St Croix Experience

[rmkrause]

Just got back from St Croix - Here is my experience and recommendations:

Rental car - Definitely good to have since taxi's are quite expensive. I was a bit concerned about how it was going to be driving on the left but this turned out to be a non-issue: only time really need to think about it when pulling out of a parking spot. Gas is a little cheaper than back home.

Where to stay - We stayed at the Carambola - a resort in the Northwest section of the island. It's relatively remote and don't expect cell phone reception here. Rooms were big, restaurants may or may not be open based upon season (food was good IMHO). Had screened in patios so could leave doors open at night and hear the waves without worrying about bugs. When we were there Sept 5 - 12 there were very few guests there, we hardly saw anyone else there and usually had the beach entirely to ourselves. Davis Bay is right there but when we were there it was pretty choppy and rather rocky and the wife didn't have dive booties so we didn't venture out here.

Diving - Cane Bay is only a mile or so from the Carambola which features the famous 3200' wall. I did my OWD cert with Cane Bay Dive Shop (www.canebayscuba.com) which is located at Cane Bay (they also have a small shop on the Carambola premises). They were running Labor Day discounts - I had done my eLearning and they gave me a really good deal on the rest of the OWD requirements and the instruction was private as well, which they said was what they usually do with eLearning students. Relative to what I would have paid in NJ for public instruction in a cold quarry the price was awesome, so we gave my instructor a healthy tip and bought a mask, snorkel and a few other things for the wife through them since I figured they didn't make much off my cert. Overall, they were a great bunch to get certified through and dive with. Mitsuguy on this board works there - we met him and he's an awesome guy and so were the rest of the Cane Bay divemasters/instructors that we had. Diving was awesome - water was 84 degrees, surface was as smooth as glass first thing in the morning, tons of sealife, soft and hard corals and of course the huge freaking abyss to look down into at the wall. There's something like 50-60 dive sites on the island.

Food - Food is expensive: we usually like to hit the grocery stores and get cereal, milk, fruit and at least eat breakfast this way but this wasn't the huge cost saving it usually is. One chain on the island is Plaza Export - pretty standard grocery store but 32 oz soy milk is 3-4 bucks, box of Kashi cereal 6-7 bucks. Ouch. Lots of bars on the beach that have light fare. Personally, we usually just ate at the Carambola - about the same price as a lot of the beach bars cost but the food was a lot better.

Other fun things
Cruzan rum factory: 5 dollar per person for a tour and afterwards they have an open bar and can taste any of their rums straight up or mixed in a variety of sodas of juices. You can buy their rum from the factory very cheap and it isn't counted as checked baggage (at least for American Airlines and United) nor is it taxed. For flavored rums, 1-liter bottles were $8 per bottle or $7.50 if bought in a variety 6-pack. Dark and light aged rums were $6 per bottle or $5.50 if bought in a 6-pack. They also sold a 18bottle 50mg variety pack for $14. We don't drink much, kept some for ourselves and others made great gifts for friends.

Kayaking - Virgin Kayaks is at the same place as Cane Bay Dive shop and there's a few other kayak outfitters, most of which run very similar tours. We went on a night tour to see a bioluminescent bay which was pretty awesome.

Cities - Fredreksted and Christensted - we visited both and didn't find either one particularly interesting but I hate cities in general, wife wanted to go. Purple Papaya is a good gift shop in Christensted if you want mementos.

Other notes - the island overall is very laid back, easygoing, few tourists and is drastically different from St Thomas - I've never been there but know a few people that have and sounds to be a big tourist trap.

[Vercingetorix]

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

[Tekdivr]

Haven't been there yet, but thanks for all of the first hand details!