Hi Tom - Great vids - you have me wanting to go visit, thinking about taking the wife for our anniversary - have never been there before - where did you stay?
I have been googling for an hour & reading about the island, thinking about booking the Buccaneer Resort near Christiansted - the 8 hours 2 stop flight from here does not sound too bad. Any tips, must see things or advise? Diving looks nice, I dive but the wife just snorkels !
Buccaneer is a wonderful hotel. It is expensive (250+). I stayed at Club Comanche Hotel. My son was down in St Croix on staff with
http://worldoceanschool.org (#roseway) for a month, have been on staff with the organization for 7 months sailing from Boston down to PR and St Croix. He walked all over the neighborhood (Christiansted). Club Comanche is close to the shopping and restaurants/bars. Club Comanche main building (where the checkin office is located has restored rustic rooms like the "old" days with pine wood flooring and high off the floor king size bed. The bathroom is decently "modernized" with glass shower stall. The other building is closer to the boardwalk although you can not see the boardwalk directly. The second floor (room # in the 20s) has remodeled, modernized rooms. The duplex, on third floor (room # in the 30s) has two queen beds on top level and sofa bed on lower level has not be renovated lately (in the one we stayed in); but it is comfortable for the three of us. All rooms have A/C. We had the king room in the main building but asked for three beds which they accommodated with no extra fees, I don't know if it is because I used Expedia since everything is paid in advance. They were very gracious and willing to help. I think only one or two housekeeping staff. We were not in the room much, but when we return, it was cleaned. One other note, it is close to the boardwalk, so at night there are loud music and you can hear it from the room. Most bar/music seems to quite down past midnight.
I chose dive experience for scuba because my son fell they were more warm and welcoming. He took his Rescue Dive training with them while he was with us. He intends to be a scuba instructor someday. Dive Experience (divexp.com,
https://www.facebook.com/Dive-Experience-159184831477), a 5 stars PADI dive shop, is on the boardwalk very close to the Club Comanche. We did not know this at first; but divexp records the second dive of morning trips. It makes a good memento (video links above). I assume you and your wife dive. If not, they have discover scuba, they'll train you in the water by Hotel on the Cay beach. The video on 19th shows a teenage boy who is doing discover scuba 2 tank dive with us. He saw all that we did at 40 ft (discover scuba depth limit). Sam, the Captain and Camera man, made sure everyone gets in the video and added a lot of good marine life.
As far as beaches, the closes is on Hotel Cay. You'll have to pay $5 to get across. Not sure if that is round trip fee or not. Another beach we hung around at is by the Renaissance St. Croix. You will need a car and it is away from Christiansted (20-30 mins drive). At one time, I saw Renaissance had rooms for under $100, but my son did not think we needed to rent a car. When we did finalized that it will be more beneficial to rent a car, the rooms rate went up again.
May I ask what anniversary is this for the two of you?
Hope this helps.
Tom