How To Explore USVI on a Budget

The Caribbean is a region that one considers expensive to visit, and the USVI is no exception. Here is how to visit the US Virgin Islands on a budget so you can travel more without paying top dollar for experiences. 

How to explore USVI on a budget under $1000

Here’s how we visited Water Island, St Thomas, and St John for a grand total of $883 for two people. That’s a total of $442 per person on average for the 4 day, 3 night trip, or around $150 per person per night. That $150 per person includes flights, hotels, food, transportation, activities, and even small souvenirs! 

More USVI Posts:

• 4 Days in USVI (Itinerary)
• Water Island USVI (Day Trip from St Thomas)
• Day Trip to St John USVI
• USVI on a budget

The costs are broken down as follows: 

St Thomas (STT) Flights from Miami: American Airlines

We paid for the flights in cash instead of using points since it was really cheap and didn’t make sense to redeem AA miles. We paid a total of $125 round trip (RT) per person x 2 = $250 in cash. 

While we could have used our UR or TY points to redeem the airfare, we prefer to book directly with the airline. At the time, there was free cancellation even on basic economy tickets and it was easier to deal directly with the airline than a third party travel agency in case we needed to cancel or rebook the flights. 

Such is the reality of traveling during a pandemic. 

Charlotte Amalie/St Thomas Hotel: Bunker Hill Hotel

We explained why we chose to stay in Charlotte Amalie in our Bunker Hill review, but it was just easier and cheaper to have a base in the biggest city when we did not have a rental car. 

A total of 22,000 Citi Thank You points were redeemed to cover 3 nights of our hotel. We opted to use our TY points instead of UR since we were saving our UR for pay yourself back purchases on groceries and other travel needs. 

YMMV on how you opt to use your points. Every single situation is different, and we got great value out of our TY points for our hotel stay. 

USVI Meals and Transportation on a Budget

Instead of dining in and renting a condo with a kitchen, we opted to eat out and have Caribbean food and experience eating by the beach or with a view. 

All meals were paid for in cash except breakfast, which was free with our hotel stay. You can read more about where we ate on our 4 day USVI itinerary. 

We also paid for our transportation in cash. This includes surfaris and taxis around the islands we visited. We had no rental car or gas except for the 1 day we rented a golf cart in Water Island. 

Since our flight left from Miami, we did have to drive down there and back. We paid around $60 to gas up our car round trip in cash. 

USVI Activities on a Budget 

Bring your own snorkel gear to the island and it will save you so much money. There’s no need to take tours in St John, St Thomas or Water Island, since you can pretty much do a lot of stuff by yourself. Alternatively, the Chase UR portal can be used to pay with points for tours or a car rental. 

Want to replicate our budget trip to the USVI? 

Read on as we discuss how to replicate our trip, from flights, hotels, activities, and dining. 

Flying to USVI on a budget 

There are plenty of airlines that fly to St Thomas (STT) or St Croix (STX) from the mainland US. The big five fly there: American, United, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest. These 5 airlines provide point options for those who want to use airline points to offset airfare costs, and out of pocket will only be $11.20 per person in taxes, because it is considered a domestic flight. 

Ultra low cost carriers (ULCCs) also service STT and STX. Spirit is one said airline, which has direct routes from Fort Lauderdale, Miami & Orlando. These ULCCs offer sales to certain destinations so you can save more. Stack the savings by buying your tickets at the airport if you are close to one or are flying to another destination. This will lower your round trip cost between $26 to $36! 

Another way to fly to STT or STX for cheap is to wait for airline sales. On our trip to USVI, we only spent $125 per person on airfare on a nonstop flight from Miami. A grand total of $250 for two passengers, without the hassle of changing planes. We also earned a few points by paying for our fare in cash. Perfect for those who are mindful of points expiry dates. 

Hotel Options in US Virgin Islands

There are few hotel chain options available in STT and in St John. There is a Marriott Frenchman’s Cove in St Thomas, which costs a whopping 50,000 to 70,000 Bonvoy points per night as a category 7 resort. 

St John has the Westin St John villas, which is a Marriott category 7 resort. A night here will cost you 50,000 to 70,000 points per night. That or pay between $400+ in cash per night. 

Like anything, make sure that the points you redeem are equivalent to the price you are willing to redeem it for. There are multiple sites that offer an average valuation for Bonvoy points per point, so you can use that as a guide so your mileage may vary (YMMV). 

Alternatively, if you earn Citi Thank You (TY) or Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points, you can redeem your points for hotels and flights on their travel portal. Depending on the type of credit card you hold, you can redeem $.01 to $0.015 in value for every point you spend. 

More hotel review posts:

• Nirwana Beach Club Review
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort Review
• Towneplace Suites by Marriott Gainesville Review
• JW Marriott Marco Island Review

Travel Hacking Valuations

As an example, we used our Thank You points to redeem 3 nights at the Bunker Inn Hotel in Charlotte Amalie. This was a hotel that costs around $85 a night for the basic room, so $255 for 3 nights. 

At a valuation of a penny a point, you can redeem a $255 value for 25,500 Thank You or Ultimate Rewards Points (255 / .01). At a higher level card with a valuation of 0.0125 per point, your $255 hotel will only cost 20,400 points. 

These calculations may be necessary when you are deciding what type of point option you want to use. Travel hackers do a lot of these calculations and YMMV. Alternatively, if the price is cheap enough, one can book and use actual cash to pay for hotels. 

If traveling with a bigger group or if you prefer to have a kitchen to cook in as well as a washer or dryer, it may make sense to rent an Airbnb or a condo. You can get Airbnb gift cards at a discount on third party sites like Amazon by stacking coupons to help save on costs. 

Doing the Airbnb or condo rental option can significantly lower the price of meals on the island, which is pretty steep but cheaper than other Caribbean islands we have visited. 

Want more travel hacking posts?

• Travel Hacking Alaska: Planning Our Trip
• An Alaska Itinerary: What To Do in Alaska for Two Weeks
• Costs, A Guide, and Travel Hacking Memphis Tennessee
• How we fund and afford our travels

Activities at USVI

Instead of renting the car that can drive costs up, one can go around STT and St John by utilizing the taxis or the surfaris if they are within the St Thomas route. 

From there, some sites are free of charge or have a minimal entrance fee. Alternatively, one can go to the UR portal and use points to book tours. 

There is plenty of free stuff to do within the US Virgin Islands area that this trip can be done as cheaply as possible. 

US Virgin Islands is a cheap travel destination

One can definitely enjoy the US Virgin Islands without spending too much money. By stacking points, miles, promotions, patience, deal hunting, and side hustling for extra cash, one can go on a trip like this for less than the price of a weekend getaway somewhere else. Here’s to more travels on a budget using points, miles, and seeing new destinations!