum. We stayed on the east side of the island, so spent most of the time in the nearby Red Hook area, and it was worth venturing out for these Ahi Tuna Nachos at Caribbean Fish Market. And that beach view! Cuttteee. The next day, the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism gave us a lovely tour of the island (disclaimer: they hosted our tour and one dinner.) We saw all the best views (there were a lot). And check this out- the Hebrew Congregation is the second oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere! Who knew?? Still used to this day.

And get this: the floor is made of sand! I thought it was because we were steps from the beach (which is so practical, can you imagine keeping a beach shul floor clean?? Oy!) But really, it comes from when Sephardic Jews had to hide their Judaism and prayed in secret. They put sand on the floor to muffle the sounds.

We went straight from shul to The Mountain Top to get the strongest best banana daiquiris in town, with a heck of a view too.

After that, we walked around downtown Charlotte Amalie for some duty-free shopping. All that walking and view admiring made us hungry, so we met Desiree from the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism for dinner (and reggae) at the Grande Cru. This savory eggplant “cheesecake” is something I’d like to recreate! She was so sweet, like everyone else we met on the island! The next day, we took a short ferry over to St. John and headed to Trunk Bay because look at this beach!! It felt so nice just to sit and chill and snorkel a little. Who else rarely chills?Hi!  Rum + Diet Cokes were the drink of choice.Sunset in St. John. Flower crowns forever.

One last bagel in paradise.

Have you been to the USVI? Tell me about it!The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism hosted our tour and one dinner, but all opinions are my own.