An inexpensive place to stay?

For a place to stay, you might try Ronnie's Crystal Palace: crystalpalaceusvi.com. To find retail space, you might start with TOPA, Lockhart and Armour (?), who probably have the most space downtown. Also GERS for Havensight. I don't believe you will find someone to rent you space only in season, but I have been wrong before!

Thanks for the tips East Ender! I'm emailing Ron right now :O) We would love to have a shop year round but are wary about closing/selling our store in NC just yet...we just don't know what will happen on STT. We are preparing for the permanent stay(bringing a van, dogs, living expenses, etc...) but are keeping our options open in order to be able to follow whichever path feels best after we acclimate. If a permanent lease is our only option then ONWARD we go!!!

Do you have any opinions as to which area(s) get the best tourist traffic? Do people actually penetrate the Royal Dane Mall or is Havensight and the "main drag" the place to be? Someone also suggested checking out Red Hook...I will have some time to wander in two weeks but I love to hear what people think!

Anyway than ks again!

Chris

Hello Chris,

For tourist traffic, primarily cruise ship traffic - Havensight/Port of Sale is the place to be, as well as downtown Charlotte Amalie - main street and waterfront mostly and the alleys that run between them. Back street also has some stores but gets less traffic.

--Islander

I don't have any wisdom as to your questions. I am also from NC and was just curious as to what made your desicion to mov? As I ponder the same path.

I have never been to VI but will visit very soon. As winter in NC may not be harsh as in some other areas, but enough to want to drive me to warmer climits.

Good luck on your adventure !!!! Hope to see you some day.

I was in STT about a month and a half ago for our pre-move trip. We stayed at the Galleon House in Charlotte Amalie. The rooms were booked through Expedia, but the rates are 50-80 dollars a night. Its a cute little bed and breakfast on a pretty busy street, only 2 blocks from the water front. It includes a nice breakfast every morning. The rooms are small, really only room for a double size bed, but they're clean and very quaint. The owners and people that work there are really friendly and very helpful as far as island info. They have a website galleonhouse.com. It is up a pretty long flight of steps, but the view is really nice, and its quiet at the top if you're willing to make the trek. Just be sure you book a room with a bathroom, some have a communal bath and others a private one.
Good luck with the move,
barbara

Wow sorry about the delay in writing but we took our pre-move trip last week and everything has been crazy getting back acclimated again to reality :O)

I'll start by saying thanks to the advice given on places to stay and spots to look for a shop space! I didn't get the note about Galleon House until too late. We liked our Villa and it was reasonable.

This trip was an eye opener in more ways than one and I'd like to share them as I think they are SUPER relative to this board. To begin with I'll say that we visited STT on a cruise a year ago and this week long trip was to see if we could open a retail store there and if we really wanted to live there.

In our mind it was a trip to just take care of details...our minds were made up. Our very strong assumptions were that we would be able to open a store and would love the island never wanting to return. Another assumption we made was that an island where the overwhelming minority was white(my wife and I are white and from Newark, NJ and Macon, GA) might have serious racial issues.

To begin with, my wife and I are very open minded people but have "experienced" racism growing up. St. Thomas is a wonderfully open island and every single person we met(except for a few cruise visitors) was AWESOME. We stayed a few blocks "up the hill" downtown at Villa Fairview in a very local setting. The dogs barking at night when the ships were gone reminded us of home. If you have a problem being white in an almost all black neighborhood maybe this place isn't for you but we made many friends and never felt a shred of race related anger or hate. We did feel some weird stares at first when people thought we were "lost cruisers" walking up the hill. "Going back to the ship?" was a common cry the first few days until we were recognized(and took off our flowery rayon clothing). You are either an Islander or not and once you are an Islander you are part of the island. We like that.

We spent our days strolling the shops downtown, in Havensight, Red Hook, we went to St. John, we snorkeled Hawk's Nest, Leinster Bay, Coki Point, went to Cinnaman Bay, Emerald Beach and a few others. We chatted for hours with locals, local transplants, tourists, waitresses, shop owners, anyone that would talk to us. We really had a blast.

We have decided, however, that we will not be moving to St. Thomas. I'll try to put down in words the feelings we have that brought us to this decision. We love the island, the people, and the business oppurtunities but on our 3rd or 4th day we got off the dollar bus and rented a car to check out the WHOLE island. We explored many nooks and crannies looking for a place we would want to live. Two hours later we went to the beach lol. Wow 13 miles long is really small! We liked the west end best I think but it still didn't feel like home. At that point we re-explored our entire decision of moving to STT. Why did we want to move here? We love the water, the beaches, the views...everything...but don't think we could enjoy them every single day from now on. We realized the variety we take for granted at home. We love the fact that in North Carolina a few hours drive in any direction can bring you anything you crave(beach, mountain, city, etc.).

I don't mean this in a malicious way and I'm sorry if I offend anyone it's not my intention but we felt that we would be "escaping" and limiting our options by moving to STT. We felt isolated from everything we'd ever known. We don't have childrem yet but are trying and don't feel they would have as many options on island as in NC. We feel they should have all the choices we did growing up. We also want them to have chances to experience the things we did in the places we did as children...ie. my old summer camp or the Macy's Thankgiving Day parade in NYC, etc...

If you want to move to STT but have never been there...please please please just go check it out! A week is okay if you are really in tune with yourself and your needs but a 3-6 week stay is much better I think if you can swing it. We met some guys at Villa Fairview that "will never leave...this place rocks". They looked at us like we were crazy when we said we decided against the move. It's all about personal choice. YOU CAN'T GET ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED FROM THIS MESSAGE BOARD OR A ONE DAY CRUISE VISIT. You need to go there.

Anyway, we decided that we will be coming to STT again but it will only be for a 2 week vacation. Thanks for all the help on this board and on island just let us know if we can answer any questions! :O)

Thank you Indocrafts for sharing your experiences. The islands are great for some of us and not for others. Glad you enjoyed the islands and will be coming back to vacation!! 🙂 All the best.

--Islander