We had such a great time, it's so beautiful there! And I wanted to do my best to give tips that will hopefully make someone's trip better but also might improve the tourist experience for the locals

I might be interested in looking at some real estate in USVI. May come down in May/June 2021. What firm are you with?

@@TheAwkwardTourists do you find rentals

Where kan I get sum Yk 💨

What's it like living there? What about jobs for RN Nurse?

Absolutely! Couldn't agree more.

That's a good one, sorry I missed it! I bet tourists have trouble with that one 😑

You should see these tourists in puerto rico. Big Sloppy butt and walking the streets in a thong

@@nesq4104 lol!

Hiiii

@@kenbarnett9415 hi

We had such a wonderful time and can't wait to go back!

You are so welcome!

Same going end of march! Hope you have a great time

Thank you for your kind words! We thought the VI were so beautiful 🤩

Same leaving end of march

Glad it was helpful!

I'm so glad! Thanks for watching

Thank you!

You are so welcome!

Have a great time!

Wow, Chartering a sailboat sounds awesome! Jealous of your trip. Exploring USVI by boat is the way to go

That's so great to hear, thank you! I'm glad the tips are accurate haha

We loved the islands! Hopefully we'll get to explore St. Croix next time as well

Thanks Scott!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks for watching!

What’s a 3rd degree ?

@@klow4008 haha, alot of unnecessary questions.

Good afternoon! I know this is an old video but I believe that you can help me! Me and my daughter are visiting St Thomas this next may (2024) and I’m very nervous about renting a car….2 women (we are Venezuelan but USA citizens now) First time in the islands…any advice?? Thanks a lot!!! And sorry to bother you

Glad you liked it. Have fun on your trip!

Thank so much

Glad it was helpful! Have fun!

thank you!

Thank you! I definitely tried to use the local greetings although it was difficult because of habit! And I couldn't find anything definitive on drinking and driving being legal, but a local told me it was definitely common so I at least wanted to put it in there

Ummm... drinking and driving is illegal and stay in the left side of the road. And I picked up on your subtle condescending “tips”. It’s sad when people cannot simply visit and enjoy as a vacation. But sadly, some people who think like you buy up, send property taxes high and never leave!

Being from the south I have manners down pat and it's rude anywhere to wear beach wear in town . I can't wait to visit in July .

Smiling and saying hello, ought to be a universal habit... Love thy neighbor!

What is the cost of living in St. Croix?

Thank you for your kind words! I will settle for 'mostly' as I only visited once and can still learn lots about your beautiful Islands!

'pants' Dan?

We loved it! We felt very lucky to have visited when it was less crowded

We were surprised about those ones as well

The motto is, tomorrow mon. That translates to everything, including your "reservations", and I mean that of all sorts of reservations - you don't need to worry about it now no matter what it is, in other words. If you are the type of person that is late to everything you will fit in down there. My father did, he named his boat Far Niente, which he said meant "without a care."

@@johnphantom far is the short form of fare which means "to do" or "to make", niente means "nothing", so it translates to "do nothing", which we definitely can do without a care. It's a part of the Italian expression (which is talked about in a scene from the movie "Eat, Pray, Love") that includes il (the) and dolce (sweet) and goes "il dolce far niente" meaning "The sweetness of doing nothing".

How’s your trip go? I’m Planning to go soon

I’ll be there April 14-17th!!

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you thought my tips were good and we had fun on the roads! We just wanted people to be aware haha. Although maybe they should just take taxis instead if they are afraid of the roads!

Thanks for your kind words! We tried to use the local getting when we were there, although sometimes it's hard to remember. But we definitely make an effort!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad you like them!

Yeah it doesn't make sense when you first arrive, but once you get to the airport to leave it makes tons of sense!

Thanks!

Thanks so much!

Travel insurance is always a good idea!

Good advice! There wasn't any cruise ship traffic when we were there due to Covid, so a lot of those shops were closed up for the season

We need to spend some more time in St. Croix, We were only there for one day on a cruise ship stopover

@@TheAwkwardTourists I was fortunate enough to stay 3 months. I was working with a friend I met in college and he's from STX. It's chill but if you want to have fun you can do that too. Make sue you get food from Loraine's Chicken Shack, so good!!🌴🌞

Going april 11-16

Going on may 6. 😱😱😱😱

@@Perro_salvaje_ hope you have a great time

Going March 26 - April 3rd

@@kittykat7618 how was your trip? Were you required to test negative to return back to the states?

Thanks for the tips, We would love to visit St. Croix

That's awesome! That was definitely not our experience haha

True also why I live, travel and work on boats 🤣

What do you mean?

@@NewooNewoo some of the beaches are privately owned by people so you can’t walk there but you can get like a kayak or a boat or something and go there through the ocean from another beach and you can still swim there

@@sanasouthvlogsss9237 Thank you so much for the clarification!

Sooo. Spell correct!

This is true, our Island is much flatter but there are a few area like the rain forrest with a lot of potholes where the jeeps do better. Also there are a few beaches that are hard to get to without a jeep or 4 runner because some of the secluded beaches you off road to get there. If you plan to stay on the more popular beaches you should be good. ( I live on St. Croix and we have a toy store in town)

No curfew at the time we were there

There's a weekend beach curfew of 5 pm, other than that, no.

All great tips for any destination!

Cheers, where abouts in Wisconsin? I grew up near Milwaukee and now I’m in Oshkosh!

@@Copilotdave Milwaukee itself! Our last place had at least six taverns within 4 blocks.

I live in st croix it’s beautiful

@@Melsportalsz I’m going in June!! I’m building an itinerary today, do have any interesting activities to do? I’m with my family of 6

@@sareenabaig8751 maybe go to buck island it is really fun you can get on a boat someone wil take you to the the beach there the ride is 20mins and you should go to the docs there there is one where it had food restaurants and the food Is really good and one where you can walk and see sea creatures and turtles are there use an gps to get there!I hope you have fun

@@Melsportalsz Okay cool thank you so much!! Do you by chance know any good food spots? Something not crazy expensive but still good

Me too I'll be there in July celebrating my birthday

There are bars in the towns, but It seems like Charolette Amalie would be the only place that has any clubs or any kind of party scene

I would think so, but I don't know for sure. And you'll only go through customs once you leave

No, you don't. You can take a ferry or the seaplane (I'm going this week to work in our office there). Take off from downtown & land at the end of the Christiansted boardwalk.

The steering wheels are on the left, like they are in the States

That's awesome. We have some friends who live on the island. Looks great

We didn't visit St. Croix this time but hopefully next time!

Lol I thought the same thing! And don't forget about Divi, the tourists love it there lol #stxnative #cantongirl

Thanks for watching!

You should be able to do a quick Google search to find out the most up-to-date info on Covid

We visited once on a cruise but didn't go during our last trip. We loved it though!

@@TheAwkwardTourists wow I hope you liked it

We booked a manual transmission but they ended up giving us an Automatic. Automatics are usually more expensive, I think that they ran out of all other cars when we went to pick ours up.

No need for a passport, and no customs on the ferry

Yes, it's legal to drive with an open container in the V.I. I spent 13 weeks there doing disaster relief after hurricanes Irma and Maria in '17 and '18 and even had a clerk at a grocery ask me if I wanted her to open the bottle of beer I'd purchased for later. It is NOT OK to be DUI; just to sip while you drive (except in the National Parks, where it's still verbotten).

When we went in January, you needed a negative Covid test before visiting the USVI but not when you returned stateside. But that may have changed, you should check official information

We looked into both options, but ended up renting a truck on St. Thomas and taking it with us on the ferry to st. john. Rental car agencies down there are notorious for running out of cars, so you are not really guaranteed to get a rental even if you have a confirmation. We were originally going to return our car on STT and rent another on STJ but, we liked our truck too much and decided to keep it

USVI's are definitely wild! We didn't see that many iguanas on our trip, but definitely felt the "island time" vibe when we were there

If you check a bag you can always put it in that. 3 oz is the maximum size for liquids in your carry on (thats where you need the quart bag too)

Plus there is no limit to the NUMBER of 3 oz bottles you can bring!

We booked our rental pretty far in advance, and I think that locked in a good price for us. We also were not going in peak season so that might have helped with the rate too. When we arrived they were completely out of cars, so we were really glad we booked ours a ways in advance. I think we paid about $65-70 per day

Peak Season is December to March, weather is in the 70's and 80's during the day and breezy at night. We went in January

Unfortunately we didn't get to visit there this time, we were there in a cruise once and loved it! Definitely plan on going back

These are the US Virgin Islands, so you never left the US so no test required to fly back to the mainland

We did not have issues with parking, but we did arrive at most of our beaches early, and they do fill up quick, as for rain, it's tough to say, you will get less crowds, but more chance of rain....

No, we didn't visit St. Croix this time

Not that I am aware of

We've been to Hawaii many times and definitely agree that they're different

@@TheAwkwardTourists Kelly, I think you did a very good job pointing out the things you should know when visiting. I can tell you were holding back a bit. Same with me. Here is the complete story. I will add that most of the indigenous people are quite angry all around in general. They don't have much of an identity because they were treated so awful throughout the last few hundred years with ownership being passed around between the French, Danish and the US while they were enslaved the whole time. It makes sense to me they are this way. It is understandable. Most are super self-righteous and confrontational acting entitled most often. They don't have much patients and even treat each other awful. I discovered a kind landlord that filled me in with priceless advice from day one. I owned a painting business and kept my mouth shut and did the minimal ass kissing as needed so I did not ruffle any feathers. Hawaii is a very different story where all you have to do is respect the locals and the island, and if you are a good person and not the selfish or self centered type, everything just falls into place. Hawaii is good like that. Maui, my favorite, is MAGIC. The aloha spirit is alive and well, even in a pandemic. Now the major difference in my opinion is EVERYTHING. In the USVI the air is hot, humid, dry, stagnant and not the best smelling compared to Hawaii. Even the flowers don't smell as pretty as you'd think. They have a rainy season (winter) that the mosquitoes are so bad it is difficult to enjoy the beach when you can't decide what to apply....sunscreen or bug spray. All three USV islands are kinda dirty and not all that well kept. It is so hot and humid that unless you are going to take two or three showers a day you will get stinky kinda quick. There is not that much air conditioning as you'd think. Some people just stop trying, give up altogether, and with all due respect to my friends I made and the people who were living there, you will have to get used to b o just about everywhere you go. Living in the USVI is like living in a third world county in so many ways I wouldn't know where to start, and you will find yourself saying to yourself, " you have got to be f ing kidding me" so often. It's not easy to live there. I was fortunate to have made a good living working hard and not being lazy the years I lived there, though challenging at times, I made the best of it with some pretty crazy stories to tell. The beaches are not that impressive, not as much "white sand" beaches as you'd think with a lot of sea weed. I will say that the water is a tad more beautiful, but so warm you will have to bring a cold beer in with you just to cool off. It's like going for a dip to cool off but feeling like you are getting into a warm bathtub at home. Just not as refreshing as you would expect. St. John is definitely a sunny place with shady people. Be aware that about 90% of the people who live there drink on a daily basis so much so that they organize their lives around drinking and socializing, and it seems hardly anyone ever gets fired. Crazy. It was a challenge to find employees that were sober and would be willing to work five days in a row. NOW......Hawaii.....on the other hand is truly paradise. The people are so friendly and kind and the islands are so breathtakingly beautiful. The quality of life is so easy to appreciate. The world you discover underwater is quite different where you will find more vibrant colors and more colorful fish. Snorkeling and scuba diving is more beautiful for sure. The air is crisp and clean and the smell is amazing everywhere you go. Not as hot and certainly not as humid with no mosquitoes. It's even beautiful when it rains. The rainbows are pristine, the ocean is a killer deep blue color, flowers are stunning, foliage lush, palm trees are perfect, and the beaches are spotless, sand is soft and of course white. You will wake up every morning saturated with vibrant colors all around and the peaceful sound of mina birds that never gets old. There is something so special about Hawaii that is hard to describe. Like something special in the air that makes the moments so real and alive. There is just an overall spiritual feeling you will experience that is different than anywhere else I have ever lived or traveled to. Maui is the best in my opinion. Granted the most expensive of all the islands but well worth saving up for. Whether you choose to vacation or live in Hawaii, you will for sure appreciate the better choice. Though St. John is considered the most beautiful of the Virgin islands, Maui kicks St. John's butt every time. You very well may prefer going once compared to going to the Caribbean multiple times.

Cool story bro 🙄