Never before has the quick flight to St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands looked more appealing. This quarantine has some of the closest destinations seeming like bucket list locales! Covid-19 has hit the world hard and I recognize the privilege I have in being a travel journalist so first and foremost, I wanted to put that out there as sort of a pardon or a mea culpa of a “woe is me.” From baggage handlers to TSA to airline CEO and luxury resort owners, the travel industry is one of the hardest hit by this strain of coronavirus. Even when we collectively get over this curve, there is going to be a new normal, the world will not be the same. I, like many of my colleagues, am pivoting how I think about travel. For some time, New York to Italy is going to be the longest plane ride, at nine hours, that I will take — and that’s only out of necessity.

This time last year, I was heading to St. Croix for the Taste of St. Croix festival and it was glorious: check out five minutes of me eating my way through the island. The US Virgin Islands get a bad rep among a lot of “cool kids” “authentic experience travel seekers. But, as we Perfectionists know: there’s always more than meet the eye in any destination. Each Virgin Island, US vs British, and the islands of each is different from the last. While friends of mine are Virgin Gorda locals, I thought most of the US Virgin Islands were cruise day trippers and retirees.

St. Croix proved me wrong and I loved it!

And I’m not the only one. Plenty of newer locals came to the island for work or a vacation and ended up staying; I tell a funny story about that to Bleu Magazine. Read about it and the rest of my travelogue of the island on Bleu’s Issuu Magazine site (see the full spread — how it’s laid out for print, photography by me) or grab a copy on your newsstands!

Have you ever been to the US Virgin Islands?

Let me know if you want to see more!