USVI-On-Line

I hadn't planned on renting a car- we'll be staying at Gallows Point for 5 nights- plan to take taxi to Trunk Bay one day and Caneel another day -plan to walk to restaurants- We mad do a tour of Island by bus- what do you think?

You can not take an island tour by bus, you can take the bus to Coral Bay but it is no tour and the return trip can be iffy depending on the schedule that day. You can certainly head to the taxi stand and there will be several drivers that will take you on a tour or use the folks at the Gallows shop to arrange a tour for you.

You can enjoy STJ without a car, but not the way that most of us do. Most of us search out the off the beaten path beaches that a taxi will not take you. We like to head out to Coral Bay for dinner, which can be near impossible at times.

If this is your first trip to the island you will be able to get around by taxi to the big 3 North Shore beaches: Trunk, Hawksnest, and Cinnamon and you can certainly get to Caneel as well.

Save the car for your next trip, because if you are anything like us, there will be a next and a next and a next.

Enjoy!

thanks- maybeI read the tour is in a taxi- we don't plan to be quite that adventurous this time b/c my mother will be with us- we are going for the warm weather and beautful scenery-

I would definately consider getting a vehicle for at least a day. Driving is straight forward as long as your remember "stay left." There are tons of places to see that are just not going to work otherwise.

That being said, you can do Cruz Bay and the North Shore experience just fine by cab and save the rest for next time.

Cheers, RickG

Seeing how the cabbies drive, I'd rather take matters into my own hands.

are there really that many wrecks by cab drivers? i'd rather rely on them than me !! if it's that crazy-at least they're familiar with the roads

It's not that bad I just like the freedom to come and go as I wish. I the to get to skinny's for a burger which would be hard to do by taxi plus all the beaches you will miss

Personally, I would recommend renting a car for one or two days---you'll really have a much better feel for the island. Drive over to the East End one day--its really quite beautiful.

I tried doing the cab instead of a car on a trip a few years ago, while staying at Gallows, and I really didn't like it. First of all you have to wait on the cab to come pick you up, then if you have beach chairs and things you want to take with you, all your gear is not secure in the back of that taxi. We had a chair fly out and bust into pieces. It made me realize that we are not in seat belts and that was kind of scary. There are only certain beaches that the taxis normally drop off and hang around, so you are limited to where you can go and be assured a ride home. The worst part was that when you are ready to go home, you get in a cab that may be empty except for your party and you have to sit there until it is at least mostly full. In the heat, that can be very uncomfortable and take quite a while. And the final negative is that you can spend more for a cab than you do to rent a car. It's not hard to drive on STJ and I'd rather be in control than sit in the back of a pick-up with benches, which is what it amounts to.

If all ya want to do is see a couple north shore beaches the taxi thing will work just fine. I would rent a car for a day for the island tour and do it yourself. Like Rick said not really a big deal and ya can't get very lost only a couple major roads. We went the taxi route and did just fine our first time even took the public bus all the way to Salt Pond for a dollar each way now thats a bargain. After our first visit we have always rented a jeep and won't go back to the taxi thing too much freedom with a jeep and i think it's a blast to drive there.