Adventures in Christiansted, VI

Why Families Love Christiansted

St. Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands and the least visited, which is the whole appeal. It is forty miles of open sea from St. Thomas and St. John, so day-trippers and cruise excursions mostly do not reach it, and the beaches stay empty on a Tuesday in March.

Christiansted itself is a compact eighteenth-century Danish colonial town with arcaded streets and a boardwalk, built around the bright yellow Fort Christiansvaern. It is small enough to see properly with children in under an hour — ramparts, cannon, powder magazine and the punishment cells below — and the surrounding historic site does not avoid what the old Danish West India Company warehouse was used for.

The reason to come, though, leaves from the harbour here. Buck Island Reef National Monument was one of the first marine areas anywhere given national monument protection, and its underwater trail runs through a barrier reef of elkhorn coral with signs on the seabed. You cannot simply turn up — access is by licensed concession boat only, of which there are six.

Ashore, Cane Bay is the one snorkellers talk about: swim a couple of hundred feet out and the reef simply ends at a wall dropping thousands of feet into blue.

Weekend Itinerary

Day 1: Walk Christiansted. Do the fort in the morning before the heat — the $10 ticket is valid three days and under-16s are free — then the boardwalk and the town. Book your Buck Island boat while you are at the harbour.

Day 2: Buck Island, which takes most of the day. Half an hour of crossing each way, the snorkel trail inside the reef, and on most trips a stop at Turtle Beach on the island’s west end. Pick a calm-forecast day; the crossing can be bumpy.

Day 3: Cane Bay on the north shore for the wall — best on a calm summer day, and a poor idea on a winter north swell. In the evening, if the moon is new, Salt River Bay runs guided night kayak tours into a bioluminescent bay that is also the only documented place a Columbus landing party came ashore on what is now US soil.

Getting There

Henry E. Rohlsen Airport has direct flights from several mainland US cities, or you can reach St. Croix from St. Thomas by seaplane or fast ferry. It is a domestic trip for US citizens — no passport, dollars, normal mobile service.

You need a car; the island is 28 miles long and the good beaches are spread along the north and west shores. Driving is on the left.

Best Time to Visit

December to April for the calmest water and clearest visibility, which is what both Buck Island and the Cane Bay wall depend on. Summer is hotter and quieter and the water is often calmer still, at the cost of sitting inside hurricane season.

If the bioluminescent bay matters to you, check the moon before you book the dates — the tours run around the new moon and a bright moon washes the effect out entirely.