What's the must-see thing in St. Thomas?

Magens Bay sits on St. Thomas's north shore, about 4 miles from Charlotte Amalie over a steep mountain road that drops through switchbacks thick with frangipani. The beach runs roughly three-quarters of a mile in a crescent. Water temperature holds near 28°C year-round, and the bay faces north, which means the Caribbean swells that batter the south shore rarely reach here. The sand is coarse enough to not stick to everything you own. Admission is $5 per person, collected at a booth near the entrance. There are changing rooms, a snack bar selling $4 Cruzan rum punches, and enough coconut palm shade that you won't need to rent a chair unless it's a heavy cruise day. That's the real variable. On days when 3 or 4 ships dock in Charlotte Amalie, the taxi vans start depositing passengers by 10am. The beach holds maybe 200 people comfortably. By noon on a 3-ship day, count on 500. If your visit overlaps with cruise traffic, arrive by 8:30am. The park opens at 7:30am.

Charlotte Amalie is worth a full morning on its own. Denmark ran this town as a colonial capital from 1666 until the United States purchased all three islands in 1917 for $25 million. Blackbeard's Castle, a National Historic Landmark on Government Hill, is a 17th-century Danish watchtower reached by climbing the 99 Steps, a staircase cut from the ballast bricks of trading ships. The climb takes 5 minutes if you pause to breathe in the humidity. You will pause. From the top you can see the harbor, the cruise ships docked at the West Indian Company pier, and Hassel Island sitting low across the channel. The tower itself is one circular room, smaller than most visitors expect. That said, the $15 admission includes a small museum and surrounding gardens with decent signage about the colonial sugar trade. Below, on Dronningens Gade and its side alleys, the old Danish warehouse buildings hold duty-free shops. The USVI liquor allowance for returning U.S. residents is 5 bottles, double the standard Caribbean limit.

Coki Beach on the northeast shore, next to Coral World Ocean Park, is the pick if snorkeling matters to you. The reef starts about 10 metres off the sand in roughly 2 metres of water. Blue tang and sergeant majors swim close enough to touch without fins. The beach is compact, maybe 100 metres across, and it runs loud with music from vendor carts selling beer and grilled chicken. Sand gets warm underfoot by 9am. No admission fee here, though parking costs $5 and fills by midday. Water clarity tends to be best before wind chop builds around 1pm. To be fair, Coki feels more commercial than Magens Bay. But the shore-entry snorkeling is better here than anywhere else on St. Thomas you can reach without a boat. Coral World next door charges $23 for adults and has a sea-lion pool and an underwater observatory, which might tip the balance if you're traveling with children. St. Thomas scores 8.2/10 for family friendliness (see the TTDI Family-Friendliness Index).

One thing first-timers stumble on. St. Thomas covers only 32 square miles, but the roads are steep, narrow, and follow the left-hand driving convention inherited from the Danish colonial period. Rental cars drive on the left, though the steering wheel sits on the American left side too, which confuses almost everyone for the first hour. A shared safari van from Cyril E. King Airport to Magens Bay runs roughly $12 to $15 per person. These open-air trucks with bench seating are the island's main transit. You'll smell diesel and salt air in equal measure from those benches. The ride from the airport to Charlotte Amalie takes about 15 minutes and drops you on Veterans Drive along the waterfront. From there to the north shore, figure another 20 minutes over the mountain. If you have one day, do Magens Bay in the morning and the town in the afternoon when the cruise passengers head back to their ships. Charlotte Amalie gets noticeably quieter after 3pm.