I’m just back from St. Croix. The only thing that seemed to ring true from the things that I have read on the USVI Discussion Board is; you have to check it out yourself. Most of the posts are opinions and are relative to the writer’s past experiences and where they have lived. For example, I expected dirty grocery stores with very little merchandise. I thought the grocery stores were big, very nice, clean and well stocked. The island looked clean with very little litter in the ditches. We had worthless items stolen from our car. Everything has bars and locks. If you already have those issues – might as well have them on St. Croix. If you come from a community where that is not the case, I would think it would be hard to get used to.
Most of the people were friendly and down to earth. The were only a few “crabby” people and they were ones that worked in restaurants and at the airport. They were not rude but seemed unhappy. Maybe just a bad day or maybe they work too much.
There were a variety of homes from little to huge and from nice condos to plain apartments. Some of the smaller houses were quite close to their neighbors. They were all very “tropical”.
Compared to where I live, there are a lot of conveniences. Lots of places to eat, a K-mart, video rental stores and all close to home no matter where you live. Gas is way cheaper!
The schools I only got to see from the roadside. They looked nice. However I talked to quite a few people and they don’t recommend the public schools. I talked to a person working on the review team for the accreditation. She was impressed with teachers and felt they were very caring people. One of the strengths were a good science program in the high school. I think it would be really difficult to raise a teen-ager there – not that’s easy anywhere. The ocean and beaches are absolutely beautiful. I went for a job interview that did not materialize so I don’t really need to ponder these things anymore but thought they might be helpful to someone else. Also please remember my experiences are based on very short stay.
