STX - east end vs west end

In my opinion, for your age range, definitely West End (or North Shore). West tends to be a younger crowd and has more active beach bars. However, East End generally is seen as safer.

Bernie

I lived in Le Grande Princesse (northshore) for a year and then East end for the past 2.5 years.

Bernie is right about the west end being more rambunctious. The beach bars are packed out on the weekends with 20somethings and the beaches are stellar. But, that's not enough for me to live there. Making Frederiksted a destination on my dayoff is a lot of fun and I think taking South Shore road to the highway out to Sandy Point is a beautiful and quick drive. Well, quicker than taking centerline road all the way through all of the lights and traffic.

Depending on how far east, it's a pretty quick trip into town for stuff to do. I live south of Cheeseburgers and it takes me about 10 mins to get into town. If I'm heading to Sunny Isle, South Shore takes about 15 minutes and I'm there (with a nice view along the way).

East End is safer, IMO

You may start a fiery debate here. I say east 😛

Noah

East end. Personally, I don't necessarily feel safe traveling alone on the West End at night. East has a lot of fun places to hang out, you just have to know where to go.

My advice, which may be a little biased:-), is to rent a short term place when you arrive until you get a feel for what you like. Where will you work, what are your interests, etc.? I offer short term rentals in a small apartment complex that is very centrally located, so that's a good place to start. Other posters on here offer short term as well. Many, many will offer the excellent advice not to rent sight, unseen, so that's another reason to go with short term at first. My website is: http://www.virginislandsrentals.com. Please take a look, and if I can help you out, I'll be glad to.

I live west and love it. Like anyplace else, there are areas I avoid, but I travel in the west at night often and don't feel unsafe. The best advice we can give is to come, find something short term, and see what suits you best.

good advice juanita: rent and decide which suites your needs..
personally when i moved here almost 20 years ago we were told to stay east. but at that time right after hugo and the west was destroyed and not much at that way. but it has changed over the years.
i still prefer the east but that the area i know and love.

of course as far as rainfall.....the west wins hands down

We can vouch for Juanita's place too! Jeff stayed there for a few weeks when he first got here and looked for a longer term rental before I moved.

Kim

This is probably a dumb question but is Christiansted considered North Shore or East End?

Thanks for all yall's opinions!! I appreciate it!

Your choices as far as towns are Christiansted or Fredericksted, so downtown Christiansted is technically on the northern side of the island, but it's really neither North Shore or East End. The best map I've found which shows estates and quarters can be found here: St. Croix map. Good luck!

Lisa

When locals talk about north shore the do not mean C'sted. C'sted is town or C'sted. Lost of 20 somethings and people without cars live in town. North Shore and west end are a long drive from anything so you have to have a car. There is a pocket of 20 somethings but not a large one living in both. Mostly North and west are weekend destinations. Mostly transplants live center islandish (around sunny isle) to about 10 minutes east of C'sted. Its just more convenient to shops, work etc... Think about where you're going to be working or going to school and then find the safest neighborhood near that for your first year while you explore. Nothing is that far away, its an island so I would focus on safety first. What till you see something in person before you rent it.

I'm in the same boat lydjane! looking for the 20-30 range, flying down in the fall looking for a short term rental. Good post! If I didn't find this I would have started it. Thanks! 🙂

First of all, St Croix is the best island in the Caribbean, bar none, and i have been to many of them. Warm friendly people, warm clear water, good diving and great beaches.

But, the best advise is "see it for yourself first" before you decide where to live. When we arrived on our PMV we spent 4 days on the east end looking for a place to rent. The real estate agents will tell you east is best. It is also more expensive.

On the fifth day we drove to Frederiksted and we were home. Within and hour we found a house to rent and were scuba diving on the pier. The pier is also a great place to snorkel. The west end is a 7 mile beach, from Sandy Point to Hamms Bluff. If you don't want to hang out with 100 close friends and play volley ball at Rainbow beach you can easily find a quiet beach just for 2.

There are many great restaurants on St Croix, east, mid-island and west end. And live music here is amazing. The west end alone can have 5-6 live bands on playing on the weekend. The Blue Moon has the best jazz player on STX on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Sunset Jazz on Frederik beach is always great fun. Rhythms has great live music Saturday and Sunday. Coconuts is the same with St Croix Blues Society on Sunday evening. There is also Sunset Grill to the north, Mahogany's and Sand Castles to the south. Polly's at the Pier, with it's "hip and funky atmosphere", has fresh locally grown organic food and the best fresh roasted coffee on the island.

Cruise ship Saturdays are great fun in Frederiksted, Strand Street is alive with people, fun and music.

I would respectfully disagree with the west end being a long way from anything. It's 4 miles to K Mart, 5 miles to Plaza Extra (super market) 12 minutes to the airport and less than 20 minutes to Sunny Isle (if you HAVE to go there).

Where ever you decide to live here, you can be sure St Croix is a good choice. Just don't tell too many people, we like it just the way it is.
If you decide to live on the west end, let me be the first to say welcome to the family.

I'm within the age group you described but I'd like to suggest that you actively socialize with the older longtime statesiders I find that the 40-50 year olds act like their in the 30's and older retired crowd act like 20 year olds. Just spend a mid-week sunset at Off the Wall for an example, or any Krewe de Croix function.... Plus they are the crowd that have all the connections and it is imperative that you have connections down here if you want anything to get done timely and smoothly.

That said the young statesiders can be divided by occupational groups that tend to congregate in certain parts of the island. East end is devoid of 'young' crowd since it is mostly just homes and Divi so we'll call C'sted "east".

West end rents are cheaper but their are more restaurants in Csted so you have an equal mix of the young restaurant/server/bartender crowd west and east. The Hovensa young engineers tend to stay east...more condos available. Traveling nurses and nursing students tend east because of the hospital. Grown kids of snowbirds/shop owners/yachties/ trend east as well. To see a cross-section I'd recommend hanging around Brew Pub, Tavern 1844, and Dashi in C'sted.

Besides the restaurant crowd, west end has the dive operators, Creque Dam Farm crew and friends, UVI students, and the musicians. For a cross-section any of the beach bars north of Fredricksted, Pollys at the Pier, and Lost Dog in town, and Normas in the rainforest when Kurt is playing.

I'm the eldest of my friends on Island (I'm 30ish) and we almost ALL live East. . Reef, Villa Madaline, Cotton Valley, Tipperary, we have a couple of friends who live in Princess... but they are looking to move.
We really like it on the East end - we go to F'sted, Sandy Point, Carambola, etc on the weekends.

I agree with the others though - it takes time to decide where you want to be. Start with a short-term rental... once you have an idea of commuting, shopping, and where your favorite hang-outs will be - you'll have a better idea of where you want to be long-term.

I've lived Eastend and Mid-isle near the Northshore, and even for a brief time south of Frederiksted.

Each had it's advantages and disadvantages.
The kind of place you live would affect your experience. In condos out east you get to know people, in houses out east -less so.

A big issue for us was "distance to work/school." We cut our average time on the road by half by moving back to mid-isle.
Cut our electricity and bug repellant bills too because it's cooler than the east, and has a lot fewer mosquitos.

It is interesting how little age matters on St. Croix. I know there's something to be said for hanging out with people who are at the same stage in life, but I have friends there who are my parents' age, and it's just not something that anyone pays attention to. It's not just STX but everywhere, really, if you don't restrict yourself. I have 60+ neighbors in Phoenix who are super fun. We spend evenings drinking wine with them, and they got all excited to have us visit them at their second home during a road trip last year. So keep an open mind, and you'll end up with some great friends whom you might have thought you'd have nothing in common with. 🙂

Ya'll have given me some excellent things to think about!! Thanks for all the advice!! If anyone has Facebook and might know of a good place i can stay thats safe or if you have a room open for 2 or 3 weeks till i find a place PM me!