Moving to STT - Looking for Advice

Greetings,
You only ned to go to the search button, and you can find most/all of your questions answered here already. For example, I recently posted my findings from Tropical, and they do ship boxes of personal effects... very inexpensively. Check it out and let us know if any questions are not answered.
Regards,
Edgar

Im not sure this makes you feel better but I am also palnning on heading down to st thomas in 2 weeks and I ahve not secured housing either. I have a place with a few bedrooms for a the first few days but then nada.....so get in touch if you want to figure soemthing out

Edgar - Thanks for the reply... I have read through the board for a couple of hours today and I realize that there is stuff that is already answered on my list, but I was trying to get more specific with my questions.. For example, I did read a post about where gyms are located on the island, but noone mentioned anything about basketball... Kmart was mentioned a couple of times to find normal items, but noone (from what I've read so far) had mentioned prices when compared to stateside... I was just looking for more specifics I guess

Patricia - I'm kind of in luck as my firm is providing my first 10 days of housing and I only have to work 20 hours that first week, so I'll have time to look around and hopefully find something that will work those first 10 days. But if you'll be around, maybe it would be better looking in pairs verses by ourselves *shrug*

Just thought I drop my input in here too. I've been in the same boat as the two of you and am getting ready to make the Boston to St. Thomas trip on May12th. With originally no place to stay I figured I would just get down there and bust my butt tryin to find a place quickly befor I spent too much at some motel. I then happened to come across a place called the villa fairview, which is located in the downtown area. It is a short term rental place and I am using it for the first few months I am down there so I can focus on things like getting a job, a car, and doing some research on what part of the island I want to live on. This will also give me the time to find just the right place and not something thats just good enough. Now as I've said I'm not there yet so I cant vouch for the type of place this is but between what is shown on the website www.villafairview.com and talking to the guy who runs it (ronnie), who seems like a real helpful person, I'm sure it will be everything I need it to be. Anyway it was a bunch of stress off my back when I reserved my apt. and realized I now at least had a place waiting for me. It's worth checking out. Good luck to you both

Jbr- That would be good. I have met some really nice people through the board but I know I need to scure housing for the coming months. My friend is coming near the end of may so we would be lookin to go in to something together. Which island are you looking at? Sam, the same to you just as an idea of all talking since we are all arriving around the same time. YOu can either write back here, or email me back at pkp@gwu.edu or my AIM name is Pakelpen.Thanks!
-PAtricia

I'll be living on St Thomas since that is where my office in the firm is located. I'll be moving around May 9th I think, a friend is moving to St Croix same time then another friend is coming to St Thomas end of July. All 3 of us were hired by the same firm 😀

Hey jbr12,
I'm glad the board was a help. I'm not sure myself about the specifics, but when I was there last, some things seemed more expensive, others not so much. Being there will give you your best feel. I shouyld be down in a week or two... tying up some lose ends still.
Edgar

Hello,

Apartments that claim to be furnished generally have things like: a bed, dresser, a couple sheets at least on the bed if no others, sofa, chairs, coffee table, a couple lamps, curtains and blinds in the windows, refrigerator, stove, some plates, maybe a dining table. Now some might be completely furnished down to having books on the shelves and some might be barely furnished with just stove, refrigerator and some other large items. No real norm here. You can get decent TVs here and other furnishings.

When you get in touch with Tropical get information on prices for shipping some other stuff besides your car; furniture etc. If you choose to get rid of everything big you can ship the smaller stuff by USPS. Books can be shipped media rate.

Area wise for the apartment. St. Thomas is referred to by Northside, East End, West End, downtown. Within the Northside there is Dorothea, Caret, Hull Bay, Mountain Top, Mafolie, Mandahl, Wintberg, St. Joseph and Rosendahl and a few others. I'd say all those areas are fine to look for an apartment. East End has Sapphire, Smith Bay, Red Hook, Nazareth, Great Bay, Bovoni... and most of those areas are fine, except some areas of Smith Bay and Bovoni are depressed areas and its visible. The West End is good as well, a bit far for some people in terms of the drive. And then downtown... it’s the 'town' and some people like it and others don't. Also in the downtown area you have some visibly depressed parts like Hospital Ground and Savan. Frenchman's Bay area is good. Tutu, Contant and Solberg have some nice and not so nice within the same area. Your best bet is to drive around the island see which parts of the island appeal to you, what’s close/far from work, close/far from the beach or other recreational activity that interest you etc. and then try to see if you can narrow down apartment availabilities to the locations you like.

An indoor basketball court in a gym... not many gyms like that here except those associated with a school, that I can think of. The University has an indoor basketball court, not sure the policies on usage. Antilles school does and they have a gym that accepts non-school people. They used to have an open court night on I believe Wednesday nights but they don't have that being offered right now. And Eudora Kean High school has an indoor basketball court, which is for students/games. I can't think of any others. There are a couple outdoor courts; the ones that come to mind are in gov't housing communities and there is one downtown, on the waterfront, right next to the Baseball field. The outdoor ones are not well maintained - think inner city basketball court. There is a Virgin Islands Basketball Federation. Their website is outdated but you can look at it for some info: http://www.vibf.net/
You can e-mail virginislandsolympic@worldnet.att.net to find out who the head of the Basketball Federation is and give them a call about the VI team, if one currently exists? Also UVI hosts Paradise Jam Basketball Tournaments - you can learn about it at: http://www.paradisejam.com/

Check out the grocery lists at: http://vimovingcenter.com/cost_of_living/

Hope that helps.

--Islander

Holy wow, that post has so much information. Thank you very much, very helpful especially since I just got copies of the newspapers so I can start looking for apartments ahead of time.

When I'm looking at the newspapers, it doesn't seem like the classifieds distinquish between islands. Are the different newspapers for different islands?

Patricia,
I think it's a great idea for us to be staying in touch since we'll all be arriving within a week or so of each other. If your going to be lost in a new place, might as well have some company right? I'm showing up May 12th and will be staying in the downtown area. When are the rest of you showing up and where abouts are you staying?

JBR 12, I will also be moving down to St. Thomas soon, but only for the summer. I am 21 and also share your love for the game. I was also wondering if there was going to be a place to play indoors. I will be staying at the villa fairview where it seems to be a pretty good deal for the islands. If you would be interested in getting together to play ball or any other sports while I'm there for the summer just let me know. My email is mcmonisp@muohio.edu Hope you find all your looking for.
Sean

Hello jrb12,

The Daily News is St. Thomas. The Avis is St. Croix. The Island Trader is mostly St. Thomas/St. John.

--Islander

I really do appreciate all the great responses, but I have another question...

I had a T-mobile cell phone. I know that they do not have coverage in the USVI. Today I switched over to Sprint and I have a 14 day grace period in which I can cancel if I'm not happy. Anyone in the area (St Thomas) use Sprint? Any problems with the coverage/signal strength, etc? How does Cingular compare? Any info in regards to cell phones would be appreciated 😀

Hi, we are on STX, but everyone at my dh's work (Hovensa) says get Sprint. We are looking over the brochure and will probably go with Sprint too.

HTH
Brandy

Sweet, thanks for the info. One of my buddies is moving to St Croix, does anyone know anything about Nextel coverage?

Well, I found out Sprint and Nextel are in the middle of merging, so I guess that means by July Nextel will have the area covered too.

Two more questions for the island folk 😛 (I really appreciate all the great answers so far!)

I have a school trip planned to Switzerland for the month of July. As far as I know (waiting on info from future boss) I am moving to the island (STT) like next week. Since I will only be around until the end of June, would I be better off finding a temp apartment then find a long term rental when I got back? If I do go that route, any suggestions on where I could stay for a month relatively cheap?

When I return from Switzerland, I plan on bringing my car back with me. Its a Mazda MX6 (Built in Flat Rock, MI) and I have some 'extras' I wanted to add to the car, namely a body kit. Problem with the kit is it sits much lower to the ground than the car would normally sit. Is this a good idea or are steep driveways and bumps common enough I would destory the bumpers quickly? Are the roads in good shape (keep in mind I'm from Michigan, home of the worst roads EVER) Any comments on this is greatly appreciated!

Hello jbr12,

Sounds like you will need a place for about 2 months. Sure you could stay at say Fairview Villa for 2 months, check and see if they have availabilities. You aren't going to find landlords to willing to rent for such a short period. You didn't mention when you'd return to STT. If it were say 2-3 weeks later then sure you could rent a place on a 6 month or 1 year lease and just leave your apartment closed till you return, let your landlord know you are going on vacation.

A car with good clearance is a good idea! Lots of pot holes, steep roads, bad/steep driveways. Having said that there are some folks that have low riding vehicles... they often drive really slow at speed bumps, drive on the opposite side of the road to miss pot holes and likely don't go on bad driveways. Coming down without the car at first will allow you to check things out and see for yourself whether the body kit you have in mind is a good idea.

--Islander

Thanks for another great reply 😛 I'd be coming back at the end of July, meaning I might just be better off going for a long term lease and biting the month's rent that I'm gone... Since I'll be there for that month or so without the car, I guess I should have plenty of time to scope out things and figure out if the body kit should go on or not... Thanks again