Living in New York City, I believe almost anywhere in the world can be made into a long weekend trip. There are direct flights to almost anywhere in the world and being a major hub for a lot of airlines, you can get them decently priced.
Even the US Virgin Islands! St Thomas is easily doable over a long weekend. I flew down to St Thomas on an American Airlines direct flight one Thursday morning at 8:35 a.m. which had me in the sun by 2:30!
St. Thomas is the perfect place to go if your goal is eat, sleep, sunbathe, repeat before returning to work Monday morning.
Where We Ate:
Asolare
Asolare is a beautiful restaurant overlooking the islands with a perfect view of the sunset. It’s a 20 minute ferry ride over to St. John from St Thomas. If you’re looking for a place to have dinner with a view, this is your place to do it! Definitely worth the price and very romantic.
Sunset Grill
For lunch, check out Sunset Grill at Secret Harbor. This is a laid-back lunch and dinner spot right on the beach. I recommend the amazing ahi tuna wonton chip nachos! I could probably eat them every day.
Pizza Pi Boat
Shout out to anyone who goes to an ivy league school, quits to pursue something much cooler and now lives the dream life! Yeah, I’m talking about you Pizza Pi Boat. It was started by former Wall Street/Ivy Leaguers who decided they would rather move to the islands and sell pizza than sit at a desk all day. Basically, they’re geniuses! It was expensive but really good pizza. And it’s fun that boats pull up to it all day long, grab their pies and go on their way. Really wish I had come up with this idea…or could at least make pizza from scratch! Try the Carbonara pizza and desserts.
The Beaches:
Secret Harbor
We spent a lot of time at Secret Harbor as it was only a 10 minute walk from the house. This is a small beach with a hotel, restaurant (Sunset Grill) and several shops where you can rent sports equipment. It’s a fairly quiet beach so it’s good for swimming and sunbathing. It also has great sunset views.
Ritz Carlton Beach
We also had the opportunity to spend time at the beach at the Ritz Carlton resort. This beach was larger than Secret Harbor and much busier as the Ritz is a pretty large resort on the island. It’s also a bit windier because it’s not as protected by a cove like Secret Harbor. But at this beach we were also able to have access to a pool, hot tub, bar and restaurant so it had a bit more to do than just sitting on the beach.
Lindquist aka Smith Bay
This was my favorite beach we went to on the island. It is one of those perfectly white sand beaches you see on Instagram. It’s much more secluded than the other beaches and had a lot less people. But it does cost $5 per person to enter.
Activities:
One morning we chartered a boat that we took around the island to go snorkeling, cliff jumping and exploring. The captain of the boat took us cliff jumping, snorkeling and to a couple secluded beaches. We were out on the boat for about three and a half hours and we felt it was just enough time to do some exploring while also getting the afternoon to relax. The captain was also the one to introduce us to the Pizza Pi Boat!
The House
We found the most amazing house on Airbnb! Located high on a hill, it had amazing 360 views of St. Thomas and the other islands in the USVI. There was also a pool with a ton of fun floats! It was the perfect house for a group of friends. Beautiful views, lots of space, a pizza float? It was a dreamlike island getaway. 😉
I have to say, St. Thomas is an easy escape from the U.S. You don’t need a passport as it’s one of the U.S. Virgin Islands and you can almost always guarantee it will be warm enough for you to get a tan. There are great beaches, restaurants and perfect sunsets…which is ultimately what we’re all chasing, right?