We’re going to the Caribbean with a week long St. Thomas vacation! St Thomas is beautifully located in the U.S. Virgin Islands and is one of the most beautiful islands in the “United States”

In this two-part episode we explore Magens Bay Beach, Sapphire Beach, Coki Beach, and Lindquist Beach on St. Thomas. We also say the best things to do on St. Thomas including Drake’s Seat, Mountain Top, Coral World Ocean Park, a sea trek adventure and exploring Charlotte Amalie and Fort Christian.

• We tell you where to stay in St Thomas -both the timeshare option we stayed in and others we saw while there. 
• We tell you what to do in St Thomas – We spent a week here and yes, we did go on a day trip to St John and the USVI National Parks (see part 2 of this series for more on that) – but we also went to tons of beaches and did ocean activities.

Tune into episode 84 for part two with St. John National Park.

If you want to take this same itinerary see our US Virgin Island Guide to download the exact route and itinerary to enjoy too.

Vacationing in St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands- Episode Transcript

1 (37s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast. We’re taking you to St. Thomas and the us Virgin islands,

4 (1m 2s):
St. Thomas is one of the us Virgin islands in the Caribbean, a beautiful tropical paradise. That is not to be missed. And I absolutely loved the loved our time we had there, Brittany. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a squad trip. However, we did have our honorary squad members with us, our friends Casha and Ryan from Oklahoma.

2 (1m 26s):
Hey Casha and Ryan,

4 (1m 28s):
They made it. Unfortunately you ladies did not.

3 (1m 31s):
I was on this trip through your Instagram photos and stories. It looked beautiful. The turtles looked amazing. The beaches looked great. I wish I was there. It looked like an absolute paradise.

2 (1m 43s):
I can’t wait to hear all about that. I was there with Kim through Instagram, swimming with you, basking in the sun and enjoying Brittany’s bikini every single day, because every single fucking day, she posted a picture with a new bathing suit. And I’m like, oh my God, how many bathing suits does she? I don’t even have that many bathing suits. I love it.

3 (2m 0s):
You live in San Diego and you don’t own 30 bathing

2 (2m 2s):
Suits. I think I have maybe like three, but not 10. Like Brittany.

4 (2m 6s):
Well, you ladies lived vicariously through our Instagram posts and we are going to regality with our tail right here, right now in this episode of our time in St. Thomas.

1 (2m 16s):
But by the way, you guys, I need like a little shout out here because how many times has Jamal said to me, I want to take a vacation where I just absolutely do nothing except for relax on the beach. And I provided that for him.

3 (2m 29s):
Did you?

4 (2m 30s):
She made me do a hike with ch quite honestly, like, eh, so I don’t know if I can really count it as such, but it was really, really close and yes, Brittany, you are very correct this for the most part. Other than that hike filled my requirement that I’ve been asking for for a long time of having my real RNR vacation of real easy days, not squat, easy days, like real legit fucking this is an easy day.

2 (2m 55s):
Well, wait a minute. What time did you guys wake up in the mornings?

4 (2m 57s):
Well, it depended on the day, although we weren’t up at crack of Dawn early. So I will say that now do keep in mind on this trip. We’re talking specifically about St. Thomas, which is the main island in the us Virgin islands. There’s multiple. We also went to St. John, which has a national park. We’re going to be talking about that in another episode. And they also have St. Croix. We did not go to St. Croix. We did go to St. John, but we are focusing here on the main island of St. Thomas. So I just want to throw that out there.

3 (3m 29s):
And I know you guys took this trip in January of 2021, which is still in the era of COVID. So tell me what it was like traveling there during COVID.

1 (3m 39s):
So, first off you actually had to have a negative COVID-19 test within five days of travel and it had to be a certified lab. It basically spelled out the requirements for you, and then you had to upload your results onto a travel portal. And then you were given a QR scan code for you to use at the airport upon a rival,

4 (4m 1s):
Even though they give you that QR code that you showed upon arrival, they still wanted you to bring that physical printed out copy of your negative COVID-19 test. So even though you uploaded it, check online and see what the requirements are. If you’re going to go the only way to go as fly, unless you have a boat and you’re sailing yourself because they’re not actually doing cruises now because St. Thomas the specific city on the island, Charlotte Amala, which is the Capitol is a very well-traveled cruise port in the Caribbean. They’re not doing that now. So again, the only way by plane, you do need to print out your certificate. When you go, don’t be fooled by the fact that you just uploaded it. They want that

1 (4m 40s):
The plane ride itself. There were a lot of people on the plane. And I think, you know, the mindset was everyone on here has been tested for COVID recently. And people were a little bit more comfortable, I think, because realistically, everyone had been recently tested. So there were a good amount of people traveling to the islands, but it wasn’t packed on the island.

4 (4m 60s):
It was really interesting. Yeah. I mean, you, you said that, and it was just a different vibe on the plane masks were still required. I will say this, the flight to our flight was not full, but on our flight back to the mainland from St. Thomas back to Dallas, the flight was full. So I was actually expecting there to not really be that many people on the plane, because there wasn’t very many people going, but it was the opposite and reverse less people going more people coming back. I think it’s because we left like on a weekend. That’s why that happened. But nonetheless, it felt a little bit more safe because everybody’s tested.

3 (5m 36s):
And it’s interesting because there’s probably less flights available. So that may be part of the reason why the flight was full.

1 (5m 44s):
That’s true. That’s true.

2 (5m 46s):
Did you guys have face shields or did you guys just settle with the mask?

3 (5m 50s):
Did you wear, cause I know you have like super suited up before

4 (5m 53s):
We had a super suited up with the face shields in different flight on a different trip, but that was our first time flying after they changed the rules of keeping the middle seat open. So it was that air of caution. Wasn’t really sure what it was going to be like and kind of scared. We didn’t do that on this flight ever since then. We’ve been doubled masking on flights everyday life. I don’t necessarily double mask. I don’t think it’s a bad thing if you do. I just don’t. But on the planes, I always do now double mask,

1 (6m 25s):
But

4 (6m 25s):
I did not face shield. No, no, no. Cause no face shield, but double mask,

1 (6m 30s):
We did do a N 95 is the bottom mask and then a surgical mask on top of that.

2 (6m 36s):
So the plane ride back was a little bit more full, but like middle seats open.

4 (6m 40s):
No, like literally it was a full flight. We were sitting by somebody, but our flight there, like it wasn’t full and by not full, there were even some roads that were open and no one was sitting by me and Brittany, but on the flight home, it was full. Gotcha. And so yes, maybe people could have contracted it and had something happen on the island, but you still have that mindset of people are leaving. They came with a negative. If most people who are arriving are negative, the likelihood of catching it is very slim. So it made it for a more comfortable vacation too. And the fact that you’re in a tropical place, you’re really on the beach, open air is pretty much everything you can do. So it gives you that safety factor.

1 (7m 16s):
And one other thing too is previously they weren’t requiring residents of the us Virgin islands to get tested before coming back home. If they traveled outside of the U S Virgin islands. And when we went, anyone that was arriving, whether they were a local or not had to get tested. So their own residents were having to get tested before returning home to the us Virgin Islands.

4 (7m 36s):
So that gives a little bit of background on what it’s like to get on an island these days, even traveling lean domestically within the United States. I mean, it’s not a state, but it is a us territory. Everyone who lives there are American citizens. So they have different rules because they are an island, same thing with Hawaii, right? We’ve seen restrictions on how they’re letting people into Hawaii because it’s an island. They’re doing the same thing in the U S VI, but let’s get into a few tips that are really, really good to know. One thing that I would say is now honestly, is really the perfect time to go to the us Virgin islands. And by now, I mean, in the era of COVID, if you are traveling and I say this because the cruise ships are not going into port, so you have a lot less people that are on the island.

4 (8m 22s):
You have the beach is really more to yourself, that kind of exclusivity of it. And everybody who is coming in now is getting tested. So it makes it for a less crowded and more relaxing atmosphere on the beaches.

1 (8m 38s):
And if you aren’t able to go, now, we would recommend going in off season, which is actually April through June so that you don’t have a crowded beach experience. Another tip that we have is to stay at an Airbnb to save money. So getting to the island itself, wasn’t very expensive. We paid about $400 round trip for a flight, which is actually pretty good, but where they do get you is meals out meals out were kind of pricey

3 (9m 4s):
Around what price

1 (9m 5s):
I would say anywhere 20 to 40 bucks, a meal

3 (9m 8s):
For a decent meal, nice meal, regular meal.

4 (9m 12s):
I mean even really a decent one. Granted we were in a touristy area, but we went to this one little shop when we were out getting lunch. And most of the time that we were there every day, except that day, as a matter of fact, we actually made our own lunch. When we went out to the beach, cause we were staying at the Airbnb. We had a cooler, we bought stuff, but this time we did not. And we just got like a taco plate, like a three taco plate. And that was 20 bucks. And in and of itself came with no chips, no nothing on the side. So the meals out are expensive. So staying at an Airbnb, buying your food, making your breakfast, making your lunch, having that ice chest to take with you on the road. When you go to the beach, really saves a lot.

4 (9m 52s):
We did eat out every night for dinner. I won’t deny that we bought nothing to cook at the Airbnb for dinner. And those were a little bit more expensive, but the meals were good. I was pleasantly surprised with how good the food out at the restaurants were in the us Virgin islands, like really fucking good.

3 (10m 8s):
Was it Caribbean food? Like you get in like The Bahamas or like Jamaica, like

1 (10m 14s):
They had like jerk chicken. They even had a jerk chicken Caesar salad, but there’s a lot of seafood going on, which was really, really good. And they did have some Caribbean eateries. So, but they also have American styled food as well.

2 (10m 29s):
I was about to quote Brittany from a past episode. I can’t remember which one it is, but I believe the quote is plus she’s laughing. She knows what I’m going to say right now. Let’s talk about jerk chicken.

1 (10m 42s):
How did we make it that far into an episode about the Caribbean without talking about jerk chicken.

2 (10m 47s):
And I was just about to ask about the jerk chicken and then Brittany goes off on the jerk chicken, like Brittany in the jerk chicken. I love it.

4 (10m 55s):
Yeah. But going back to what we were saying about the Airbnb is in terms of saving money. Yes. Saving meals. We’ve talked about this many other times in episodes about how that is the possibility with Airbnbs and why we love them. But again, lots of the Airbnbs, if you’re staying at good places, they will have beach chairs because it’s a beachy area. People know this, they’ll have the ice chest, our place even had snorkeling gear. You have extra towels to go to the beach, you have your washer and your dryer to wash your clothes or towels. And so it makes it a lot better that way for you staying at an Airbnb.

2 (11m 31s):
Quick question for you guys. So when you say that you spent $20 on the three tacos, that’s just like a regular restaurant. That’s not a fancy restaurant or anything like that. Okay.

1 (11m 38s):
Like a street side pub. So just a regular restaurant.

2 (11m 42s):
Wow. Okay. Because I mean, I can see places charging $20, but for a street side pub. Yeah. That is a bit pricey.

4 (11m 48s):
Yeah. And then when we had our meals out, I mean, yes. Britney gave you that range. A lot of our meals were no more than 25, but they did range up into that 40 even $50 range. But again, the food was really good. But if you do it every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it adds up versus cooking at home. Yeah.

1 (12m 6s):
So one tip we didn’t know until we actually got there. So we’re passing this onto you guys. So squad tip. They actually drive on the left side of the road. They’re in the U S Virgin Islands,

4 (12m 18s):
Mind fucking blown. Was it

1 (12m 21s):
Hard to

2 (12m 21s):
Adjust? Did Brittany do the driving

1 (12m 24s):
Certain? Did you even try it? No, I did

4 (12m 27s):
Not. You didn’t want to try it? I would’ve

1 (12m 30s):
Tried. Let me tell you guys what happened. So I booked an Airbnb and then once I booked the Airbnb, our host reached out to us and was like, Hey, I also have a family rental car company. If you guys are interested, it’s an SUV for this price, all included. And I was like, sweet. And when I looked@hersoncostco.com, they didn’t even have SUV. So I was like, this is perfect. So I told him, yes, I’m interested. And he’s like, cool, I’ll meet you at the airport. So I call him when we get to the airport, he’s like, okay, I’m right down the street. And then he meets us. He was like, here’s your guys’s car? And he throws the keys at Jamal. And he’s like, by the way we drive on the left and Joel gets in the car.

1 (13m 13s):
He’s like, are you fucking serious? Like, oh my God.

4 (13m 15s):
I mean, we’re an American territory. I mean, there’s the us Virgin islands and the British Virgin islands and everywhere. That’s a British territory. They drive on the left. And so I was like, okay. I thought he was like joking to me. Cause you know, okay. I could see the British islands over there, but yeah, they’ll drive. They’re not here, but I don’t know why I Googled why it is that they drive on the left and the us Virgin islands couldn’t find it. But the steering wheels are on the appropriate side is if you drive on the right, but you’re still driving on the left. So, you know, if you go to the UK yeah. And the steering was on the other side and you’re driving it wasn’t so it was a little tough to just get past that mental block of like, okay, I got to drive on this side and it’s there.

4 (13m 59s):
But honestly, like after a day I really got used to it, even though I made sure that Brittany and Casha, every time we got in the car, remind me, drive on the left. I always remembered it. It just took a day. But I got used to it. You

2 (14m 12s):
Know, who else drives on the left side of the road?

4 (14m 15s):
Somewhere in Cyprus? I bet you’re about to say to

2 (14m 17s):
Me, ding, ding, ding.

1 (14m 19s):
Well, I was also going to say Kim, like you said, would you like to try it? That gets us into our next tip because having the SUV was a necessity because the roads there are really, really shitty and really, really steep. You’re turning blind corners a lot. And I just, it just didn’t feel like I wanted to risk that.

4 (14m 38s):
So when you’re down at the ocean level, like in the poor area where they usually have the cruise ships, the roads are really, really nice, really well paid, but you are on an island, but this is not a flat tropical island. It’s mountainous and very hilly. So you have a lot of those sharp turns that Brittany was talking about around the corners and the roads just have lots of potholes and things in them. And the aren’t very wide. So I really minus, like, even if I was driving on the right side of the road, I would have felt like I was really in another country, even though I was in an American territory, just because of the road conditions. Like when you’re in the hill area, like it’s really crazy out there that totally threw me off.

4 (15m 19s):
So that goes to Brittany’s point. You want the SUV because it’s going to be more durable to have than a low riding car on those roads.

1 (15m 27s):
So another tip we wanted to talk about is to pack bug spray. There’s a lot of sand fleas and other bugs, and then also pack for sun exposure and you have to bring reef friendly sunscreen.

4 (15m 38s):
I got torn the fuck up with bug bites, by the way, even though I had bugs spray, that’s how it happens.

2 (15m 44s):
So wait a minute though, real quickly, Brittany said that you have to bring in reef friendly sunscreen. So how are they monitoring that?

1 (15m 52s):
Well, they really aren’t, but it does say that it is a law that you are supposed to use refreshingly sunscreen. So yes,

3 (15m 59s):
If you don’t use it just like your regular brands of sunscreen here, that don’t specifically say that they’re safer reads, it destroys the reefs.

1 (16m 9s):
Exactly.

3 (16m 9s):
And therefore the animal life that lives off.

4 (16m 13s):
Right. And if somebody could just say, oh, whatever, you know, then you may go there. And the next time you want to go back, that may not be there for you to even see. Right. So do your own diligence and protect the environment that you’re going to see. And what brought you there in the first place

2 (16m 28s):
For the record? I am a law abiding citizen. I was just curious.

4 (16m 34s):
I know you are. I

2 (16m 35s):
Know I’m not trying to bring in any, you

3 (16m 36s):
Know, danger and

2 (16m 40s):
I’ve been known to do a few things.

4 (16m 41s):
Another thing tip wise that totally threw us off is bring your passport or your global entry card, even though it’s an American territory. And if you are an American, because it is an island and they have the cruise ships there, even though it’s like completely different. If you’re coming on a cruise ship versus the airport, when you leave the island, even if you’re going back to mainland, they have a customs area. So you can get through just fine with your driver’s license because we didn’t bring our passport. Cause we’re like, oh, this is American territory. It just takes longer for them to check you out, to get into the terminal. Then if you actually had it. So do bring it. If you have it, even though you’re an American citizen,

2 (17m 23s):
Can we back up real quickly? Cause you did mention, sorry, going back to the sunscreen. Jamal, did you bring Alovera?

4 (17m 29s):
I did bring Alvera but this trip I was so good at putting on sunscreen even though for my pale pale disgusting skin, I feel like I got a base. I did not really peel or burn because I was really good about putting it on my sunscreen. So this is the one time I brought my aloe Vera and didn’t even need it

2 (17m 51s):
For you. Good for you.

1 (17m 52s):
And going back to Jamal’s point about bringing your passport and global entry card, you know, as we move into non COVID times, eventually we might be able to island hop back to the British Virgin islands. And so you would definitely want your passport then

4 (18m 6s):
Because they’re right there. I mean, there’s lots of the beaches that we went to. I’m like, okay, wow. Like, obviously don’t swim to it, but you see it. And you’re like, I could swim to this and this is a whole nother, like country’s territory right here. And I’m just looking right at it. And it’s not even that far. Sometimes it’s even closer than the other us Virgin island. That’s part of the us chain. So

3 (18m 24s):
British ones. What are the names of those ones?

4 (18m 26s):
I do not know the names of the British ones. I didn’t do too much research on it because we weren’t even able to go. But I have heard that they are more luxurious in terms of like really more better maintained than the us wants. Not to say in terms of like wildlife for scenic, but in terms of like more resorty type feel. Hmm.

1 (18m 45s):
Okay. So the last really fascinating fact we’re going to leave you with before we really dive into the episode is there are no open container laws

3 (18m 54s):
Now

4 (18m 55s):
It’s wild out there, but we got told that and we’re like, are you joking? He’s like, no, like, did you see the open container laws out there? And by that, I mean, I’m talking about in your vehicle, which I wouldn’t recommend or do, but yeah. So

2 (19m 7s):
Did you ever go out into the water and just like drink a beer in the water? Because you can.

4 (19m 12s):
Yes, but, but they don’t want you to take glass on the beach so you can drink on the beach, just in no glass. They rather have you have aluminum or if you have glass bottles do poured into a cup and take it with you. That’s exactly what we did. But the open container isn’t like on the beach or walking, I mean, we were told and we looked at, there really is no rule about drinking and driving. Although I highly recommend nobody did something as silly as that, but that’s how wild it is out there.

1 (19m 43s):
So if you guys don’t know where the us Virgin islands are, they are Southeast of Florida, about 40 miles east of Puerto Rico in the north Eastern Caribbean sea. And the only way to get there is you can either fly into St. Thomas or you can arrive by personal yacht or cruise ship. But right now we’re not cruising.

3 (20m 2s):
Definitely I’ll be coming by yachts.

2 (20m 4s):
I was about to say, did you guys look into the options?

4 (20m 6s):
We did not look into the options. However, when we were at one of the beaches, we were watching some people aren’t, well, I don’t want to call it a yacht, but it wasn’t a boat either. It was kind of like mid-grade, they came really close to shore and we’re just like partying. And we saw some men hosting women working out there and they were giving everyone a show on the beach. That’s no lie. So they were the yachting people. We were not.

1 (20m 31s):
So we did stay in an Airbnb and it was a beautiful Airbnb. It had beautiful vaulted wood ceilings, a balcony with ocean views. It even had two master bedrooms and the master bedroom. We had also connected to the balcony with the ocean views. So it was a really beautiful place to stay. And we were very satisfied with our stay there.

4 (20m 53s):
Yeah. And like we were saying earlier, it is a beautiful tropical paradise. It’s known for its pristine white sand beaches, less tropical foliage and you know, the Caribbean food and flair that Kim was talking about earlier. So yes, it does have all of that and do keep in mind in the Caribbean here, there’s lots of sea life in terms of Coral fish, whales, sea turtles, again, one of the other islands, part of the U S VI, which we’re going to have another episode about St. John 60% of that island is specifically a national park. So there’s lots to do out in the region.

2 (21m 31s):
I do have a question for you guys, you know, because we like to show people how affordable travel is when you’re talking about this Airbnb staying on it for a week, you guys did share it with cash and Ryan, how much was it total? And then like, once you actually break it down,

1 (21m 44s):
So it was 1600 total for the entire week. And we stayed Sunday through Saturday, I want to say. And so that was 800 per couple.

2 (21m 54s):
I’m in an even more so 400 per person, if you really break it down.

4 (21m 57s):
Right. And if we stayed almost about a week, I know Brittany said Sunday through Saturday, but if we break it down, that’s like a little over a hundred dollars a night, which isn’t uncommon. Yeah. Which I was gonna say, isn’t even uncommon for a hotel room. Stay, let alone the fact that we had a full living room, kitchen, ocean views, everything like that. So really good value for the money.

3 (22m 19s):
Didn’t it come with amenities too, that a hotel may not have,

1 (22m 23s):
Well, it had the washer and dryer. Oh yeah. Then

3 (22m 26s):
That’s amazing.

1 (22m 27s):
He provided a cooler. So we could pack a cooler every day to take to the beach beach chairs, snorkel gear. Oh yeah. So he had a lot going on for his Airbnb.

4 (22m 36s):
Right. And if you want to go to the beaches and do snorkeling and rent it, I mean, that’s another, you know, 10 to 20 bucks per person, depending on whatever beach you go to. And here he was having four sets of snorkel gear for everybody included. So you get the really good value for the money on that. But speaking of the beaches, let’s get into that. Cause that’s really what we’re going to the Virgin Islands for is that beach tropical Oasis,

2 (23m 0s):
Take me to the fucking blue waters baby.

4 (23m 2s):
They were blue. I can tell you they were blue,

1 (23m 5s):
No beach disappointed. Every single beach had white sand clear blue turquoise water. And each beach was very unique. Every time you were like describing a beach, it’s like, yeah, it’s a beautiful white sand beach with Clearwater, but then you actually go to the beach and you find something unique about it. So the first beach we went to was called, Megan’s a bay beach, and this is located on the north side of the island. It’s probably St Thomas’s most popular beach. And like I said before, the sand is white, but at this beach it stretches for nearly a mile. So there’s a lot of beach space for you to stretch out on and the water here because it’s a bay is very, very calm.

1 (23m 45s):
So it’s really good for swimming and floating and for families with small children.

4 (23m 50s):
Yeah. And that’s what I was going to say. That’s one of my favorite things about this beach here on St. Thomas was the fact that it’s in such a large bay and it’s literally a perfect whew shape. Right. And so it really does make it for good calm water. Good snorkeling. Unfortunately, there is a small fee for this beach. It is $5 per person, plus $2 for parking, but it is very well worth it. They have lots of good amenities, good restrooms, changing rooms. They even have picnic tables in the area. So if you’ve brought your own food, you could sit at the picnic tables and just relax and it creates for a beautiful, nice, relaxing experience out there.

3 (24m 31s):
What did you guys do on this beach?

1 (24m 33s):
We just lounge swam and then we ate lunch here.

3 (24m 37s):
How was the temperature of the water?

1 (24m 39s):
Oh, amazing. Like it’s chilly at first, but once you’re actually fully submerged in, you’re like, this is perfect.

4 (24m 47s):
It’s perfect. Caribbean water. You know how I am getting into water? I’m a little bitch about it. I don’t like getting in like all at once, but I was able to get in relatively quickly in this water. Unlike Brittany said, once you’re in, I mean, it’s perfect. You don’t have that chill on you or anything like that. It’s great.

2 (25m 3s):
I have a question. When you get into the water, what is the sand like? Is it actual like true sand or, and the reason why I ask this is because in beliefs, when I was in the water in like the, the K islands, it’s almost like this clay substance, like wet clay. It wasn’t actually sand, even though it was sand leading into the water and that’s like around the same area.

4 (25m 23s):
And that’s a really good question because the next beach we talk about has different sand than this beach that we were at here at Megan’s bay. The sand is really pristine. Nice, fine white sand. So it’s really, really nice. But again, depending on which beats you actually go to, it’s going to be a little bit different before we get to that next beach and tell you about the texture of that sand. Like you’re talking about. I did forget to say that here at Megan’s bay beach, you also can rent paddleboards, kayaks. And again, pro benefit of the Airbnb. We had the beach chairs. If you don’t have them, you can rent beach chairs here. But another really popular beach is going to be Sapphire Beach.

4 (26m 3s):
And this is located on the east side of the island, but this beach is a little bit more grainy with the sand and there is more Coral wash up on the beach. So it’s a little bit more coarse. And if you were to walk on it, your feet will actually hurt. Cause you’re walking on like Coral pieces that have washed up. So it just really depends on the beach where you’re at, what the texture of the sand is.

1 (26m 29s):
This feature you didn’t have to pay to go here. And one cool thing was we saw these huge iguanas that were just frequenting the area. How big?

4 (26m 37s):
Huge. No, they were actually quite large. No, I meant we’re not talking six or nine footers. No, these things were maybe about like three and a half, maybe four with the tail, like the really, really long ones. Yeah.

1 (26m 52s):
And they were on the grass area at the resort. And I saw a few on the sand too, like going under people’s beach chairs. And I was like, oh my God.

4 (27m 0s):
Yeah. So we saw lots of the iguanas here. One thing I forgot to say, this will ring a bell to you, ladies for Kauai. There’s a lot of cock on the beach. And by that, I mean, chickens just roaming around the beach. Like there was,

3 (27m 15s):
What about the other Cox? How many people were about these beaches? Just wondering, was it pop a popular beach?

4 (27m 25s):
All these beaches are really popular beaches to go and visit actually at Sapphire Beach, there is a resort and hotel in that area. It is a public beach. So you don’t have to actually pay, but they’re all really, really popular.

3 (27m 38s):
And during COVID while you were there, lots of people

4 (27m 41s):
For people traveling during COVID, there was, but for what it usually is there wasn’t, but you go during normal times, I guarantee you, these beaches are popping and it’s going to be really, really hard to find a space

3 (27m 53s):
Or out with all those people. Yeah.

2 (27m 56s):
So Brittany said that they’re going under people’s chairs and shit like that. Where are they aggressive or are they just kind of like BU I’m there?

1 (28m 2s):
They didn’t seem to be aggressive. They were just kinda like, boom, bitch. I’m here.

2 (28m 7s):
Okay. Anyone but Jamal what’s this movie, that’s a huge bitch.

1 (28m 17s):
So like Jamal said, this area has a beach resort. So there is a bar and grill on the beach. So if you get hungry, you can pop over to the Barton grill, grab something to eat.

3 (28m 26s):
Did you do so we

1 (28m 27s):
Did not. We had you guys swim. We did swim. We did swim,

4 (28m 30s):
But we didn’t really eat out for lunch. Like I said, because we pack sandwiches and chips and soda and beer. And even for Brittany and Casha, they didn’t want to necessarily drink the beer. We bought them the Malibu, rum, some juice. They made some cocktails out there on the beach. And so, no, but I will say this, the food that they were cooking at that grill smell bomb, but we had fresh sandwiches made daily by Jamal for everybody to All the old Jamal special

1 (28m 59s):
Make sandwiches at all. I made the sandwiches,

3 (29m 2s):
The old Betsy special.

1 (29m 6s):
So we’re moving on to our next beach, which is called Coki Beach. And this beach, Kim, I think this would have been your beach.

3 (29m 13s):
Why would it have been my beach?

1 (29m 15s):
Well, you know, when Jamal talked about the yacht kind of pulling up and there was girls, torque is,

3 (29m 21s):
This is why that one,

4 (29m 22s):
I saw Kim on the guy, Kim was there. She may have swam up and been like, let me join the

1 (29m 29s):
This is the party beach. You know, the boat was on the water with the music. And then when I told the Airbnb host, I was like, Hey, he was like, what’d you guys do today? And I was like, oh, he went to Coki Beach. And he goes, oh, did you smoke weed while you were there?

4 (29m 43s):
Yeah. Everyone was smoking when we were there. I mean, you could just smell it. I saw many, many signs from medicinal. I think I Googled it when I was there. I’m trying to remember if my mind is deceiving me and this is really reality, but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s, I don’t think it’s legal recreationally. It was legal medicinally, but we know how that was in California. Right. It’s just a front to really, you know, have it. But I think it’s one of those things that it’s just non-enforcement of. So people were smoking on the beach. It was more a part of, even though we did see families, but this is a more party beach vibe to

2 (30m 16s):
It. Did you guys go into the water?

4 (30m 18s):
No, we did not go into the water because we had just gone to Coral World, which we’ll talk about a little bit later in this episode and Coral World is right by Coki Beach. And so we were already in the water, did some underwater activities with that. So when we went there, it was more just so to sit on the beach and enjoy the view of the women’s working, in my opinion. I’m just kidding, but just drink beers and kind of really relax. And I mean, this is one of the more popular beaches that people go do. So it was like, we wanted to hit all the beaches and it was there. How

3 (30m 51s):
Long did you spend on this beach? Oh,

4 (30m 52s):
I would say maybe about 45 minutes or an hour before we packed it in

1 (30m 56s):
Too long. Yeah, maybe an hour, but we had just been at Coral World, so that kind of played into it and we were getting hungry for dinner, but this is one of the beaches. We saw some of the Cox on the beach again, where I got a really good shot with the chicken right next to you. You have

3 (31m 11s):
Torquing and Cox on the

4 (31m 13s):
Yeah, you do. But that is a party. And not only that, this beach also has, you know, really good amenities. They have the bathroom, they have lounge, chair rentals, umbrella rentals. They have food options. I even saw somebody coming out and taking food orders for people and then bringing them out food on the beach too. So it’s not just go there and you’re on the beach. It really is kind of being waited on type experience. If you choose to use the amenities that they have there and don’t bring them yourself,

2 (31m 41s):
Did you bust out your cock

4 (31m 42s):
Tail? I did not. I busted out the beer, Brittany busted out her cocktail

1 (31m 48s):
And although Jamal and I did not get in the water here, this beach is known for really good snorkeling because it is right next door to Coral World, which is known for its coral reefs.

2 (31m 59s):
I’m excited to hear all about Coral World because every time I hear you say Coral World, all I hear is Wally world dad.

4 (32m 5s):
Well, this is Coral World Zaina and we’ll get, we’ll get into it though. I actually, I’m excited to talk about Coral World, cause it’s fun. I’m we’re going to get to it, but we just want to finish the beaches here, which were on the last one, which is Linquist beach.

1 (32m 18s):
Yeah. So I asked Dexter, that’s our host name. Hey, what’s your favorite beach on the island? And he said, Linquist beach. So I was like, all right, definitely want to go here. And it’s one of the islands that most beautiful and pristine beaches and they do charge to get into this beach. It’s $5 per person. And then another $2 for parking

3 (32m 36s):
Sounds like that’s like the going rate

1 (32m 38s):
For between go and rate for beaches. But it was a really, really beautiful beach. And it’s actually part of a protected area called Smith bay park. The sand is very soft and white and in the right light, it even has like a touch of pink to it. Ooh. So it’s really pretty. It’s really pretty. And the water is clear turquoise, perfect for swimming and snorkeling. And here is where we saw some sea turtles. Jamal even saw a sting Ray, a huge,

4 (33m 5s):
A large, large, large, huge bitch. That’s pretty sad. Stingray. Yeah. I mean, this was the only beach on St. Thomas that we actually were able to see and snorkel with sea turtles. Otherwise it was when we were on St. John in the national park island that we saw it. So this place I would highly highly recommend if you’re not going to be island hopping later to St. John to go to Linquist beach, if you want to do some sea turtle, snorkeling, because odds are you’re going to come across them. We saw tons of sea turtles. Some of them swimming in pairs, some of them swimming solo. And like Brittany was saying, I did come across one very, very large stingray that was swimming.

4 (33m 45s):
As soon as I tried to get my GoPro up for it, it submerged down and buried itself in the sand. So I didn’t get it on my GoPro to upload to YouTube for you guys. But they were there and we saw several sea urchin just as well. And we didn’t really see a lot of Coral in this area, but definitely still a lot of sea life.

3 (34m 5s):
Is this where you got the video of the sea turtle eating the jellyfish?

4 (34m 8s):
No, I got that one in St. John, but I do have some GoPro footage of the sea turtles here at Linquist beach. But the one that you’ve seen specifically of it eating the jellyfish was at St. John

1 (34m 21s):
And also the speech has views of St. John and the other British Virgin islands.

4 (34m 27s):
Yeah. I would highly recommend this beach. I enjoyed this one a lot with Megan’s bay, just because it was a bay and real calm waters. But in terms of actual beach, I would say Linquist was my favorite also.

3 (34m 39s):
And how long did you spend here?

1 (34m 40s):
Several

4 (34m 41s):
Hours. And this was our last day. That was really more so like an easy day. We had nothing to do except go to the beach. I think we spent at least four hours just sitting at the beach.

1 (34m 50s):
Yeah, because this was our very last day. We wanted to sleep in. We slept in, we

3 (34m 55s):
Had a little, what about 7:00 AM?

4 (34m 58s):
This one? I would say maybe about 8 30, 9 that’s that’s late for the squad on

2 (35m 3s):
Vacation. That’s impressive. That is.

1 (35m 5s):
And then we had,

4 (35m 7s):
We didn’t even leave till later because we had breakfast and everything. Yeah.

1 (35m 10s):
On our balcony for one last time. And then we went over to the beach and we spent just like, basically all day at the beach before we went home showered and went to dinner.

3 (35m 19s):
I do have a question about all of the beaches compared to your Airbnb. What was the distance like radius between your Airbnb and all of these places?

2 (35m 27s):
I was going to ask that too, because like there’s so many beaches and there’s four. So I’m kind of like even looking at it as a clock in my head of like a 12 o’clock, three o’clock, you know, six o’clock and a nine o’clock beach. How big is the island? And then

1 (35m 39s):
I can pretty much get across the island in about 30 to 40 minutes. Oh, wow.

4 (35m 44s):
Isn’t it about like 14 miles the island. It’s not very large, but like we were saying earlier, the roads aren’t the best. So it takes longer. You have to go through sometimes the center of the island over the top point of the hill and down through windy roads. So it takes longer than it is. But realistically, if you’re just doing a straight shot from one place to the other will take you no more than 30 minutes to get from like one beach to the next, if not a lot sooner than that, quite

3 (36m 10s):
Honestly, walkable from your Airbnb. No,

1 (36m 13s):
No. And then Sapphire Beach Coki Beach and Lindquist Beach. They weren’t far from our Airbnb at all. The farthest beach we went to was Megan’s bay, which was probably about 30 minutes away. But the other ones were, were pretty close, like 10 to 15 minutes away.

2 (36m 26s):
So for such a small island, did you guys run into a lot of the same people?

4 (36m 31s):
No. No. Quite honestly. No, not at all.

3 (36m 34s):
Did you feel like you ran out of things to do in the amount of time that you were there?

1 (36m 39s):
Nope. Not at all. Oh, and Lindquist Beach. We even saw people riding horses onto the

2 (36m 44s):
Beach. Oh, wow.

4 (36m 45s):
Yeah. At first, I mean, we just talked about the beaches here, but we’re going to get into a couple other things to do that we did other than just go to the beaches. So I really didn’t feel like we ran out of a lot of stuff to do. And again, we did go out to dinner every night. So each night was a new restaurant, a new bar having drinks. So we really kept ourselves busy and had a good time

2 (37m 4s):
Question for you guys. When you’re saying that you’re paying like $5 per person, every time you go, it is cash, right? Obviously you always want to travel with cash. Maybe that is a tip that maybe I need, maybe other people already do travel with cash, but like you can’t pay credit card or anything like that.

4 (37m 20s):
It was cash. I forgot which beach it was. One of them did accept credit card, but she said the machine was down. So it is one of those things where you’re going to want to have cash when you go to the beaches, everything else, like in terms of restaurants or souvenirs or, you know, credit card is fine, but for the beaches, yeah. It’s a really good tip to have that cash to pay for it. Especially if the machines are down, like we had experienced at one of the places,

3 (37m 42s):
Isn’t it funny? They always say the machine is down.

2 (37m 48s):
We don’t want to take the fees.

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1 (39m 15s):
Other than the beaches, there are more things to do on the island. So we’re going to go into some of those things that we did. One of the things that we did was called Drake C and Drake C is a panoramic viewpoint offering really nice views of Megan’s bay, which we talked about earlier, the us Virgin islands, the British Virgin islands. And it has just some of the best lookouts. And it was named after the famous Explorer, sir, Francis Drake,

2 (39m 40s):
I’ve heard of him,

4 (39m 40s):
Haven’t we all history, maybe no one remembers him specifically and what he did, but we recall the name right

2 (39m 47s):
Through the Strait of Gibraltar.

4 (39m 49s):
I don’t remember, but nonetheless, he was a famous Explorer. It is named after him. And you know, it really just does offer perfect photo opportunity views, especially during sunset. And there is a Stonewall that you can sit or stand on, but if you look across the street, you’ll see that there’s actually an elevated bench that you could sit on to just really give you more relaxed views. If you want to sit there, I will say this as a squat tip, I know going here is listed as a activity to do. If you go on cruises as like one of the shore excursions, if you’re going to come here on a cruise, I would not say do this unless you really like immobile and can’t do anything else.

4 (40m 36s):
It is nice views, but to pay the price that I’m sure a cruise ship will charge to do this as an excursion, I don’t see it as worth it. But if you are staying on the island and have it at your own leisure, it’s definitely a must do. But if it’s my only thing to do on a cruise, I would not do it.

2 (40m 51s):
You mentioned that there’s like a bench across the street where you can sit on and enjoy the views. Are there the several benches or is there like one bench?

4 (40m 58s):
Interestingly? Just one.

2 (40m 60s):
So wouldn’t it be crowded?

4 (41m 1s):
Well, that’s why we said go during COVID times right now. There’s not really many people on the island will

1 (41m 6s):
Drink. Only had one seat. Zena

4 (41m 8s):
It’s called Drake seat. Not see

2 (41m 11s):
When Brittany said that. I was like, I don’t get it. Okay. I got it. I got it now. Yeah.

1 (41m 17s):
So we also went to a place called Mountain Top. And this is actually the highest point of St. Thomas. And it has a huge gift shop. Huge, and it offers duty free shopping. And it has a bar inside of the gift shop guys

4 (41m 33s):
Bar. This place has actually one of the excursions people can do on cruise ships. And it has such a large shop because I’m sure people come here from the cruises and it’s like, okay, here’s all my stuff. You know, Christmas ornaments shirts that say St. Thomas, et cetera, et cetera. But they are famous here for the bar for their banana daiquiris. We definitely got a banana daiquiri and my, oh my, do they not spare the rum on that? A poor, the pretty much like the entire bottle in there. You see the mixing the drink and then when it’s all done and they pour it in your souvenir cup, they just add a little bit more rom on the top of it.

4 (42m 12s):
And we definitely got ourselves a solid little buzz. Did

2 (42m 15s):
You guys split the banana daiquiri or did you

4 (42m 17s):
Eat you go? We did. I can’t even imagine driving after having a full one. It was,

1 (42m 23s):
I was looking at the prices and they had like an eight ounce one and it was, I don’t even know how much it was. It was probably like 13 or something dollars. And for like the 21 ounce one, it was only a few dollars more. And I was like, well, why wouldn’t we just get that? Because it has more liquor in it. Anyways, it’s more liquor than two eight ounce ones. And it’s cheaper than it would be for two, eight ounce ones,

2 (42m 44s):
Six squad tip, Do your math.

4 (42m 50s):
And it came with a souvenir cover. You got the eight ounce. He didn’t get it.

1 (42m 53s):
So that’s what we did. And directly left of the bar. There’s an observation deck that is 1,500 feet above Megan’s bay. And it has really beautiful views of St. John and the British Virgin islands. So you can enjoy your drink while looking out to those beautiful view.

4 (43m 10s):
And we did, and again, the drink was so stiff. And as we said earlier, they had no open alcohol rules. So we took a few sips, had some of it, we didn’t finish it, Brittany and I were splitting hours, but we were like, all right, well, we’re going to the beach, just hold the cup. And we actually took the remainder of it to the beach to finish it because we knew we were going to spend more time there. Then it’s like, oh, I don’t want to drink this and have to sit in this gift shop. But we got there so early. And because there’s no cruises, we were literally the first ones in there. And I mean, it was crazy to be in such a big gift shop with absolutely nobody. And even though we were there opening, they didn’t open the bar to a little bit later. So it’s like our medicine they’re meandering the gift shop a little bit.

4 (43m 51s):
But the view outside is really, really,

1 (43m 53s):
Yes. What time we started drinking this banana daiquiri.

2 (43m 56s):
10:00 AM

1 (43m 57s):
9:30 AM.

2 (43m 60s):
This really isn’t easy vacation. I love it. I would love to see a picture of this souvenir swashbuckling cup.

4 (44m 9s):
Oh, well, lucky for you Zana. I actually have the cup sitting here. I will show it to you later, cause I’m not going to get up as we’re recording to pull it out of my cupboard, but I have it for you on our we’ll show it to you.

2 (44m 20s):
Perfect. Perfect.

4 (44m 21s):
So moving on to what you want to talk about those Zaina Coral World. Bernie, why don’t you tell everybody what Coral World is?

1 (44m 29s):
It’s a Marine park where you can explore reefs, see Marine life, indoor and outdoor, and learn all about the ocean and their conservation efforts. So they do have up close opportunities. So you can see dolphins, sea lions, sharks, and even go underwater and into the reef via like a sea Trek or a Nuba tour. And we did the sea track and can’t wait to tell you all about it.

2 (44m 54s):
What’s a Snoop. That’s exactly what I was just going to say.

4 (44m 57s):
Snuba is basically a form of snorkeling, but not having the tube and having to really be on the surface to get your own air. It is snorkeling with a tube that supplies you oxygen under water. So you don’t have to surface. You don’t have to get back up. You can stay down as long as you want. So that’s what Snoop diving is, but it’s really snorkeling with an actual oxygen and air tube, so you can stay down. But we did the, a sea Trek, which is really awesome. And I guess in a way it is a form of Steuben because they put a helmet on you that they supply the oxygen into, through the tube that’s being fed from the surface.

4 (45m 37s):
And so, because there’s oxygen in there, it’s able to push the water out. So it doesn’t come up into your helmet. And so we did the underwater Trek where literally around the coral, they’ve put some rail posts that you can hold onto. And we just walk through literally underwater walking on the floor of the ocean with some coral reefs around us, all the fish and everything like that. And we’re just being fed oxygen through the helmet. And it’s so weird. I mean, because it’s open, you think the water would come up because so much air is in it that it just makes it so that the water doesn’t rise up into your helmet.

1 (46m 15s):
Let me explain this too. So we were on like this elevated platform above the water, and then you basically have to go down this ladder. And as you’re partially submerged into the water, they put this helmet on top of your body, over your head and it’s 75 pounds. So it’s made to weigh you down onto the ocean floor. So you can feel like the weight of this helmet. And because it’s keeping the oxygen circulating in the helmet, your face stays dry, which is awesome. So your face doesn’t even get wet at all. And you’re just looking through this clear helmet basically while you’re walking the sea floor. So as you go down the ladder, you start to look out and you see huge fish, all sorts of Marine life, the coral, you can see how beautiful it is.

1 (47m 2s):
And everyone individually starts to just go down. And I don’t know if I’ve told you guys this before you remember this about me, but I don’t like to be the last person to do something. I just want to get it over with, especially if I’m kind of nervous. So when they asked who wanted to go down first, I was like, yep. That’s me.

2 (47m 18s):
I know, I know because I remember that about you because you were mad that Jamal skydived out at the plane first and I’m just like, she’s fucking crazy. She wanted to go first. So I’m interested. Interesting.

4 (47m 32s):
But that was a cool experience doing that at Coral World, the a sea Trek, it was about $86. They have other things that you can do, which is like, get in the water with sharks, although they aren’t dangerous sharks and it’s not actually in the ocean, they have their tanks on the surface. They even had walkthrough areas that we can do and see like exotic parrots. And we saw lots of the iguanas in that area too.

1 (47m 55s):
We saw them feeding the sea turtle.

4 (47m 57s):
Yeah. So with your ticket, whatever you purchase to do, it gives you access to everything else that they have on the surface. So we’ll get watching them feed the sea turtles. They even had an aquarium where we saw the largest puffer fish that I’ve ever seen in my life and like other types of fish. So a really cool experience, but being underwater with that helmet on and just holding onto the rail and walking through like coral reef, that’s real and seeing all the fish was such a unique experience. I highly highly recommend that you

2 (48m 28s):
Were like a duck. You didn’t get wet.

4 (48m 30s):
My face, didn’t get wet.

2 (48m 31s):
Your face didn’t get wet. Hey, Adam, question for you. Are you able to take your GoPro on that? Or is that something,

4 (48m 35s):
Oh, you’re not allowed because they have somebody else who’s filming you guys down there and they obviously want to sell you the video. So they don’t allow you to bring your own GoPro down. Otherwise I would have had that footage

1 (48m 47s):
And they do even pick up a few sea creatures for you to hold to. So we did get that experience. What did you hope?

4 (48m 53s):
It was almost like a sea urchin, but it really wasn’t, but I don’t remember specifically what it was. And then what was the other thing? I was like

1 (49m 0s):
A sea star.

4 (49m 1s):
Yeah, it was a sea star, but like one of the faster moving ones that you can actually see the legs move. Not really the rigid sea stars. Yeah. It was cool.

2 (49m 10s):
I actually thought that you guys were going to take us to Coral World, like a place where it’s all.

4 (49m 14s):
No, yes. But down below the water, it was up on the surface. It is not

3 (49m 19s):
Coral underwater world.

1 (49m 21s):
Yeah. So one of the other things we did was explore Charlotte Amala, which is the downtown area, kind of the main poor areas. If you were ever to go on a cruise ship, this is the area that you would be docking in. And it’s the Capitol and the largest city of the United States, Virgin islands,

4 (49m 37s):
The main attractions that you really going to want to see is going to be black period’s castle. It’s located on the Hilltop and Charlotte and Molly. Sure. We’ve all heard of the famous pirate black beard. It was his old Fort. There’s a little bit more history that goes behind it. But when we get to the top of it, it’s not as impressive as you would think. We didn’t get to do the tour of it because it’s been closed since the last hurricane that came through in 2017 and they haven’t reopened it, but there is this famous 99 steps, which is truly 103 steps that you can count that you can take from a surface road and climb to the top versus driving. And it’s actually not that bad to do it.

4 (50m 18s):
Wasn’t hard at all, but what’s really interesting. As I figured out the story about those steps, they were originally built weren’t they, by the Dutch with bricks that they brought over from Denmark, Denmark. Yeah.

3 (50m 33s):
Did it look Danish at

4 (50m 34s):
All? It did not. It’s been worn and torn through the years. Camp.

3 (50m 38s):
Is this where most of the cruise ships come

4 (50m 40s):
Charlotte Amala specifically. Yes. That’s the main dock in area of the cruise ships. And so this is one of the attractions around, which is going to be Blackbeard’s castle. But like I said, it’s one of those novelty things, not really too impressive when you really think about it, the name’s cooler than what it was, but what was really cool to see was for Christiansen.

1 (50m 59s):
Well, before we go into court Christianson, I just want to say the panoramic views that you get of the Harbor from Blackbeard’s castle are really good or like up, up those stairs and along the way. So we did take the 99 steps, the 103 steps, and there were points where we could turn around and look at the Harbor. And those views were really,

4 (51m 18s):
Yeah, good point. The views were really nice. The castle itself was a lot to be desired at that point.

1 (51m 23s):
And I want to say that those steps are created by the Danish so that they could get down the Hills faster, because like we’ve said before, the island is really hilly. So they created those steps for faster access. But like Jamal said, he was really impressed with port Christian. And so was I, it was a Dana Norwegian built for in Charlotte and Molly and it’s right on the Harbor. And it was also a prison at one point.

2 (51m 49s):
By the way, you said Fort Christian center earlier.

4 (51m 53s):
Yeah. Fort Christian. I don’t know why I said Christian sense. So good on the correction on that. Yes, it’s for Christian, it does have a $10 per person fee. Now, normally during non COVID times, they actually do legitimate tours. They talk about how it was a prison, how it was a spot before they moved natives on the island, who they took to other islands to become slave. So it has a long, long history with it. And even though they weren’t doing tours, we were one of the few people that actually visited that day. So someone who worked there didn’t give us a full-blown tour, but had us stand away from him a little bit. What was telling us more of the history after we had explored it. So it was really, really fascinating. So if you can get to Fort Christian during non COVID times and do the tour, I highly recommended it gives a great, great history of the island from colonization, from the Danish all the way to the present time.

4 (52m 45s):
So, so fascinating.

1 (52m 46s):
So other than doing these things on St. Thomas, other things you can do are like take a ferry to a nearby island. We mentioned earlier, we did go to St. John, which is home to the Virgin Islands, national park, which we’re going to talk about. In another episode, you can also island hop to St. Croix or water island, which is home to the popular beach called honeymoon beach. And if we were to ever go back, we might go there. And then also use island hop in non COVID times to the British Virgin islands.

4 (53m 14s):
But just going back to what you were saying, Brittany, about the other us Virgin islands in St. John, where we were staying in an area called red hook was close to the ferry port that takes you directly to St. John. So if you are going to be island hopping, that is a good recommendation to stay in the red hook area, because it is right by the fairies for that to do.

2 (53m 35s):
I have a question for you guys at the beginning, you did make the comment that you did like one hike, where in all of this was the hike. Is it the one hundred and three ninety nine?

4 (53m 44s):
Nope. It’s coming up in the St. John episode when the national park we did some hiking.

2 (53m 50s):
Gotcha.

1 (53m 51s):
St. Thomas. I didn’t even make him hike. Can you believe

2 (53m 53s):
That? I mean, unless you can’t watch it,

4 (53m 56s):
Maybe while she made me do the 99 steps, that was that wasn’t like, it was a hot humid day that day, by the way. So I made it a lot worse than it really was.

3 (54m 3s):
How many days did you spend doing stuff on St. Thomas?

4 (54m 7s):
We spent while we were there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or last day and left Saturday. So four days in St. Thomas, because two of them, we went to St. John, but we never spent the night on St. John. We always came back that day. So four days on St. Thomas. So that pretty much wraps it up in terms of, you know, the beaches activities, things to do and see, but things to drink and try on the island is the local Bushwhacker, which I love that name of the drink and what it really is. It’s a creamy chocolate. Pina colada has vodka. Kalua dark crema de Coca, as well as cream of coconut, triple sec.

4 (54m 48s):
So this will really get you going and get you in those island vibes. And it’s a very, very famous drink out there. The Bushwhacker

2 (54m 54s):
Yeah. Sounds still, I love peanut coladas. I’m not too sure about like chocolate women. It, but I’m willing to try,

1 (54m 60s):
You know, I tried one, well, I didn’t get one, but CA I think Casha ordered one. So I tried hers and it was actually really good.

2 (55m 6s):
It

1 (55m 7s):
Tasted like a chocolate milkshake. Almost

4 (55m 9s):
Brittany was more into the painkiller, which is another drink for you to try.

1 (55m 13s):
Yeah. The painkiller was rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, cream, and coconut. And it was topped with a little bit of nutmeg and it had a little pineapple slice. That was pretty good. And then also their world famous banana daiquiri that we talked about earlier when we were at Mountain Top. But what was so funny, I just have to throw this in was one of the nights that we went out to dinner, we saw that they were advertising two for one drinks, and we’re like, awesome. This is like, great, happy hour two for one

4 (55m 40s):
Drinks. Great story. By the way, I forgot all about,

2 (55m 42s):
We always, sorry, real quickly. When we’re talking about drinks, how much are your, like each of these drinks that you’re talking about?

4 (55m 47s):
Oh, no. More than $10. Cool.

2 (55m 49s):
And these are like the popular drinks when you’re going to different restaurants

4 (55m 52s):
And $10 is the high end. Some of them were like cheaper, maybe around like seven to 10, depending on the restaurant. Right?

2 (55m 57s):
Yeah. Okay, cool. But that’s really cool. Two drinks for $10.

1 (56m 1s):
Yeah. So we were like, oh, okay. It was happy hour every day. We’re like, we’re in the happy hour time. We’re going to take advantage for this two for one. And so our thought was Jamal we’ll order a drink. And then mine will essentially be free. Cause you know, two for one. So we each order the pina coladas,

4 (56m 18s):
Same with cash and Ryan

1 (56m 20s):
And we ordered them and we’re like, is this true? Like a two for one she’s like, oh yeah,

4 (56m 25s):
Yeah. I asked her, she was taking our order. I was like, is this for real? Like that sign legit two for one on the drink. She was like, oh yeah, absolutely. So were like,

2 (56m 32s):
Tells me this isn’t

4 (56m 34s):
So, so we were like, oh fuck. Yeah, dude, Brittany’s going to get a drink for free cash is going to get a drink for free. If me and Ryan ordered one, this is great. Like what a deal? We, you know, what the fuck them hard model, right? Like, yeah.

1 (56m 44s):
That’s hard. So at one point, Jamal looks behind him and he goes, damn, that’s a lot of drinks over there. I hope some of those are our pina coladas, all of those drinks where our peanut you

2 (56m 55s):
To eat. Gotcha.

4 (56m 58s):
So do for dinner dollars and they were really strong, solid pina coladas. They

1 (57m 4s):
Were big

4 (57m 5s):
Drink. So it was such a pleasant surprise. She came and like all of these, like I thought, like I got one, she got one. No, no, no. That’s like two for one, you get two. I was like, oh, this is great. This

2 (57m 14s):
Is great.

1 (57m 15s):
Kim, you would have had a great time at that restaurant.

2 (57m 19s):
That sounds so good.

1 (57m 20s):
So the last thing we really want to talk about is going back to the airport to go home as sad as it is after being on this beautiful island for a week, the one tip we do have for you is to get to the airport early. Our host told us that we should be there three hours early and we weren’t anticipating that because you know, now we’re, we’re getting to that airport an hour early at the most, right?

4 (57m 42s):
Yeah. He told us that the while back, like when we were telling him, when do we have to return the rental car to you? And he says, oh, well that time’s your flight. And we told them, and he said, oh, well, you should get to the airport like three hours. I don’t know. That seems like a lot of time. We’ll talk about it as we get closer because his unit was like right below our, so we saw him like every day, just in passing. And then on the last day he asked us again, you know, like, when are you going to the airport? As I was taking out the trash and I told him, and he said, what, time’s your flight? And I said, well, that’s really cutting it short. It’s like, you really need three hours in that prompted us to Google. Like how much time do you need at the St Thomas airport?

1 (58m 18s):
It did say like two and a half, three hours. But why? Because you have to go through it and make it Gracian and customs, even though it’s part of the United States,

4 (58m 26s):
All the flights are pretty much leaving at the same time. Even during non COVID times, most of the flights leave at the same time. So everybody’s getting to the airport at the same time. There’s the slow down because you have to go through customs and immigration, and then there’s a secondary line of customs and immigration, but under a different name, I forgot what it was that you have to go through. So it’s a very, very slow process. And like I was saying earlier, if you don’t bring your passport, cause we were thinking, oh, we’re Americans, what do we need a passport for? It takes longer. If you just have a driver’s license, because then they have to search you in other databases versus like here’s your passport database with the department of state and confined your information.

4 (59m 7s):
So it takes a long time to get through. So you really do need to be at the airport three hours before, because by the time you’re through, you have about an hour before your flight, it took us like two hours to just get through.

2 (59m 18s):
You guys did end up eventually like you went three hours. Oh yeah.

4 (59m 21s):
Yeah. Well, after he told us that a second time and we Googled, do we really need it? And everybody said, yes, on those threads,

2 (59m 28s):
You guys are. So he’s telling you for the second time. And you’re like, I don’t know if I should believe this native.

4 (59m 34s):
It wasn’t necessarily don’t know if, to believe them. But I mean, you know, they always say two, three hours and it’s never really the case. You really don’t need that. Even traveling internationally here, like on the mainland. Right. And we weren’t checking luggage. Right.

1 (59m 45s):
We’re checking luggage. So we were like, why do we need to get there so early? And yeah, you really do need to get there early. Good

2 (59m 51s):
Tip.

1 (59m 53s):
But so this was our process to return our rental car. We drove to the airport, we parked in a non reserved spot and Jamal put the keys in the visor, in the visor. And we called our Airbnb host. And we were like, Hey, that’s where we left her car. He went to go get it

4 (1h 0m 8s):
Because he’s his own rental car company. Right. So it’s not like I have a spot at the airport. He’s like, oh, just put it in a parking spot. And like, I’ll come get it.

3 (1h 0m 16s):
You just leave it at the house if

4 (1h 0m 18s):
He needed to get to the airport. And so he was doing something else at that time. So it’s not like he was going to show for us then to the airport. And

1 (1h 0m 26s):
That’s what he told us to do.

4 (1h 0m 27s):
Yeah. So interesting experience if you do it that way out. Otherwise yes. At the airport, they have regular rental car companies. But again, everything that we looked at didn’t have SUV. So if you want an SUV, you know, Dexter was our host find his units on Airbnb, highly, highly recommended.

2 (1h 0m 43s):
Dexter’s your man.

4 (1h 0m 44s):
All right, Kim, I think it’s actually your favorite time. Is it not?

3 (1h 0m 48s):
It’s time for questions Of the week.

4 (1h 0m 51s):
Yay.

3 (1h 0m 59s):
And the question that we have coming in this week is coming from Maryland and from Chatsworth and Marilyn is asking what is the Island’s native drink?

1 (1h 1m 9s):
So the drinks that we mentioned earlier, the painkiller is probably number one with a close second to the Bushwhacker.

3 (1h 1m 15s):
And you said the pain killer was your fav. Yes.

4 (1h 1m 19s):
I don’t think we described what the painkiller was other than just saying Brittany liked it. It’s rum, pineapple juice, OJ cream of coconut topped with a little bit of nutmeg and some garnishes and pineapple. So it’s really that nutmeg that kind of sets it apart. Yeah.

2 (1h 1m 35s):
Meg

3 (1h 1m 35s):
Nutmeg.

4 (1h 1m 36s):
Nutmeg. Is it not, not Mac? It’s not Meg.

3 (1h 1m 41s):
We actually have a second question. Is it nutmeg or nutmeg?

2 (1h 1m 47s):
I believed you. I was like, oh, we have a second

1 (1h 1m 51s):
Nutmeg

2 (1h 1m 52s):
Potato. Patato not mad,

1 (1h 1m 56s):
But you know what? Our all time favorite drink was this pina colada that Casha got. It was a passion fruit, pina colada. I love

3 (1h 2m 3s):
Passion for it. It

1 (1h 2m 4s):
Was so good. So, so glad Casha got that. So I could try it.

2 (1h 2m 9s):
Did you guys have like just regular pina coladas?

1 (1h 2m 11s):
Yeah. That was

4 (1h 2m 12s):
The taser.

1 (1h 2m 15s):
Tasha got to have the passion fruit, cause we didn’t know any better. And then the rest of us, Ryan, Jamal and myself, we all got the regular peanut butter.

4 (1h 2m 22s):
If I knew that’s how it was going to come out. I would’ve told them one on one, give me like a passion fruit and give me a regular. I mean, they were the same price. It’s still my twofer. You know,

2 (1h 2m 29s):
I hope some of those are ours. Well,

4 (1h 2m 31s):
Yeah. I felt like, cause I mean the restaurant was, you know, pretty full for what was going on. And so I was like, oh, maybe she’s just carrying multiple drinks for multiple tables. And you know, they were all ours.

2 (1h 2m 42s):
She was like, damn these booze hounds, you know what? I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you to quote Kim. I’m proud

4 (1h 2m 50s):
That people are proud of me.

3 (1h 2m 53s):
It sounds like you had an amazing trip.

4 (1h 2m 55s):
It was a good one. And we’re only scratching the surface again. Keep it ready for that future episode. Talking about St. John more specifically going to the us Virgin islands, national park that they have out there. Again, it covers 60% of the island and that’s where we saw a lot more of the sea turtles. So really, really solid fun information coming up on that too,

3 (1h 3m 15s):
To get people even more excited. You can go to our YouTube page Travel Squad Podcast. We’re going to have some sea life videos coming at you.

4 (1h 3m 24s):
Oh yeah. If you want to see that video that I got, which I must say is pretty solid. National geographic should buy this off of me. If I’m being honest, I got a solid close-up of a sea turtle, chomping the shit out of a jellyfish. It is quite awesome. Go to our YouTube page, check it out. Really, really cool.

3 (1h 3m 43s):
All right, everyone. That’s all we have for you this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please keep the adventures going with us by following us on Instagram and YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast. We now have the Travel Squad Podcast. Hashtag if you tag your photos with that, we will share them on our profile. And please send us in those questions

2 (1h 4m 0s):
The week. And if you found the information in this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please make sure to share it with a friend that would enjoy it too.

4 (1h 4m 8s):
And as always guys, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes,

1 (1h 4m 15s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.