Hotels/Lodging
While seeking out a hotel, we were looking for a good price and a safe location. There are a bunch of decent to low priced hotels out there, but it just didnt seem worth any risk because of where they were located. We wanted to stay out of Charlotte Amalie because of the crime at night and wanted to be close to the water.  We ended up staying at the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort our first trip and the Marriott for our wedding. Our guests during our wedding rented out a few condos which helped keep their costs down as well.

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort

The hotel is family owned and has a few different buildings and rooms. Checking in and out of the hotel was easy and the area felt safe. The cheap Value Rooms are just that, cheap in price and a bit dated. We were in that room for the first night until we were moved for the final night (as we told them we were there for wedding planning).  As you can see from the pictures below, the room was pretty old and the doors didnt even seal properly, which was a good waste of air condition. The rooms are also close to Iggies Beach Bar, so expect to hear noise until 11pm most nights. After we were updated to the better room, we felt much better about recommending the hotel to our guests if they chose to stay there.  We had a nicer air condition unit, flat screen tv, nicer bathroom and a bit further from Iggies. Overall the hotel was nice, a bit expensive, and just didnt work out in the end.

Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort

The Marriott was under renovations during our wedding but the Morning Star Beach area was still open.  We checked out the normal Marriott rooms during our first visit and they were fairly nice.  The Morning Star rooms were beach side and right next to Havana Blue and Coco Joe’s restaurants. Check in was pretty slow, but that could be because of the renovations, but overall we loved our stay in the hotel.  Sprint cell phone service was barely working and we could not text message.

Bolongo Bay Condos
The Bolongo Condos were a nice option for our family and friends as they could rent a 2 bedroom condo for less than the price of Marriott and Bolongo Bay Resort. 3 of the 4 condos were nice, but one had what seemed to be a mold smell which mostly went away after windows were left open the first night. Most condos will require a 5 night stay, but it’s alwaysa good idea to check them out. You can use sites like VRBO and HomeAway.