Which island to choose?

I have to agree East Ender!

I have lived on all 3 islands at some point or another. Each has their benefits and their drawbacks. It is always interesting to hear people who just have arrived, a couple weeks ago, commenting on which island is best when they have not yet set foot on the others and have absolutely no knowledge of them or the lifestyles provided there. Each island is different and that goes for those in the BVI and on down
the island chain. Personally, I prefer STT but I don't go out of my way to belittle STJ or STX or the choices to live there.

Whatever floats your boat or sinks it as the case may be.*-)

*-) For me, now that I have a feel of all 3 islands (even though only short term), I do like all 3 but for living we chose STX, which turned out to be a good decision for us. There are good and bad of all 3 islands, and you just have to see which will fit you most for long-term living. I don't think any island is worse than the other, it all depends on the person's view.

Oh and let me take this back and clarify.. some grocery items are crazy expensive.. we have refrained ourselves from buying ice cream, one of our favorite food, due to its price.. But I say nothing is ridiculously expensive is probably because I have been reading this forum for a long time and the fact that things are expensive have been drilled into my head that I wasn't too shocked when we made the trip to the grocery store. I sort of expected it.

we have refrained ourselves from buying ice cream, one of our favorite food, due to its price..

I got myself an ice cream machine, one where you put one part in the freezer to chill. It does use some electric to churn, but not too long, and we can make ices and sherberts with fewer calories...or frozen mangos, after we put the fruit in the blender and then freeze...SO Good...bananas when our tree is full, etc...like so many other things, you adapt to what things are...and I never have a container of ice cream any more that obviously has been thawed and refrozen...and after I paid an outrageous price to buy it. We used to spring for ice cream from Decadence though, back in the day.

I have been cutting up mango into little square chunks and freezing them on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen I put them in the blender with a can of coconut milk. It's like mango ice cream and my guys think I am a goddess. I do the same thing when our bananas get really ripe. You know when they are so ripe that they are almost mush. I slice and freeze them, add coconut milk and sometimes chocolate and any other fruit I have even if it is canned fruit. Like a very thick smoothie. Hubby and son never ask me for ice cream anymore.

rmb 2830 and dougtamji

those frozen mangoes and fruits with coconut milk sound like a really good idea. We just got a blender from a garage sale so I'm ready to replace our ice cream void with some local fruit frozen treat yumminess 😀

we have refrained ourselves from buying ice cream, one of our favorite food, due to its price..

LMAO Really??? Seems kinda odd to me. To venture and move to the Caribbean only to limit yourself? Its $10 for ice cream not $500. 😉 I love ice-cream and craft beers... don't care what they cost after all its the little things that make me happy 😉

I am beginning to think I am either REALLY weird or just have a completely different mindset from the majority. When I read about traffic I literally LOL. Come on. Really. If you are moving here from a town with one stoplight then yes on a day we have 3-7 ships in, it may seem very congested to you. From what I have seen on the board the majority are moving from bigger cities. I'm from Phoenix so sitting in traffic for 2-4 hours a day is the norm. I pick up cruisers so I am in the thick of it when the ships are in. Really its not THAT bad. Parking downtown is a whole different story.

To be perfectly honest... The ONLY thing I do not like about STT vs the other islands is the drivers. People drive like idiots here, sorry.

 

They drive like idiots elsewhere,too, unfortunately. I am sure STX has its share.
And ............if you think we are bad, you don't want to drive in PR or Costa Rica!

To be perfectly honest... The ONLY thing I do not like about STT vs the other islands is the drivers. People drive like idiots here, sorry.

I disagree. Of course we have bad drivers here. There are bad drivers everywhere you go but I really don't think drivers here generally drive like idiots. One thing you DO have to be here is a defensive driver which of course you should be wherever you are, eyes on the road and your surroundings all the time to be prepared for any eventuality. Our situation is compounded by our topography so you have to be even more aware. I'd no more pick up the 'phone when I'm driving here than I'd jump off the Empire State Building. As for texting, death wish much?

Compared to other parts, drivers here are WAY more courteous than the norm. As far as island drivers are concerned, ever driven in St Martin/Maarten? Ah, the joys of sitting at an intersection with just a stop sign. If you really think someone's going to let you into the main traffic line, think again. You'll be sitting there 'til Kingdom Come if you don't seriously get aggressive about it!

To be perfectly honest... The ONLY thing I do not like about STT vs the other islands is the drivers. People drive like idiots here, sorry.

I disagree.

Sometimes I wonder if you're an actual person that lives on STT or just a hilarious chunk of javascript written by Islander.

i seriously thought I was going to die every time I got in a taxi on St. Lucia - or at least throw up (not kidding!). I'll take STT any day!

To be perfectly honest... The ONLY thing I do not like about STT vs the other islands is the drivers. People drive like idiots here, sorry.

I disagree.

Sometimes I wonder if you're an actual person that lives on STT or just a hilarious chunk of javascript written by Islander.

:S Having the temerity to disagree with someone else's opinion merits one a snide label? Interesting. 😀

OT its just that you disagree with everyone lol!! I keed I keed Just having some fun. 😉

I don't "compare". I am talking about here and now LOL. You can make that argument for everything on the island.

I havent been to ST Lucia or Costa rica but I did stay in STX for month and I don't they they drive nearly as bad as they do here. I literally got ran off the road on the way down to hull the other day from some dumb B&%H that was completely in my lane on a corner. I am sorry but if you don't think the drivers are bad here you may be one of them. No stopping at stop signs, speeding, on the phone (its not as bad here as the states) and the WORST is that people decide that the double stripe doesn't apply to them. I think drivers don't want to take the actual curve so they go down the middle ON A BLIND CURVE! Ironically I feel more safe walking CA at night then I do driving. Maybe I am sheltered or maybe AZ drivers are just that good. Ive never encountered more idiotic driving than I have here. You can have a different opinion, this is mine.

Next time you take a drive. count how many times you cross the double stripe. If its 0 then congrats and thank you. Start counting how many times OTHERS cross it.

No I don't disagree arbitrarily.

"I am sorry but if you don't think the drivers are bad here you may be one of them." That's an assumptive leap. For the record, in 29 years now of driving here I've had four encounters. One 28 years ago when a taxi driver who didn't care for the fact that I was taking time to move out into heavy traffic tried to squeeze past me at a shopping complex exit and scraped up my lovely little roadster; one about 25 years ago when a safari driver came down a hill from the opposite direction, swung into my lane and scraped up the compact I was driving at the time; one 15 years ago when I came around a blind corner and couldn't brake in time to avoid tapping a driver stopped dead in the road chatting to his girlfriend on the sidewalk; and one a few months ago when a VIWM dumpster tried to edge past me from the opposite lane in town when I was stopped at a light and who didn't judge the squeeze and ripped off one of my taillight fixtures.

All the other bad things you mention that people do, I don't and that includes crossing the double line. So there you have it!

I dont need your driving recored or self validation that you are a good driver. If you are, then thats great. I believe in MY OPINION that STT has the worst drivers that IVE encountered. I will make sure I put the disclaimer in my signature (ROLLEYES) since smileys aren't working. Sometimes the tudes on this board drive me nuts. Ok im going to da beach lol!

We moved to STX two years ago with three school age children and love it, and call it home. For the record, I feel all the islands have great things to offer. If I were without three kids, two dogs, and a cat, I would not mind living on STT, because it is lively and close to all the other islands.....STJ reminds me of living in Tahoe, in the mountains....love it there...would love to live there, but not practical for us now....may consider it when kids are in college, who knows?! STX works best for us, but we went to all islands and really considered our needs in the long run before coming here. I think you really need to visit each as a PMV as recommended and see which one gives you the best feel before you commit!!

we have refrained ourselves from buying ice cream, one of our favorite food, due to its price..

LMAO Really??? Seems kinda odd to me. To venture and move to the Caribbean only to limit yourself? Its $10 for ice cream not $500. 😉 I love ice-cream and craft beers... don't care what they cost after all its the little things that make me happy 😉

LOL I don't mean forever banning ice cream... I mean, how could we?;)
I'm only talking for now... you know how it was, moving depletes your savings pretty fast plus we are still unemployed so I guess for now we are eating at home a lot and not eating ice cream:P

 

I can only imagine how hard it is for a shipper to get ice cream here still frozen and at proper consistency. On a boat, in the heat, trying to maintain a constant frozen temperature, then unloaded, in the heat, and transported, in the heat, to its destination. I'm sure that's why so many are semi-thawed and refrozen. Personally I just go buy locally made gelato and sorbets at Jaccar, yum!

Yep totally get it jwidjaja. I remember our first month.. I was FREAKING out about WAPA - my poor boyfriend who is not that great at turning off lights got yelled at a lot lol! Our first bill was like $100 and now average $140. I also remember thinking that my debit card was going to catch fire from usage 😉 I cant believe in a week we've been here 7 months! DAMN it flys by. Love it here.

I can only imagine how hard it is for a shipper to get ice cream here still frozen and at proper consistency. On a boat, in the heat, trying to maintain a constant frozen temperature, then unloaded, in the heat, and transported, in the heat, to its destination. I'm sure that's why so many are semi-thawed and refrozen. Personally I just go buy locally made gelato and sorbets at Jaccar, yum!

It comes in trailers which are kept frozen from start to finish and the main problem is when the trailers get here. They remain frozen on board and right through shipment to the retailers. Thawing results when the warehouse workers don't get the frozen products into the store freezers as quickly as they should and leave the pallets sitting out in the sun where even an hour can start the thawing process.

ima: This board has a tendency to get sidetracked at times.:P Just keep to your guns and keep firing those questions!

This has definitely been helpful to post. Thank you so much for the comments so far. I have another one...what do you consider is a good time for a PMV? How many days per island is a good idea? We did do grocery shopping on STT while we were there so we did see some prices.

I suggest one week per island, as long as you're researching every day and not just vacationing. Others say longer, but I think you'll get diminishing returns. You'll learn far more in the first week than in later weeks.

You can include St John in the week on STT as it's only a 10 minute ferry ride away.