CVOA’s St Croix villas are an incredible value

Visit St Croix to experience an old world charm that is evident in the island’s historic towns with quaint shops and slower pace. You will also find all the amenities and modern conveniences to ensure your prefect villa vacation.

Reminiscent of its American, Spanish, French, Dutch, Danish, English and even Maltese heritage, visitors will discover a culturally and architecturally diverse island. Relax on the uncrowded white sand beaches, hike the lush tropical rainforest or enjoy a guided horseback ride. St Croix offers world class scuba diving and spectacular snorkeling in crystal clear waters. Golfers can choose from three beautiful and challenging courses. The island boasts the only casino in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Cruzan Rum Factory, St. George Village Botanical Gardens, duty-free shopping and discovering delectable Cruzan cuisine provide other enjoyable activities.

Choose your St Croix villa from your friends at CVOA and get ready to experience pure delight!

St. Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. It is the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, being 28 miles long and 7 miles at its widest (45 by 11 km). Charlotte Amalie, the territory's capital, is located on Saint Thomas.

Saint Croix has been colonized by seven different nations, flying the flags of Denmark, France, Great Britain, Spain, the Knights of Malta, the Netherlands and the United States.

Prior to European colonization, Arawaks and Caribs inhabited Saint Croix. Columbus called the island Santa Cruz ("Holy Cross") when he visited there on November 14, 1493 at the Salt River. On his first visit, one Carib and one Spaniard were killed leading to warfare between the two groups which lasted until the Spanish abandoned the island over a century later. Dutch and English settlers colonized the island in the seventeenth century and soon came into conflict with one another. The Dutch eventually abandoned their settlement, followed by the destruction of the English settlement by the Spanish, who recaptured St Croix in 1650. The Spanish, however, were immediately forced out by the French.

St Croix was bequeathed to the Knights of Malta in 1660 by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, governor of the French colony of St. Kitts. They sold it five years later to the French West India Company. The colony became profitable under Governor Dubois with over 90 plantations established, growing crops such as cotton, indigo, sugar cane and tobacco. The colony diminished after Dubois's death and Europeans left the island until it was sold to the Danish West India and Guinea Company in 1733. There were no national restrictions placed on colonists by this company and soon Huguenots, Spanish Sephardic Jews and English settlers, the last of which came to dominate the island, were attracted to St Croix. Although sugar became the major crop, eventually the development of the sugar beet in Europe undermined the economy of the colony.

In 1862, St. Croix received a shipload of East Indians that were indentured on the island for five years, although slavery was abolished in 1848. A revolt by former slaves took place in 1878 when much of Frederiksted, one of the island's two towns, was burnt.

Hurricane Hugo struck St. Croix in September 1989 causing major devastation. Then in September 1995, the island endured a fair amount of damage during Hurricane Marilyn. Consecutively in 1998 and 1999, St Croix was struck by Hurricanes Georges and Lenny, with minimal damage in comparison to past storms. Especially on the outskirts of Christiansted, there are still many buildings that lie in ruins as a result of hurricanes.

The U.S. Virgin Islands are an unincorporated territory with a non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives although the islands remain under the U.S. flag. Residents are U.S. citizens having no vote in national elections. Though taxes are paid using U.S. law, to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue, residents generally do not pay taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Economy and Geography

Similar to many other Caribbean islands, St. Croix has tourism as one of its major sources of income. A number of other industries help support the economy on the island as well.

HOVENSA, one of the world's largest oil refineries, calls St. Croix “home“. It is a limited liability company operated and owned by Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. (HOVIC), a division of U.S.-based Hess Corporation and Petroleos de Venezuela, SA, Venezuela‘s national oil company. Gas prices have generally been 50 cents less than gas prices in the other Virgin Islands and the continental United States due to the presence of the oil refinery.

The Cruzan Rum Distillery, makers of Cruzan Rum and other liquors such as Southern Comfort, also makes its home on St Croix. Founded in 1760, The Cruzan Rum Distillery used locally grown sugar cane to produce a single "dark" style rum for many years. Today, the distillery imports sugar cane molasses primarily from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands. In recent years Cruzan Rum, along with Bacardi from Puerto Rico and Gosling's from Bermuda, has also contributed to the comeback of "single barrel" super-premium rum. Aged in American oak barrels, Cruzan Estate Diamond Rum (aged 5 years) and Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum (aged 12 years) are examples of this.

The island is also home to Cruzan Gardens. Boasting 19 acres, it is the largest landscape company and plant nursery in the Virgin Islands. Native and exotic plants are propagated and grown on the nursery's site, including plants once thought to be extinct. Cruzan Gardens provides professional landscape architectural and construction services on St. Croix and neighboring islands, in addition to the nursery/garden center.

The total population of St Croix is about 60,000, living on a land area of 82.88 sq miles (214.66 km2). Christiansted, with a 2004 population of 3,000 and Frederiksted, with a 2004 population of 830, are the two towns on the island. English is the most common language and residents are called Crucians. Also spoken by the majority of the population in informal situations is a native English-based dialect known on the island as Crucian, formally known as Virgin Islands Creole. A French Creole is spoken by the large St. Lucian and Dominican (Dominica) populations and Spanish is spoken by the large Puerto Rican and smaller Dominican (Dominican Republic) populations.

The National Park Service maintains Fort Christiansvaern built in 1749 and other buildings, as the Christiansted National Historic Site.

Just north of Saint Croix and the surrounding reefs, Buck Island Reef National Monument preserves a 176 acre island. It is the only underwater national park in the United States and is a popular destination for snorkelers.

Operating from Christiansted are several scuba diving companies. Featuring scenic coral reefs, clear water, and abundant tropical fish, there are many good diving destinations off the north coast of the island. Foremost are Cane and Divi bays along with Long reef which includes a large part of the island’s northern side. The reef also provides a natural barrier against jellyfish and sharks. Although shark attacks are very rare, hammerhead and tiger sharks can be seen around other portions of St Croix, especially Frederiksted.

St Croix’s terrain is rugged, but not extremely so, with Mount Eagle at 1,165 feet (355 m) high, as the highest point on the island. The north side from Christiansted west and most of the east end, is quite hilly and steep. From the north side hills a somewhat even plain slopes down to the south coast: this was the prime sugar land on the island. Averaging about forty inches (1000 mm) annually, rainfall is on the whole highly variable. The hills of the western part of the island receive a good deal more rain than the east end and the trade wind generally blows along the length of the island.

Considering the lack of fresh ground water and lack of freshwater bays, streams or rivers on the island, fairly extended and severe drought has always been a problem. Although most businesses and residential homes have a built-in cistern used to collect rainwater, the island does have a desalination plant.

Population

Locals call themselves "Crucians" or "Cruzans" (pronounced 'Croo-shan') although what constitutes a "real" Crucian is a matter of debate. Most feel they can claim to be Crucian if they were born on St. Croix. The majority of Crucians can trace their ancestry to other Caribbean islands due to heavy migration from Puerto Rico and the other islands in the Lesser Antilles. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Puerto Rican migration was prevalent as many moved to St. Croix to cut sugar cane after the collapse of Puerto Rico’s sugar cane industry. During World War II, when the U.S. Navy purchased two-thirds of the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques, the eviction of thousands of agricultural workers resulted in a relocation to St. Croix because of its similar geography and size as Vieques. Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands Friendship Day is a local holiday that has been celebrated on the same date as Columbus Day since the 1960s. Today, although the majority of Puerto Ricans in St. Croix are removed from Puerto Rico by at least a generation, they have kept their culture alive while integrating into the dominant Crucian culture as well. For example, in informal situations many Puerto Ricans in St. Croix today speak a unique Spanglish-like combination of the local Crucian dialect and Puerto Rican Spanish. The existence of a large Puerto Rican population on St. Croix has caused some scholars to describe the island as being as much a part of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean as it is a part of the English speaking Caribbean.

Mainly throughout the 1960s and 70s, a migration occurred from "down-island", a Virgin Islands colloquial phrase for Caribbean islands south and east of the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, when agriculture died out as a major industry on St. Croix to be replaced by oil refining and tourism. Down-islanders came to the island by the thousands to take these jobs which were abundant in these industries. Some eventually returned to their native islands, but many down-islanders made St. Croix their permanent home. People from every British West Indian island can easily be found on St. Croix, although most down-islanders relocated from Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis or St. Lucia and Dominica.

Although small in number in comparison to Caribbean immigrants, mainly White Continental Americans have also been an influential part of the St. Croix community. Continental Americans can be found in many areas of the island, but most reside on the East End of St. Croix.

Since the 1960s, Arab Palestinians have been an influential sector of the local economy when they first arrived to St. Croix to open up shops. Today, most supermarkets and gas stations on St. Croix are owned by members of the local Arab community as in many other Caribbean islands.

St. Croix has recently experienced waves of legal and illegal migration including people from various South American countries, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

St. Croix's history of migration has sometimes caused agitation among Crucians whose ancestry on the island dates back for generations and immigrants. Due to intermarriage among Crucians and other Caribbean peoples, these stresses have decreased in recent years to some extent. In the late 1990s an attempt was made to legislate the definition of a "native Virgin Islander" as anyone who could trace their ancestry to 1927, the year in which Virgin Islanders were given U.S. citizenship. Considering the fact that most born Virgin Islanders would not qualify as "native" under the proposed legislation, this effort, by a select group of nationalist senators, eventually failed after much public outcry.

St. Croix is often called "island of churches" because there are so many. Christianity is the dominant religion with Protestant denominations being the most common. Due to the island’s large Hispanic population along with the Irish influence during the Danish colonial times, there is also a significant Roman Catholic presence. A variety of forms of Rastafarianism are prominent on St Croix, as on many other Caribbean islands. There is a small Jewish population and Islam is prevalent among the small local Arab community.

Transportation

St. Croix is serviced with regular flights from the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico, and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean at The Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport. Also servicing the island is Seaborne Airlines with seaplanes taking off and landing in Christiansted Harbor. Ferry service runs from Gallows Bay to St. Thomas. because the USVI is maintained as a "free port" in a separate customs zone, travelers do need to go through Customs and present a passport or proof of United States citizenship/nationality before returning to the continental United States or Puerto Rico, although St. Croix is a U.S. territory. However, duty-free allowances are doubled to $1,600 per returning US resident. Persons traveling back from or into St. Croix are not required to carry a passport, although it is suggested to carry photo identification and a copy of a birth certificate in lieu of a U.S. passport. Before returning to the mainland or Puerto Rico is permitted immigration status is checked.

Roads on St Croix are very poorly maintained and tend to be poorly surfaced, narrow and often take sharp turns. Major maintenance seems only to occur right before major events such as the annual Ironman Triathlon or local elections. Creating a particularly hazardous situation, Cars drive on the left hand side of the road with most vehicles on the island having left side steering columns. This results in very poor visibility for drivers on St Croix's narrow, hilly and curvy roads. Disoriented tourist/drivers can easily end up in the oncoming lane of traffic, particularly when entering the roads or turning at intersections.

Rental car agencies service the island and there is a public bus service, but this can sometimes be unreliable. A more common mode of transport, particularly for tourists, are taxis. These are required by law to charge a flat fare that varies by destination.

St. Croix has shared taxis, locally known as "taxi buses", in addition to taxis and buses. Taxi buses are full-sized vans which basically follow a specific route from one end of the island to the other. These taxi buses are usually privately owned and operated. They do not follow a regular schedule and have no predetermined stops. Instead, people simply wait by the side of the road until a taxi bus approaches, then flag the driver down by waving. Similarly, when a rider is approaching his or her destination, they simply call out, "Stop up here at the next intersection!" This informal system of transportation may be confusing or intimidating for someone unfamiliar with local customs, although it is often less costly than a regular taxi or public bus (most taxi buses charge a flat rate for the trip, regardless of where a rider gets on and off).