Weekend Get-Away to St. Thomas for $237 a Person
St. Thomas is one of my favorite weekend getaways. The island is absolutely beautiful. Here’s how I did a weekend for under $240 a person not including food.
I planned to go January 30 to February 1. As Spirit released award trips, I booked them. In all, I made three flight reservations.
On June 13th, I booked the Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas flight. It cost me $32.40 and 10,000 miles for two people. I waited a month and finally, on July 24, Spirit released another segment of my trip as an award ticket so I booked the flight from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale. I booked this to leave on a Friday night since the segment on Saturday was on a different reservation. This was my insurance policy in case the flight was late, I wouldn’t miss my connection the next day. This segment cost me $11.20 plus 5,000 miles. In September, I saw the final segment cheap and figured it was better to book it when it was cheap for $55 a person rather than lose out if it never went as an award ticket. In total, the airfare cost me $153.80 for two! That’s almost $77 a person round-trip!
In September, I booked a hotel on oanda.com with a garden view that cost $302 for two nights.
Since we flew down on a Friday night and I spent $150 a night for a room, I could not justify spending any more on hotels. So I bypassed a hotel by booking a rental car on Priceline for $18.26 and parked it at FLL Safe Park for the night. We slept in the car and when we exited the lot I only paid $8.50. Spending under $27 for a night’s rest sure beat paying for a hotel.
We stayed at the Best Western Carib Beach Resort. I chose this hotel because it was walking distance from the airport. We walked there in less than 40 minutes. They offered a free shuttle to the partner property across the bay: Emerald Beach Resort. There wasn’t a beach at the Best Western, so we did go to the Emerald for the day.
We spent our first day at the Best Western Carib Beach Resort just sitting by the pool, enjoying the views and cold drinks.
The next day we took the free shuttle to the Emerald Beach Resort. One thing about St. Thomas that I don’t like is the food. It’s very fast food style: nachos, chicken fingers, frozen pizza and burgers. I ordered a pizza, that was obviously frozen, that cost $30; definitely over priced.
On our last day, we went to town and took the SkyRide up to Paradise Point. The ride up is expensive, in my opinion: $21 a person. The views, though, are gorgeous. There’s a restaurant at the top that serves the same type of food I mentioned earlier served on paper. For me, part of traveling is enjoying the dining experience. Whenever my food is served on paper, I am disappointed.
Although I don’t care for the food, I do look forward to returning.
~Bella