USVI-On-Line

Hi!

We will be arriving "on island" at around 2:00 on Thursday, April 21. We plan to catch the 5:00 ferry to Virgin Gorda from the Charlotte Amalie ferry dock.

Question to you experts: Can we buy our ferry tickets and safely leave/or "check in" our 2 large suitcases - then be able to head across the street to "downtown" to grab some lunch and kill some time? If not, any ideas on what to do with our luggage for about 2 hours?

We just don't want to be lugging it around, if we don't have to.

Also, any convenient lunch spot suggestions??

Thanks!
Sue (& Jim)

PS - Just LOVE seeing our ticker!!!

This is from last July... might want to give the welcome center/co-op folks a call.


V.I. Answer Desk: Luggage Storage for Tourists

Source reader Richie Peden of Atlanta, Ga., asks: "is there anywhere in downtown Charlotte Amalie that we can store our luggage for a few hours to shop before our flight leaves?"
The answer is yes.
Carmen Staley of V.I. Welcome Center and Native Arts and Crafts Cooperative says the co-op, along with an array of local art, has offered the service since 2001.
Located at the corner of Veterans Drive and Tolbod Gade, facing Vendors Plaza, the co-op is run by the Committee to Revive our Culture, a not-for-profit organization.
The co-op takes baggage Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
The daily charges are $1 for a small bag, $2 for a medium and $3 for a large bag.
Staley says they get a lot of business from passengers arriving on the nearby St. John ferry and St. Thomas hotels, whose check-out time is usually 11 a.m.
However, she noted, "The service is available for anybody."
The co-op is also a good location for visitors to pick up locally made hot sauces, crafts, dolls, jewelry, soaps, sculptures and paintings to stick in that luggage.


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Source URL: http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/lo ... e-tourists

Just reread your post... their hours may not help you much.

The Welcome Center is excellent - however it is all the way downtown - not near the Tortola Wharf which is where I am thinking your ferry to Virgin Gorda leaves from - the ferry company there has a terminal and will check your bags for you - this is not the case for the STJ ferry that leaves from the waterfront and not from a terminal - the last STJ ferry is at 5:30 - so if you are buying your BVI ferry tickets at the Tortola Wharf location just ask to leave your bags there.

Every time we have bought tickets for BVI, they have taken our bags at the same time and we've been free to hang around until the ferry leaves.

We like the Petie Pumproom restaurant upstairs in the ferry terminal. Good food and drinks and you can sit there and enjoy the views of the seaplanes take off and land.

We don't have as much time as you have, but hope we'll have time enough for a lunch at Petite pumproom before our ferry leaves.

See you next week Sue

Maggy,

I think you are right. Just keep it simple and stay there. I didn't realize, until recently, that there is a restaurant upstairs.

Looks like a great way to begin a vacation. We had "toyed" with the idea of trying to maybe catch a 3:30 ferry to Tortola - then a 5:15 ferry from Tortola to VG. But, all in all, it would only have gotten us on to VG at 5:45 versus the 6:30 that we will arrive with the 5:00 ferry straight from STT to VG.

Would have been nice to have gotten over to VG earlier in the day - but, to us, not worth the hastle of changing ferries and the addition of going thru customs in Tortola (which we assume we would have to do) - just to gain a 45 minutes arrival time on Virgin Gorda.

See you soon!!

Sue & Jim

Frenchtown is a short 3 minute walk from Tortola Wharf and has numerous tasty places for a food or drink break.

Thank you, everyone!

Looks like we have plenty of great options.

Gotta go now - we are "packing"....

WooHoo!!