We arrived at St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands at about 8 am for another glorious sunny day. The girls we met in San Juan told us to make sure we went to Magen’s Bay Beach and to try a Bushwacker frozen drink. This sounded like a good plan, so we waited until the crowds had left the ship and then wandered off about 10 am.

We walked to the taxi area, at the far end of the local shops of course. Everything is strategically placed in every port to make sure you can’t miss the shops.

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The taxi fares are set. It was $8 per person to go to Magen’s Bay. We boarded one of the local ‘buses’ An open deck ‘cattle truck’ type of vehicle. The driver was not very courteous. I heard other people getting on board for a 2 hour tour, and when I reminded him we only wanted to go to Megan’s Bay he answered quite rudely and said he knew. So he took us two blocks, then all the people going to Down Town and Megan’s Bay we put off and crammed into a small wagon with no air-conditioning. We all complained and Paul and I got out Down Town with the others who were going shopping. We didn’t want to go the 20 minutes to Megan’s Bay over the mountain with this driver in this vehicle.

As we walked away, another taxi driver approached us. He took us to Megan’s Bay for the $8 each in an air-conditioned van – just the 2 of us – and he was a courteous and much safer driver. He also advised us to negotiate for the ride back and try to get in a van that was dropping someone off, rather than return in the local ‘cattle truck’ type of taxis.

Well we finally arrived, and it was stunning – what good advice you get in bars!!!!

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A beautiful bay surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and an calm opening to the Atlantic Ocean. The beach had a lovely sandy bottom and the water was clear, sparkling and warm. We had a lovely few hours swimming and then we went to the bar to try the Bushwacker. There is no measuring of spirits here. The bottles are tipped and the glassed filled. The Bushwacker (sounds so Australian) had about 4 spirits, Coconut milk and nutmeg and was quite sweet – a very nice way to finish our time ashore.

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We then managed to get a ride in a van to go back to the ship at St Thomas as we had to be aboard by 3.30 pm.

All up, with the changes in the morning, it cost us $48 (with tips) in transport to go to the beach and back, but it was worth it.