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February 3, 2011

Good Reasons For Taking A Holiday In Hawaii

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 5:48 pm

If you are planning your summer vacation and you are searching for somewhere where you can strip down to your bathing costume and swim all day and just worry about it getting overly hot, not too cold, then you ought to add a vacation in Hawaii to your short list.

A holiday in Hawaii is considered to be very costly because of the high profile it has in films and TV series like ‘Hawaii 5-0′, but it is possible to find fairly reasonable vacations in Hawaii, if you do a little research. Search the Net for last minute package deals and if that fails, attempt putting together your own vacation from various cut-rate components.

You might be pleasantly surprised how much it costs to have a holiday in Hawaii compared to a comparable one in say, St. Croix, Barbados or even Florida. Look for actual hotels or guest houses in areas that are just outside the tourist traps and you will probably get a better deal. Lots of these hotels have their own website and so offer seasonal or last minute discounts directly to private patrons.

Hawaii is one of the most beautiful regions in the locality and indeed in the world. The coast is famous for its natural beauty – the swimming and diving are renowned, but the hinterland is beautiful as well, if you like walking, riding or driving by jeep. There are spectacular volcanoes, waterfalls and forests.

Hawaii has been turned into a paradise for sports people of all types. There is very little that you could want to do and cannot on Hawaii. There is ample opportunity for most land, sea and air sports ranging from mountaineering, to diving to hang-gliding. You can rent Jeeps, mountain bikes, yachts and even a helicopter.

Most visitors take a vacation in Hawaii for water sports such as swimming, diving, snorkeling, fishing and water skiing, but power boating and yachting or just sailing a dinghy is common enough too.

There are also lots of natural and man-made historical sights to see on all the islands, but the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Big Island is just about the most well-known although most of the smaller island such as Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Molokai and Oahu all have their attractions as well. It is only a case of reading up on Hawaii before you go and trying to select a hotel in a spot that makes your interests easily available.

There are plenty of web sites and books on Hawaii to help you with your research, but you can also travel around with no trouble once you get there, so that you could have a week on one island and a week on another offering different pastimes as a specialty.

This can all be arranged quite easily if you put your tour together yourself, but it might be more awkward if you endeavor to patch two package holidays together. You will not regret your holiday in Hawaii whether you go alone, with the family or as part of a group.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with the Bikini Cup D. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Swimwear for Big Busts.

July 9, 2010

Saint Croix Of The US Virgin Islands

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 12:00 pm

Saint Croix is the biggest of the US Virgin Islands although the capital city, Charlotte Amelie, is located on St Thomas. Saint Croix itself has two towns Frederiksted (pop. 830) and Christiansted (pop. 3,000). The name of the island comes from the earlier Spanish name given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 – Santa Cruz or ‘Holy Cross’. As Santa Cruz, Saint Croix gets a lot of mention in swashbuckling stories of pirates and buccaneers sailing on the Spanish Main.

The populace before the Europeans arrived was Arawak and Carib and they had probably been there since about 5000 BC. After 1493 the population of the Caribbean became embroiled in a 100 years war with the Spanish and the kind of people living on the island changed forever.

Saint Croix has been owned and therefore predominantly occupied by the Spanish, The British, the French, the Dutch, the Maltese and the Danish all of whom had slaves and plantations

The slaves were manumitted in 1848, but many chose to remain on Saint Croix. Descendants of slaves still live on the island. The total populace of the island is now roughly 60,000.

English is the official language and is the most commonly spoken, although there is also some Spanish, French Creole and Virgin islands Creole, also known as Crucian, which is spoken by most inhabitants in informal situations.

This Hispanic section of the Crucian population is mostly of Puerto Rican lineage. The US bought Vieques from Puerto Rico during the Second World War and evicted its inhabitants. Many moved to St Croix because of its similarity to Vieques. These people have fitted in well, but also kept a few of their old ways. They usually speak a mixture of Spanish and Crucian English in a unique form of Spanglish.

Continental Americans make up about 13% of the population and mostly live on the eastern side of St Croix. Arab Palestinians are also a sizeable minority owning most of the petrol stations and supermarkets on St Croix. Other recent immigrants have moved from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

There has been some tension between immigrants and those calling themselves ‘real Crucians’, but it has largely evaporated due to intermarriage. There have been attempts to define a ‘real Crucian’.

The matter seems to have been settled when in 2009, the proposed U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention laid down three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: “Ancestral Native Virgin Islander”, who have ancestral ties (and their descendants); “Native Virgin Islander”, who were born on the island (and their descendants); and “Virgin Islander”, who are any United States citizen who has resided in the region for five years.

Christianity, in the guise of Protestantism is the main religion, although the Hispanic community is Roman Catholic. There are also small groups of Jews and followers of Rastafari, Islam.

Owen Jones, the writer 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.

June 14, 2010

Taking Your Dog On Vacation

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 11:57 am

Whether you prefer clear mountain air or the ozone-rich, salty air of the ocean, you can find areas to take your dog for a walk that are idyllic, even when you are on holiday. If you are a nature lover and a dog lover, you could choose a vacation destination with nature and your dog in mind.

City-bound hotel holidays or long, driving holidays are not very enjoyable for your dog. If a dog is going to be at home all day, he would prefer be in his own home all day. Likewise, with driving. He might plead to go the mall with you in the car, but doing a coast to coast run in a hot fortnight in June, is not really what he is all about.

Therefore, if you are planning a vacation that you think your pet would not really enjoy, why not do him and yourself a favour and leave him behind? Leave him with a dog-loving family member or friend or board him in a kennels that you have researched well yourself.

There are literally hundreds of boarding kennels in operation in every state and often there are thousands. Most of them are good, some are outstanding and the owners of some could do with a stiff talking to. I put my dog in one once that I had not checked out well enough and went away for two weeks. When I got back four hours early, they were not ready me and my dog was dirty and forlorn.

I felt awfully guilt-ridden and my dog would not ’speak’ to me for a week. Really! No eye contact, no tail wagging, would not always come when called, no happy running about, just a hang dog expression for seven days. She must have felt that I let her down badly, which of course I had, by not researching the kennels.

A fantastic place to take your dog is St Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The US Virgin Islands are literally part of the United States of America and you can go there without a passport, with your US dollars and with your dog.

Not every hotel allows animals just as in continental USA, but there are loads that do. There are also package holidays that will take you and your dog from the airport to the island hotel and back again all for one price.

Of the four main islands in the US Virgin Islands, St. Croix is most likely the best choice for going to with a pet dog, because it is less heavily populated than the other islands and is by far the largest.

The hotel or resort will probably not provide feeding dishes, bedding and toys but they will surely have a store where you can buy such things. It is probably not worth bringing your own either unless you have a large suitcase and a generous weight allowance. Food for your dog will also be extensively available on the island, of course.

St Croix has various sorts of landscape and plenty of activities to take full advantage of them. There are beautiful tropical beaches just right for swimming or playing in the waves; there are the undulating plains of the old plantations, which are perfect for long walks and there are hills, mountains and rain forest to explore with your dog too.

Owen Jones, the writer 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.

categories: virgin islands,dog,vacation,holiday,recreation,caribbean,USA,travel,happiness,luxury,sea,outdoor,other,uncategorized

June 5, 2010

Finding Adults Only All Inclusive Resorts

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:09 pm

There are a few possibilities when talking about going to an adults only all-inclusive resort. Most all-inclusive resorts were intended for families with young children, however there are an increasing quantity of adult only all-inclusive resorts.

However, there are also adult only and family nude all-inclusive resorts, especially in Europe and Australia. If you are searching for a nude adult only all-inclusive resort for your vacation, you will probably have to go abroad to destinations like Greece, Italy, the old Yugoslavia area or Australia.

Most people in the USA, the UK and northern Europe would find sharing a nudist beach with children awkward in these ultra-PC days, but nudist beaches for adults only can be excellent fun. It is best not to be inhibited, however some people find it helps to go to a nudist beach alone while others feel more comfortable in the company of adult friends. Couples often find adult only nudist beaches exotic, erotic and romantic.

Finding adults only all-inclusive resorts is not difficult with the power of a search engine and the Internet at hand. However, if you want to try nudist adults only all inclusive resorts in the USA, it could be tricky. This is because nudity is a contentious topic in the USA.

If, however ‘by adult only’, you simply mean to imply over twenty-one year olds only, then you will have a lot more luck. There are hundreds of non-nudist adults only all-inclusive resorts, hotels and cruises around the United States, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands and everywhere else in the Caribbean.

Adult only all-inclusive cruises are very widespread. Cruising is not really suited to children. There is not enough room and they can get into serious trouble or even drop overboard unobserved until it is too late. Adult only all-inclusive resorts are excellent, if you like staying in a chalet or cabin.

In between these two limits of fine living on the all-inclusive vacations front are the all-inclusive hotels. Plenty of hotels, but far fewer resorts, do put age restrictions on who can reside there. The Club style holidays are good examples; ‘Club 18-30′ is well-known, but not all of its venues are all-inclusive.

If you are still thinking about nude adult only all-inclusive resorts, you might find it simpler to unearth a collection of topless beaches. These are two a penny in Europe and elsewhere, but in the united States and the some of the Caribbean, you may be able to join a private beach that permits this style of clothing.

Owen Jones, the writer 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.

categories: all inclusive,rental,vacation,holiday,recreation,caribbean,USA,travel,happiness,luxury,sea,outdoor,other,uncategorized

May 29, 2010

Vacation Property For Rent

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 12:52 pm

If you are thinking of buying a vacation rental property, there are two things that you can eventually do with it. Some owners of vacation rental property intend to live in it a lot of the year round themselves and others aim to rent it out for a lot of the year. There is no doubt that vacation rental property can provide an excellent income stream.

However, there is a huge difference between vacation property rental and residential property rental. This has to do with the fact that holiday makers are not inevitably looking for the same amenities in a vacation rental property as they are in a home.

One thing that does affect the desirability of both vacation rental property and residential property is location. However, a good residential property for a young family may need to be close to schools and other amenities and for older people being near a school is more like a hassle.

Similarly with vacation rental property, you have to know your target market. You have to discover the answer to the question: why do people come to this location? And then buy a vacation rental property that matches the highest volume profile.

In this way, you will never be short of tenants and you will be certain of high rents too. For instance, some people might go to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for the diving options it presents while others may want to explore the tropical rain forests. However, younger travelers might not want to go far from the only largish town on the island, Christiansted, so that they can take part in any nightlife happening.

One thing that everyone requires is security. The person who rents your vacation rental property will want to feel secure. That is secure from falling masonry and rickety stairs and safe from burglars. That means that your property should be well lit both internally and externally and have well-made doors and locks. Windows should be lockable too.

It is a good idea to provide a kitchen like the one a family would normally expect at home. So, an American kitchen with American style appliances for American families, if they are the people you are trying to attract. Again, you will have to research the typical visitors to where you want to buy a vacation rental property. A younger family may eat in at night, an older one may never eat in at all. The kitchen should be well-equipped, furniture should be comfortable and recreational equipment should be provided too.

A lot of people like to take their dogs with them, so you might want to consider making the vacation rental property pleasant for pet owners. If the furniture is robust, massive oak or something like that, dogs will not be able to damage it easily. Plastered walls without wall covering and tiled floors are also favourable for having animals in the house. This is a definitely growing niche market for vacation rental properties

And last but not least, remember that people like to be able to keep in touch when they are away from their loved ones, so Internet access is a growing necessity too. People can VOIP, so a phone is not so imperative these days. If you bear these points in mind, you can have a profitable vacation rental property where you can vacation free too.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, 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.

May 26, 2010

Honeymoon On St Croix

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 3:36 pm

After your wedding day, your honeymoon is one of the most memorable times of your life and so must certainly count as one of best vacations 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 preference 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 beautiful 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 worried on that front. A honeymoon on St Croix need not be costly 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, whereas the holiday home is actually somebody’s house who has let it out for a short period.

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 delay 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 quite 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 arrangements for getting to the airport, flying to St Croix and getting a taxi from the airport to your place of stay, so I recommend that for this, your first visit to this beautiful island, you take a package holiday, 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 piece, 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.

categories: honeymoon,wedding,marriage,vacation,holiday,recreation,caribbean,USA,travel,happiness,luxury,sea,outdoor,other

Getting Married On St Croix

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 2:51 pm

St Croix, in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean has been a stylish honeymoon location for newly married couples for decades, because the weather there is bright all year round and you can enjoy any number of wonderful holiday activities together.

Things to do include hiking, exploring, taking tours, horse riding, water sports like diving or sailing or just and lying in the sun. However, in the past few years, it has also become very popular to travel to St Croix for the actual wedding ceremony itself, not just for the honeymoon. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to getting married abroad.

First, you have to think about who you want to have there at your wedding. St Croix is regulated by American law, so you will be required to have a certain number of witnesses. You can use local volunteers but you may not be able to envisage your wedding without your family or your best friends being there.

It is worth remembering that every guest you want to be at your wedding will have to be flown to the island and in many cases, the guests will not be able to afford this trip themselves, which means that you will have to pay for all or at least some of the cost of the flight and the stay. If you cannot afford this, it may not be possible for you to have everyone present at your wedding ceremony that you would want. The cost of a Caribbean wedding on St Croix is a distinct disadvantage.

Remember also that you will almost certainly be spending your honeymoon wherever you hold the wedding and although it may be nice to have friends and family around you for the wedding, you might wish they would disappear for the honeymoon.

However, your guests may want to take a vacation while they are in the Virgin Islands, so if you want some time to yourselves, book them into a package holiday deal which will keep them occupied in order to give you some breathing space. Try to make a block booking and ask for a big discount.

However, one of the main advantages is that you are already in the location where you will be honeymooning. Travel is stressful and tiring, although St Croix, USVI is less than 1,300 miles from Florida, so being on the spot for your honeymoon will spare you all that.

Not only that though, your wedding will be an even more memorable event because an idyllic beach setting with a sunset backdrop is really very moving. Most couples adore the island scenery, so a Caribbean wedding in St Croix may be just right for you.

When planning your marriage in St Croix, remember that the US Virgin Islands are a legal part of the USA, so US laws and marriage laws relate there. You also do not have to have a passport to go to St Croix, although you are allowed $1,600 worth of duty free goods per person per 30 days. This can make up quite a saving.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, 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.

May 6, 2010

An All-Inclusive Hotel Or An All-Inclusive Resort?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 1:53 pm

If you are planning to go on vacation this year, how are you thinking of doing it? There are several alternatives to explore, if you begin planning early enough. There are the self-planned, ‘I will find a hotel when I get there’ style; there are cruises and there are package vacations.

The self planned is for those without children and is more bold. Cruises are wonderful, if you like being on the water more than being on land and there are the package holidays, some of which are all-inclusive package vacations.

If you choose a vacation package, you have the option of looking for an all-inclusive resort or an all-inclusive hotel. There is not much to choose between them, if you are going alone or with your spouse, but if you are going with children, the all-inclusive resort is the one for you.

This is because all-inclusive hotel rooms can be on the small side and if you have a small child or even children with you, your room will soon become overcrowded and suites are more highly priced. An all-inclusive resort, on the other hand, will normally offer accommodation in the form of cabins or chalets, which are designed with young families in mind.

You do not want to be staying on the 12th floor of a large hotel with toddlers, because either they have to stay in the room until you want to go out, in which case they might get grumpy or they might learn how to get out and wander off in the hotel. A chalet, however, will necessarily be on the ground floor, usually be in clusters, so that you can help keep an eye on each other’s kids and may even have a small garden with a fence.

Whether you go to an all-inclusive hotel or an all-inclusive resort really depends on whether you have or can put up with children. If you have children then a resort is for you, if you do not like children’s racket, then you would be better suited to an all-inclusive vacation in a hotel.

Once you have selected your type of all-inclusive package vacation, the rest is plain sailing. Actually what is all-included in these type of hotels and resorts can vary quite widely, so you should make sure you know well in advance. Price is a good indication. If one resort at the same destination is much cheaper than the others, look into it more carefully before booking.

Often the difference will only be in degree. For example, an all-inclusive hotel or resort may offer the free use of diving gear, but when you read on it might restrict that to non-mechanical diving apparatus, so you only get a mask, snorkel and flippers. Others may only have ten sets of equipment – first come first served.

However, having said that, most all-inclusive package vacations are fantastic deals. They include your transport to and from your home town to the destination, which depends on you and where the resort is of course. For St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands transport could be by cruise or flight – you must determine that at the outset. Having to travel 500 miles to Orlando by bus or train with three young children might not be much fun.

When you arrive there, they almost always include all your food and snacks and all soft drinks, tea and coffee, beer and non-branded spirits. An all-inclusive will also include all charges to on-site entertainment. That means the, pool, the club house, pool, snooker, table tennis, the gym etc, and access to any private beach attached to the hotel. It will also include night time shows usually.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, 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.

categories: all inclusive,rental,vacation,holiday,recreation,caribbean,USA,travel,happiness,luxury,sea,outdoor,other,uncategorized

May 2, 2010

Superior Cruises

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 12:14 pm

If you take pleasure in travelling and seeing new places, I advocate a cruise. I have cruised the Mediterranean and the Baltic and my next cruise will be a Caribbean cruise. I am genuinely looking forward to it. If you have never been on a cruise, start saving up now, because it is opulence like you have never imagined before.

Never having been on a Caribbean cruise before, I do not know how much the various Caribbean islands differ from one another, so I do not know how varied that cruise would be. However, I have cruised the Med and the Baltic and woken up to a different country every day and in both of those seas and every country is very different from its neighbours.

On our Baltic cruise we left from Southampton and cruised to Gothenburg in Sweden. From there we went to Helsinki and Leningrad (in those days). On the way back, we called into Copenhagen and the Tivoli Gardens. None of those countries was in any way similar to another or even Britain.

Similarly, my Mediterranean cruise left from Minorca in north eastern Spain going east to Sardinia and then north along the southern coast of Europe. Italy, France and Spain. The second week of the cruise left Minorca again and went to Sicily and then south along the northern coast of Africa including Malta.

The luxury on a cruise is practically indescribable to someone who has never been on a cruise. There is no standard higher than five stars, but the cruises I have been on offered superior levels of luxury than any five star hotels I have stayed in anywhere in the world.

Food and shore trips play a major part of cruising. The food is top notch with no mistake. Breakfast on a cruise liner is better than most Americans and most Europeans have for dinner. Whatever you want from prawns to steak, from exotic fruit to porridge. Lunch and dinner are even more sumptuous.

Shore excursions are well organized too. They include a ferry from the cruise liner to the land and then a coach trip by a local firm to the destination, which could be an historical site or a shopping mall. Most cruisers go on these trips, but some would rather stay on board and take advantage of the lower number of passengers and the free food.

I went on every shore excursion and thoroughly enjoyed each one. The trips are usually pricey though, but you are part of a trapped audience, so what can you expect?

I thoroughly recommend a cruise holiday to any and every one. You should go at least once in your life, but do not leave it until late in your life because you will want to go again.

Owen Jones, the author 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.

categories: honeymoon,wedding,marriage,vacation,holiday,recreation,caribbean,USA,travel,happiness,luxury,sea,outdoor,other

April 16, 2010

St Croix Of The US Virgin Islands

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Owen Jones @ 1:57 pm

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 acquired from the Danish government for $25m in gold to safeguard American shores 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’ residents, 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’ population, before the Europeans got there.

Possession of St Croix and the other Virgin Islands changed a lot over the subsequent 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 first 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 make Southern Comfort and Cruzan Rum. Diageo is arranging to build a distillery there too in order to produce Captain Morgan Rum.

Inhabitants 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 brought over in 16th and 17th Centuries are the only true Crucians.

Many Crucians can track 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 central to the economy.

Owen Jones, the writer 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.

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