First Time in St. Thomas

[TeresaN]

We (8 adults, 1 child) will be in St. Thomas next Feb. We will do tours in St. Kitts and St. Maarten and so I am not sure whether another tour in St. Thomas should be our first choice. I think about spending some time at the beaches.

 

What do you think? Should we book a tour because there is a lot to see in St. Thomas or is it better to see St. Kitts and St. Maarten on a tour and relax in St. Thomas?

My father-in-law talked about snorkeling. Is St. Thomas the first choice here or is St. Kitts "better"?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

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[jennmaybe]

Having been to all of these islands numerous times, I would choose a tour in St. Thomas over St. Kitts any day. St. Kitts is ok, but not much to do or see there. They have more black sand beaches and we were not impressed with those. We've also done the train tour around the island, but it's a been there, done that, would not do it again thing for us.

 

St. Thomas has some gorgeous beaches and more to see on the island. We did a tour with Godfrey one time and it also allowed us 2 hours at Megan's Bay. (very murky water that day, so no snorkeling there that day).

 

We've also done Sapphire Beach, which is our favorite on St. Thomas. Beautiful clear water and did some snorkeling. Not a lot of fish, but it was still a great beach day.

 

We're going back again next month, but this time we're taking the ferry over to St. John. I keep reading about the great snorkeling over there, so we're going to try it. :)

 

St. Martin is on our top 5 favorite list and we always do a tour here. Something different every time though. Last time we did a snorkeling tour with Captain Alan. Excellent snorkeling day!

 

It's a hard call if this is your first time to all of these islands. I know you probably want to see a little bit of all the islands. If you only want to do tours on 2 islands, my recommendation would be St. Thomas & St. Martin. St. Kitts is nice in port, but once outside, not much to see. The train ride is very relaxing though, so that might be nice for your family if you're looking for a relaxing day.

 

Whichever you choose, have a great cruise!!

[jimmyvinny]

Yes! I would definitely recommend taking the ferry to St. John and do some snorkeling. It's very pretty and gets you away from all the shops. An easy and inexpensive thing to do.

 

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[TeresaN]

Oh, this is great information, because I found a tour for St Thomas yesterday to go to St Johns and spend some time there to do snorkeling. I would really like that.

But: We won't see Sapphire Beach then. First time visitors should probably see this beach?

 

What would you do in St Kitts the first time? We could do 3 tours (I have already booked a tour in St Maarten), so I can book Thenford Grey in St Kitts and the ferry to St John in St Thomas. For me, 3 tours will be fine because St John is relaxing and not heading from one sight to another.

Or do you think - as I read in your posts - we can do St Kitts ourselves without Thenford Grey?

 

Thank you very much, I am so glad to have cruise critic when planning our (first) cruise :-)

[Ms411]

Imo, St Kitts has a lot to see. Their fort is the most impressive in the Caribbean and the views are amazing! I didn't particularly care for their beaches, either, but the history and scenery were fantastic. Tour was also very affordable during off season.

 

There isn't much of interest to see within walking distance of the dock, unless you want to eat with the locals or shop at the many shops at the dock.

[Ms411]

This St Kitts attraction used to be recommended often, but hadn't noticed any mention of it lately. I think you have to take a cab there, and not sure of the cost.

 

http://www.palmscourtgardens.com/home

[O2B@Cagain]

I am with Ms411! Brimstone Hill is one of the best preserved forts in the Caribbean. Read up on the history of the area- the French and British fought for domination of these islands to the detriment of the native population and the Africans they brought over to work the sugar cane fields. Make sure you have a St Kitts Carib, if you like beer. If you are a tee-totaler, ask about sampling sorrel, a local bush drink.

 

Volcanic islands have darker sand beaches. The soil is richer, allowing for agriculture. Embrace the differences of all the islands you visit! :D

[Life is Good Cruising]

We (8 adults, 1 child) will be in St. Thomas next Feb. We will do tours in St. Kitts and St. Maarten and so I am not sure whether another tour in St. Thomas should be our first choice. I think about spending some time at the beaches.

 

What do you think? Should we book a tour because there is a lot to see in St. Thomas or is it better to see St. Kitts and St. Maarten on a tour and relax in St. Thomas?

My father-in-law talked about snorkeling. Is St. Thomas the first choice here or is St. Kitts "better"?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

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Been to all 3 islands many times and no reason why you can take tours on all 3 islands.

 

St. Thomas, if this is your first time here and want to go snorkeling, I would highly recommend going over to St. John through ship excursion. Snorkeling is not good at all in St. Kitts. St. Thomas is the island for snorkeling, especially on St. John's. Cost of ship's excursion to St. John's will be very close to doing it on your own and we found it to be very convenient going through the ship. Once the ferry drops you off in St. John's at Cruz Bay, you can then take a taxi to Truck Bay which had some great snorkeling and an absolutely beautiful beach. This island is one of my favorites and Truck Bay is considered one of the world's top ten beaches. There is a $4 fee for the beach, taxi cost from Cruz Bay to Truck Bay, was $6 pp.

 

St. Kitts, did the train ride through ship excursion for $99 pp, it was nice for the first time visiting the island. Next time we did Clay Villa through ship excursion and we were greeted by the owner Philip. The grounds, garden and views were stunning. Our beach stop was at Frigate Bay which we also enjoyed and had a delicious lunch (fish tacos) at one of the beach shakes there, yummy.

 

Also in St. Kitts, we did the Capital and Caribbean Beach splash with Thenford Grey tours which was very good and would highly recommend using them, they have other excursions on their website. I believe we had Mr. Grey's brother or cousin. After visiting the capital of Basseterre, we also made a 10-15 mins. stop at Palm Court Gardens, which had a beautiful view of the sea and of the island of Nevis. We meet some cruise passengers spending the day here. Downside was there is no beach at Palm Court Gardens but they have a beautiful infinity pool, a lovely garden and you can have lunch here. Then we did part 2 of the tour which was a beach. They gave us all a choice of beaches to spend a few hours there. DH & I were the only ones that selected Carambola and the others in the van went to Cockleshell. We were given a time to be picked up by the driver to be taken back to the pier. It was another great day in St. Kitts.

 

On our return to St. Kitts we just taxied over to Carambola Beach for the day, had lunch, food, service and drinks were very good. We will go back to Carambola upon our return to St. Kitts. If more than 1 ship is in port with you, I would highly recommend emailing Carambola to reserve loungers and an umbrella, cost is $10 each. This is more of an upscale beach with clean facilities and you don't need water shoes here where as the other beaches in St. Kitts were a little rocky. We walked down to Shipwreck from Carambola which was also crowded and less pricey than Carambola.

 

St. Maarten/St. Martin, another one of my favorite islands and we usually take a tour with Bernard's tours, love going to Orient Bay and Maho Beach.

 

Enjoy your cruise on these wonderful islands!

Edited October 14, 2014 by Life is Good Cruising

[Sixtytwo]

The Trunk Bay snorkeling was great! There is an underwater "trail" that you can follow that tells you what coral and fish are normally in that area. The beach is nice also. Even saw a couple of stingrays in the shallow water while wading around!

[OCruisers]

If snorkeling is of importance, you might want to consider going to St. John on your port stop in St. Thomas. ;)

The snorkeling in St. John is so much better than St. Maarten and St. Kitts. :)

LuLu

[shutterbug63]

We (8 adults, 1 child) will be in St. Thomas next Feb. We will do tours in St. Kitts and St. Maarten and so I am not sure whether another tour in St. Thomas should be our first choice. I think about spending some time at the beaches.

 

What do you think? Should we book a tour because there is a lot to see in St. Thomas or is it better to see St. Kitts and St. Maarten on a tour and relax in St. Thomas?

My father-in-law talked about snorkeling. Is St. Thomas the first choice here or is St. Kitts "better"?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

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We used Thenford Grey tours in St. Kitts and LOVED it. We did "The Tour" which went to Brimstone Fortress, Caribelle Batik, Timothy Hill, plus we had some beach time. Great tour guide, clean bus, lots of fun! My son is 12 and he loved it too. You can google Thenford Grey and find his website for the details.

 

I can't speak to St. Thomas...we haven't been there yet, but that was my experience on St. Kitts.

Edited October 21, 2014 by shutterbug63

[blue_water]

You have a lot of feedback already and we'll add a bit more :p

 

St Thomas has the best snorkeling, and with a somewhat busy cruise itinerary we'd choose to just taxi to Sapphire Beach and snorkel there. Gorgeous beach with great reef and sea grass snorkeling, and beautiful sapphire-colored water and island views. And you don't travel the additional 1.5 - 2 hrs and $ extra 28pp to get to a nice beach on STJ. The beaches on STJ are beautiful and an island tour there is nice. But Sapphire and Secret Harbor are very nice snorkeling beaches on the East End of STT, and on a cruise stop we'd choose Sapphire. If STJ interests you the Champagne Cat is a nice, relaxing option.

 

St Kitt's is actually a nice island to tour and perhaps include a beach stop, Thenford is excellent as noted. Or take the ferry (or better yet the cat) over to Nevis for the day.

 

St Maarten is a great island for touring as well except that with the huge number of ships now docking there it's very congested on that end of the island. We'd prefer to get off the island, and one of our all-time fav excursions is the Golden Eagle cat sail -

sailingsxm.com

Otherwise head for one of the nicer beaches on the west side as Orient and Maho are much more touristy. You can include a stop in Marigot or Grand Case for an amazing lunch. :D

 

Have a great cruise! :)