Christine
So my daughter and I needed to get out of the city and get in some beach time. I thought the US Virgin Islands would be the easiest thing for us to do because it’s not a long flight, and there were several direct flights to St. Thomas. We went for Spring break.
Renting a Car
The best move I made was rent from Paradise Rental Car instead of going through a more well-known rental. I set the whole thing up by email and a nice man was waiting for me right at the airport with the keys to our car. In true island style we got in the car, pulled to the side in the parking lot and exchanged paperwork. It’s not a big airport and doesn’t have a lot of parking so it was great to be able to hop in and get going. I highly recommend renting a car. It made it a lot easier to go where we wanted to go. Yes the roads are a little tight, but just take it slow.
Where to Stay
We stayed at Crystal Cove Villa on Sapphire Beach, which is not far from the ferry to St. John’s. It was a nice clean beach and reasonably priced. Our condo was pretty dated, with all the wicker furniture and the ancient utensils I felt like the Ropers had left it for us for the weekend. That said, I think each condo is different as they are rented out through the resort. So before I stayed there again I’d ask about the unit itself. It was a nice quiet resort though. The beach is chill, perfect views and there’s a restaurant on the premises. Just know that it closes around 6 so don’t plan on getting drinks at the bar unless it’s the weekend. The location was great though. Close to the ferry, beaches and grocery stores and a bit away from the main city part of St. Thomas.
We could see the damage still left over from the Hurricane a few years ago so I was happy to spend our money there and put some back into the economy.
We did a number of awesome things while in the Virgin Islands so I’ll I’ll focus on scuba diving here
Scuba Diving at Coki Point Beach
I am a certified scuba diver and I wanted to introduce my daughter to the wonderful world of diving . So it was important for me that we find a good spot and she had a good enough time that she’d want to go back. She absolutely loved it. We did a Discovery dive with Coki Dive Center and it was perfect. We got there about two hours early, which was perfect because they gave us some snorkel gear and we snorkeled around, getting my daughter used to using the goggles and flippers in ocean water as it had been awhile.
The guy I worked with at the Dive Center couldn’t have been cooler. He hooked us up the day before and had everything waiting for us when we got there. And the instructor was very patient. We had another girl in the group who just was too afraid to try and so she backed out. No big deal but I thought the instructor was very good about it while not holding up the rest of the group too much. As for the man who set up our reservation, he also set us up with an underwater rental cameral so I got some really great shots of my daughter snorkeling and feeding the fish. By the way, SO MANY FISH!!!
And what a brilliant idea. They gave us each a big dog biscuit and the fish went nuts over them. I can’t believe I’d been scuba diving for thirty years and never thought of that. So we got some amazing shots. My daughter is now completely hooked on diving and is planning on getting her open water cert. shortly.
Close by there’s also Coral World maybe 500 feet away. After you dive, you can hang out on Coki beach itself. It’s very chill. There are some food shacks, good places to get some good drinks and a couple of spots to buy some things like T-shirts and sun tan lotion. Also, during the day they were playing some music. Very relaxed, cool place and different than the rawness you’ll find at most of the beaches at St. John’s for example. Parking can be a bit tricky so get there early if you can.
