US Virgin Islands

Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas connects to most US East Coast and Midwest cities directly. Charlotte Amalie, the capital, is one of the Caribbean's finest harbor cities — a tightly packed hillside of red-roofed colonial buildings above the most protected natural harbor in the Eastern Caribbean. The duty-free shopping on Main Street (Crown Bay Marina) and the 99 Steps (Danish colonial stone stairs carved in 1700s, connecting the lower harbor town to the hillside fortifications) are the city's signature experiences. Fort Christian (the oldest Danish colonial structure in the USVI, 1672) and the Blackbeard's Castle hilltop tower above the harbor. The St. Thomas Market on Back Street is excellent for local provisions. First dinner at the Virgilio's or Oceana Restaurant facing Charlotte Amalie harbor.

Take the 20-minute Red Hook ferry from St. Thomas to Cruz Bay, St. John — the most beautiful of the three main US Virgin Islands. Sixty percent of St. John is Virgin Islands National Park, and the island's roads, trails, and beaches are managed to maintain the extraordinary natural quality that prompted Laurance Rockefeller to donate the land for the park in 1956. Trunk Bay is the park's most famous beach and consistently rated one of the world's ten best: a crescent of white sand with an underwater snorkel trail (marked with plaques identifying the coral and fish) in extraordinary clarity. Cinnamon Bay and Hawksnest Bay are adjacent park beaches with different character. The Annaberg Plantation ruins in the northeast of the island preserve the 18th-century Danish sugarcane plantation system. The Centerline Road through the park interior offers extraordinary views of the island chain from ridge height.

St. John's 20 hiking trails through the national park provide the finest trail walking in the US Caribbean. The Ram Head Trail (1.5 miles each way) descends to a dramatic basalt headland above the Salt Pond Bay with extraordinary views of the British Virgin Islands on a clear day. Salt Pond Bay itself is a turtle nesting beach with excellent snorkeling off the headland. The Lind Point Trail from Cruz Bay passes through the park's mature secondary forest to Honeymoon Beach — a small, rarely crowded beach in Caneel Bay accessible only by trail or water taxi, with the most complete sense of wilderness for a beach within 2km of the ferry dock. Lameshur Bay in the southeast, near the Estate Concordia eco-resort, has the most remote and pristine beach on the island, accessible via the unpaved Bordeaux Mountain Road.

Take the ferry or water taxi from Cruz Bay, St. John to Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (1 hour) and onward to Virgin Gorda and The Baths: a geological wonder of enormous granite boulders (some house-sized) that have tumbled together to form a labyrinth of sea grottos, sea pools, and passages filled with turquoise Caribbean water. The Baths are the most extraordinary natural feature in the BVI and the equal of anything in the USVI — swimming through the boulder grottos and emerging into the open-water Devil's Bay snorkeling area is an extraordinary experience. The surrounding waters have excellent snorkeling with nurse sharks in the shallows. Return via Soper's Hole Marina on Tortola (excellent duty-free rum shopping) for an evening ferry back to St. John or St. Thomas.

Fly or ferry to St. Croix (55km south of St. Thomas) — the largest of the USVI and the most genuinely local, least touristic island in the group. Christiansted, the capital, is the finest Danish colonial town in the Caribbean: Fort Christiansvaern (1749), the Scale House, the Steeple Building, and the entire waterfront district are beautifully preserved 18th-century Danish architecture. The National Park Service maintains the historic district as a National Historic Site. Buck Island Reef National Monument, 3km offshore, has the finest protected coral reef in the US National Park system — a completely intact barrier reef around an uninhabited island, accessible by boat tour with a snorkel trail through extraordinary Caribbean coral and elkhorn formations. The island's sea turtle nesting program is one of the Caribbean's most successful.

Water Island, just 500 meters from Charlotte Amalie harbor (5-minute ferry), is the fourth-largest USVI island and the least known: a residential island of 200 people with the finest beach club in the St. Thomas area — Honeymoon Beach (different from St. John's Honeymoon Beach) on the sheltered Druif Bay. Rent a golf cart on the island and drive to Flamingo Bay Beach on the Atlantic side for the more dramatic ocean. Return to St. Thomas for final shopping: Charlotte Amalie's duty-free Main Street for jewelry (no taxes on jewelry, liquor, or electronics in the USVI), rum at A.H. Riise (the finest rum selection in the Caribbean), and handmade West Indian jewelry from the market vendors. Final sunset at the Coki Beach beach bar on the north shore with the Caribbean spread before you.

Cyril E. King Airport has direct flights to New York, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Boston, and other US cities — the most US-connected Caribbean airport outside Puerto Rico. A final morning at Magens Bay Beach — the most beautiful beach on St. Thomas, a deep, wide, heart-shaped bay on the north shore that is consistently rated one of the world's ten most beautiful beaches, protected as a park since 1946. Take home Cruzan Rum (St. Croix's distillery produces excellent aged rum at supermarket prices), St. John Brewers craft beer, Virgin Islands olive oil (pressed from trees on St. Croix), and the duty-free savings on any luxury good.