U. S. Virgin Islands Tourist Trap Tips by catalysta

To my opinionated way of thinking, most duty-free shopping is a scam, but if it keeps a lot of you cruise ship types off the precious beaches, I'm all for it!
I still recall one visit to the Island Beachcomber beach bar (one of my favorite hangouts, a friendly mellow spot) when a couple of women from New Jersey were there for 4 nights running, bragging each night about the jewelry they'd bought that day, and complaining about the heat in Charlotte Amalie.
They were dripping with sweat & all manner of gems, waggling their fat fingers at the rest of us poor benighted beach bums. Not ONE DAY of their vacation was spent doing much other than shopping.

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At Least Do This: Heck, they could've stayed home to shop the discount malls of Paramus for that.
Alternative: Me? Given a choice between a few hours of shopping in CA vs. a few more hours in that clear blue Caribbean Sea, you can guess where I'll be!

Most anyone who's been to Charlotte Amalie on a land-based trip will agree, the mall at Havensight by the cruisehip docks is a complete rip-off, but it's a great way to keep the cruisers occupied!
Still, hundreds of them every day at certain times will flood the town of Charlotte Amalie proper anyway, so it's best to get hold of one of the tourist publications that lists the cruiseship docking schedules so you can plan to avoid them. CA is not bad if you time it right.

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