Practical Information for visiting Virgin Islands

Drive on the left. The cars are American and left-hand-drive, so your instincts and your seating position disagree with each other — which is precisely why visitors drift right at junctions. The danger points are turning out of a car park, a driveway or a side road, and roundabouts. Say it out loud for the first day.

Roads are steep, narrow and often without shoulders, and rain makes them slick. A vehicle with some clearance is worth having on St. John. Petrol is sold by the gallon and speeds are posted in miles per hour.

Safari taxis — open-sided trucks with bench seats — run the main routes on all three islands at a fixed fare per person, shared with whoever else is going that way. They are cheap, frequent and the normal way to move around without a car. Rates are published; agree the fare before you get in.

The Red Hook to Cruz Bay ferry connects St. Thomas and St. John in about twenty minutes and runs roughly hourly. There is a separate, less frequent car barge if you are taking a vehicle.

St. Croix is not a day trip. It is reached by a seaplane between Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted, a small commercial flight, or a ferry that takes well over an hour and does not run daily. Plan it as a separate leg.

The currency is the US dollar, and the banking, postal and mobile systems are all American — a US phone plan works here without roaming, and mail goes at domestic rates.

Cards are accepted almost everywhere. Carry some cash for safari taxis, roadside food stands and small shops, and for the beach vendors in the national park.

There is no sales tax, which is genuinely unusual. What there is instead: a 12.5% hotel occupancy tax, frequently a resort fee on top, and an automatic service charge of 10-20% on many restaurant bills. Read the bill before adding a tip, because it is often already there.

Where service is not included, tipping follows US convention — around 18-20% in restaurants, a dollar or two per bag, and a few dollars for a safari taxi driver.

The duty-free allowance is double the usual. US residents returning from the Virgin Islands may bring back $1,600 of goods rather than the standard $800, and a larger alcohol allowance with it. This is the actual reason Charlotte Amalie's shopping district exists.

US citizens need no passport to travel here from the mainland — this is domestic travel. A government photo ID is enough to fly, though a passport makes the return simpler and is required if you hop across to the British Virgin Islands for the day, which is a different country.

The territory is on the US mobile system with +1 340 numbers. A US plan works here as domestic — no roaming charges, no new SIM — which catches visitors out in the other direction: a plan from elsewhere will roam at international rates.

Coverage is good in the towns and along the main roads, and thin in the national park interior, on the north-shore beaches of St. John, and in the steeper valleys. Download offline maps.

Wifi is standard in hotels, restaurants and cafés. Speeds are adequate rather than fast; everything runs over submarine cable.

Power is 110V on US plugs, so American devices need no adapter. Outages are more frequent than on the mainland and electricity here is among the most expensive anywhere under the US flag — which is part of why hotel rates are what they are.

English is the official language and everyone speaks it, so nothing here is a barrier. What you will also hear is Virgin Islands Creole, an English-based creole with its own grammar and rhythm, used among locals and switched out of when speaking to visitors.

Spanish is widely spoken on St. Croix, which has a large Puerto Rican community, and there is a long-established French-speaking community in Frenchtown on St. Thomas, descended from settlers from St. Barthélemy.

The one piece of local usage worth learning is not a word but a habit: greet before you ask. "Good morning" comes first, every time, and the conversation goes better for it.

A few you will hear: limin' (hanging out, doing nothing in particular), ah we own (ours — a phrase of local pride), bush tea (herbal tea used as a remedy), jumbie (a spirit, and the root of the mocko jumbie stilt dancers).

Most visits pass without incident, and the great majority of what goes wrong here is a road accident or a theft from a car rather than anything directed at visitors.

• Driving on the left is the top risk and the most common cause of visitor injury. The combination of left-side roads and left-hand-drive cars is unique to these islands and defeats habits from everywhere. Take the first day slowly, and be deliberate pulling out of every driveway and car park.
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• Roads are steep, narrow, unlit at night and slippery in rain. Several beach access roads need a vehicle with clearance.
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• Theft from parked cars at beaches and trailheads is the common property crime. Leave nothing visible, and leave nothing at all if you can. Many locals leave the car unlocked to avoid a broken window.
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• Violent crime exists, is concentrated in specific neighbourhoods of Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted, and is overwhelmingly local rather than aimed at visitors. Avoid unfamiliar areas on foot after dark and take a taxi instead of walking back.
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• Water safety. The north shores can have strong surf and rip currents in winter swells, and many beaches have no lifeguard. Ask locally before swimming somewhere unfamiliar.
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• Hurricanes. In season, know your accommodation's plan and follow territorial emergency instructions. Warnings here come with days of notice.
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• Emergency number: 911, as in the United States.

No vaccinations are required, tap water in the towns is treated and safe, and there is no malaria. Many buildings collect rainwater in cisterns, which is normal and monitored; ask if you are unsure about drinking it.

Mosquito-borne illness is the live concern. Dengue circulates and outbreaks occur, and chikungunya and Zika have both been present. Repellent with DEET or picaridin, and covering up at dawn and dusk, is the whole of the protection.

Sun and heat. The UV is intense year-round and the trade wind hides it — people burn badly on breezy days. Remember that the sunscreen has to be a mineral one to be legal here.

In the water: do not touch the coral — fire coral stings and cuts from any coral infect readily in warm water. Sea urchins are common on rocky bottoms. And learn the manchineel tree, which grows on these beaches, is often marked with a red band, and whose sap blisters skin. Do not shelter under one in the rain, and do not touch the small green fruit.

Medical capacity is the practical issue. Both territorial hospitals were severely damaged in 2017 and have operated with reduced capability since. Routine care is available; serious trauma, cardiac emergencies and complex surgery are typically flown to Puerto Rico or the US mainland. Travel insurance with medical evacuation cover is worth having even for US citizens, because a medevac is not a domestic ambulance ride.

United States federal law applies, alongside territorial law. The drinking age is 21 and is enforced in bars; the exception visitors notice is that open containers of alcohol are legal in public here, so a drink on the street or a beach is ordinary.

Reef-safe sunscreen is legally required. Products containing oxybenzone, octinoxate or octocrylene may not be imported, sold or used. Bring mineral sunscreen.

Inside Virgin Islands National Park, federal rules apply: take nothing — no shells, no coral, no sand, alive or dead — anchor only on the moorings, and stay on trails. Fines are real.

Do not wear swimwear off the beach. Walking into a shop, a restaurant or through town in a bikini or bare-chested is considered genuinely disrespectful and, in some places, is against the law. Cover up before you leave the sand.

Greet people before speaking to them. This is the etiquette point locals raise most often about visitors, and it takes two words.

Cannabis is decriminalised for small amounts and legal for registered medical use, but it is not legal to buy recreationally, and federal law still applies on national park land and at the airport. Do not attempt to fly out with it.

Ask before photographing people, particularly at Carnival, where the costumes invite cameras and the people wearing them are still people.

911 reaches police, fire and ambulance throughout the territory, exactly as on the US mainland.

The two hospitals are Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas and the Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix. Both handle emergencies; both have run with reduced capacity since the 2017 hurricanes. Serious cases are stabilised and flown to Puerto Rico or Florida.

St. John has a clinic in Cruz Bay rather than a hospital, so anything serious there means a ferry or a boat transfer to St. Thomas first. Factor that in before a remote hike.

For trouble on the water, the US Coast Guard covers these waters — VHF channel 16 is the distress channel and is monitored.

In hurricane season, the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency issues watches, warnings and shelter information, and local radio stays on the air when other things do not. Know where your shelter is before you need it.