US Virgin Islands

On 31 March 1917, the United States bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million in gold coin, and Transfer Day has been observed there every year since. St Thomas, St John and St Croix passed from Danish to American hands almost overnight, which is why the colonial architecture in Charlotte Amalie still has a recognisably Northern European character and why the rest of life in the islands runs on US dollars, US power outlets and US time zones. For an American or international guest flying in from the United States, the USVI is the simplest first port in the Caribbean.

St John, the smallest of the three, holds the Virgin Islands National Park, which covers around 60 percent of the island, and Trunk Bay, regularly named among the best beaches in the world for its underwater snorkelling trail. St Thomas is the working centre with the Cyril E. King airport, the cruise port at Charlotte Amalie, and the marinas at Yacht Haven Grande and American Yacht Harbor. St Croix, 65 kilometres south, is the larger and quieter island, with the only living coral barrier reef in the United States off Buck Island and the rum distilleries that produce most of Cruzan Rum.

The dry season runs December to April, with the trade winds blowing steady from the east. Most USVI charters pick up at one of the St Thomas marinas. The standard week is St Thomas-St John (with Buck Island as a day trip from St Croix), and a Caribbean two-week charter stretches naturally into the British Virgin Islands across Pillsbury Sound, which is why most BVI/USVI charters do both.