This post is an alert for all of you world travelers (or would-be world travelers) out there. You may or may not have seen posts like this floating around sometime this year:
The U.S. Virgin Islands Will Actually Pay You To Visit In 2017
I saw this crop up at the end of 2016 and was intrigued, but when I looked at booking a stay it was SO EXPENSIVE I knew Seth and I wouldn’t be able to swing it in 2017. But I happened upon a similar post on Tuesday and just for daydreaming purposes, I started searching rates for the rest of the year. And guys, WE’RE GOING TO ST. THOMAS! I found deals so good even Seth couldn’t say no! We booked the same day. That’s how good these deals are. And of course I’m going to tell you how to get them.
Here’s the breakdown:
We are going to St. Thomas in October. The trip is Sunday through Thursday. We booked 4 nights in a bed and breakfast. We booked round trip flights from Detroit to St. Thomas with a stopover in Fort Lauderdale. AND we get $400 to spend on activities while on the island. (You read that right. Four hundred dollars). We booked all of that, for two, and the whopping total was $940.16. That’s it. For four days and five nights of island bliss. Somebody pinch me.
Now, I will be the first to tell you, I do not care about staying in a super luxe hotel. I need a place to sleep where my door locks. That’s it. I have slept in hostels in Australia, China, and Europe, so take this deal with a grain of salt if you are picky about your accommodations. That said, there are nicer hotels (not resorts or anything, but a little more upscale) for as little as $65 more than we paid, so don’t count yourself out completely!
Here’s how to get this killer deal. First, you have to book through the U.S. Virgin Islands website or one of their travel partners. Click the link and scroll down until you see this:
It includes all of the good details. To get this killer deal, you have to book by June 1 and travel between June 1 and October 31, FYI. The last part says “must be booked through a participating partner below using booking code SFCP17.” If you scroll just a little farther, past the lists of participating hotels, you’ll find a whole list of links for their participating partners. Use whichever one you prefer. We used Expedia. When you click the link to Expedia, it automatically applies the promo code. I’m not sure if other sites do that also. Then, just play with your search terms to find the best deal!
The best deals I’ve found are from October 8-12 and 15-19, but I didn’t do a whole lot of digging. Also, if you can’t travel within those dates, or can’t book by June 1st, you can still score a good deal. If you scroll farther down the U.S. Virgin Islands website, you’ll find this:
This deal can be booked anytime through October 1, 2017 and you can travel through the end of December 2017! You still get $300 to spend on the island. This deal has to be booked on the U.S. Virgin Islands website directly (using code CP1). Their interface is a little more difficult than using a site like Expedia and you’ll have to book your flight separately, but you can still score a pretty nice deal. Check especially the week of November 5th!
Last, fair warning, July through November is hurricane season in the Virgin Islands. That said, my parents went to St. Thomas and St. Croix on a cruise in October years ago and there wasn’t a could in the sky, so you may be just fine. And for those of you who are skeptical of the money they give you to spend on the islands, here’s a (huge) list of places you can spend them:
Where to Spend Your USVI Credits
So who’s coming along?
[…] and will be finishing with our open water dives at the end of the month. I owe you an update on the trip to St. Thomas and St. John that I finally got to take after it was postponed by Hurricane Irma. Seth and I went to South […]