St. Croix: everything but the crowds

BY CINDY LOOSE | THE WASHINGTON POST

November 13, 2005

Awinding drive lined with royal palms ends at a 19th century Danish sugar plantation. Giant pink, yellow and purple orchids dangle from kapok trees in the St. George Village Botanical Garden.

Later on our four-day trip, we'll ride horses through an orchard beneath mango trees heavy with fruit, and past papaya and tamarind dotted white with resting egrets.

No question: St. Croix is a beautiful place, its landscape sometimes reminiscent of Hawaii. Unlike many Caribbean islands whose sandy soil supports little more than palm trees and brush, St. Croix enjoys tangles of flowering hibiscus, bougainvillea and frangipani. During our visit last summer, mangoes were growing in such profusion that people didn't bother trying to sell them - they simply set them out along the road for the taking.

Then, of course, there are the beaches - dozens of them, ranging from OK to stellar.

Of the three U.S. Virgins, St. Croix is by far the largest - 84 square miles, compared with St. Thomas' 32 and St. John's 19. St. Croix has the most historical attractions, the widest open spaces, the best diving and three of the islands' four golf courses.

A spot less visited

Yet, it is the least celebrated and least visited of the three. Last year, St. Thomas and St. John combined hosted nearly 530,000 visitors who arrived by plane, and nearly 2 million by sea. St. Croix: 133,000 visitors by air, a mere 25,000 by sea.

That's the bad news for businesses that rely on tourism, but it's good news for travelers who seek to avoid the crowds.

Cruzans, as the locals are known, complain their island is the stepchild of the U.S. Virgin Islands - the beautiful Cinderella who is overlooked when it's time for the territorial government based in St. Thomas to promote the islands.

Cruzans argue that their island offers the best of both worlds represented by their stepsisters across the way. Sam Halvorson, a Cruzan diver transplanted from Montana 18 years ago, summed it up in a compelling way: "The rat race follows you from New York to St. Thomas," he said. "St. John is quiet and beautiful and great if you want to go camping, but there's not much going on. If you want a laid-back place that still has plenty of activity and shopping, St. Croix's the way to go."

The price was right at the Sugar Beach condominium resort - $99 for a suite with a sizable bedroom, kitchen and a porch overlooking the water. But the sand is hardly the consistency of sugar. It might more properly be called Kosher Salt Beach. And what's with the thick metal chain padlocked around the wrought-iron door on my porch? Is that a public housing project down at the end of the beach? Turns out, yes. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But the padlock and chain are reminders of a second reason St. Croix has fewer visitors than its stepsisters: the perception that crime is a serious problem. As FBI stats prove, the perception is unfair. St. Croix, like all Caribbean islands has some crime, and neighborhoods to avoid after dark. But crime is no worse than on other islands, and in fact less of a problem than on many. Why the bad rap? Cruzans will hate me for mentioning it, but more than 30 years ago, tourism to the island was stopped in its tracks when five men gunned down

11 people, killing eight, at the Fountain Valley Golf Club (soon after to be renamed the Carambola Golf Club). People who don't exactly remember the incident still have a hazy memory of hearing something about crime on St. Croix.

In the many years since, tourism has been hampered simply by the lack of tourism - a crazy Catch-22.

Coming: brand name hotels

Tourism officials are hoping the morass will end when ground is broken for a convention center. "A convention center will bring brand-name hotels, which St. Croix doesn't have, and brand names will bring more visitors, and that will bring more flights," said Monique Sibilly-Hodge, assistant commissioner of tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a telephone interview after my trip.

I'm just glad I got here before the rush. Yes, I'm put off by the padlock and the rough sand beach, but that problem's easily solved. I head to other pristine beaches.

On my first day, I drive a few miles and buy a day pass to the Buccaneer resort hotel. During the busiest winter months, the pass isn't always available. But I hit a slow period, and for $6 a person, spend the day enjoying the stellar ambience and first-rate beach of the best property on the island - one of the best in the entire Caribbean.

Our day pass gets my preteen daughter and me big comfy lounge chairs. When we tire of swimming and reading, we rent a kayak. After paddling around a cove, we venture beyond a rocky point and find our own private beach, then later paddle back to our lounge chairs and a pair of piña coladas, one virgin.

The day is nicely capped with dinner in downtown Christiansted, one of the best-preserved historic towns in the Caribbean. More than 100 brightly painted, neoclassical buildings erected during Danish rule in the 18th and 19th centuries line the streets and alleyways. We stroll the stores, which offer the same duty-free shopping as St. Thomas.

The snorkeling at Buck Island, just off St. Croix's shores, is better than at Australia's Great Barrier Reef, I promise my daughter, based on my Buck Island experience 20 years ago. How could that be? Well, of course it's not as extensive as the Great Barrier Reef, but in a given area, there is a higher concentration of red, purple and blue sea fans, spectacular elkhorn and brain corals, and colorful fish, I assure her.