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The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands has one of the Caribbean’s best luxury resort settings, and an Aug. 29 rate check found late-summer prices around $644 per night.
There is St. John straight across the water, Great Bay just below and the infinity pool at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas running toward the horizon. We’ve stayed at this resort multiple times, and the surprise has always been the same: this is a Caribbean Ritz-Carlton that somehow still doesn’t get talked about enough.
Right now, there’s another reason to look at it. Our Aug. 29 rate check on Google Hotels found late-summer rooms at about $644 per night, a striking number for a resort of this caliber, particularly one with a 30-acre oceanfront estate and its own 65-foot Lady Lynsey II catamaran.
That gets to the larger story. The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas may be the Caribbean’s most overlooked Ritz-Carlton because it gives you the complete luxury-resort vacation — a very good beach, one of the region’s most beautiful pool settings, easy island-hopping and a genuine sense of place — at a price that, at least right now, is unusually compelling.
The View Is the Resort’s Greatest Amenity
We’ve spent enough time here to know where the resort functions best. It starts at the infinity pool, where the green mountains of St. John fill the view across Pillsbury Sound.
You see St. John from all over the property, from the pool deck to the rooms and the beach. It changes the feeling of the resort because the view isn’t simply open sea; there’s another island sitting directly across the water, close enough to make you want to go there.
We wrote about exactly that after one of our stays at the property, when we called the relaunched Ritz-Carlton “back and better than ever”. The hotel had completed a transformation that changed almost every major part of the guest experience, from the guestrooms to the pool area.
The resort today has 180 rooms and suites, set across its Great Bay property. CJ first reported the scope of the relaunch in 2019, when the hotel returned after a $100 million renovation following its closure after Hurricane Irma.
Those numbers still explain a great deal about the property. This isn’t an enormous Caribbean megaresort, and it doesn’t feel like one; 180 rooms spread across 30 oceanfront acres gives the place room to breathe.
Why the Price Is So Interesting Right Now
Late summer is one of the Caribbean’s great value periods, particularly at luxury resorts where winter pricing can rise dramatically. The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas is a very good example right now.
Our Aug. 29 check found prices around $644 per night on Google Hotels. That’s the sort of rate that changes the calculation if you have always put the property in the “maybe someday” category.
It also arrives at a time when St. Thomas is becoming easier to consider as a short luxury vacation rather than only a longer Caribbean trip. American Airlines flies nonstop from Miami, and the U.S. Virgin Islands remains one of the easiest Caribbean destinations for Americans from a documentation standpoint.
U.S. citizens traveling directly between the mainland and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not need a passport, although carrying appropriate government-issued identification remains essential.
The broader value proposition is unusual. You’re getting a Ritz-Carlton beach resort in the Caribbean, on an island with substantial airlift, without the international-entry step required by most of the region.
This Is What the $100 Million Transformation Changed
The resort that reopened in late 2019 was significantly different from the Ritz-Carlton that preceded it. We covered the return of the Ritz-Carlton to St. Thomas, including the scale of the changes across the Great Bay property.
The transformation included redesigned guestrooms, a new pool experience, a reworked Club Lounge and extensive changes across the resort. We experienced the result firsthand.
The indoor-outdoor lobby immediately puts Great Bay into the frame, and the guestrooms have the kinds of small functional details that actually improve a stay: easily reached outlets, USB connections, a hidden Nespresso station and motion-activated bathroom lighting.
Then there’s the pool area. It has become one of the defining resort pools in the Virgin Islands, with the infinity edge facing St. John and a family component that makes the property work surprisingly well for parents, including a great water slide.
Then There’s the Boat
One of the smartest things the resort does is recognize where it is. St. Thomas isn’t simply an island with beaches; it’s one of the Caribbean’s great jumping-off points for getting on the water.
The Ritz-Carlton has its own 65-foot Lady Lynsey II, a catamaran that turns neighboring islands into extensions of the resort experience. We’ve long thought this is one of the property’s most underrated amenities.
St. John is the obvious trip, sitting directly across the channel. The boat can also take guests deeper into the Virgin Islands, including excursions toward Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands.
It changes what a Ritz-Carlton vacation can be. You can spend one day under a cabana at Great Bay and the next sailing through the Virgin Islands, then return to the same room at the end of the day.
That ability to combine a classic luxury resort with genuine island-hopping is rare. It’s one of the reasons we’ve included the Ritz-Carlton among our favorite Marriott resorts for active Caribbean vacations.
Great Bay Is Better Than You Remember
The beach deserves more attention, too. Great Bay is tucked into the island’s East End, away from the bustle of Charlotte Amalie and much closer to Red Hook and the ferries that connect St. Thomas with St. John.
The water here tends to feel protected, and the bay creates the kind of contained beach environment that works well for a resort stay. You can swim, spend the day under an umbrella or use the beach as the starting point for something more active.
It’s also a fundamentally different St. Thomas experience from staying closer to town. The East End has its own personality, built around boats, beaches, Red Hook and the neighboring islands.
The Ritz-Carlton makes the most of that geography. The resort faces outward toward the rest of the Virgin Islands rather than inward toward St. Thomas, and that gives the property much of its identity.
The Club Level Can Change the Stay
There are two basic ways to approach this resort. You can come for a straightforward luxury beach trip, take a standard room, spend most of your time at the pool and on Great Bay, and use the resort as your base for exploring the East End.
Or you can go Club Level. The Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge adds a more private layer to the experience, and the property also has a dedicated Club beach area.
We’ve always liked the Club experience here because it fits the way the resort itself works. The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas is already fairly self-contained; Club makes it even easier to spend a large part of the vacation on property.
Families may find the broader resort especially appealing because of the pool environment and watersports. Couples can take the opposite approach, prioritizing Great Bay, the spa, the quieter parts of the pool deck and sailing days.
Why This Ritz-Carlton Still Flies Under the Radar
Part of the answer may simply be geography. When Caribbean travelers think of Ritz-Carlton, properties in places like Grand Cayman and Puerto Rico tend to come to mind first.
St. Thomas has also spent years rebuilding and reinventing its hotel product after the hurricanes of 2017. The Ritz-Carlton’s 2019 return was one of the biggest milestones in that process, but it arrived only months before the global travel disruption that followed.
The result is a resort that never really had the prolonged post-renovation debut it deserved. By the time Caribbean travel fully accelerated again, there were new hotels opening across the region and a crowded luxury landscape competing for attention.
We think the property deserves another look.
Which Ritz-Carlton Stay Is Right for You?
Choose a regular ocean-view room if the goal is to spend most of your time outside: Great Bay, the pools, St. John and the boat. The value proposition becomes especially persuasive when rates are sitting near the current $644-per-night level.
Club Level makes more sense when the resort itself is the vacation. It’s the choice for a longer stay, a family trip where convenience becomes especially valuable, or a couple that expects to spend a lot of time at Great Bay rather than exploring St. Thomas every day.
The most active version of the trip revolves around Lady Lynsey II. Build in a St. John day, get out into the Virgin Islands and use the Ritz-Carlton as the luxurious home base you return to each afternoon.
There isn’t really a wrong version. We’ve been back to this resort multiple times, and each visit has reinforced the same conclusion: The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas is considerably better than its profile in the wider Caribbean luxury conversation would suggest. If yo’ure planning a Ritz vacation in the Caribbean, you may think first of properties like Grand Cayman or the Reserve in Puerto Rico. I’m saying, you should give this one a serious look.
The post St. Thomas Has the Caribbean Ritz-Carlton You May Have Overlooked, With a Spectacular Pool, St. John Views, and a Private Catamaran appeared first on Caribbean Journal.
