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Published: 10/23/24
What I Wished I Knew Before Visiting St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands
I consider myself a fairly experienced traveler, but when it came to spending a week on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The closest I’d come to visiting the Caribbean was a rainy week in Key West. Since our time in Hawaii wasn’t especially “beach focused,” I wasn’t even sure if the U.S. Virgin Islands would agree with me.
As much as I tried to research the U.S. Virgin Islands before my visit, St. John still had plenty of surprises in store. When I tried to research specific questions like “do I need to set up grocery delivery before my visit” I would get directed to online forums where I’d find compelling, but conflicting answers.
So I’m here to answer all your nagging questions about a trip to the USVI. I’ll share what you really need to bring to the USVI (spoiler alert: it’s cash), why these islands are like visiting the United States but also not, and the lowdown on grocery delivery. You’re getting everything I learned during my 7 days on St. John that I wished I knew beforehand.
If you’re traveling to St. John soon or simply considering a U.S. Virgin Islands vacation, read on for all the knitty-gritty details on what visiting these Caribbean islands is really like.
Overview of Need To Know St. John USVI Visitor Information
- St. John is one of the three U.S. Virgin Islands. They neighbor the British Virgin Islands.
- As a U.S. territory, you do not need a passport to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- English is the primary language spoken.
- The currency is the U.S. Dollar.
- This is an expensive vacation destination and tourist population is very homogenous.
- The island is small and rugged, so expect slow, sometimes difficult travel.
- The majority of the island is part of Virgin Islands National Park.
- Make sure you bring lots of cash since all taxis and many restaurants are cash only.
- You do need to clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection before your return flight.
- Due in part to limited operating hours, tourists tend to move in flocks from beaches to bars and restaurants each day.
- There’s not much you need to do to prepare for your visit; even ordering groceries depending on where you’re staying on the island.
What To Expect During Your Visit to St. John
As a United States territory, the U.S. Virgin Islands are part of the United States. Most notably you’ll see U.S. Post Offices around the islands. While USVI citizens voted for a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, they cannot vote in presidential elections.
If you’re a U.S. citizen, you don’t need a passport to visit. This makes it a favorite destination for Americans in the midst of a name change (there’s a reason it’s a honeymoon hot spot!) or who simply can’t be bothered with a passport. As long as you have a valid driver’s license or other state issued id, you’re good to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Overall, the United States is a pretty expensive place to visit and the U.S. Virgin Islands are no exception. Just like on Hawaii, grocery prices are very expensive (but the rum is cheap!) and restaurant prices are on the upper end of standard going rates in the U.S. Since you’re paying for everything with U.S. dollars, there’s no exchange rate working in your favor.
Flights to the USVI are pricey and things don’t get cheaper once you’re on the islands. These economics means the U.S. Virgin Islands attract a pretty homogenous crowd of upper middle class Americans. You might be surprised that the U.S. Virgin Islands (especially in January) can feel more like a tropical corner of the Midwest than a true Caribbean escape!
Even many of the year-round residents are transplants from the contiguous United States. Because it’s so spendy, most European visitors choose different islands for their Caribbean vacations. A relatively small percentage of the population have lived on the island for generations.
Getting Around St. John
While I knew that St. John was small before my visit (it’s only about 17 square miles), it wasn’t until I was actually on the island that I realized just how teeny it is. At its narrowest point, the island is just 3 miles wide. You can actually walk from the island’s south to north shore. We did so using the Reef Bay and Maria Hope trails!
But just because it’s small, don’t assume you can move around St. John quickly or easily. This island is basically a mountain in the sea and many of the steep, windy roads simply aren’t safe to traverse on foot. We stayed at the Westin and despite only being a mile away from Cruz Bay, we need to take a taxi into town because the road was so unsafe for pedestrians.
There’s a reason the vast majority of this island is part of the Virgin Islands National Park – the terrain is simply too challenging to support any industry other than tourism. As a result, parts of the island are extremely undeveloped so you need to make sure you have a transportation plan if you’re using a taxi to access the island’s more rural corners.
To get around St. John you have three main options: the local bus, renting a jeep (just be warned that they use the left-hand side of the road), or the ubiquitous open-air taxis. We opted for the taxis and even though taxi rates are set, this does get pricey.
What You Need To Bring To The U.S. Virgin Islands
Cash is king
All USVI taxis are cash only and many businesses, especially restaurants, charge credit card processing fees. If you’re a millennial traveler like me who never uses cash, you’ll need to modify your spending behaviors significantly for this trip. It’s best to bring a significant amount of cash, since with the USVI high prices, it spends down quickly.
If you’re planning to use a debit card to access cash during your visit, be sure to let your bank know you’re traveling so you don’t have any hiccups at the ATM. There are several ATMs in Cruz Bay and many of the farther flung St. John bars and restaurants have them as well.
Bring your Global Entry card if you have one
You don’t need a passport to get to and from the U.S. Virgin Islands, so you might be as surprised as I was to learn that you still need to clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection before boarding your return flight. (Don’t quote me, but I think this is because British Virgin Islands visitors are also flying out of the St. Thomas airport.)
If you have Global Entry, you can take advantage of an expedited screening process. However, you must be in possession of your Global Entry card so make sure you remember to pack it!
What To Expect from St. John Culture
Others might disagree with me on this point, but I didn’t find St. John to have much personality. While Hawaii and the Azores have very distinctive identities, the USVI felt like a small, attractive chunk of the American South floating in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
You’ll occasionally hear locals speaking in island dialect, but beyond that and few plantation and windmill ruins, there’s little indication that St. John was every anything other than a tourist mecca.
That said, island time is definitely a real thing on St. John. We were a little surprised to learn that things neither start early nor end late on the island. At the Westin, taxis don’t arrive in the taxi stand until about 9 a.m. On the flipside, beaches like Trunk Bay Beach, start to shut down around 4 p.m.
This limited access makes it hard for people to spread out. You’re either all at the beach or you’re all at the bars and restaurants as evening closes in. If you prefer to do things at your own pace, the best way to experience St. John would be with your own boat so you can come and go from beaches and other attractions as you please.
How To Prepare for Your St. John Vacation
If you’re wondering what you need to pack for a trip to St. John, check out my USVI packing list.
Truthfully, you don’t need to do much to prepare for a trip to St. John. You don’t even need to check if your passport is going to expire soon!
One common recommendation for folks headed to St. John is to order your groceries ahead of time and have them delivered to your rental. There are several companies, like Landlubber, that offer this convenient service. You can also order directly through grocery stores like Starfish Market. However, whether or not you should order groceries depends entirely on where you’re staying on the island.
As Westin guests, it didn’t make sense for us to order groceries (but that didn’t stop me . . .) since you can walk to a fully stocked grocery store from the resort. If you’re staying in Cruz Bay, I would say you can also skip this step. But if you’re staying on the east end of St. John or along the north shore, having groceries delivered to your rental will definitely save you a lot of faffing when you arrive.
Another important consideration before your trip to St. John is how you’ll stay safe in the sun. While I considered myself a fairly conscientious sunscreen user after my time on Hawaii where it’s actually law to use reef-safe sunscreen, it wasn’t until I visited the USVI that I realized SPF 50 isn’t all it’s cracked out to be and probably isn’t reef-safe, despite what the bottle tells you.
Keep both the Caribbean coral reefs and yourself safe by using a lower (and still reef-safe) sunscreen and reapplying frequently. Another great way to limit sun exposure is by covering up, so it’s a good idea to stock up on sunhats and sun shirts before your trip.
Is St. John USVI Worth Visiting?
It’s no secret – I didn’t fall in love with St. John and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I don’t particularly enjoy spending hours at the beach and there’s a limit to how much day drinking a person can do. As someone who is fiercely independent (at times to my own detriment), having to rely on taxi drivers for all transportation was my biggest pain point.
While the island has plenty of quirks and inconveniences, I think that’s part of its charm. It truly is an exceptional beautiful Caribbean island with some of the best beaches in the world. Since over half of the island is part of the Virgin Islands National Park, you can’t beat St. John’s hikes and natural scenery.
With no passport required, the U.S. dollar as currency, and English as the spoken language, if you’re a U.S. citizen, you can’t find an easier part of the Caribbean to explore. This is an excellent, albeit pricey, destination to lean into island time and enjoy some R&R.
Despite its lack of real character, I absolutely think St. John is worth visiting, if only for its stunning scenery. The island is especially great for outdoor adventurers looking for hikes and an abundance of white sand beaches.
Fun Facts About St. John and the U.S. Virgin Islands
- As soon as you leave the St. Thomas airport, you’ll probably notice that you drive on the left side of the road on the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nobody’s really sure why this is, especially since the islands only ever belonged to the British for about two decades!
- Also, as an Anglophile, the joke’s on me about the island’s namesake. I assumed that like the state of Virginia, they were named for Queen Elizabeth I. Instead, Christopher Columbus named these islands for a group of Spanish nuns. How the individual islands ended up with male saint names is beyond me!
- The U.S. acquired the Virgin Islands from Denmark in the early 20th century. Despite being under Dutch control for several centuries, you’ll also notice a fair amount of Dutch influence on St. John, including several abandoned windmills.
- Why is so much of the island a national park today? Just like with Jackson Hole, you can thank a Rockefeller! Laurance Rockefeller was influential in getting about 50% of St. John’s land mass preserved in its natural beauty as part of Virgin Islands National Park.
Conclusion: How To Be Ready For Your St. John Vacation
If you’re headed to St. John soon, I hope this post helped you get a better idea of what to expect during your visit.
Overall, the U.S. Virgin Islands is a very easy Caribbean location to visit and require little to no advance preparation. While you’ll certainly find some challenging aspects – like windy roads and credit card processing fees – on St. John, this stunningly beautiful island can be forgiven for most of its idiosyncrasies.
As long as you come armed with plenty of cash and sun protection, there’s nothing this island can throw at you that you can’t handle. Lean into the laidback island time mentality and live your best beach life on St. John!
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