Unless you are staying at the Westin or Caneel Bay, both of which provide transportation from and to the airport, you will need a cab. Cabs are easy to get. You'll have to go either to Red Hook on the eastern end of St. Thomas (longish cab ride, short boat trip) or to downtown Charlotte Amalie (short cab ride, longer boat trip).

You might also want to consider the possibility of renting a car at the airport and taking it to St. John on the ferry from Red Hook. You will probably want a car for at least part of your vacation; I personally think it's a mistake to try to get by without one, and I believe the majority agree. There's considerable discussion in this forum of the pros and cons of renting at the airport versus renting on St. John.

You don't need a reservation for any ferry. You can find a schedule here:

http://www.usvi.net/usvi/ferry.htm

Enjoy your vacation. St. John is a fantastic destination.

at the airport, there are a bunch of taxis vans waiting out front. simply go up to one of them and tell them where you want to go. they'll point you to the right taxi.

now, there are a couple of ways to get to st. john.

(1) you can take a taxi across the island to red hook and catch a ferry over to cruz bay. the taxi ride can be long as you have to pretty much cross the whole island. also, the taxi might make several stops on the way to drop other passengers off. but, this is a good way to see st. thomas and the beautiful scenery. the ferry ride is not very long.

(2) you can take a shorter taxi ride over to the port there in st. thomas and catch a longer ferry ride directly to cruz bay. this is a good way to see st. thomas by sea. also, you won't be couped up in a taxi.

here is a website with ferry ticket information. www.vinow.com/general_usvi/interisland_ferry/

last summer, my fiance and i went to st. john. we took the longer taxi ride to red hook to get to st. john, and we took the longer ferry ride to come back to the airport. both routes are fun and will provide you awesome views. enjoy your vacation!

Thanks for the help, I have another question. We are renting a car on St John. We'll only be spending a full day on St Thomas on our last full day of the trip. (we are ferrying back to St Thomas in the morning, and then will crash at a hotel, and catch our flight out early the next morning) So, we will have one full day in St. Thomas. The hotel we are thinking of staying at (Mafolie) provides a shuttle that will take you to the shopping but then you have to catch a cab back. Also, we'd need to catch a cab to the airport in the morning too, and catch a cab from the ferry to Mafolie Hotel the morning we get there.

So, do you think it's worth it to just rent a car for one day while in St Thomas? Bascially we'd pick it up when we get off the ferry (are there car rental places by the ferry drop off?) and then drop it off either that night, and catch a cab to airport, or drop car off in the morning at the airport (are the car places open that early, I think our flight leaves at like 7am!)

Sorry I have researched St John alot since it's 95% of our trip, and I know nothing about St Thomas.

My onlly experience with St. Thomas has been in getting from the airport to St. John and back (which I have done both via cabs to/from Red Hook and by renting a car at the airport). But based on your description of your itinerary, why don't you rent your car at the airport? It seems to me you would save a lot of hassle and at least a little money.

I don't think you can rent a car at Red Hook. It might be different at the Charlotte Amalie terminal.

As a slight addendum to my previous remarks: Cab fare in the USVI tends to be assessed per person, not per trip (although of course the length of the trip is factored in, too), so taxis can end up being relatively expensive.

Keep this in mind, too. The ferry from Charlotte Amalie has a rather sporadic schedule, not always on time. The Red Hook ferry, on the other hand, runs every hour (almost always on time) until 11pm. To avoid standing around at a ferry terminal for a long time and then, perhaps, having it cancelled, I would go to Red Hook.

You won't need a car on St. Thomas for just one day. The Mafolie also has a free shuttle down to Magen's Beach and back each day. But your best bet (since you will have been on the beach a lot already in St. John) would be to take the Mafolie shuttle down to Charlotte Amalie for a morning of shopping, have lunch at Gladys' Cafe, and then get a taxi to take you to Mountaintop for a banana daiquiri and/or stop at Udder Delite near Magen's Bay for the best liquer flavored milkshake in the world, and circle the island. At Mountaintop on a clear day you can see 20+ islands and cays in the US and BVI... And, if you want a lovely setting for dinner, as well as great food, taxi over the mountain to the Agave Terrace. Taxis are not cheap, but for just one day...I wouldn't bother with a car. You will spend all your time trying to figure out how to get from here to there. Call Clover (340-690-0621) for taxi, great tours/reasonable rates. She always takes care of our family.

great, you do have a point about us trying to find our way around everywhere if we rent a car. Maybe we will give Clover a call. I haven't checked into car rental rates yet. But I just thought if I am going to spend $200 on taxi fares I might as well rent a car and be able to go more places? But then again you are right about having to find our own ways around. Guess we'll just have to think on that one for a bit.