A 65-room family-run all-inclusive on a quarter-mile beach on the south coast of St. Thomas, in continuous Doumeng family ownership since 1974 and the property that introduced the all-inclusive concept to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1989.
"The original all-inclusive in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a family-run quarter-mile of beach where the staff remember names and the Painkillers come three to a tray."
Bolongo Bay opened in 1974 as a small beach hotel owned and operated by Richard and Joyce Doumeng on a quiet quarter-mile of south-coast Caribbean beach roughly halfway between Charlotte Amalie and Red Hook. In 1989 the resort became the first in the U.S. Virgin Islands to offer an all-inclusive package, the model that has defined the property ever since. The Doumeng family still owns and runs the resort, now into a second generation, and the staff continuity, the local sourcing, and the unforced familiarity of a properly small Caribbean property are the central proposition. The 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria damaged the property but did not close it permanently; Bolongo reopened in stages through 2018 and was fully operational by 2019.
There are 65 rooms across the three-story garden buildings and the beachfront row. The standard is the Beachfront Room (around 30 square metres, two double beds or a king, walk-out access to the sand), these are the headline 25 units that step directly onto the beach. The remaining 40 Ocean View Rooms are on the second and third floors with private balconies. There are no suites in the conventional grand-hotel sense; the largest category is the Family Beachfront with a king bed and two day-beds. Interiors are casual Caribbean, tile floors, rattan, framed island-art prints, comfortably current rather than design-led.
The all-inclusive package is the structural feature. The standard inclusion covers three meals at the four restaurants (Iggies Beach Bar & Grill, Lobster Grille for dinner, Mim's Seaside Bistro, and Coco Joe's pool bar), unlimited drinks at the bars (including the Painkiller, the local rum-and-pineapple invented at Soggy Dollar in the BVIs, but properly mixed here), the daily watersports (kayaks, paddleboards, sailing instruction, snorkelling), the on-site tennis, and the activity calendar (sailing day-trips on the resort's own 53-foot catamaran the Heavenly Days, beach games, sunset cruises). It is the most generously written all-inclusive on St. Thomas, the kind that does not turn into a list of upcharges at checkout.
The beach is the property's central asset. The Bolongo crescent is a quarter-mile of properly white Caribbean sand on a calm south-facing bay, with the watersports shack at one end and Iggies at the other, Iggies Beach Bar is one of the genuinely well-known beach bars in the U.S. Virgin Islands, complete with the late-night reggae nights and the Sunday volleyball that draws locals as well as guests. The resort is fifteen minutes from Cyril E. King Airport, fifteen from Charlotte Amalie, and twenty from the Red Hook ferry to St. John. For families who want the scale of a smaller, friendlier all-inclusive than the mega-resorts of the eastern Caribbean, this is the answer.
Families pick Bolongo for the reasons the brochures cannot fake, the same staff for fifteen years remembering returning guests, the beachfront rooms that walk straight onto the sand for the children, the catamaran day-trip to Buck Island included in the package, the casual evening atmosphere at Iggies, and the rates that include everything (no upselling at the desk). The Doumeng family ethos, Richard and Joyce still appear on property, is the unforced quality that distinguishes the resort from the corporate-managed alternatives.
For an anniversary that wants the Caribbean without the formality of a Ritz-Carlton or the scale of the Westin, the Lobster Grille at sunset on the beach is the small ritual that the trip is built around. The all-inclusive is the practical anchor, the maths is simple, the drinks are not metered, the Painkillers are properly mixed, and the resort runs a sunset catamaran cruise on the Heavenly Days that doubles as the anniversary dinner if the brief calls for it.
Solo travellers find their way to Bolongo because the property scale is right (65 rooms, not 400) and because the staff handle single-bookings as completely normal rather than statistically rare. The bar at Iggies works as a single's bar in a way that the Westin's larger venues do not, the all-inclusive maths are particularly forgiving for solos (no double-supplement penalty on drinks and activities), and the catamaran day-trips run regardless of party size.
7150 Estate Bolongo
00802 St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands
65 rooms (25 beachfront, 40 ocean-view)
Ocean View Rooms from $385/night
Beachfront Rooms from $475/night
Family Beachfront from $625/night
All-Inclusive add-on $190/person/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
WiFi: complimentary, high-speed throughout
All-Inclusive package available
Iggies Beach Bar & Grill
Lobster Grille (open-air dinner)
Heavenly Days 53-ft catamaran
Free watersports + tennis
Family-owned since 1974
First all-inclusive in USVI (1989)
From USD 385/night. Peak rates apply during high season; book three to four months ahead for the headline suite categories.
Book This Hotel →The only true five-star in the U.S. Virgin Islands, thirty oceanfront acres on Great Bay at the eastern tip of the island.
The 1973 Frenchman's Reef, returned to scale in 2022 after a $425M rebuild, the harbor view that defines the U.S. Virgin Islands.
264 suite-style apartments on Smith Bay with the Buffett brand and the kitchens groups need.