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After your wedding day, your honeymoon is one of the most memorable times of your life and so must surely count as one of best holidays you will ever have. It is the beginning of a new life with the person you love. As such it is a good reason to visit somewhere you have always wanted to go, somewhere very special.

One of the most popular places for people to go to on a honeymoon is St Croix, The US Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is the first choice for many newly weds for several reasons: the romance, the people are happy and welcoming, the sand, sea and sunshine, the food and the music. St Croix in the US Virgin Islands is one of the most well-liked destinations in the Caribbean islands.

St Croix has picturesque beaches and that perfect tropical climate that is so appropriate for a wonderful honeymoon. The hotels and the island’s inhabitants love to take care of newly weds and go out of their way to make sure that the honeymooners have the time of their lives – a holiday that they will remember affectionately for ever.

Cost is always a factor when one is planning a honeymoon in the Caribbean, but you do not have not be too concerned on that front. A honeymoon on St Croix need not be expensive and as it is only 1,300 miles from the USA, so travel costs and travel time are low.

You will not have trouble finding somewhere on the island to suit your desires. However, St Croix is a popular honeymoon destination, especially for Americans, so it is worth booking your honeymoon holiday as early as possible in order to obtain the reservation that you want.

There are three main kinds of places to stay: a hotel, a vacation rental or a holiday home. The difference between a vacation rental and a holiday home is that the former is a condo or villa purpose built for holiday makers, while the holiday home is actually somebody’s house who has let it out for a short time.

When scheduling your honeymoon, you should think about when you will go away. It was traditional to leave for the honeymoon after a short reception on the day of the wedding, but many couples postpone their departure date nowadays. Over the last few decades, it has become the norm to hold an extensive reception hours after the wedding, often at night. This will often go on until midnight or later, which makes leaving for foreign climes rather difficult. A hangover is not a good travelling companion either.

Therefore, you may want to put your going away date off until two days after the wedding, although I think that flying out on the wedding day is still the best idea. If you choose a holiday home or a vacation rental on St Croix, you will need to make all your own preparations for getting to the airport, flying to St Croix and getting a taxi from the airport to your place of stay, so I suggest that for this, your first visit to this beautiful island, you take a package tour, which will take care of you from your local airport to your hotel on St Croix and back again.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Saint Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands, which lie 1730 miles east south east of Miami and 93 miles west of Puerto Rico. This sector of the Virgin Islands has belonged to the United States since 1917 when they were purchased from the Danish government for $25m in gold to safeguard American coasts from German U-boat attack.

At the time, it was feared that Germany would subjugate the islands and construct submarine pens there in order to attack American supply shipping, which was essential to the allies in Europe during the First World War.

The US Virgin islands is a group of about 60 largely uninhabited islands, the four biggest of which are called St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island. (By the way, ‘Saint’ is spoken in the English manner). The Islands’ inhabitants, however, have other names for these four which are Twin City, Rock City, Love City and Small City respectively.

Christopher Columbus landed there on November 14th, 1493, but there is proof of human habitation on the island going back to 5000 BC. In fact, the Arawaks and the Caribs made up the islands’ populace, before the Europeans got there.

Possession of St Croix and the other Virgin Islands changed a lot over the following centuries, but it became infamous to many people as Santa Cruz, which is its Spanish name. As Santa Cruz, St Croix featured prominently in 17th and 18th century stories of pirates and buccaneers on the Spanish Main.

In fact, after Spain initially took control of the island, it changed hands seven times; having been Spanish, British, French, Maltese, Dutch, Danish and now American. The residents of the US Virgin Islands are now US citizens and carry US passports. They also use the US dollar and US laws.

St Croix was an agricultural powerhouse in the Caribbean until the 1960’s when the local government determined it was time to industrialize. The island is now home to HOVENSA, one of the largest oil refineries in the world.

There is also a large distillery, the Cruzan Rum Distillery, which used to produce rum from sugar cane grown on the island. Sugar cane, or its extract, molasses are now imported from the Dominican Republic to manufacture Southern Comfort and Cruzan Rum. Diageo is arranging to build a distillery there too in order to produce Captain Morgan Rum.

Residents of the island call themselves Crucians. However, there is a great deal of debate about what constitutes a ‘real Crucian’. Many say that a Crucian is someone who was born and raised on St Croix, while others claim that descendants of the slaves that the Danes took over in 16th and 17th Centuries are the only true Crucians.

Many Crucians can trace their ancestry back to Puerto Rico or other Virgin islands as the sugar cane industry attracted a lot of migrant workers in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. There was also an influx of down-islanders (ie from other Caribbean islands), as the locals say, after the industrialization of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands in the 1960’s and 1970’s as tourism and petrol became more important to the economy.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

There are lots of destinations for people interested in sailing and if you are tired of the Virgin Islands then try the rest of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean islands are part of an island chain stretching 2,500 miles. Given the vast distance, it is no surprise that tourists spend weeks out there in order to enjoy the splendour that it has to offer.

Just like in the Virgin Islands, there are lots of charter companies you can try for various hobbies. These companies come in different sizes, but perhaps the best is the yacht charter.

When you charter a yacht, apart from the yacht, the other elements and benefits that come with it are meals, separate guest rooms, a galley, toilet and shower.

Since you are the paying guest aboard the boat, you can modify the menu by telling the cook before the voyage what you want to eat. You can help out by buying the provisions yourself, having someone from the crew do it for an additional fee or choose a set menu from one of their pre-composed packages.

Since most of the islands in the Caribbean are small and uninhabited, you are certain to see places that not many have seen. But if you can’t afford to rent a chartered yacht, don’t worry because you can probably get one that will cost as little as $50 if you are able to book a pre-arranged trip with several other guests to share the bill.

One thing you ought to be ready for during you sailing holiday is the possibility of a storm. These generally occurs in the months from June to November. If you are not sure that this is the best time, book the trip on another date.

But if you are adamant about going on your dates, there are some online tools you can utilize to check if the area you will be sailing in has ever been hit by a storm before.

The other option is to plan your itinerary to the Caribbean islands further south because they are less likely to be affected by a storm. These places include the islands of Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, and Turks and Caicos.

If you like the idea of going sailing around the Caribbean there are ample choices. You could do a lot worse than start in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands and travel south or west. If you start in St Croix, which the pirates of old used to call Santa Cruz, you will not need a passpert and can take your pets with you, but you will need more ID if you call into foreign islands.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

People work harder these days than ever before. If not physically harder then longer hours and we deserve a break from that once in a while. The majority of us go on holiday and we look forward to it months in advance and we plan for it even further ahead. Where do you like to go or what do you like to do? I personally prefer to go on a cruise and a Caribbean cruise is a good option.

People think a cruise, specially a Caribbean cruise as being expensive, and cruise operators want to uphold that elite image, but I see the cruise as being an up-market all inclusive holiday. Probably, it is the original all inclusive holiday, because once you walk up and off that gang plank, everything aside from drinks is free. Everything and everything is first class hotel style too! We are not talking pizza and chips here, but five or six course meals and five or six times a day.

It is common knowledge, that if you go on a cruise you can expect to gain a pound or two a week (I gained five pounds on my last cruise), unless you do some exercise. What exercise? Cruise liners have swimming pools and gymnasiums! Not only one but several. Some even set aside a deck for running at certain times of the day. There really is no excuse for not exercising on a Caribbean cruise.

Caribbean cruise liners offer more sports facilities than just gymnastics too. In fact, except for horse riding, I think that most sports are catered for. Basketball, volleyball, swimming, clay pigeon shooting, fishing, bird watching … You name it. Caribbean cruise liners also have Internet connections, games machines and full office facilities. During the evenings there are first class shows, often two a night, movies in a cinema and a casino.

If you have never been on a Caribbean cruise, it is difficult to explain the amount of luxury that is provided. It is more than a first class hotel. In a first class hotel, you pay first class prices for everything too, but on a Caribbean cruise liner, everything but drinks is free and even drinks are cheap because they are duty-free. The cruise liner will have a shop too where everything it sells is duty free!

Some Caribbean cruises are themed and it is worth noting this fact. Also some times of the year, especially early February are foreseeable. I once naively went on a Caribbean cruise for a fortnight which spanned St Valentine’s day. I was a single man then and the other 1200 were romantic couples. There was only one single woman on the cruise but there was no rapport between us. I did not not enjoy that Caribbean cruise, because people took we under their wing, but it made me think about the time of year when I next booked up.

Caribbean cruises, especially the better ones, will fill up quickly, so this is one holiday that you really ought to book well in advance. A year in advance is not too early. I like to book my Caribbean cruise a year in advance, but put my name down for any last minute cancellations, in case I can pick up a bargain.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.