Frenchtown, St. Thomas

Staying in Frenchtown

Frenchtown began as Carenage. The French Heritage Museum's history of the village tells it plainly: after hurricanes and droughts in the mid to late 1800s ended a living on St. Barthélemy, many families left for St. Thomas. The farmers went to the North Side; the fishermen settled at Carenage, which later became known as Frenchtown, and built small boats and canoes, knitted nets and made fish traps. The museum keeps that story in a building put up in 1944 as the village fire station, on a parcel the Frenchtown Civic Organization, founded in 1958, leased from the Government of the Virgin Islands in 2002. Its site lists no opening hours as of October 2026, so ask your owner before you walk over.

Staying here is a vote for town over sand. The neighborhood sits on the harbor where Charlotte Amalie ends to the west, and by our measurement the ground around its middle is flat. What it does not have is a swimming beach of its own. A week here looks like mornings at a west end beach, afternoons and evenings in town, and an easy run to the airport on the last day. Ask the owner what the house looks over and how far the waterfront is on foot; we have measured the drives, not the walks.

Rent a car all the same. From the middle of Frenchtown, Charlotte Amalie is 5 minutes, Cyril E. King Airport 12 and the Red Hook ferry terminal 34, because Red Hook sits at the far east end of the island. That last figure is the one to plan around if the week includes St. John: the last passenger ferry back is 10 pm from Cruz Bay per the Department of Public Works as of September 2026, and the drive home follows it. The boat from the Edward Wilmoth Blyden IV Marine Terminal on the Charlotte Amalie waterfront reaches Cruz Bay in 45 minutes, twice a day each way on Transportation Services of St. John's schedule as of October 2026; read the schedule for the times, because the extra sailings another operator adds stop in the off-season. West along the harbor, the Water Island Ferry leaves Crown Bay Marina on the hour until 6 pm, with the last boat back at 6:15 pm, per the operator as of October 2026.

Every beach is a drive, and the measured times from the middle of Frenchtown sort them. Brewers Bay, beside the University of the Virgin Islands on the far side of the airport, is 8 minutes and has no posted entry fee as of October 2026. Hull Bay, on the north shore, is 15. Morningstar Beach, below Frenchman's Reef, is 17, and Magens Bay is 18, where entry is $7 a visitor per the Magens Bay Authority as of October 2026. Limetree Beach and Bolongo Bay are 19 each. The East End beaches belong to a different day: Coki Beach is 24 minutes and Sapphire Beach 29, nearly the whole Red Hook drive.

The tradeoff: no sand at the door, and 34 minutes to the St. John boats at Red Hook. A guest who wants to swim before breakfast without the car, or who plans three days on St. John, is better served on the East End. A guest who lands late, leaves early, or wants Charlotte Amalie at 5 minutes rather than half an hour gets the most from Frenchtown. For that late landing, a taxi from Cyril E. King Airport to Frenchtown is $11 for one person or $9 each for two or more, plus $3 a bag, on the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's tariff in force since October 2022.

Suits a short stay, a late arrival or an early flight, and a trip that spends its evenings in Charlotte Amalie.

Getting around

Plan on a car in Frenchtown: the roads are flat, the nearest sand is 8 minutes by car and Charlotte Amalie is 5 minutes by road.

Frenchtown sits beside the town water mains, by our read, so ask whether the house is connected or runs on its cistern alone, and whether anything keeps the power on during the island's rotating outages. The flat streets by the harbor hold a good phone signal, as the rest of town does.

Beaches near Frenchtown

• Brewers Bayabout 8 min
• Honeymoon Beach, Water Islandabout 10 min
• Hull Bayabout 15 min