First read then try the following… Close your eyes, let yourself drift away to a beautiful island, soft white sand beaches lined with palm trees, sun, exotic plants, azure water, waves gently rolling against the shore, tropical fish and amazing coral reefs – now enjoy these pictures below. As you can see that paradise does exist and we found it on a recent family trip. Dreams met reality during our Virgin Islands vacation…

Before the trip we did some research online and followed some of the ideas. One piece of advice was to rent a car. Since we only had a week on the islands the car gave us freedom (we didn’t have to rely on unreliable public bus service) and actually offered savings because taxis charge per person so it would quickly add up for a family of four. The same would happen with renting snorkeling gear so we decided to buy it and bring it with us. We ended up snorkeling two or three times each day, so it was great to have our own gear always handy. The last recommendation, and probably the most important for me, was having an underwater camera. We found a refurbished compact Olympus Tough online which had great reviews and turned out to be a pretty powerful device considering its size.

The first thing I noticed after we arrived were the colors and nature so different from what we have in Wisconsin. The kids were excited to see palm trees. Alek’s dream was to climb one and pick a coconut with his own hands. He fulfilled this dream the very first morning at our hotel beach. 🙂

Some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean (according to guide books) are found here in the Virgin Islands – and we were determined to visit them all. Here is a panoramic view of Magen’s Bay on St Thomas. According to Conde Nast and National Geographic this is supposed to be one of the best beaches in the world! Snorkeling is very poor there but the beach indeed is expansive, calm and beautifully lined with coconut palms. I read that it can be very crowded on heavy cruise ship days. We came there later in the afternoon and it was quite empty, perfect for a long walk for me and a swim for the rest of my family. We also found a very interesting thorned tree and a mangrove lagoon.

Lindquist Beach, another favorite for us, is located on the East End of St Thomas. Not many tourists know about it and it was almost deserted when we came on a Sunday morning. Calm, crystal blue water, white sand and indigenous trees made it a perfect spot to relax. Although I felt awkward and uneasy when Sonia was going to submerge our new point and shoot for the first time…

The exotic beaches were of course great but my big dream was to explore Virgin Islands coral reef. I’ve never done it before and it was one of the things on my life’s bucket list. Although I am not a strong swimmer (I like to be able to touch bottom at all times and don’t feel comfortable putting my head under water) I REALLY wanted to see and experience this underwater world. The first attempt on Coki Beach (one of the best spots for snorkeling on St Thomas) was disastrous. I couldn’t stop gagging on the snorkel, the waves made it super difficult to enter water and I was ready to quit. But my husband wasn’t. 🙂 That evening he gave me a basic lesson at a hotel pool, kids pretended to be exotic fish to keep me distracted from my fears of having head underwater and with this help I was able to take a lap or two around the pool. I’m so glad I didn’t give up! It also turned out that I could borrow an inflatable snorkeling vest from our hotel. After that one evening practice and with a vest I was ready to conquer the unknown and give the ocean and a new camera a try. Every day beginning the second day of vacation I was in the water and seeing new sights – underwater. What a dream…

Taking underwater photos turned out to be quite a challenge. The fish move quickly, waves were constantly moving me, the screen on the camera was poorly visible, so more than half of the time I was taking pictures without having any idea what I’m doing. With my regular DSLR I always shoot in manual mode and love the control it gives me. Underwater I was grateful that I didn’t need to think about changing any settings besides choosing one of four available underwater modes, and even that seemed like too much hassle 🙂 As a result only a fraction of images turned out decent enough to share. On the other hand it would be a torture for me to experience that amazing underwater world and not be able to capture it at all. So I’m grateful for what came out.

We’ve read about great beaches and snorkeling spots on St John, which natural beauty is still unspoiled and protected by Virgin Islands National Park. So one day we decided to leave crowded and commercial St Thomas and took a car ferry from Red Hook to explore St John. Indeed it turned out to be as close to a Caribbean paradise as it can get and was definitely the best day of our entire Virgin Islands vacation… We quickly drove through busy streets of Cruz Bay and followed North Shore Road (Route 20 and then 10) to explore the best beaches, vistas, old sugar plantations and snorkeling spots.

There were two definite highlights of our day on St John, both related to snorkeling. One was a self-guided underwater snorkeling trail on Trunk Bay. The 675-foot-long trail takes about half hour to traverse and has large underwater signs that identify species of coral and other marine life. I loved the trail so much that I took it twice, both times attempting to document as well as I could what I saw. Again it wasn’t easy and the photos don’t fully reflect the reality but at least it’s something 🙂

The second amazing experience on St John was snorkeling around Waterlemon Cay on Leinster Bay. It was over a mile hike in hot sun from the car to get to the bay, but it was so worth it! The reef around the cay is the most dramatic I’ve seen and it was quite an adventure to make a counterclockwise ring around the tiny island. Unfortunately for this one instance I forgot my underwater camera in the car so wasn’t able to take any photos. On the other hand I could just be present and enjoy that marvelous world. Here is an above-water photo of this special place…

On the last full day of our vacation we decided to visit Charlotte Amalie, the capital of U.S. Virgin Islands. The town is normally full of tourists from cruise ships, but it was Friday, the only day of the week when there are no ships, so we had the streets almost to ourselves. They were deserted and all the duty free shops that the town is famous for were closed but we’re not shoppers so we didn’t mind. First is a bird’s view of Charlotte Amalie and then its quiet streets on a Friday morning…

It happened that the Carnival children’s parade was  scheduled that day in town so we were able to join in watching.

This was certainly one of our most memorable trips and I hope that the photos will inspire you to consider your own Virgin Islands vacation. If you do and you need more travel tips feel free to ask, I’ll be happy to share more. 🙂

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