Entertainment

When it comes to nightlife, the offerings are as diverse as the population and what is hot one season may disappear by the next. In fact, the winter season always sees more to do than the summer. For the latest on entertainment events, pick up a copy of “St. Croix This Week,” available free at shops, restaurants and tourist attractions around the island.

Easy-listening piano music is popular at the hotel restaurants and more upscale eateries located around the island. Clubs near the Christiansted waterfront often have rock and roll or reggae bands. Indies Restaurant in Christiansted is the place to go for jazz on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights during the winter. In Frederiksted, the Blue Moon restaurant has jazz on Friday nights and at its Sunday brunch.

Cane Bay’s Off the Wall beach bar and restaurant, located near Frederiksted, has blues or jazz Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Wednesdays when there is a cruise ship in town, downtown Frederiksted comes alive with a street party called Harbour Night.

The St. Croix Landmarks Society sponsors classical music concerts during the winter at its Whim Plantation Museum, located outside Frederiksted on Centerline Road.

Gambling

Divi Carina Bay Casino has the island’s only casino. Located on the island’s east end across from the oceanfront resort, the casino attracts locals and visitors for a day or evening of gambling.


History

St. Croix is the perfect spot for history buffs. Both Christiansted and Frederiksted, have pasts worth exploring. The countryside is dotted with picturesque ruins, leftovers from the 18th- and 19th-century days when sugar and slavery fueled the economy.

Christiansted National Historic Site, part of the United States National Park system, is home to the huge yellow Fort Christianvaern, an old Danish Customs House, a Scale House and a museum located in the Steeple Building, formerly a Danish Lutheran Church. All are open daily.

Just west of Christiansted sits the Nature Conservancy’s Little Princess Estate, an old plantation with windmill, rum factory and a slave village dotting its acreage that dates to the 19th century.

Fort Frederik sits adjacent to the Frederiksted cruise ship pier. Now a museum, this was the spot where Danish Governor Peter Von Scholten announced freedom for the territory’s slaves on July 3, 1848.

Near Frederiksted, the restored Whim Plantation Museum provides a glimpse into plantation life. Its oval great house is filled with antiques.

St. George Village Botanical Garden, located near Frederiksted, has a glorious array of plants tucked in among 19th-century sugar plantation ruins.

Carl and Marie Lawaetz Museum, also located near Frederiksted, was until recently a working farm owned by the descendents of Danish family that arrived here in the late 1800s. It was built around 1750.

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