VI Here I Come!!!

Bog: IMHO you should slow your schedule down a little, come visit both St Thomas and St Croix and see for yourself. You ask some questions that a couple of good guide books could answer. The medical ones are more difficult. While there are hospitals and doctors on both islands, some specialty areas are underserved. If you will possibly need to be moved quickly to the mainland, investigate the various medical evacuation groups. Be careful! Some state that they will take you to the closest place that has the facilities you need, and often that is Puerto Rico. Also if having reliable anything is important to you, you need to move with extreme caution!

I grew up in the VI all my life, and still live there part-time, so I can answer your questions.

1. Medical: St. Thomas and St. Croix both have about the same quality medical facilities, but as others have pointed out, they both are incapable of providing complex surgeries. I did read that they were opening a cancer center on St. Thomas.

2. St. Thomas and St. Croix both have airports. Since St. Thomas has more tourism, their airport has more flights. However, this probably will not hamper your ability to move from the mainland to St. Croix, there's just less flights to choose from. American, Delta, Continental, US Airways, and United serve St. Thomas, and American and US Airways serve St. Croix. All the islands have sea ports and all are accessible.

3. Communications: Both islands have about the same infrastructure.

4. St Thomas has the most mountainous terrain. St. Croix is more flat, but also has a lot of hills as well in the west end of the island.

5. I think you need to re-assess where you want to live.

6. Crime: both islands have about the same rate of crime. I think the murder rate on St. Thomas is higher though.

Hello,

Glad you are doing the research and planning a pre-move trip to help you decide. Its a great idea.

Medical
Which island provides for the best medical care... in your opinion? St. Thomas and St. Croix perhaps in that order based just on comparing whats offered at each - seemed that St. Thomas' hospital offered more - I have never used the St. Croix hospital though so I don't have a personal comparison in terms of experiences. You might take a look at each hospitals web site and call, plan to take a trip to the hospital on your pre-move visit just to take a look-see.

Transportation
St. Thomas and St. Croix have airports. St. Thomas airport has more flights, I don't know numbers. Both have sea ports. Visit the Port Authority web site for more info.
www.viport.com
I find driving on all the islands about the same. You can ship your items to either St. Thomas or St. Croix.

Communications Infrastructure (i.e. Internet, Telephone, TV)
The communications network for telephone and cable is the same for each island. Internet connection here is off and on in terms of reliability and speed in my opinion. The telephone service is OK, sometimes there are phone errrors, all lines are busy...

Elevation
Visit our section on geography - http://vinow.com/general_usvi/geography/
St. John is pretty hilly, St. Thomas then St. Croix. All homes here are for the most part built on hillsides. Yes volcanic islands.

Crime
- Which island has the least crime and which island has the most crime? Any one or two cities to stay away from? In order from least to greatest... Water Island, St. John, St. Thomas/St. Croix. There are some not so great areas on St. Thomas and St. Croix - many seem to be around public housing communitites - so you can use more care in such areas.

--Islander

Thanks for your replies. I will be purchasing tickets very soon so I can visit the islands in mid May. In the mean time I will continue to research on the internet.

Thanks again,
Bogdan