U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Information

The U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix represent a comfortable choice for U.S. citizens vacationing in the Caribbean for the first time. They don't need a passport, the shopping is plentiful and the economy is robust.

St. Thomas is noteworthy for both good and bad reasons for shopping. For U.S. tourists, the duty-free shopping exemption of $1,600 is twice as much as other islands.

The capital of Charlotte Amalie is well known to tourists who visit via stopovers and eastern Caribbean cruises for the large number of duty-free shops, the quality of the merchandise, the aggressive pricing, but also the aggressive employees. However, we have experienced more aggressive selling on some other islands, especially by the extremely poor residents of Haiti.

USVI is the sixth most popular place to visit in the Caribbean. Three times as many vacationers visit USVI from cruise ships than via longer term stopovers. The rate of cruise visits is one of the highest in the Caribbean. Cruise ships promote and emphasize shopping more than any other activity on the islands.

Visitors from cruise ships who don't want to spend much time shopping of course can make a quick visit to the Havensight Shopping Center at the port rather than go into Charlotte Amalie and then take advantage of numerous excursions or hit beaches close to the port.


Unique attractions include the historic town of Christiansted on St. John and Coral World Ocean Park on St. Thomas. Noteworthy regular attractions include 44 public beaches, but it has only three golf courses, one on St. Thomas, two on St. Croix and none on St. John.


U.S. citizens do not need a passport unless they are flying there via another country. Cruise visitors simply need to have their ship IDs available when leaving the ship and returning.

March is the favorite time to go, followed closely by April. September is the least popular time to go, followed by October, because of hurricane season.


The average high temperature reaches about 90 in the summer and the mid 80s in the winter. Subtropical, tempered by easterly trade winds, relatively low humidity, little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season September to November.


U.S. currency is standard. Most hotels add a 10-15 percent service charge. Prepare to offer the same at restaurants and to taxi drivers. Hotels have an 8 percent room tax.


The dominant language is English with some Spanish. Tourism accounts for 80 percent of the economy and employment. The geography is mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little level land. Several hurricanes have hit in recent years; there are frequent and severe droughts and floods; occasionally the islands experience earthquakes.

• State Department
  
• CIA Factbook
  
• Caribbean Tourism Organization
  
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration