Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fajardo and Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas) is about 1
3
⁄
4
hours, with the departure
Saturday morning and the return Sunday afternoon. The cost is $100 one-way, $125
round-trip. For more information, call
Transportation Services
at
&
340/776-
6282.
Visitor Information
The
visitor center,
78 1-2-3 Estate Constant, across from the Nisky Shopping Cen-
ter, on the Waterfront in downtown Charlotte Amalie (
&
340/774-8784;
www.visit
usvi.com), is open Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to 2pm. You can
get maps and a list of legal shoreline fishing sites throughout the islands here. There's
also an information desk at the cruise-ship terminal.
Island Layout
CHARLOTTE AMALIE
For a map of the landmarks and attractions discussed below, see “Walking Tour:
Charlotte Amalie,” on p. 87.
Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas, is the only town on the island. Its
seaside promenade is called
Waterfront Highway,
or simply, the
Waterfront.
From
here, you can take any of the streets or alleyways into town to
Main Street
(also
called Dronningens Gade). Principal links between Main Street and the Waterfront
include
Raadets Gade, Tolbod Gade, Store Tvaer Gade,
and
Strand Gade.
Main Street is home to all of the major shops. The western end (near the intersec-
tion with Strand Gade) is known as
Market Square.
Once the site of the biggest
slave market auctions in the Caribbean Basin, today it's an open-air cluster of stalls
where native farmers and gardeners gather daily (except Sun) to sell their produce.
Go early in the morning to see the market at its best.
Running parallel to and north of Main Street is
Back Street
(also known as Vim-
melskaft Gade), which is also lined with stores, including some of the less expensive
choices.
Beware:
It can be dangerous to walk along Back Street at night, but it's
reasonably safe for daytime shopping.
In the eastern part of town, between Tolbod Gade and Fort Pladsen (northwest of
Fort Christian), lies
Emancipation Park,
commemorating the liberation of the
slaves in 1848. Most of the major historic buildings, including the Legislature, Fort
Christian, and Government House, lie within a short walk of this park.
Southeast of the park looms
Fort Christian.
Crowned by a clock tower and
painted rusty red, it was constructed by the Danes in 1671. The
Legislative Build-
ing,
seat of the elected government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, lies on the harbor side
of the fort.
Kongens Gade
(or King's St.) leads to
Government Hill,
which overlooks the
town and St. Thomas Harbor.
Government House,
a white brick building dating
from 1867, stands atop the hill.
Between
Hotel 1829
(a mansion built that year by a French sea captain) and
Government House is a staircase known as the
Street of 99 Steps.
Actually, some-
one miscounted: It should be called the Street of 103 Steps. Regardless, the steps
lead to the summit of Government Hill.
WEST OF CHARLOTTE AMALIE
The most important of the outlying neighborhoods to the west of Charlotte Amalie is
Frenchtown.
Some of the older islanders still speak a distinctive Norman-French
dialect here. Because the heart of Charlotte Amalie is dangerous at night, Frenchtown,
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