Covered parking or $500 apartment near downtown?

No to the garages and I'm almost positive that if you lived in your car you would be quickly picked up by the police! Finding an apartment for 5-600/month is next to impossible. You MIGHT find a share situation for that price. You may want to keep saving before coming here as just shipping your car here (which presumably you're planning on) will cost around $1500 and then you have to get insurance, registration, etc. Save more money and then plan to stay somewhere like Rhoda's Guest House on the East end of STT until you find your way around and get a job.

No to mention road tax and customs duty if not an all American made vehicle which includes any foreign parts or if it was put together elsewhere.

Most places especially want first, last and security deposit, won't come furnished in your price range and probably won't include any utilities. OT's suggestion for Rhoda's or apt. share is a good one.

IMO, $5000 won't be enough, especially coming without a job lined up. $10K min. and it'll go fast. Everything is expensive here. You may not find work immediately. Summer months are the doldrums here as tourist and business traffic slows way down but good time to find rentals.

Just don't send $$ or rent sight unseen.
Lots of scam ads on Craig's List.
No covered garages, heated parking, heat, fireplaces, to name a few!

Alana, no American made vehicle is made of all American parts. Foreign parts on a US made vehicle are not taxed.

Unless shipped to VI.
The Virgin Islands doesn't have a trade agreement Mexico where many parts or vehicles assembled so there's customs duty depending on VIN #.
A friend bought a Ford, shipped to VI, had to pay duty

You can pretty easily find a room to rent with local transplants in Red Hook or get lucky in off season with a studio for that price. Having rental references will give you room to negotiate. Landlords here are so skeptical and rightfully so. Lots of people move here, run out of money and leave - mostly leave a mess and with rent owed. Find a place within fairly close walking distance to red hook where you can "easily" find work in a restaurant or similar. I say easily - if you're not a moron and have ANY type of people skills its fairly easy to find a job. Not a dream job but something to pay the bills. Also a great place to meet like minded transplants. You have to be here to get any job though. Employers will treat you like you're temporary - thats just a fact of moving here. Its not personal - don't take it that way.

You can even look on AirB&B. You can look in CA (downtown) also and find a similar situation but red hook is more - young transplant working in the service industry. Downtown can be pretty rough IMO. If you plan on finding a non service job you'll need a car and in that case bring more $. I like the 10K number but for a single - maybe not that much - maybe 7-8k would be enough. We brought 10k and spent it all in 2 months BUT that was moving into a 2 bd rental - furnishing it and buying 2 cars and my fiancé with a job already here. I work from home but found another job as a snorkel guide which was friggin awesome.

Don't bring your van, huge mistake.

Put all your stuff in storage in the states, come here with your 5K and find a serving job in red hook, October-Nov I assume would be good for that industry but not 100% sure on that. Have fun and if/when you've got less than 1K left book a ticket back. If you decide you like it, get a second job if you need it and sell your stuff back stateside. 🙂

DO NOT LITTER or party yourself stupid or get hooked on drugs/booze. Don't bring any pets with you. Don't be an Ahole or hang out with those who are. It's an awesome place but theres a lot of things that can get you off track here. If you have an addictive personality I would not come here. If you can have fun but wrangle yourself in, these islands are super fun and so beautiful!

Thanks for all the tips, I'm gonna sell my vehicle before coming cuz it's only worth $800 and the transport is $1400 lol, I don't do drugs at all so I'm not "one of those "coming to trash the place lol. Is there a local classifieds I can find online for rooms/apt in red hook? Is there places nearby I can walk to for work? Thank you all for responding and being so detailed, very kind people on this board 🙂

Thanks for all the tips, I'm gonna sell my vehicle before coming cuz it's only worth $800 and the transport is $1400 lol, I don't do drugs at all so I'm not "one of those "coming to trash the place lol. Is there a local classifieds I can find online for rooms/apt in red hook? Is there places nearby I can walk to for work? Thank you all for responding and being so detailed, very kind people on this board 🙂

Look in vicraigslist for share situations. Not likely you'll find anywhere from which you can walk to work but if you can find a place accessible to the safari bus route it's doable for a while - although the safaris don't run after dark so you'd have to taxi back. Best bet is to stay at Roda's for a while as mentioned earlier until you get settled. Not a good idea to take any accommodation sight unseen.

Yes in red hook you can potentially find a room or studio that's walking distance. Many of my friends have done this and continue to every season. Get references.