The Ritz-Carlton Club, Great Bay, Red Hook, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Cold weather is on the way, and a young man’s fancy turns to the Islands. It’s time to start looking at catalogues and checking travel sites. I’ve started posting about exceptional places to stay while on vacation — see reviews of Havana Cabana in Key West, Playa Largo in Key Largo, the Marriott Crystal Shores in Marco Island, and the Marriott Beach Club in St. Kitts. You will not be surprised that the Ritz-Carlton Club on St. Thomas qualifies.

The St. Thomas Ritz-Carlton Club is situated in Red Hook, convenient to some great restaurants and shopping, as well as to the ferry to St. John. The Ritz-Carlton Club is distinct from the hotel chain. The villas are like condos rather than hotel rooms. They’re like the villas at the Marriott Vacation Club properties, Crystal Shores and the Marriott Beach Club in St. Kitts, only … Ritzier. That is, each Club unit has two or three bedrooms, two- or three-and-a-half baths, a roomy and well-equipped kitchen, a dining area, and a living room. And a laundry room. It hardly needs saying that the kitchen and extra rooms transform your stay, especially when three generations are traveling together.

Our villa also had a balcony overlooking the main pool and the Caribbean off two of the rooms,

and a balcony with a sunset view off the third. There’s a grill by the main pool where the quality of the food is exceeded only by the quality of the service and the, uh, vigor of the cocktails. We’ll get back to that in another post.

There’s a large area with games like Jenga, plus an outdoor pool table.

The beach is beautiful, with lots of chaise lounges.

The Club shares the grounds — all 30 acres of it — with a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and Club guests can use the hotel facilities, which are many. There’s a spa, of course, a huge fitness center, tennis courts, and several restaurants. There are two or three more swimming pools, and the grounds are beautiful. The entire property rises from the beach convenient to the Club, to a high hill atop which sits the main hotel building. The views from there are spectacular.

The hotel side of the property steps down to another beach, with pools, a grill, and other amenities along the way.

One of the advantages of the St. Thomas Ritz-Carlton Club is their concierge grocery service. Getting high or even mid-quality groceries in the Islands can be an adventure, but fortunately, there’s a very good grocery and wine store in Red Hook, Moe’s Fresh Market. The Ritz-Carlton Club lets you pre-order food and beverages from Moe’s, so that when you arrive your refrigerator and cupboard will be stocked. That’s especially nice after a long day of travel, and especially after the two-day travel disaster Nancy and I faced on the way down last year. That waiting bottle of cold wine sets the perfect tone.

All was not roses back in 2021. Due to COVID precautions the much-beloved hot cookies and freshly brewed coffee were not available for free all day in the Club lobby. We had to suffer through brewing our own coffee (very good quality supplied gratis) and making do with packaged cookies — big, fat chocolate chip cookies. These are the sorts of problems I face in life these days. It’s hard, but I come from hardy pioneer stock, so I manage.

If you think you’re up to that sort of challenge, definitely try the Ritz-Carlton Club in St. Thomas. And while you’re there, check out these restaurants.

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