A Honeymoon To Remember

Have you ever daydreamed of spending blissful days alone with your sweetie on a deserted island surrounded by clear blue ocean? On blustery late winter days in Oklahoma, the warm, tropical Caribbean climate can be just what the doctor ordered. That’s exactly what we found when my new husband, Andy and I traveled to The U.S. Virgin Islands for our honeymoon.

Whoever invented the honeymoon knew that after the stress of planning a wedding and getting married, a newly married couple really needs a break from reality. I know we did. We couldn’t have chosen a more interesting and beautiful destination to get away from it all and just concentrate on being newlyweds.

Since the U.S. Virgin Islands are U.S. territory, you don’t need a passport to travel there but you do need a birth certificate with the official raised stamp to get out of there (a good reason to leave your birth certificate at home).

First stop: St. Croix

We began our journey in St. Croix, the largest of the four U.S. islands. St. Croix is the island for history buffs as it has flown seven different flags and has dozens of old sugar mills dotting the landscape, reminiscent of the more than 200 sugar plantations that were once the lifeblood of the economy.

We stayed at The Buccaneer Hotel, a historic resort on the site of a 17th century plantation. The grounds are beautiful with lush landscaping, an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts and open-air restaurants that sit right on the sandy beach. From our suite, we had a spectacular view of the hotel’s pool with gentle waves from the turquoise Caribbean Sea lapping the shores just beyond.

While on St. Croix, we visited the Cruzan Rum Distillery where you can tour the distillery and then taste the different rums. Cruzan Rum boasts no hangovers because they distill out all the fusil oils, which supposedly cause hangovers.

We spent an afternoon touring the beautiful St. George Botanical Gardens and historical Estate Whim Plantation Museum, two must-see destinations in St. Croix.

Christiansted and Fredericksted are historic seaside downtown areas full of shopping with art, souvenir, clothing and jewelry shops. After shopping and lunch at Fort Christian Brew Pub, we boarded a catamaran with Big Beard’s Adventure Tours and sailed 40 minutes to Buck Island National Park. It’s a tiny island, completely protected from any development, where visitors can picnic, walk the beautiful white sand and snorkel the amazing reefs. While snorkeling, my new husband lost his wedding ring! I trolled the sandy bottom of the ocean looking for it but it was time to move on so I had to abandon the search. So, somewhere at the bottom of the Caribbean, Andy’s lovely, shiny wedding band awaits a crafty diver with an underwater metal detector.

The most hair-raising adventure was a jeep tour with Tan Tan Tours. Andy and I found ourselves perched on the raised back seat of a rugged Jeep Wrangler, flying up and down treacherous cliff-side dirt roads, white-knucking the roll bar and praying for dear life. (OK, I am prone to hyperbole but it was scary!) After about 40 minutes of this death-defying ride, we careened down the side of a hill and ended up on one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. There, we climbed some treacherous rocks that led us to serene tide pools. The destination was worth the near-death experience  — I would recommend the Jeep tour for the adrenaline junky type.

Destination: St. Thomas

We flew by sea plane from St. Croix to St. Thomas, the second largest island in the USVI. The most cosmopolitan of all the islands, St. Thomas is the place to shop, dine and party. It has more jewelry shops than I’ve ever seen and everything is tax-free. St. Thomas is where cruise ships dock daily so the island is always bustling. Visitors travel by safari, open-air public busses which you can jump on and cruise from one end of the island to the other for about $1.

We only spend the better part of one day on St. Thomas but it was great fun. We bought Andy a new wedding ring at one of the many jewelry shops boasting 85 percent discounts today only and ate a wonderful Italian lunch at Virgilio’s in the Charlotte Amalie area. After shopping, we took a driving tour of the island with a wonderful driver, Campbell Rey during which we visited a breathtaking event site called Villa Botanica. Like much of the USVI, it is the site of an old sugar plantation and the new owner has turned it into a fantastical botanical garden. It’s a perfect site for a destination wedding and renting the facility is actually inexpensive compared to many wedding facilities.

Final stop: St. John

After our day on St. Thomas, we took a ferry to St. John, my favorite of all the islands. St. John is tiny and two-thirds of the island is protected national park. Only about 5,500 people live on the 20-square-mile island but usually, the population is doubled with tourists. We stayed at the beautiful Westin St. John. The resort is very family-oriented — we were surprised to see so many kids of all ages.

St. John is the most serene, quiet and restful of the islands (with the exception of Water Island where only 100 people live). We loved the relaxed atmosphere. I can understand why it is a huge destination wedding location — with miles of silky white sand beaches open to the public, it’s the perfect place for dreamy, barefoot nuptials. We met with the Stacy Mulcare, the island’s only wedding planner, who showed us around. Hawksnest Beach, Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Beach are a few of Mulcare’s favorite wedding sites. She said she plans about 70 weddings per year.

After our tour of the island, Andy and I grabbed a bottle of Cruzan vanilla rum, our towels and sunscreen and headed to the Westin’s private beach. It was the last day of our honeymoon and we just wanted to soak up the tropical sun, swim in the ocean and sip some Caribbean rum. Of all the adventures we’d had in the Virgin Islands, lounging on beach chairs, toes buried in sand, talking, laughing and watching little kids build sand castles until the sun set was perhaps the most romantic of all.