Visiting St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands

I had heard amazing tales about the white sand beaches of the US Virgin Islands, but I didn’t really believe these stories. So, I had to see these islands for myself, and the pandemic created the perfect chance to do so. I visited St Thomas and was blown away by its beauty and by the ease of travel. Everything was a short drive away and there were taxis everywhere.

At the airport there were taxis lined up to take you to your resort. The beach water was stunning. It was truly some of the clearest water I have ever seen. The tales were indeed correct: beaches with unbelievably clear waters!

Best Things To Do in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

One of the best things to do in St Thomas (and at any US Virgin Island) is going on an island tour. That is the best way to see how people live their lives on a daily basis. Plus, it’s a great way to get away from your resort.

Another activity I can highly recommend in St Thomas is of course beach hopping. This was my favorite island experience by far. My favorite beaches in St Thomas were Magens Bay Beach, Lindquist Beach, Brewers Bay for sunset (bring bug spray though), Lindbergh Bay Beach and Coki Beach.

If you are looking for more adventurous activities then things like horse riding and sunset sailing are reasonably well priced. Of course, you can’t visit the US Virgin Islands without seeing some of the other nearby islands! There are frequent ferry rides which can take you from St Thomas.

Local People and Culture of St Thomas

I spent a bit of time observing the locals of St Thomas and experiencing their way of life. From the small boys playing ball on the sand to grown men fishing at the beach with their children. The population of the US Virgin Islands are predominantly black with West Indian backgrounds.

The beauty of all of this is that many of the locals I spoke with in St Thomas were not born in the US Virgin Islands. Many are immigrants from nearby islands like Dominica. This island differentiation is something the locals will correct you on, but you will also notice it in the different accents you hear.

Amazing Food Scene of St Thomas

Finding nice food in St Thomas wasn’t difficult at all. There are menus suited for every type of eater. My favorite place for food was The Smoking Rooster. The food here was delicious and they had every single option. From vegetarian to vegan and more, there was something for everyone!

I couldn’t finish talking about the food scene of St Thomas without mentioning Vinny’s Food Cart. He made jerks for all the meat-lovers of the island and they were epic! His truck comes only in the afternoon. You can order sweet corn, vegetables, rice and peas, and all the jerks you need. No visitor will have a hard time finding great food and drinks in St Thomas.

Accommodation Options on the Island

I was fortunate enough to do some hotel hopping in St Thomas. My favorite Airbnb was a place called Jonathon Place. The views here were stunning! Another beautiful spot that I can recommend is ResortShare at Smith Bay. You can’t go wrong at either of these places. All in all, there are many high-end resorts and different options for all budget types in St Thomas.

My Favorite Memory from St Thomas

All of the experiences I had in St Thomas were amazing. The island blew me away and changed my mindset. I used to believe that you had to travel far away to places like the Maldives or Bora Bora to experience the most beautiful beaches in the world, but the US Virgin Islands proved me wrong.

One of my favorite moments from this trip to St Thomas was my visit to Secret Harbor Beach. Although it wasn’t my favorite beach, it sure did hold one of my best memories. I’m terrified of lizards and had no idea that this beach was home to many iguanas. I shared my lunch with a few of them!

Need to Know Before you Go

If you plan on visiting St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands make sure you bring bug spray and your passport – even though it’s not required for US citizens, you might want to spend a few days in the British Virgin Islands. Of course, having cash with you is a good idea because the ATM fees are high. Remember to drive on the left when renting a car. Above all, enjoy yourself!

 

Only a day away from my birthday and I am still rambling through countries that I should spend my birthday in. However, Aruba won the race between all the other countries. 

Because of the sudden decision to go to Aruba we were very unprepared. The day of our flight we woke up so late we had to rush out of the house with little hope of catching our flight.

We eventually made it to the airport and was so lucky we were able to still get on our flight. I forgot my credit cards home and was so grateful that I did not forget my passport. This was by far our most unprepared trip, but I’m sure the future has plenty more of those unprepared trips waiting for us.

The flight to Aruba from New York took 5 hours, and while sitting on that flight all I could do was just burst with excitement of getting there. 

On landing in Aruba my first impression was “ very cool”, and I mean this literally though,  the wind was so refreshing. We had no plans of getting to our resort or anything . We got a rental car (we always do) so we got one  and headed to our villa in Noord. We then went out to site seeing because we got there in the afternoon. Our first stop was to check out the California lighthouse. It was not quite our cup of tea so we just looked, left and went food shopping at the super center.  Then spent the rest of the evening relaxing by our pool villa. The next day we got up early and went to Eagle beach, tres trapi and just beach hopped the day. Aruba has a lot of beautiful beaches and we wanted to see most of them. We were able to catch lunch at Zeerovers. This place was very reasonably priced and the food was tasty. It Got really crowded there. They opened at 11am and we were there at 1118 am as there weren’t many people before us, we couldn’t say the same about behind us; the line was crazy long and we were happy that we beat the crowd. In the evening we got dinner at Red Seafood, another great restaurant that Aruba has to offer. We did a little city sightseeing in Oranjestad and watched an amazing sunset at Eagle beach. 

A highlight of our trip was the day we set out to visit the Natural Pools. Pause:  Please take a bottle of water with you if you plan to go. Ok let’s get back into it: So Rob and I decided that we were going to find the natural Pools. We set out on our journey with no clear instructions on how to find the pools. Apparently there are more than one ways to get there, the right way I believe was paying a park entrance fee and getting a tour guide. We didn’t do that, we lost GPS service on our way and pretty much just drove blindly. We eventually found two other people on the street that were looking for the pools themselves. We went on the adventure together. After finding a sign that said Natural Pools we parked our cars and then set out. Eventually we got split up from the other two people. We figured they didn’t continue. It was a very long hike to the pools and the sun was hot, though very nice wind kissed our faces, it didn’t solve how thirsty we were the entire time, we had no water and was already so far in we had to keep going. Every time I used the word hike, Rob would say “you call this a Hike? It’s a long walk in the desert” *with an evil chuckle*. Anyway, we found two beach spots on our journey, man weren’t we happy to see those. We stopped at them and hung out, probably contemplated a few times if drinking the sea water would help our thirst of course we knew it was a bad idea but we couldn’t help it. We fooled around there a little bit playing in the water to cool our bodies a bit. Then went back on our journey to find the natural pool . The last beach spot was not far from the natural pool so we found the natural pools not long after. It was crowded so we spent like 10 mins there after hiking after more than 1 hour, then left. It was pretty cool there but we couldn’t shoot or enjoy the water that much because by the time we figured out how to get there it was late and was crowded, plus remember we had no GPS service so we had to figure out how to make it back. So if you plan for an adventure to the Pools, go early and take WATER with you. Overall we spent most of our time in Aruba finding great restaurants and going to the beach. We were looking for a quick getaway and Aruba gave us that. We loved Aruba. Again thank you for reading until next time xoxo. 

With the recent events happening in the United States and across the world. I feel the need to talk about the racial disparities in the travel industry. 

In recent years I realized that racial disparities had been rooted in us for generations. As a brief history; international travel had been viewed as a type of privilege that is generally not associated with people of color (POC). A lot of POC across the world come from families that did not have the opportunity to explore the world. Instead their families were focused on fighting for basic rights. Within the United States many POC  were  immigrants whose priorities were focused on starting and creating a better life for their families. This lack of exposure to travel in the past has helped create a lower number of black people traveling, and so the idea of traveling internationally became associated with white privilege. 

Nowadays people are drawn to social media. As such, influencers came about and they started using  social media as a platform  to express themselves. Being a black travel blogger and being able to go abroad my hope was that I could share my travel experience with a wide audience of POC so that they would be inspired to do the same. For instance, a beautiful picture of me enjoying a view of the Indian ocean miles away from home in hope that it may inspire a young person of color to work towards sharing that same experience one day.

The travel community likes to think of itself as a space of pure bliss, a tropical paradise, an escape to a place of only fun and leisure where things such as racism have no place. In truth as a black traveler or individual of color there is no such thing as an escape from racism by going on vacation. Racism does not go away for us; it is a constant battle. From being racially profiled in a foreign land to even airports by  airline companies that say they are built on diversity. I have been personally asked to be searched and was blatantly told it was because I am black. So like any other parts of society, racism has been built into the travel industry both consciously and unconsciously.  

Starting out as a travel content creator is hard in itself. The roots of racism make it even harder. As black travelers we are less likely to be featured on travel accounts supported by non-black owners, less likely to be asked to speak on panels , take part in campaigns, represent brands or companies, this causes less exposure for black travelers and creates a close niche between white bloggers. Some resorts won’t even accept black travel bloggers for paid partnership because of  the color of our skin and the texture of our hair because it does not meet their beauty standards. This exclusion leads to less pay and far fewer opportunities. A lot of black people from the travel industry have voiced their concerns about the big pay gap between white travel bloggers and black travel bloggers, and many companies  have yet to acknowledge or do anything about it. They are so uncomfortable about the topic that they are quick to dismiss that there is even such an issue. So as a black travel blogger you have to work twice as hard to get only HALF of what others have.

Traveling while black means you might be encountered by people who have never seen black people. People will try to touch your hair, even try to photograph or just stare at you as if you are on display. It can become uncomfortable because their depiction of us is only based on what is negatively shown on the media and you don’t know if they are staring at you because of pure interest or contempt. Many times as a black traveler you might be the only black person in a resort and sometimes people can be rude; they will ask you which room you are staying at, to see if it is a luxurious room versus a room on the cheap end or even asks you how you are able to afford travel as if it is impossible to be successful as a black person.

As this black lives movement tries their hardest to oust racism in the justice system. The travel industry should do their part to topple racism. Instead of trying to negate that racism exists in the industry, start by accepting that it is present within the travel industry and know that this is a fight that you are not fighting alone. We can all learn from each other as we all live unique lives. No matter your skin color, we all have a part to contribute to society. 

1. The first and probably most important. KEEP A CONSISTENT FEED. Try to stick to content related to your Instagram. Do not start a lifestyle Instagram then start posting about makeup.

2. ORGANIZE your feed. A lot of influencers are using presets to accomplish this. Start there if you do not have much editing experience. Check out MY PRESET collection .  A lot of people call this an Instagram Theme. Create your own theme for your Instagram. People make a decision on whether or not they will follow you within the first few seconds of visiting your page. Make it organized.

3. USE HASHTAGS. You might not be doing this but this is the best way to get your photo across. The more your photo shows up in a hashtag the more people will be able to find your page. Now Instagram only allows you 30 hashtags per post. 

4. POST at your best time. I used to struggle with this, but when you get to know your followers you know when they are most active and you want to post around that time. For people with Instagram business accounts, look at your insights it will show you.

5. STUDY your insight or page. What I mean by this is. If you posted a picture of your cat and it got only 10 likes in comparison to when you posted a picture of your grandparents that got 600 likes. PLEASE stop posting pictures of your cat. Post more pictures of what your audience are engaged in.

6. ENGAGE with others. Socialize guys . I mean it’s social media.  Try and become active among people who share similar things as you. This is the best way to grow a community. This will keep your engagement up plus you are supporting others , others will support you.

7. USE YOUR STORY. Did you know that people rather spend more time watching videos than scrolling through photos. Keep up on your story. They can reach a lot of people, and if people like your story they will keep coming back for more.

8. POST CONSISTENTLY. One post a day is a great way of keeping your engagement up, therefore inviting more followers. I’ve noticed over the years that not consistently posting really hurt my engagement. You’ve been following me, you’ve noticed my followers go up, then I stop posting for months( NEVER DO THIS) and then my followers drop drastically. This has hurt my growth and why I’m stressing it. POST consistently. 

9. Write a good Instagram BIO. You only get one chance at a first impression. Plus, Instagram uses this to connect you with people in a  similar niche. 

10. Last but not least. Get other accounts to repost your work. Trust me you can go from 10 followers to 10000 within minutes with this one. Reach out to some of these accounts and see if they will post your content. 

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