Flying into St Thomas for a BVI charter? Plenty of our guests do, because the flights are better and often cheaper than flying into Tortola. The catch is the last leg: you land in the US Virgin Islands and your yacht is in the British Virgin Islands, and how you bridge that gap decides whether the first day of your holiday is relaxed or a scramble. Staying the night in St Thomas solves it. Here is where to stay, and how to get from the room to the yacht.
Why So Many BVI Charters Start in St Thomas
Cyril E. King Airport in St Thomas takes direct flights from a long list of US cities. Terrance B. Lettsome in Tortola does not. Most routes into the BVI involve a connection through San Juan or St Thomas anyway, on a small aircraft with a small baggage allowance and a schedule that does not forgive a delay earlier in the day.
So a large share of guests fly into St Thomas, spend a night there, and cross to the yacht the next morning rested. Some charters go further and start in the USVI altogether, with the yacht collecting guests on the St Thomas side. We have written about that choice in detail in where to start your BVI yacht charter, and about what it means for which yachts you can book in BVI-based versus USVI-based yachts.
Either way, you need a room for a night. There is one obvious place to take it.
The Westin Beach Resort and Spa at Frenchman’s Reef
Frenchman’s Reef, St Thomas
Frenchman’s Reef was the landmark resort on St Thomas for decades, closed after the 2017 hurricanes, and reopened following a rebuild reported at around $425 million. It came back as two hotels sharing one headland: the Westin is the larger of the pair.
For a pre-charter night it does the important things well. It is a short drive from the airport, it will sell you a single night, and it sits directly on the water with its own dock, which matters more than the room does. Four pools, nine places to eat between the two properties, a spa, and Morningstar Beach with complimentary kayaks and paddleboards if you arrive with an afternoon to spare. There is a kids club, which is the reason most families with young children end up here rather than at a smaller property.
It is not a quiet boutique hotel and it does not pretend to be. It is a large, well-run resort that is very good at absorbing a family of eight arriving at 9pm with fourteen bags.
Frenchman’s Reef, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Morningstar Buoy Haus Beach Resort at Frenchman’s Reef
Frenchman’s Reef, St Thomas
Buoy Haus is the smaller sister property, an Autograph Collection hotel next door on the same headland. It has its own pool and a quieter, more design-led feel, and guests can use everything at the Westin: the spa, the gym, the kids club, the restaurants, the beach.
That combination is the reason our brokers point guests here. You get the calm of a smaller hotel without losing the facilities of a large one, and because the two share a site, a group travelling together can split across both and still eat dinner in the same place. Single nights are bookable here too.
Between the two, the rule of thumb is straightforward: families with small children and anyone who wants the full resort machinery take the Westin, couples and groups without kids take Buoy Haus.
Frenchman’s Reef, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Getting from Your Hotel to the Yacht
This is the part guests underestimate, and it is worth deciding before you book the room.
A private water taxi is usually the answer. It collects you at the hotel dock, clears you into the BVI, and delivers you to the yacht. No public ferry schedule to hit, no taxi across the island with the luggage, and the timing bends around your flight rather than the other way round. We keep a current list of operators and prices in best water taxis from the USVI to the BVI.
The public ferry is cheaper and less flexible. Ferries run from Charlotte Amalie and from Red Hook to Tortola. They are perfectly pleasant and considerably slower once you add the drive, the check-in and the wait, and a missed sailing can cost you half a day.
Or the yacht comes to you. A USVI-based yacht can collect guests on the St Thomas side directly, which removes the crossing from your day entirely. It also changes which yachts are available to you, which is the trade-off covered in BVI-based versus USVI-based yachts.
Whichever you choose, tell your broker where you are staying. Half the friction on arrival day comes from the transfer being arranged separately from the charter.
One Night, or a Few?
A single night in St Thomas is the common pattern and it works. You land, you sleep, you cross in the morning with the whole charter week ahead of you.
If you have the time, the argument for two nights is jet lag rather than sightseeing. Guests who arrive from Europe or the US west coast tend to spend the first day of a charter half asleep, which is an expensive way to be tired. A spare day at the hotel fixes that before the clock on the yacht starts.
And if you would rather do that on the British side instead, our guide to the best hotels in the BVI covers twelve properties on Tortola, Virgin Gorda and the private islands, along with the practical things worth asking before you book a room anywhere in the islands.
