A 180-room oceanfront Ritz-Carlton on thirty private acres at the eastern tip of St. Thomas, the only resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands operating at proper international five-star and the address that gives the islands their entry into the conversation.
"The only true five-star in the U.S. Virgin Islands, thirty oceanfront acres on Great Bay where the cruise-ship day-trippers cannot reach."
The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas occupies the entire eastern peninsula of Great Bay, a thirty-acre tropical campus that takes a five-minute drive from the public road to reach the main building. The original property opened as the Grand Palazzo Hotel in 1992, transitioned to Ritz-Carlton in 1996, and was fully rebuilt and re-opened after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2018, a two-year, multi-hundred-million-dollar restoration that returned the resort to its original five-star standard. The site is at the eastern end of St. Thomas, twenty minutes from Cyril E. King Airport and fifteen minutes from Charlotte Amalie. The position matters: the cruise-ship traffic of central St. Thomas does not reach Great Bay, and the resort effectively operates as a private waterfront enclave.
There are 180 rooms and suites across the main building and the beach-level pavilions. The standard category is the Resort View (around 50 square metres with a private balcony); the working category for a meaningful Caribbean booking is the Ocean View (with the Great Bay water directly outside the rail). The headline suite is the Three-Bedroom Presidential Suite, five oceanfront bathrooms, full kitchen, dining for ten, and the largest oceanfront private terrace on the property; for honeymoons the One-Bedroom Club Ocean View suites with the Club Lounge access are the practical choice. Interiors are Mediterranean in inspiration, pale stone, ivory linens, ironwork, restrained and consciously timeless rather than fashionable.
The dining operation is the strongest in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Bleuwater is the signature seafood-and-grill (terrace tables looking over the bay; the lobster bisque and the local-catch crudo are the menu's anchors); Sails is the all-day beach restaurant; Coconut Cove is the open-air pool bar; the Lobby Lounge handles afternoon tea and evening rum-list service. Two Mediterranean-style infinity pools step down from the main building toward the beach; the Ritz-Carlton Spa runs to 11,500 square feet with seven treatment rooms and an outdoor sundeck. The resort runs its own 53-foot catamaran for excursions to St. John and the British Virgin Islands, the boat operation is a meaningful differentiator on an island where boat charters are otherwise booked through third parties.
The beach is the great variable. Great Bay is a calm, west-facing crescent on the resort's south side, a proper Caribbean swimming beach with the resort cabanas, the Sails Beach Club, and the watersports operation (kayaks, paddleboards, snorkelling, sailing instruction). The east side of the peninsula faces open Atlantic and is too rough for swimming; the resort runs its own ferry across Great Bay to the more secluded Lindquist Beach (often cited among the Caribbean's most-photographed) on a complimentary schedule. For honeymoons, families, and anniversary bookings in the Virgin Islands, this is the only address operating at the level the rest of the Caribbean's five-stars are operating at.
For a Virgin Islands honeymoon the Ritz-Carlton is the only address that competes with the comparable five-stars in Anguilla, St. Barths, and Turks. The Club Ocean View suites are the working honeymoon category; the Presidential is the milestone version. The two infinity pools, the private cabanas on Great Bay, the boat operation to Lindquist Beach and St. John, and Bleuwater for the anniversary dinner are the practical anchors, and crucially, the cruise-ship traffic that defines central St. Thomas does not reach this end of the island.
Families work well here for the practical reasons, the calm Great Bay water for younger swimmers, the Kids' Club programme, the resort's complimentary ferry to Lindquist Beach for the older children, the family suites with two bedrooms and a kitchenette, and the watersports operation that takes teenagers off the parents' hands for the afternoon. The resort handles connecting-room requests reflexively and the children's menu is properly considered rather than an afterthought.
A Virgin Islands anniversary at the Ritz-Carlton can be a long weekend in a Club Ocean View suite, a milestone week in the Presidential, or a long lunch at Bleuwater for the locals-only version. The spa runs to genuinely strong international standard, eleven thousand five hundred square feet, seven treatment rooms, and the only Caribbean spa with a proper hammam, and the catamaran day-charters to St. John are the differentiator when the anniversary brief calls for something beyond the resort itself.
6900 Great Bay
00802 St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands
180 rooms and suites
Resort View from $725/night
Ocean View from $1,050/night
Club Ocean View from $1,650/night
Presidential Suite from $9,000/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
WiFi: complimentary, high-speed throughout
Two Mediterranean infinity pools
11,500 sqft Ritz-Carlton Spa
Bleuwater + Sails + Coconut Cove
Private 53-ft catamaran
Complimentary Lindquist Beach ferry
Kids' Club programme
Club Lounge for Club categories
From USD 725/night. Peak rates apply during high season; book three to four months ahead for the headline suite categories.
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