Researching St.Croix

I thought it looked like the beach at Carambola, but I thought the resort was already there in 83’

Thanks Scubadoo

My husband and I decided to buy at the beginning instead of renting first, and it has worked out well for us. We’re on Year 3 and still absolutely love St. Croix. I do, however, agree that the major advantage to renting first is that it gives you time to explore all the areas/communities before locking in permanently, so do consider it.

We used realtors Karen Stanton (jerseyd1554@yahoo.com) and Ava Gail Bourdon (gailbourdon@remax.net) of Remax St. Croix Realty, and they were absolutely fantastic in showing us several options all over the island during our pre-move visit and helping us find a perfect fit for us. We started working with them via email and phone a few months before our pre-move visit, spending lots of time on the MLS website and sending them links to places for sale that we wanted them to show us. They were outstanding; we can’t say enough about working with them.

We ended up choosing a condo on the East End; we love living on the East End but drive to the West End and North Side every single week for beach time and eating out, too, because they are equally amazing. The East End has plenty of gorgeous beaches, phenomenal places to hike, and great restaurants, and you’re just a 20-min drive from all the great things downtown.

You definitely need a car if you live on the East End, since all the grocery stores are at least a 20- to 30-min drive away; I personally would want a vehicle no matter where I lived on the island, so that I could go everywhere easily as needed. We shipped our SUV using VI Cargo and had a seamless experience using them. The cost was around $2000. It was worth it to have the peace of mind that we were bringing our reliable car.

AT&T (phone) and Broadband VI (internet) have provided exceptional, strong service at quite low costs for us. We don’t have cable/satellite tv and just stream Netflix and SlingTV ($20/month for ~30 channels) through Roku (ordered the required remote for $50 online).

This forum was an invaluable resource to us - I don’t think I ever actually asked any questions, since just pouring through everything already posted answered all my questions; there’s so much shared here! - as well as a fantastic book I ordered from Amazon called The Settler’s Handbook for the US Virgin Islands. Highly recommend it! Especially good at helping you set realistic expectations.

The only other personal opinion I’ll share is that I feel that everything here is pretty expensive compared to mainland prices - groceries, renovations, general household items from Kmart, excursions/activities, etc. - and it costs a lot to ship things here that you have to order from the mainland. So saving as much money as you can before moving here is wise, making sure you have a big cushion in your savings for all the unexpected expenses you’ll incur as well as the high daily living expenses; I sometimes wish we’d saved a couple more years before moving/buying here, so that we had more in savings to reduce our stress during our first year. But St. Croix is an amazing place to be if you are able to make the island life work!

Best of luck to you on this journey!

Out near Divi

No, Trading Places ending was filmed at Davis Bay shortly before Carambola was built. The rock profile at the end of the beach is very clear and is no different today.

This is correct.

Hey StacyM, so wonderful to hear that everything is working out so well for you 3 years in!!!!

Thank you so much for your response. I am a researcher by nature and I am weighing it everything. Congrats on you 3rd year. I now have a question (lol) Banking...which is the best one? think I could open an account from the mainland??

Keep mainland bank open and open 2nd bank account here when you get here.
Us having a mainland account was a real lifesaver when banks were damaged here last year's and could not use. That question has many answers. As many as their different customers! Find one convinient to where you live once you get here.