TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands April Travel Plans

I have booked a charter for the last half of April. Trying to decide what return flights to book. Any thoughts on timing to allow with ferries/customs and STT checkin/customs? The charter company is recommending arriving at STT two hours before my departure on Sunday. Not sure how much time to allow for customs at the ferry terminal. Impacts which ferry I take and how much hustling in the morning. Will less activity reduce the time required or will "island time" prevail? Yes, I am OCD.

I am sure others will chime in, but I think airlines recommend or require that you arrive at the airport three hours before flight time. Not sure what time your departing flight is scheduled for but a good rule of thumb is to take the earliest ferry possible for midday flights.

STT has been a bit of a Zoo since last September so I wouldn't take the chance especially if you have checked luggage.

If you are flying on American Airlines they require you be there 3 hours prior to departure

AA requires that you check in 3 hours before your flight. You can do that online. If you are checking bags you need to be there 90 minutes before the flight. If you are not checking bags and check in online there is no mandate other than allowing enough time to clear customs and security.

The situation at STT now is not typical. With only a few flights operating each day the time to check in and clear through is less than 30 minutes.

STT is definitely a different world to fly through over the last several months.

With that being said, always take the early ferry to get back from the BVI to St Thomas for your flights. You never know what delay, if any you could encounter along the way.
Key to staying on island time for me is not taking any chances while enroute to my flight.

I have a flight out of St Thomas on Sunday, 20 May at 12:55pm. There is a ferry from Road Town at 9am. Am I cutting things short or should this be enough time to get to the airport?

May could be very different than it is now, but I think you'll be fine. The 9am ferry should put you on the dock in Charlotte Amalie by 10am. That gives you 3 full hours to get thru C&I, transfer to the airport, and go thru security.

Ok, that is what I was hoping :-)

I guess the bottom line is no one knows what the ferry/airport situation will be like in late April, so I need to plan to be flexible. Catching the 9am RTFF puts pressure on bringing our boat in early, but the sun will be up relatively early and we can rise with the sun. Thank you to all for your input.

The situation may be different in April if the airlines schedule more flights. I am at STT right now. I just made it through C&I and security in under 10 minutes.

So you are thinking that if they don't increase the number of flights, it will be less crowded with less time required to go through customs and security. Correct?

Yes, and I would be surprised if the airlines add more flight between now and April. None of the major hotels are expected to reopen before then so I don’t see any increase in demand that would warrant additional flights.

I assume that you have done this before. However, just in case, you might consider staying at the base the last night to reduce stress. I understand the struggle of losing the last night out in a better spot, but we had to catch the 10:00 am a few years back and it was still a fairly rushed morning. With this said, we had kids, it was a Saturday, and our base was in Hodges. The last day rush is a reason that we now fly in and out of Tortola with a midday flight. If you book far enough out, sometime the difference in total costs is not that much. Another thing that influenced us was that the last time we had to catch the St. Thomas ferry for a flight - we were there pretty early - but they sold the last ticket a few people after us. If we would have been 5 minutes later, we would have missed our flight. Again, this was a Saturday, so you should not have the crowd we experienced, but I would not push it. Good luck!