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Guide To Choosing A Great Place To Stay In St. Thomas

Photos courtesy of Ritz Carlton St Thomas and Wyndham Sugar Bay.

St. Thomas is a small island, only 31-square miles, but the choice of accommodations is king-sized. There's everything to match your mood, or the size of your brood, from beachfront to mountaintop, historic to hip, in price ranges than span from family friendly to royally rich.

When choosing a place to stay on this cosmopolitan U.S. Virgin Island, first think about time of year. Rates drop by as much as 25 to 50 percent in the off-season that runs from mid-April to mid-December. On the other hand, bookings for the Christmas and New Year's holidays fill up as much as a year in advance. Other tips? Do rent a car to see the island. Consider a condo or villa when traveling with kids or extended family members. Check the ages of kid's club programs at resorts ahead of time so as not to have any disappointments. Finally, inquire about in-room Internet access if keeping in touch is a must.

Resorts Right On The Water
If waking up and diving into a tropical sea is your vacation nirvana, then opt for a resort right on the water. The Sapphire Beach Condominium Resort fronts a half-mile long beach where constant trade winds blow from the Sir Francis Drake channel to the east. To the south, the Secret Harbor Beach Resort is tucked along a quiet seaside cove, while the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort lies along a 1000-foot palm lined sandy shore. All rooms at Bolongo are beachfront with an ocean view. Nearby, Bluebeard's Beach Club also fronts the Caribbean Sea as does the Island Beachcomber to the west near the airport. All oceanfront resorts offer a soup-to-nuts menu of water sports equipment for rent. If a pool better suits your taste in water, check out Pavilions & Pools Hotel. Each villa romantically comes with its own swimming pool set right off the bedroom.

Hotels That Touch The Clouds
Mountain top peaks are the perfect perches for several hotels that boast million dollar views. Sit on your balcony at the Point Pleasant Resort and gaze out to a string of small cays that lie stepping-stone-style east to the British Virgin Islands beyond. Sailboats, fishing vessels and ferries running between St. Thomas and St John are the lively scene you can watch from the Sapphire Village Resort. Meanwhile, the cruise ship filled Charlotte Amalie harbor, rimmed by the historic red-roofed buildings of town, is the spectacular birds-eye view you'll see from Villa Blanca, the Mafolie Hotel, and Green Iguana Hotel.

Lodgings Where You Can Try Your Luck
St Croix, 40 miles to the south of St. Thomas, is the only U.S. Virgin Island where traditional Casino-style gaming is allowed. However, St. Thomas does offer video slot machines at several bars and restaurants. The two biggest gaming centers are hotel-based. The Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort's Ocean Club Gaming Center offers 95 video slot machines with Triple Sevens, Superpick Lotto, Blackjack and Poker, to name a few. A full-service bar, local musicians playing everything from jazz to soca and calypso, and adjacent upscale restaurants all add to the fun. The Holiday Inn Windward Passage Hotel also tempts players with Black Jack, Poker, Triple Sevens, Keno and more at its Gaming Center, located in downtown Charlotte Amalie.

Accommodations That Combine Business & Pleasure
Hear the lapping surf while working on your laptop at either the Best Western Emerald Beach or Best Western Carib Beach Resorts. Both bordering pristine Lindbergh Bay, these tandem accommodations are a 5-minute walk from the island's airport and less than 3 miles away from the downtown business and shopping district in Charlotte Amalie. There's free Hi-Speed DSL Internet for when you need to work, and restaurant, bar and beachside water sports center for when you want to play.

Kid- & Family-Friendly Digs
Traveling with the tots and teens means finding a place with all the comforts of home. Condominiums with two- or three-bedrooms and fully equipped kitchens are ideal. Crystal Cove at Sapphire Beach has apartment sized beachfront units where you can enjoy the restaurants, shops, pool, tennis courts and water sports of the neighboring Sapphire Beach Condominium Resort. There's also a wonderful park-like open space perfect for children to play within view of the condos. The Anchorage Resort sits next to the St. Thomas Yacht Club, where the beach, pool, fitness center and tennis courts are all available to guests. Maid service here makes mom feel like she's on vacation too.

Places To Stay for History Buffs
Denmark owned the Virgin Islands up until 1917, so it's no wonder that there's an air of Old World European charm found in hotels, villas and bed-and-breakfasts located in town. Hotel 1829 was actually built in 1829 by Alexander Lavalette, a wealthy French sea merchant. There are antique furnishings in each room, 300-year-old Italian chess pieces large enough to stand guard at the entrance doorway, and the old kitchen is now the popular bar. Bluebeard's Castle hotel occupies an entire hilltop and is namesake for the legendary 17th century pirate who is said to have plied and plundered this port. General Santa Ana, who was proclaimed a hero for defeating the Texans at the Alamo, built a villa on the crest of Denmark Hill in the 1850s. Today, you can stay in one of the villa's six units. The former library, for example, includes a full kitchen, two baths and living area along with queen-size four-poster bed in the master bedroom. The old pump house has been converted into a modern lookout tower, with kitchen and living area downstairs and spiral staircase leading up to a romantic bedroom and full bath. The Crystal Palace Bed & Breakfast sits surrounded by a dozen other colonial mansions on Crystal Gade. Eat breakfast while watching the cruise ships arrive and sip cocktails at night as the sun sets rosy on the horizon.

Great Places to Get Pampered
If you'd like to look at rejuvenated as you feel after a Caribbean vacation, then check out one of the island's full service spas. The Ritz-Carlton Spa, St. Thomas is a tranquil seaside enclave featuring eleven calming, Mediterranean-style treatment rooms, a beach-side cabana, salon and retail boutique. Massage, aromatherapy, body wraps, facials and hydrotherapy are a few of the treatments on the menu at Journey's Spa at Wyndham Sugar Bay, where there's also a private couple's massage suite and private outdoor massage cabana. The Reef Health Club and Spa, at Marriott Frenchman's Reef, offers an array of beauty treatments from facials to body waxing, as well as massage therapy with warm stones and aromatic oils.

Villas The Offer A V.I.P. Vacation
The Clintons did it and you can too. There are dozens of villas, ranging from 1- to 6-bedroom, for rent on St. Thomas. The former first family chose the Sand Dollar Estate, a luxurious villa that comes with its own white sand beach 35-feet from the main house. Agents at Calypso Realty and McLaughlin-Anderson Villas specialize in villa vacations and have online as well as hard copy brochures that describe the services and amenities offered in each property.

Guest Houses & Inns For the Budget Traveler
Sleeping overnight anywhere in the Caribbean for under $100 a night in high season is a tough feat. On St. Thomas, this is possible at the Island View Guest House, a hilltop hotel with complimentary continental breakfast and an honor bar, and Galleon House Bed & Breakfast Inn, where a full free breakfast is served each day. Both accommodations have swimming pools and on-site managers who can recommend tours, restaurants and other fun activities.

Camp Out
The Virgin Islands Campground is located on Water Island, a 500-acre island floating in the Charlotte Amalie harbor and an 8-minute ferry ride from Crown Bay. Eco-sensitive wood-frame-and-canvas cottages stand among lush foliage and have private terraces that overlook the sea. The cottages are equipped with wind-powered electricity, comfortable beds, linens and towels, lounge chairs and a cooler. A central Pavilion offers a gas grill, cooking utensils and dishware for cooking. Bicycle and snorkel rentals are available at the campground.