St. Croix: Romantic Activities

Looking Around

The best way to see what St. Croix has to offer you and your mate is to get an overview aboard a guided island tour. St. Croix Safari Tours (340-773-6700 or 773-9561 evenings) offer excellent tours in open air safari vehicles with bench seats. Tours last about five and a half hours and include visits to both island cities, as well as all the major attractions.

In Christiansted, save time to admire the Danish architecture such as the Old Scalehouse. This seaside building, looking like carved lemon sherbet, was constructed in 1856 to weigh sugar, the product of over 100 stone mills scattered across the island in the late 19th century. After weighing, the sugar was loaded on ships that arrived in St. Croix with a ballast of brick, which in turn was used to construct many of the homes and businesses. Near the Old Scalehouse, Fort Christianvaern is now operated by the U.S. Park Department. Sneak a kiss as you view the city from the yellow fortress, now open for self-guided tours.

Traveling west from Christiansted, the island becomes progressively more lush. This natural abundance is best seen at the St. George Botanical Gardens (340-692-287), a 16-acre park where 800 species of Caribbean plants thrive among the ruins of a sugar plantation. Bougainvillea as colorful as crepe paper lines the walkways that lead visitors on a self-guided tour of an orchid house, a rain forest, and even a cactus garden. With a year-around backdrop of tropical splendor, this is one of the most popular wedding sites on the island.

The lavish lifestyle enjoyed by plantation owners during the 19th century is preserved at the Whim Greathouse 340-673-6201. Here we toured an elegant home that combined English gentility with Caribbean practicality, filled with fine imported furniture as well as floor-to-ceiling shuttered windows and cool plank floors. If you're lucky, you'll be able to sample some freshly-made johnny cakes, baked in the plantation's detached cookhouse. (And don't miss the gift shop filled with Caribbean cookbooks, perfumes, and crafts.)

St. Croix's southern city, Frederiksted, lies just a few miles from the former plantation house. A stop for many cruise ships (a new dock was constructed here in 1994 to replace damage done by Hurricane Hugo), the town is a smaller version of Christiansted with a red, rather than yellow, fortress guarding the waterfront. Shopping includes duty-free boutiques featuring china and crystal to a vendor's market for inexpensive T-shirts and jewelry.

St. Croix's best treasures, however, are not the man-made ones but the natural areas found at opposite ends of the island. From Frederiksted, take Rt. 76 or the Mahogany Road north for a trip to the rainforest. The small rainforest has thick vegetation where the sunlight is filtered through mahogany, yellow cedar, and Tibet trees. This forest is also home of LEAP, the Life and Environmental Arts Project, where skilled artisans craft everything from sculptures to spoons from the hardwoods found in the rain forest. Another romantic way to enjoy the rainforest is on horseback. Paul and Jill's Equestrian Stables (340-772-2880 or 772-2627) offers rides through this lush area.

Just off the coast of the far northeast side of the island lies St. Croix's other natural treasure: Buck Island. Several outfitters take snorkelers on half and full day trips to this island to swim along the Buck Island Reef National Monument. Here, in about 12 feet of water, snorkelers follow a marked trail for a self-guided tour of this undersea world. Several companies offer tours to this site, including Big Beard's Adventure Tours (340-773-4482), and Mile Mark Watersports (340-773-2628), a very friendly group of operators who have a store in downtown Christiansted near the Old Scalehouse.