Things to Do on St. Croix: Day Eight

Welcome to Day 8, the last day of our trip to St. Croix! 

Check out how we created our 8 day trip itinerary here.

DAY1 – Fly to St. Croix, p/u rental car, stop at Captain Morgan Distillery, check in at Airbnb, free evening
DAY2 – Cane Bay and The Wall
DAY3 – Protestant Cay, downtown Christiansted/boardwalk
DAY4 – Sunrise @ Point Udall, Hike Jack & Isaac Bay (snorkeling)
DAY5 – Tide Pools @ Annaly Bay, Frederiksted Pier
DAY6 – West end of the island: Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, Domino Club, Rainbow Beach sunset
DAY7 – Island Loop: Historic Sites, Estate Mount Washington, Leatherback Brewery and local eats
****DAY8 – Cruzan Rum Distillery, d/o rental car, fly home***

our Last Day

Alas, we have come to the final day of our St. Croix adventure (*tear*). We can certainly say there were no dull moments on this trip and that we feel  we made the most of every second we spent on this island! NO REGRETS!! Turns out, we drove about 350 miles over the course of our week on St. Croix. Not too shabby!

This morning we pack up all of our bits and check out of our AirBnB for 11am. It’s another rainy day but we’ve got a couple more items to knock off our list: a trip to the post office, a stop at La Reine Chicken Shack, and a tour of the Cruzan Rum distillery. 

We swing by the post office to mail off some post cards (a must on any vacation!). Unfortunately, this is no quick task. ‘Island Time’ is more prevalent than ever on our trip. Here at the post office, we wait in line for nearly 30 minutes to purchase stamps! Luckily there were some friendly folks in line and we were able to pass the time with some good conversation. We ask for suggestions on things to do on a rainy day as well as recommendations to add to our ‘things to do next time’ list. Stamps purchased, we purchase mail off our postcards and run across the street to La Reine Chicken Shack one more time. The goal here is to get some fuel in our bellies with a stop at a rum distillery next on the list.

Making Time for Rum

In an attempt to minimize any type of rush when we need to depart, we swing by the airport to check our bags and pick up our boarding passes, Next we make our way to the Cruzan Rum Distillery, conveniently located less than six minutes from the airport. 

We have heard from various sources that the Cruzan Rum tour is the better of the two (compared with Captain Morgan). So today we get to test that theory. We arrive a little ahead of the next tour but purchase our ticket and hang out in the tasting room/gift shop. A tour here is $8 and you get two cocktails at the end of it, with unlimited samples of all of their flavours. (Captain Morgan was $10 for one cocktail and unlimited flavor samples). 

They have a beautiful, covered patio where we take a seat once we’ve taken in all the gift shop has to offer. Our tour guide arrives on the patio and escorts us out to the parking lot to begin our tour. Today, we are part of a small group of four (another off season perk!). The walking tour of the facilities runs about 15 minutes. This includes a couple key stops outlining important parts of Cruzan’s story and production. Our tour guide explains the history of the sugar mills on St. Croix and that there are 115 ruins that remain standing to this day. She walks us through each step of the rum distilling process, from the fermentation of molasses to the oak barrel aging process. Next come the transport and bottling processes, as the rum is bottled off island.

Upon our return to the tasting room, we are able to sample all 14 flavours of Cruzan Rum. Flavours include Guava, Key Lime, Vanilla, Coconut, Mango and Blueberry Lemonade. Additionally, we have the opportunity to sample some of their ‘higher end’ rums as well. These include their 9 Spiced Rum, Estate Diamond Dark, Black Strap and Aged Dark.  Next, we select our two mixed beverages that came as part of the tour. We could spend the afternoon in this tasting room, sampling rum and carrying on with the extremely friendly staff. Alas, we have a plane to catch. We jump back into the Jeep for the last time and head to the gas station. If you rent a car, don’t forget to fuel up before dropping it off at the rental car agency.

ST. CROIX FUN FACT: Did you know, island visitors are entitled to six (750mL) bottles of rum to take home?

Getting Through the Airport

The boarding process when departing the island is a very…thorough one. We are playing by the rule of arriving at the airport an hour prior to boarding. Here we are thinking we had done well in doing so. Upon making our way to the gate, we wait in line for nearly 45 minutes to go through the island’s customs process. This is a little strange… You are on US territory, returning to US territory, but they are required to thoroughly verify any out going luggage.

Once we clear the customs desk, we grab our checked bag which had made it’s way through much earlier. We are asked to run it through a scanner, along with our personal items, before it can make it’s way onto the plane. We are then required to go through the regular gate entry process with body scanners and pass our personal items through another scan. At this point our gate has boarded and they are calling our names over the loud speaker. Luckily we make it aboard and hope that our bag does too! (It did 😉 ) Lesson learned from this last part of the adventure, give yourself ample time to get through customs when departing the Caribbean!!

We hope you enjoyed our St. Croix vacation as much as we did! We’ve enjoyed sharing our memories and lessons learned, and look forward to sharing our next adventure with you soon!

HOW DO YOU COPE WITH THE LAST DAY OF A VACATION?