U.S. Virgin Islands

The U.S. Virgin Islands feel like the Caribbean turned up to its most vivid — steep green hills dropping into water that shifts from turquoise to indigo. St. Thomas brings duty-free shopping and a lively cruise-port buzz, St. Croix has a slower, more historic Danish-colonial character, and St. John is the quiet one, most of it protected as national park land with trails leading to empty coves. Trunk Bay's underwater snorkel trail and the reefs around Buck Island are the kind of postcard scenery that keeps people coming back.