Goodnight,
I can’t stay with my bad or bad experiences for hundreds to live and with my uneasy conscience. We spent 5 days in Saint Thomas and Saint John, from the first day I simply wanted to get out of this place, in 24 hours unpleasant events happened that justified 17 people in our group leaving this island, which in the end I determined as if it were a purgatory. I will inform you that 170 dollars for a 3-kilometre journey from the airport to the hotel is a robbery, they hide behind saying that the local government requires it of them, which I think is not true, so they let all tourists know. That week, according to them, the rate for having a taxi for a few hours a day would be $6,000.
Already in Amalie. hotel for dinner, we walked only three streets and a person took out a knife and put it to the back of my neck, we all ran, this was on the sidewalk where Veterans Drive is, it was only 6:30 p.m., in the return, a vehicle left at more than 80 kilometers per hour from the side of the Windward Passage hotel and for half a meter it did not run over my daughter-in-law who is seven months pregnant.
The bitterness of the population is evident, nobody but nobody is happy on this island, people are angry, tourists are the ones with whom their evil is released, for example, I saw an older woman and to spend some money I wanted to buy a lottery ticket, I took out $5 and checked it and returned it to me throwing it in my face, he never understood that I only wanted to buy him some lottery numbers, until a Dominican told me what I did or said to the lady, to which I replied that nothing, I explained to him that I only had to buy some lottery tickets, he patiently explained and then he sold me the lottery, I left there disappointed with how people are there.
In Saint John, the matter was worse. Black Lives Matter was too present. A white man in my group, from Utah, being all on the ferry, put his mask under his nose, and was taken from the Ferry, our walk went from a beautiful beach to a fight with five men from the boat, it was an angry mob, I never saw this before, their faces reflecting their hatred.
One of the explanations that we all hear from a person is that there in the islands a weekend in a house pays up to $60,000, so our costs and budgets were ridiculously poor, hence we were treated as homeless.
People always have an aggressive and hurtful response, you should never ask about prices, places or things, it is collective.
Our grandchildren swam in the beach, ate in restaurants, bought jewelry, bought drinks, walked and breathed MARIJUANA wherever they wanted to go, move, get around, be Saint Thomas on the beach that is by the airport where the CAPO was selling drugs and surrounded by women and smoked marijuana for 5 long hours and the whole beach too, a way to “promote his business”, the police were at the airport with more than eight vehicles there and the military receiving tourists… I thought I was in Cuba. The worst was mainly Saint John at sunset, lots of drug dealers smoking and selling marijuana.
Each one of the 17 people who were there knows more things, I will not say more, but I assure you that I will never return to this place where I felt the real risk in which we subjected my family believing that it would be different. They cannot hide behind Covid because people are hoping that tourism will arrive, anywhere in the world.
I hope that the treatment received on the island is not the same as what I am writing, what I want is to say it and I will do it and I will repeat it to whoever wants to visit these islands, that they know how they can be treated, I felt like an offender without doing anything bad for it, the only thing we wanted was to enjoy nature and it was not possible.
Our experience may not be of interest to you, but could you do something so that this does not happen, you know that there are 17 people who did not do well, how many others are the same?
Signed:
RPG
San Jose, Costa Rica
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Phillips said his vacation group was comprised of eight North Americans, seven Mexicans and two Costa Ricans.
This has to be one of the worst pieces of literature published on the internet…did anyone edit this? This story, by no means, is a reflection of the USVI. I have lived here long enough to experience quite a bit & have never EVER had an experience like this. You should be ashamed for writing this piece. Each sentence was truly painful to read. The bitterness in this post is evident. Shame on you.
I live on St Croix and I hope that our visitors have a better report of they’re
Vacation. Yes we also have some bad apples here, we need foot patrol by the police, not SUV s with closed windows,and high speed summing up and down the street. What ever happen to those nice old Police officers that mixed with the public?
How is BLM too present, what a way to say they’re racist…
The islands are not the same, there are lots of people from other surrounding places. Most native virgin islanders left the islands years ago. ( Although, there are still native born virgin islanders) Now you have people from all over. The economy is much higher. America does not take care of it’s main landers think on its territories. When mainlanders get their tax refund in weeks. The territories gets theirs years behind.
It’s sad that you were not able to enjoy the island for what it has to offer. I hope your next trip else where would be better. This is where the division of tourism has to do the work along with enforcement and of course politicians. This us not the images of the BVI and USVI I knew as a child. I was there not too long ago. I did not observed any hostility. I can not discount your experience. All over you find rude people. You go to NYC. Your cab will drive you 10 blocks to drive up your meter if you don’t know where you are going. You have to let him know you want the shortest route. Also, let them know you are not a tourists. Also, people goes to the islands expecting to be catered to people are having a hard time just living. People are being raked over the coal just to survive. That’s enough to make you angry.
Now if you want to talk of bad treatment. Look at the way blacks were treated in china during coved. Also during the Russian war on Eucraian, Blacks traveling to European countries denied entry into restaurants. Your treatment and their treatment are not right. So thanks for high lighting your experience. Hopefully this gets to the right people to cause a change. For the next visitors to have a better experience.
Just know visitors before you and their entitled actions could also cause some one else to catch a negative reaction. People have a way of looking down on others. Let’s get it together people.
Let’s use this as an honest look in the mirror. Clearly, one groups bad experience does not constitute fact. However, there were many factual problems in the letter that are true about the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands needs to address these issues or it will only get worse.
I am so sorry for your experience. I am a proud NATIVE Virgin Islander who resides on St. John. I do not understand your reference to “BLM …” referring to your visit there. In fact, many would say the opposite. I don’t have to rely on taxi, but the prices you quoted seemed too high. You should report the driver to the Taxi Commission. Just the license plate number would also suffice. Are you saying that not one day of your visit was enjoyable?