Detroit to St. Thomas: What it actually cost us to go

Detroit to St. Thomas U.S.V.I.

September 2016

4 days and 3 nights = $764.89

Here is a brief breakdown of our costs for 4 days and 3 nights. Where we found the deals, things I would recommend and improvements and ways to save even more money depending on what you want to do on the Island.

Flights: We each applied for the Spirit Airlines Credit Card earlier this year which enabled us to get 15,000miles free on each of our credit cards. We were able to find flights for 7,500 miles one way(= 15,000 round trip). If you are interested in getting the credit card I have a referral link that will give you the 15,000 for applying*.  Just email me at wvchanger@gmail.com and I’ll send it to you.  We flew off season and looked for the best deals. When you find a low mile flight, book RIGHT AWAY. We put a cancellation insurance on our flight, a checked bag, plus taxes and fees. Total came to $130 for both flights. Next time we would just take a personal item and back a swimsuit and an extra change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush and tennis shoes(our Airbnb rental had shampoo, soap, hair dryers, towels). On an Island you’re spending the majority of your time near water so all you need is a suit. We didn’t hit any fancy restaurants so we didn’t need nice clothes. LOOK FOR FLIGHTS DURING THE OFF SEASON. AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER.

Accomodations: We stayed at this Airbnb https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8001224?sug=50 Always look for places that have been reviewed.I ALSO ASKED AIRBNB HOSTS IF THEY HAD ANY SPECIAL DEALS. MANY OF THEM OFFERED A DISCOUNT SINCE IT WAS THE OFF SEASON.  This referal link will give you $35 off your first Airbnb rental www.airbnb.com/c/ambera355.

Positives:

• The pool was private overlooking the mountains.
• Walking to the Marriott was definitely a good workout. I think I lost weight on this trip.
• The Morning Star beach was very quiet!
• It was off season there so there were very few people there.  
• The Marriott as an Adventure Center booth where you can sign up for different outings, dinner cruises, ferry rides, etc.
• The host responded immediately to any questions we had. Great place if you want to sit at the beach, pool or do dinner cruise, snorkeling boat tour, etc.

Things to keep in mind:

• On the Island, nothing is air tight :) Meaning windows, doors, etc have cracks.
• You’ll find small bugs sometimes and lots of moisture.
• We had an A/C unit definitely look for one with A/C unless you want to die while sleeping.

Negatives:

• This place is more secluded(that part of the Island is owned by Marriott) so the only way there is by taxi. Taxis run about $10 per person one way. So to get to other beaches other than the Marriott Morning Star beach will cost you about $20 round trip per person.
• We thought about snorkeling in Coki beach but it would have been $40-$50 round trip for us to go, plus renting snorkeling gear for both of us would be $20. Just going to another beach would have been $70.
• If you like to do your own adventures and tour more things I would probably try the place below since you would possibly have access to more things.

If we went again we would probably try this place. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2855411?sug=50 It was a little more but I think you can take the Safari Bus(open air truck that locals use) for $1 per person. He also had more info on how to pick up groceries, how to take the Safari bus, etc. He also had snorkeling gear, cooler, and beach chairs. But it is in a more busy area of the Island near Red Hook(east side). Just depends on how much you want to do on the Island.

Other places: My sister stayed in a place closer to Charlotte Amalie and it was even cheaper than the place close to the Marriott. She had a great experience at this place.

Food: We are not high rent dining people. So our goal was to eat one meal a day at a resturant. We picked up groceries at Pueblos near the apartment. We had meat, cheese lettuce wraps with hummus, carrots, apples, bananas, pepsi, instant oatmeal pkgs(breakfast), coffee, creamer, crackers, and popcorn. Our total bill was $54. We figured it came out to be about $3.50 per meal. When we eat out we are not huge eaters. We split a large plate of Nachos at the restaurant at the beach for $12, plus a pepsi for Dan. Total $19. Visited GreenGo’s in town and spend $18. All of our food from the time we left until we arrived home(including airport meals) came to $125.89.  The DeSano’s pizza place at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport is amazing :)

Things to Do: We did the night kayaking. There is a coupon in the tour magazine at the Adventure Center. Total was $88 for both of us. We went to town and took the ferry from the hotel to Charlotte Amalie. Total was $28 round trip for both of us. We wanted to do St. John for a day but didn’t have time. With taxis and ferry we figure it would run about $80-100 round for two people to visit St. John.

Car Parking:  We found this Holiday Inn will keep your car parked for $6 a day instead of the $10 that the rest of the parking places charge in Detroit. They had a shuttle service that runs every 30 mins to the airport and they will pick you up whenever you arrive back. https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/belleville/bevmi/hoteldetail

$131.00	Flights, bags, taxes, fees
$10.68	Mcdonalds
$20.00	Pizza Airport
$20.00	Taxi from airport to apartment
$12.00	Taxi to grocery store
$54.00	groceries
$24.00	parking at airport
$300.00	Airbnb Apartment
$88.00	Night Kayaking
$34.00	Ferry and Safari Bus
$18.29	Lunch in Town
$10.00	snacks
$20.00	Taxi to airport
$22.92	Meals airport
$764.89	TOTAL

WAYS TO SAVE EVEN MORE:  

• Spirit Airlines charges for carry ons and checked bags. I think it is possible to do a tropics trip with just your personal item if you are very selective on what you take. Just a suit, change of clothes and bare basics. I didn’t use much of what I took. We pretty much were in our suits most of the time. Plus I could have washed a shirt/shorts in the sink and dried it on the deck. That would have saved $42 by not checking a bag(carry ons cost even more on Spirit).

• We put insurance on our flight just in case we needed to cancel. Not putting that on would save another $30.

• If we could have found a way to use the Safari busses more instead of the taxis we could have saved about another $40.
• We could have also packed more protein bars, meal shakes, snacks in our checked bag and that would have saved having to buy them there.
• I think we could saved $100 by not doing the things above. Which would have taken our total closer to $650.
• If we had packed more snacks and protein bars in our checked bag we could have saved a few more dollars on our grocery bill too.

* we are not huge supporters of credit cards. So we only encourage applying for a credit if you are absolutely sure you won’t struggle with getting into debt. We have never had any debt and we are major budgeters so credit cards have not been a struggle for us. We highly encourage people to use great caution when using credit cards. For those interested, we bought our groceries using our spirit card and we’ll have enough miles to take the kids to Orlando(2 adults and 4 kids).