Blog #4 Kristen Connery

If you could chose a dream vacation to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Well, if you needed help choosing, I would suggest you visit the Virgin Islands. Growing up my father always had to move around for his job, and being that my siblings and I stayed at home with my mother, it was always a mini vacation wherever we went to visit him. However, once my dad moved to St. John, Virgin Islands for his job, it was a real vacation.

                                                                         Above is a photo of the view from the Westin Hotel in St John, where my father works and I've visited many times

There are a lot of great reasons to go to the Virgin Islands. First of all, there are a 3 islands which make up the Virgin Islands. They are- St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. I would have to tell you that my favorite of all the islands would have to be St. John, for many different reasons. St. John is the smallest of the islands, and it has a very home-y feel. However, if you are more of a "city" person, you would enjoy being on St. Thomas, because it is the capitol of the islands and has the most shopping and commotion of all three islands. St. Croix is the island you would go to if you are looking to relax, because it is the most calm and peaceful of the three islands.

On the islands life is very different. In New England, we often would not be startled to walk outside and see a squirrel run by. On the islands however, it is always common to see large iguanas (pictured on the left) walking around. I found this very startling. Also things on the islands are very expensive, with living expenses averaging at 33% more expensive than in the US.


Flying to the Virgin Islands may also be a bit of a hassle.  There are no direct flights there, and usually you must first take a flight to Florida, or a surrounding state to get on a smaller plane into St. Thomas. This makes the flights a bit more costly, ranging from about $250-$500 seeing as you must take 2 different flights there and back. Also, if you aren't staying on St. Thomas, you must now take a ferry, which averages between $10-$14, to travel to the other islands because there is one airport in St. Thomas.

Even though there may be some down sides of travelling to the Virgin Islands, I highly recommend you do. It will be the vacation of a life time and you will never regret it! If you would like to learn more about the Virgin Islands, this website can give you a lot of helpful information!