This Historic St. Croix Resort Has Three Beaches and One of the Caribbean’s Best-Kept Golf Secrets

The pink Great House rises above the hills of Estate Shoys. An 18th-century sugar mill stands nearby, its stone walls remaining from a very different St. Croix. Below, green fairways descend toward the Caribbean Sea, passing palms, rocky bluffs and three beaches with three distinct personalities.

The setting belongs to The Buccaneer, the family-owned resort just outside Christiansted that has welcomed visitors since 1947. Yet the story of the property reaches much farther back, to a centuries-old Great House (it’s actually the oldest family-owned hotel in the Caribbean).

Today, The Buccaneer occupies 340 acres overlooking Christiansted Harbour, with 131 rooms, an 18-hole golf course, eight tennis courts, two pools, three restaurants and enough room to make the resort feel like its own corner of St. Croix.

We have always loved The Buccaneer because it represents something increasingly rare in Caribbean travel: a resort whose history, identity and hospitality still belong to the island around it.

A Resort With a St. Croix Story

The Buccaneer began with 11 rooms in 1947, opened by the Armstrong family on the cattle estate the family had owned since 1922. It was the first hotel on St. Croix built and operated by an island family.

Nearly 80 years later, the Armstrong family remains involved in the resort. The continuity is important. The Buccaneer does not present Caribbean history as a design theme imported from somewhere else. Its story comes from Estate Shoys, from St. Croix and from generations of family ownership.

The earliest surviving building on the property dates to 1653, when Charles Martel, a Knight of Malta, built a French Great House away from the sea. After Denmark purchased St. Croix in 1733, Governor Frederik Moth von Prock used the estate as a residence and converted the Great House into a sugar factory. The historic sugar mill, built during the Danish period, still stands on the grounds.

The estate later produced cotton and became a cattle farm before the Armstrong family opened the hotel.

You encounter pieces of the past throughout a stay. The old mill serves as a landmark and event space. The Great Houseremains the resort’s visual center. Inside, the “Fighting Ships” mural by Stanley Stubenberg recalls another era of island travel.

None of it feels separated from the contemporary hotel. The history is simply present, part of the route between breakfast, the beach, the golf course and your room.

The Great House Above Christiansted

The Great House occupies one of the highest points of the resort, overlooking the sea, the golf course and the hills around Christiansted.

Breakfast is served at The Terrace, where the view reaches across the property toward the water. The daily buffet is included with every stay, an increasingly uncommon resort tradition that helps give The Buccaneer its residential rhythm.

The Great House also contains rooms and suites, including the 800-square-foot Great House Suite. Other accommodations are distributed across the estate, from hillside rooms to cottages and oceanfront categories closer to Mermaid Beach and Grotto Beach.

The Deluxe Oceanfront rooms are among the resort’s most popular. Located above the water between Grotto Beach and Mermaid Beach, the rooms have 16-foot wood ceilings, large picture windows, sitting areas and stone patios facing the sea.

The spread of the accommodations is part of the appeal. The Buccaneer does not feel like a single hotel building surrounded by amenities. It feels more like a private Caribbean estate, with roads, gardens, hills, beaches and rooms placed throughout the property.

Three Beaches, Three Different Stays

Mermaid Beach is the social center of the resort. The water is generally protected, palms provide natural shade and The Mermaid restaurant places lunch and drinks close to the sand.

You can borrow snorkeling equipment, kayaks, paddleboards and floating mats from the beach shack. There are games near the beach, along with space for swimming and long afternoons under an umbrella.

The Mermaid serves salads, wraps, Caribbean dishes and stone-oven pizza in an open-air setting. The restaurant also hosts dinner on select evenings, with the tables close enough to the water to preserve the relaxed character of the beach.

Grotto Beach has a quieter atmosphere. It is home to the resort’s second pool and Beauregard’s on the Beach, an intimate restaurant serving sushi, tacos, seafood and cocktails. Live music and weekly entertainment are frequently part of the calendar.

Three holes of the golf course run beside Grotto Beach, creating one of the resort’s defining views: fairways meeting sea, with golfers passing close to the sand and the restaurant.

Whistle Beach is the most secluded of the three. Located beyond a hill on the outer edge of the estate, it remains natural and largely undeveloped. The beach is used for small weddings, while visitors staying at the Beach House at Whistle Point have a private route to the sand through the lawn.

Having three beaches changes the experience of staying at The Buccaneer. You can choose activity at Mermaid, a quieter pool-and-beach day at Grotto or greater seclusion at Whistle. Each feels connected to the resort, but none feels interchangeable.

The Caribbean’s Undiscovered Golf Course

Designed by Bob Joyce and opened in 1973, the resort’s par-70 course measures 5,668 yards. Ocean views appear from 13 holes, while three holes run along Grotto Beach.

The course is approachable enough for a vacation round, yet varied enough to keep experienced players interested. Hills, trade winds and changes in elevation add difficulty, while the modest yardage helps many rounds finish in less than four hours.

The routing is what stays with you. Several holes rise above the Caribbean, while others descend toward the sea. The course crosses a broad portion of the estate, passing tropical vegetation, historic areas and views toward Christiansted.

It also remains surprisingly little known outside St. Croix.

Part of the reason may be the island itself. St. Croix receives fewer resort headlines than St. Thomas, fewer golf stories than the Dominican Republic and fewer luxury development announcements than Turks and Caicos. Yet the relative quiet is exactly what gives a round here its appeal.

Tee times do not feel like an industrial resort operation. The golf shop is a few minutes from the rooms, carts are available, walking is permitted and club rentals and lessons can be arranged. Chips n’ Slices at the clubhouse provides drinks and light food after a round.

The course also has the only golf simulator on St. Croix, with more than 90 international courses available for virtual play.

Golfers could easily build an entire St. Croix trip around The Buccaneer. Everyone else may discover the course almost by accident, perhaps while looking down from breakfast or walking from Grotto Beach.

Either way, it is one of the Caribbean’s best-kept golf secrets.

A Resort Made for Active Days

The Buccaneer has long appealed to families partly because so much is included and so much happens outdoors.

The resort has eight tennis courts, including two courts with lighting for evening play. Private instruction and clinics are available, and the tennis center has a long history of attracting serious recreational players.

A two-mile trail runs through the property, while the fitness center remains open around the clock. Two freshwater pools provide an alternative to the beaches, including the pool beside Grotto Beach.

A complimentary children’s program operates during the day, giving families room to divide their time between the beach, golf, tennis and excursions around St. Croix.

The resort can also arrange sails to Buck Island Reef National Monument, one of the essential experiences in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The protected island and surrounding reef are known for white sand, coral formations and an underwater snorkeling trail.

Christiansted is only a few minutes away, placing The Buccaneer close to the restaurants, historic streets and harbor of the island’s principal town.

Dining Close to the Water

Each of The Buccaneer’s three primary restaurants occupies a different part of the estate.

The Terrace is the Great House restaurant, serving breakfast and dinner above Christiansted Harbour. It is the most formal of the dining options, with an evening menu built around Caribbean ingredients, seafood and contemporary dishes.

The Mermaid is the beach restaurant, suited to lunch after swimming or an easy meal beside the sand.

Beauregard’s on the Beach brings another atmosphere to Grotto Beach, with sushi, seafood, tacos, cocktails and live entertainment beside the sea.

The geographic separation gives each restaurant a distinct purpose. You are not returning to the same central dining room three times a day. Meals take you to different parts of the resort, from the Great House above the hills to the beaches below.

Weekly events frequently include live music, Moko Jumbies near the sugar mill, fire performers and cocktail receptions. The resort also preserves several drinks associated with its earliest years, including the Cruzan Confusion, Raising Cane and Jump-Up-and-Kiss-Me.

The names may be playful, but the tradition is genuine. Early visitors often mixed their own drinks and helped plan meals during an era when reaching St. Croix from the mainland could take two days.

Why The Buccaneer Still Feels Like St. Croix

Many Caribbean resorts can offer a beautiful beach, an oceanfront room and a list of activities. Fewer can connect those features to a specific island story.

The Buccaneer belongs to St. Croix in a way that feels difficult to reproduce. Its architecture reflects the property’s past. Its family ownership reaches back through generations. Its golf course follows the contours of the estate. Its restaurants, beaches and public spaces are dispersed across land with more than 370 years of recorded history.

The resort has continued to update its rooms and amenities, but it has not erased the qualities that made people return in the first place.

You still come here for the Great House, the old sugar mill, Mermaid Beach and the long views across Christiansted. You come for a golf course many Caribbean travelers have never heard of. You come because 340 acres give you room to explore while keeping the experience personal.

Most of all, you come because The Buccaneer feels inseparable from St. Croix.

In a region filled with hotels designed to transport visitors into a private world, The Buccaneer does something more interesting. It brings you deeper into the island itself.

What It Costs to Stay Here

I found some pretty good rates on Google Hotels, to the tune of just $322 per night right now.