Is St. Thomas LGBTQ-friendly?

Expect two islands in one. In the resort and marina strip, from the East End hotels to the Yacht Haven Grande docks, two men sharing a lobster at a table for two get about as much notice as they would in Fort Lauderdale. In the hillside neighbourhoods above Charlotte Amalie the culture is more Caribbean-Christian, and on Sunday mornings hymns drift out of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul onto Lower Main Street, where older islanders might stare at hand-holding, though open hostility toward visiting couples is rare. On cruise days, the people staring along Main Street are as likely to be passengers off the Havensight pier as residents.

St. Thomas is small, so split-interest days work well here. The history buff can spend a morning inside the red walls of Fort Christian, climb the 99 Steps to Blackbeard's Castle and then stand on the sand floor of the St. Thomas Synagogue on Crystal Gade, a building dating from 1833. The foodie can walk 15 minutes west along the waterfront to Frenchtown for saltfish and a hot johnnycake, then meet again at 5:30 pm on the terrace at Mafolie Restaurant, high above the harbour. In winter the sun goes down toward Hassel Island around 6 pm, with a cool trade wind and the smell of grilled mahi coming from the kitchen. It tends to be quieter than the Frenchtown dining rooms on a Friday.

Avoid the 'romantic' marketing in Red Hook. Duffy's Love Shack has a date-night name and volcano bowls of rum, but it is a party bar in a parking lot that often fills with bachelorette sashes and cruise excursion groups after 9 pm. The same goes for the 40-seat catamarans out of Red Hook, which often anchor at Christmas Cove beside the Pizza Pi pizza boat and turn up the playlist. For a sunset sail, book a six-passenger boat. Small charters also run snorkel trips to the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument off the south shore of St. John. Coki Beach is loud by 10 am on cruise days, with speaker music and snorkel vendors, so go after 3 pm or skip it and take the 20-minute Red Hook ferry to Gibney Beach on St. John's Hawksnest Bay instead.

If you don't want a room that feels like a cell, ask for a king bed and a balcony rather than the two-queen layout many East End resorts default to. The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas sits on Great Bay facing St. John and handles honeymoon bookings of every pairing without fuss. Bolongo Bay Beach Resort costs less and is family-run, though its all-inclusive crowd leans toward groups. Couples who want a queer-identified scene rather than a merely tolerant one often add two nights on St. Croix, reached by a short Seaborne seaplane hop to Christiansted and then 30 minutes by road to Frederiksted, whose guesthouses have the longer gay-friendly track record.