Our trip to St. Croix started off as one of those, “Oh we have a long weekend? We should go somewhere,” instances. I found out I had another day off around Memorial Day weekend, and that was that. My husband and I started looking for places to go in the Caribbean two weeks before we would be going. We knew nothing about St. Croix besides the fact that the flights were inexpensive and direct. But once we started doing our research and looking up things to do in St Croix, we were pretty convinced this would be our ideal getaway.
Now, our ideal getaway may not be your ideal getaway but we were really hoping for an island that was a little off the beaten path. One that wasn’t filled with resorts and jet ski rentals. We wanted a place that felt a little adventurous and one where we could do a lot of exploring.
About the US Virgin Islands
The US Virgin Islands are comprised of three main islands: St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix (as well as a handful of smaller islands including Water Island, which is sometimes referred to as the 4th island). They were under Danish rule until 1917 when the US purchased the islands for 25 million. The purchase was a strategic move for the US, so they could improve military positions during WWI.
These Caribbean islands are located directly east from Puerto Rico and yes, because they are US territories, you won’t need a passport to visit if you are a US citizen.
St. John and St. Thomas are right next to each other and you can even take a ferry between the two. St. Croix is further south, about 40 miles, which I suppose is why it’s less visited. Of those three, St. Croix is the largest, least visited island and the most rustic.
The three main islands are mountainous with stunning coastlines and beautiful beaches. There are also several national park sites throughout the islands. On St. Croix you have Buck Island Reef (National Monument), Christiansted (National Historic Site) and Salt River Bay (National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve).
About St. Croix
St. Croix is a fairly mountainous island with views of the harbor from the hills, a potential mountain/jungle view from your Air Bnb and hikes you can do that take you along the coastline. It also has beautiful beaches, beachside bars and restaurants, and desert-like areas with cacti.
I wouldn’t say tourism is huge here but that keeps the island a little rough and rustic. We had driven around for 2 days without running into a McDonald’s (and I think it might have been the only one on the island). So there are hardly any chain restaurants. Instead you’ll find local places, like food stands at gas stations.
It’s also covered in ruins from old sugar mills. Sugar production was huge in the 1700s when the island was under Danish rule. You can see the remains of sugar mills and sugar plantations all over the island. Most are overgrown with foliage but it’s interesting to see so many ruins around.
St. Croix is much longer than it is wide. It only takes about 50 minutes to drive from the east side to the west side and less to drive north to south (especially depending on where you are on the island). BUT, the roads can be extremely bumpy. If you end up on dirt roads through the jungle or rocky beach roads, it might take you a lot longer.
Getting Around
For getting around the island, you will absolutely need to rent a car, especially if you plan on having lots of things to do in St Croix. Even if you stay on one of the few resorts, you’ll need a car. There’s no public transportation or taxis hanging around, so if you want to explore (and you should), get a rental. There are a lot of things to do in St Croix but you will need a car to drive to them.
And as I said above, some of the roads can be quite bumpy/unfinished. Renting a Jeep is just one of those things to do in St Croix. There are an overwhelming number of Jeep Wranglers on the island and there’s a reason for that. Do you NEED a 4×4? If you want to explore thoroughly, you might.
Even for our Air Bnb which was up the mountain a little ways–that road rocked our wrangler. We read reviews of some people who stayed there and said their Honda made it up just fine but I don’t know how.
Another thing to note is that they drive on the other side of the road (steering wheels are also on the left). We were picked up and driven to our rental (which was the way to go–the lines at the airport were really long to pick up cars) so we were able to get a little taste of the left side driving from our pickup. It takes a bit of getting used to. And my husband and I both found ourselves on the wrong side at one point but luckily it was when we were on jungle or beach roads that were completely empty. It’s easy to forget so you need to constantly remind yourself.
My husband always remembers a quote from a guy he met in Jamaica, “The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide.”
Things to Do in St Croix
This little island is full of things to do. It’s not very touristy so it did feel more like exploration here. There are lots of jungle roads that you can take to explore and hidden beaches to find. A lot of times, we were the only ones in the area just seeing what we could find. There are of course places where tourists tend to congregate and even where locals hang out in large groups, but it’s easy to get out on the road and away from the ‘crowds’. Here are the best things to do in St Croix:
1. Walk the Christiansted Boardwalk
The main town in St. Croix is Christiansted, and I say ‘town’ instead of ‘city’ because it’s pretty small. You can drive through the town within several minutes and it spans across several blocks each way. I have to say the town itself looks pretty run down in areas, though the buildings are colorful with cute archways down the sidewalks. There are a handful of shops and restaurants towards the harbor and a boardwalk that runs alongside the water.
It’s a great place to go for dinner or happy hour since several of the restaurants have views of the water. We ended up here most nights since we stayed just outside the town and it’s a convenient place to eat.
2. Tour Fort Christiansvaern or Fort Frederik
St. Croix has two main forts which happen to be in the two main towns on the coast. Fort Christiansvaern is on the edge of Christiansted, right next to the harbor. This Danish fort is one of the better preserved colonial forts in the Caribbean and was built in the 1700s. You can take tours in and around it, though it wasn’t open when we walked around it.
Fort Christiansvaern is a National Historic Site and was constructed in 1749. Its main purpose was to protect the harbor, but it also was a way to ensure import/export taxes were collected. It’s constructed in four points that surround a courtyard. The fort in Christiansted is bright yellow which was a typical color for Danish colonial buildings.
Fort Frederik is located across the island on the west end of the island in Frederiksted. This fort is shaped like a trapezoid and is a solid red. Fort Frederik is also the location of the Emancipation Revolt in 1848, which ended slavery in the West Indies.
3. Take a Day Trip to Buck Island
Of all the things to do in St Croix, taking a day trip to Buck Island is a must. It is one of the most beautiful beaches in the US Virgin Islands and one of my favorite things we did.
It’s a bit touristy of an excursion, but in a good way I suppose. You’re on a boat with many other people, they drop you off at the beach to explore and then you all go snorkeling together and have rum punch on the way back. But the beauty of the island is well worth the trip and because tourism isn’t too heavy for St. Croix, it’s not one of those sardine experiences and was enjoyable for us.
The beach, called Turtle Beach, is beautiful and has a turquoise ring around it. It was also nice to see St. Croix from ‘afar’. Even though you drive through the jungle and mountainous areas, it’s nice to see a different perspective of what the island looks like.
It’s also nice to just be out on a boat for the afternoon and we enjoyed just hanging out. I tend to dive rather than snorkel so my snorkeling experiences are fairly limited, but this was probably one of the coolest snorkeling spots I’ve seen.
The reef that you get to snorkel is actually part of a National Monument and there is an underwater guided trail that you will go through. I thought the trail was great. The coral was really tall and not anything I had really seen before. There are also plaques underwater that you can read while you swim through. But you do need to go through with the guide to help protect the reef.
4. Hike to the Annaly Bay Tide Pools
One of the fun hikes to do on the island is hiking to the Annaly Bay tide pools. They are a bit off the beaten path and take some effort to get to. If you’re an experienced 4X4 driver, you can take a Jeep all the way to the shore. We got nervous in our rental when we almost got stuck, so we ditched the Jeep and hiked the rest of the way.
Once you hike all the way in, you have to scamper across some large rocks around the corner of the beach to the tide pools. It was a fun adventure to do but just remember if you hike in you have to hike out. The heat and the steep hills nearly took me out. But we were hiking along the road. There is another option to hike the whole way and it is apparently a flatter trek.
The beach is full of large shells but the tide pools themselves are filled with sand, once you walk across the pebbles on the shore.
5. See the Beer Drinking Pigs at the Mt. Pellier Domino Club
Let me just preface this by saying that the beer is non-alcoholic. The Domino Club is this little bar/restaurant that happens to be in the middle of the jungle while driving through. It’s a great spot to sit outside and have some of the local liquor called MamaWanna. It’s made of rainforest bits and the rum is distilled over rainforest plants or something like that, and it might make your hair curl, but it’s just the thing to drink there.
But you want to know about the pigs. They have several pigs that live on the property that jump up to this edge of their pen when people arrive and they quite literally beg for your can of (non-alcoholic) beer. They grab the entire can from your hand, smash it with their teeth, guzzle the beer and then spit the beer can out. I don’t really have the words to describe it other than that it’s…interesting.
6. Go to Sandy Point Beach
Sandy Point Beach is a National Wildlife Refuge on the southwest point of the island. This stretch of sand is one of the longest in the US Virgin Islands and one of the most pristine. This beach is a huge turtle nesting location and is actually closed off during the nesting season.
We were told that one of the best things to do in St Croix was to go to Sandy Point beach but no one told us that it closed for a large amount of the year. It’s only open from September to March and even then, it’s only open on the weekends. It’s supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches on the island, if your trip happens to coincide with when it’s open.
7. Visit Point Udall
At the far East side of St. Croix is Point Udall where you can find the Millennial Monument. The monument is a giant sundial and it sits on top of one of the mountains overlooking the ocean. It was built to commemorate the turning of the new millennium in 2000. It’s easy to drive up to and look around, and it also happens to be near Isaac’s Bay and Jack’s Bay, which are other great spots to go.
You’ll get a decent view of the rocky coast here, as well as Goat Hill–another hike to do nearby. Just down the road from this point is where you’ll park for Issac’s Bay and Jack’s Bay, two beautiful coves with desert landscape along the hike.
8. Dive Cane Bay Wall
The Caribbean is well-known for its scuba diving and St. Croix is no exception. One of the most famous spots to dive in St. Croix is the Cane Bay Wall. It’s essentially a very long trench in the ocean with varying depths that reach up to thousands of feet deep. There’s a section of that trench that’s nearby the shore in St. Croix and many people shore dive to the wall, which is over 3,000 feet deep here.
9. Hike to Issac’s Bay or Jack’s Bay
The east side of St. Croix looks a lot different from the rest of the island. It gets a little more desert-y here with cacti sprinkled across the hills. The hike down to the first bay–Isaac’s Bay–is not very long unless you want to hike down to the beach and across the way to the second bay, Jack’s Bay. We read that part of the hike is covered, but it is not. A very, very small section at the beginning has some plant coverage but otherwise, you are hiking in direct sun. The way down is of course easier but hiking back up is another story.
Even if you hike down in the morning, you’d still likely be coming up when the sun is already hot. We reached this point and decided to turn around, mostly because of the heat and lack of water. But it is a beautiful spot. If you end up going down to the beach, you might as well walk down to the end to hike up a little ways to see Jack’s Bay, a smaller cove and beach.
10. Drink a Rum Drink and/or Visit a Rum Distillery
Rum is one of the popular liquors on St. Croix and you’ll find several distilleries here that you can visit. There’s the Cruzan Rum Distillery and a Captain Morgan Rum Distillery on the island. There’s also a crazy amount of flavored rums at most any bar you go to. I’m not a huge rum and coke person but our Air Bnb host left us mango rum and coke as a welcome gift and I kid you not, it was like having a dessert. Never in my life would I put mango rum with coke but it was so good. So definitely try some flavored rum drinks at the bars!
11. Hit the Beach
There are lots of great beaches in St. Croix to go to. My favorite part about it is that you can drive right up to the beach in your car in some areas. There are many pull outs that are like sandy grass areas to park your car. And it was easy to find a beach that was uncrowded. We even drove around and found a dirt road through some trees that led us down to a small, secluded beach and not a soul was there.
Some popular beaches to check out are Rainbow Beach, Dorsch Beach, Davis Bay, Sand Castle Beach, Shoys Beach…the list goes on. We beach hopped to check out several and enjoyed each spot we went to. Sure, there are some that have prettier water or less rocks, but we had a good time just seeing the different ones and taking a break to relax.
Dorsch Beach
This area was a very uncrowded area just north of Sandy Point beach on the west end of the island. There are many sandy areas that you can drive up through to park right in front of the beach.
The beach itself has some rocks along the shore, but you can still find some sandy areas in the water. The rocky areas are nice to snorkel around as well. I can’t say we found too much to look at underwater but we still had fun looking.
Cane Bay
Cane Bay is a very popular area to go to. This beach is located on the north coast towards the west end a bit. We ended up in St. Croix over Memorial Day weekend and this place was PACKED. There was music blaring, cars parked everywhere and people walking all over the place. I’m pretty sure there is a bar across the street here because we saw quite a lot of people in line.
We decided to keep driving down the way since there was literally not a space of grass to park in. We drove just far enough down that we found some more empty grass/sand areas that we could pull up in. This section of the beach was completely empty as well except for another couple down the way. It was rocky though in this area and we couldn’t really find a clear path to the water.
Shoy’s Beach
You’ll find Shoy’s Beach on the north coast as well, to the left of Christiansted. This beach was a little interesting to find since you have to go through a private neighborhood and check in at the entrance. There’s a small parking lot dedicated to beach parking and a tree tunnel that you’ll walk through to get to the beach.
This beach is in a smaller little cove but was nice and quiet. There were a few rocky areas near the water but for the most part it’s a nice beach to swim at.
Rainbow Beach
This is another popular place and a little more touristy than the others. You can find beach chairs and umbrellas lining the beach, jet ski rentals and there’s a little restaurant/bar on the end. We got some frozen drinks and truffle fries at the restaurant since the weather wasn’t that great. But it is supposed to be one of the prettier beach areas on sunny days.
12. Take a Bioluminescent Tour in Salt River Bay
A cool tour that you can do in St. Croix is taking a kayak on a bioluminescent tour in Salt River Bay. Apparently there are only seven full-time bioluminescent bays around the world and Salt River Bay happens to be one of them.
It’s hard to describe the phenomenon but basically there are microorganisms that light up in the water and react to movement. So as you’re floating through the water, it looks like thousands of little lights underneath you. We unfortunately didn’t have much time on St. Croix and the tour was sold out during the days we were there.
13. Hike to the Hams Bluff Lighthouse
The Hams Bluff lighthouse is a historic lighthouse that was built back in the early 1900s. The 30-ish minute hike up to this point is through the jungle and it’s pretty interesting. There’s downed power lines all over the place that I assume have been there for quite some time since they are overgrown with foliage.
It has a great view of the coastline and I read online somewhere that you could go up the lighthouse. But as you can see, it’s a rusted piece of work. There IS a scaffolding structure drilled into the ground right next to it–I have no idea why. But it looked a whole lot safer to climb and gave us a nice perspective of the lighthouse. Even if you don’t go up either of them, it’s a great place to hike or have a picnic.
14. Take the Ferry to Protestant Cay
A popular beach to go to is actually not on the main island of St. Croix but happens to be on Protestant Cay. It’s a small island with a hotel on it that can be seen from the Christiansted harbor. It’s very close and takes about 2 minutes to get across by ferry, which runs 24 hours and every 10 min.
I think the ferry price is very minimal and it’s something I would have liked to do if we had more time, even if it was only to see the island from a different perspective. Anyone can go to the island but they do request that you stick to the beach if you aren’t a guest of the hotel.
15. Visit a Sugar Mill
Of all the things to do on St Croix, finding a sugar mill that was not restricted was surprisingly difficult. There are over 150 sugar mill ruins on the island so you’d think visiting some would be easy. However, most of them are blocked off and/or on private property. They DO have some that have been turned into Air Bnbs.
One of the most popular places to go is the Whim Plantation which is a restored sugar plantation you can tour. It was closed at the time of our visit though, so we were hoping to find some that were accessible around the island.
Each place we drove by was blocked off somehow but we happened to spot some near the road when we were driving through the jungle. We pulled off the road and got out to snap some pictures and a truck pulled in right after us. An elderly man asked us if we had seen the ruins around the corner and when we said ‘no’ he told us to follow him up the road. He actually led us into his private property where he lived on an old sugar plantation. He gave us the history of the island, how his Danish family got there, lots of facts and let us take pictures.
16. Visit the Columbus Landing site
St. Croix is actually the landing site for Christopher Columbus’ second voyage in 1493. His men went ashore and encountered the local tribes of the area. That’s really all I know about it but apparently there’s more information at the visitor’s center. The beach is a popular spot for the locals to go to on the weekend.
Again, we ended up visiting on Memorial Day and this is a spot that a lot of locals went to. There were BBQs in the parking lot and tables set up on the beach from different families having get-togethers. We walked out on the beach to see it and take some pictures. As we were in the parking lot, a local asked us if we wanted to join them and have some food, but we were flying out later and only stopped quickly. But the locals were very nice.
Best Time to Visit the USVI
The great thing about these islands is that there isn’t a huge change between seasons, temperature wise. You’re more likely to encounter rain during hurricane season which is May-November, but December-April is peak season.
We ended up going in May and did encounter some rain. The good part about it though was that it cooled it off when we were doing some hikes and then didn’t really stick around. So it wasn’t that all-day rain, it was more of an afternoon or morning shower, then the sun would come out again. Though I can’t say what it would be like during the middle of rainy season.
How Expensive is St. Croix?
We found an Air Bnb for a pretty decent price. I think it was about $500 for 4 nights and it slept 4. It was a private house with 2 bedrooms, full kitchen, dining room, PIANO in the living room and a little balcony for mountain views. There was also a cute little neighbor dog we named Lucy that greeted us every morning and every time we arrived or left.
Renting a Jeep Wrangler was a little expensive, around $90 a day. We found some restaurants for about $10-$15 a person and others that were $20+ a person.
Our goal was to not eat out very much and to pick up some groceries for breakfast and lunch. It sounds great in theory but groceries are very expensive in St. Croix. It was like shopping at the dollar store except only if it was $6. Everything at the grocery was like $5-6. It was crazy. We bought sandwich stuff, eggs and some bananas, and we might as well have just gone out to lunch instead.
Is St. Croix Safe?
Like most places, I’m sure St. Croix has its share of theft, drugs and crime. Did we ever feel unsafe? No. No one ever bothered us and no one asked for money or that sort of thing.
We had a Jeep Wrangler with a soft top and had the windows out for the entire time we were there. Sometimes we’d put the top up (with the windows still out) and other times we would just leave the top down. Of course we never left anything valuable in there but we did occasionally leave towels, shoes, sunscreen or whatever, and it was always where we left it when we came back.
We were advised for Isaacs Bay to not leave anything in the car and leave it unlocked (no busted windows). This is because the hike takes you around the corner and down to a beach where your car is out of sight. So it IS a more common area for car break-ins and we did actually see busted glass in the parking area (presumably from a car window), but that’s the only thing we were really warned about on the island.
The buildings and the cities are a bit run down but that’s not uncommon for islands due to weather, hurricanes and sometimes lack of resources.
We loved exploring St. Croix and it quickly became one of our favorite places in the Caribbean so far. The island is not only beautiful and rustic but there are so many things to do in St Croix that are adventurous. It’s an island that makes you feel like an explorer and it’s a great place to go to escape the crowds. When we left the island, we were already talking about coming back.
Read more on St. Croix:
PIN IT FOR LATER
During your snorkeling at Buck Island you wrote about an underwater guided trail that you went through; did you actually have to swim underwater to go through or is the guide underwater and you can follow the trail from above.
Hi Rita, it’s a snorkeling trail! You’ll have a float, mask and snorkel and you’ll stay at the top of the water snorkeling, following the guide. The trail is considered underwater since the plaques are on the ground and the coral creates a kind of trail to follow along.