Shopping in St. Thomas or St. Martin??

[mabell2]

I needed opinions on where the shopping is better, St. Thomas or St. Martin? Our ship stops in St. Martin the day before St. Thomas. We only want to spend one day on the beach but I'm not sure if I should do the beach in St. Martin and save the most of the shopping for St. Thomas or the other way around. Thanks:):):)

[Ms411]

It depends on what you want to shop for. I think the jewelry selection on St Thomas is more varied, but some say the prices are better on St Martin (though it's hard to find two pieces exactly alike in two different stores, so I think it's hard to compare prices).

 

Some designer brands are exclusive to certain stores which may not be on both islands.

 

I love the handpainted guavaberry bottles from St Martin, so I always get those when I go since you can't get that in St Thomas.

[dcrow72]

the shopping area in St Martin is one block from the beach. We shopped for a bit and then rented some chairs right there on the beach in front of a hotel and crashed for the afternoon. They even brought drinks around. If you're looking for jewelry, try Majesty jewelers in St Martin; they are a manufacturing jeweler and have excellent prices and very different pieces. I must have searched 30 stores looking for a specific tanzanite bangle bracelet (that I only had in my own mind) and found it there with a matching ring. They gave us an excellent price and it appraised for over twice what I paid. Met many folks from the ship who had been buying from there for years with no problems at all. One woman had a huge diamond ring made for her in advance and was picking it up while in port. There's vendors selling cold water and sodas along the way too. I loved St Martin. There's a nice little hotel right on the water that has an open area to the boardwalk with a great bar and big huge sofas to sit on while you sip. Best frozen drinks we've had! We just walked across the boardwalk from there and rented beach chairs.

 

In St Thomas, we used Cardow's jewelers. Not pushy, very knowledgable and they have the greatest "reversible" rings. Pretty stone on one side surrounded by diamonds and then you can turn it inside out and there's all small diamonds on the other side. Got my tanzanite there for under $500 and havent' taken it off since. It's very easy to shop in the am in St Thomas and then hop a cab over to Emerald Beach to spend the afternoon. The stores are less crowded in the am. The cab ride is less than $5 and it's very close to Crown Bay pier.

[NJ04SS]

In St Thomas, we used Cardow's jewelers. Not pushy, very knowledgable and they have the greatest "reversible" rings. Pretty stone on one side surrounded by diamonds and then you can turn it inside out and there's all small diamonds on the other side. Got my tanzanite there for under $500 and havent' taken it off since. It's very easy to shop in the am in St Thomas and then hop a cab over to Emerald Beach to spend the afternoon. The stores are less crowded in the am. The cab ride is less than $5 and it's very close to Crown Bay pier.

 

 

So you would reccomend shopping in St. Thomas in the AM?

How far is it from Crown bay? How far is Emerald Beach from shopping and Crown bay?

 

We are only here from 7AM-2PM , Is this doable?

[agem19]

Which beach did you go to where shopping was one block away?

 

Thank you.