How'd you get here?

[parafins]

Sorry I should have signed the previous as Parafins not Dappledox! {That's my other nickname}

[Ron_L]

As you guys probably know from my posts this is going to be our visit to STJ. It;s actually our first visit to the Caribbean since our honeymoon on Jamaica way back in 1984! I've always wanted to visit the USVI but we always found things to do closer to home. My daughter is graduating from high school in June so we may not have a chance at a family vacation once she gets into college, so we decided to take a trip during spring break this year.

I had well over 500,000 miles in my United account (I travel too much!) I started looking at warm, tropical places that I could get us to using miles. The choices came down to Hawaii, St. Lucia and St. Thomas. We've been to Hawaii so I took that off of the list. St. Lucia looked interesting until I started looking for places to stay. The Cricket World Cup is in the Caribbean this yeaf and there were matches on St. Lucia during spring break week and the hotels, etc. were either booked or had doubled their prices! So, I started looking at STT. During my web searches i found this forum and started looking into STJ and decided that was where we would go.

We love to swim and snorkel and love nature, so STJ sounded great. My wife does like to shop, but she's more into crafty stuff instead of jewelry and leather goods, etc., so I don;t think she'll miss the shopping on STT. If we have to (emphasis on have to ) we can always take the ferry back to STT for a day. My daughter is going to bring a friend, and they just want to "hang" together at the beach do some exploring away from the adults. they are teens, however, so I'm sured that they will be "bored" a lot of the time, but that would happen no matter where we were!

Oops... That ended up a little long. Sorry. Just think about how long my trip reports will be

You can all wake up now...

[Marcia (Mrs. Pete)]

When Pete and I got married in '99, we honeymooned in St. Lucia. We wanted a private vacation with our own little pool. Our travel agent found the Hilton Jalousie for us and it was nice but not all that private. The next year, while reading the New Yorker, I ran across an ad for Pavilions and Pools in STT. We did a little research and started posting on the AOL travel forum for information. It was a nice one year anniversary trip to P & P but not exactly perfect (no views from our room but the private pool was a plus). While vacationing there, we read the various promotional materials in the room and saw that there were villas for rent in the USVI which sounded too good to be true. We were wrong.

We did more research and more posting on the AOL board (lots of great folks on there, back in the day). We booked Sea Turtle villa and fell in love with the island of STJ. It was EXACTLY what we had been looking for.

So, since then, we've been going back every year. In fact, we now go for a little more than two weeks because leaving after one week tears me apart. Two years ago, we introduced the children to the island by bringing them down for a week in the summer. That trip left them begging for more! So, once again, we'll be down this spring for our two weeks and then again, with the kids for a week in the summer.

We are so glad we found the ultimate vacation paradise!

Marcia

[MrsCARolph]

My fiance and I were in the process of planning a big wedding, complete with all the nasty family politics, and we just had enough. We decided to elope.

To make the marriage as easy (and legal) as possible, we decided to find somewhere in the US, but far, far away from home. Considered Hawaii, but it's too touristy for us.

The USVI seemed like the best option, and after a lot of research I discovered this charming little island, STJ. Plus, since we're ditching the big wedding, we can spend a lot more money on this sweet honeymoon!

Needless to say, I think we've made the right choice. (Although our mothers disagree)

[Maggy]

Living in Sweden, the Caribbean isn't the first vacation spot that comes into mind.

Working for an airline, my husband and I started traveling in the early 90s on standby tickets to many places far away. We went to Hawaii, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Thailand etc. Since I am an island freak, I started to look for an Caribbean island vacation in 2003. Bought a book about Caribbean islands, and ended up in Virgin Gorda. And that was one of the best vacations we have ever had. Went back in 2005 and last year we went to Turks and Caicos (not our favorite island).

This year I wanted to go back to where we know we like, and I have always looked at STJ. So in April we are visitng STJ for the first time. We are really excited about it, and will stay one week in STJ and one week in Virgin Gorda.

[madforstjohn]

I love all these stories, I am afriad mine is rather boring. I was one of those hordes that descend on Trunk Bay from a cruise ship 18 yrs ago. First time I ever snorkeled. I fell in love with St. John then and now can't stop myself from coming back. Though I do say we have to try some of those other islands some day! I might be disappointed but I suppose I should at least look.

[mfaughey]

Back in '79, I read somewhere about camping in the caribbean - $12 night for the canvas tents at Cinnamon. Spent 2 weeks with a buddy having the time of our lives, and at $6 night each, having the beach being short walk away, fell in love with the island. (My friend actually stayed there another month sleeping in unoccupied tents, made friends with the ranger).
Next year - quit our jobs and moved down to StJ. Spent about a month there, then went to St Croix for 6 months.
During the 80's, went back every year or so, staying at either Cinnamon or Maho. In the 90's started renting villa's and few years ago, got a timeshare at the Westin.
Island has changed a lot since I started going, but still get back 1 or 2x year! I figure I have been there over 20 times - guess I like it there?

[liamsaunt]

Our first trip to St. John was in October 2003. We had been planning a 10-day trip to our then-favorite vacation destination, Bermuda, when a bit before the trip the island got whapped with a really bad hurricane. The infrastructure was badly damaged and the hotel we had been planning to stay at lost its roof so needless to say the trip was off.

John's passport was expired so we needed to find a warm place we could get to with just his birth certificate. He was searching on cyberrentals and found a house on St. John. We knew nothing about the island but decided to give it a try. My Dad had my uncle email me a few basic things about the island as they used to own at Coconut Coast, so we knew there would be great beaches and a laid back feel. That's it.

We arrived and fell in love with the place. Thankfully someone had left a copy of Feet, Fins, and Four Wheel Drive in the glove compartment of our rental car so we found our way around the island pretty quick. We stayed for 10 days on Hart Bay and then the day before we were to leave we were not ready to go so booked an additional four nights at Caneel. We made plans to return for the next trip before we even left! We've been back every summer since and will be on island for 20 days this May-June. We are already starting to plan for an additional week in October.

Even though we have lots of great memories from there, not the least of which was our honeymoon, we have not been back to Bermuda. St. John stole our hearts (and most of our vacation budget!!).

[nothintolose]

My SO's daughter decided to get married on STJ in July 2002. I had never heard of it before and had no clue where it was. I actually tried to convince him to convince her to get married in the states because I hate to fly so much. Boy am I glad they ignored me

The first time I saw the color of the water was off of the side of the Red Hook ferry while waiting for it to depart. I couldn't believe the color and how clear it was. I had never seen water so beautiful in my life.

We spent our first night at the Westin and wasn't hooked yet but as soon as I saw the Trunk Bay overlook and the view from our villa (Hakuna Matata), I was hooked and even got tears in my eyes on the ferry on the way home. I was hooked and totally obsessed!

nothintolose

[chrisn]

Wow! Lots of interesting stories!!! I guess we would be of the cruiser non-hoardes description. We took our kids on a 7 Night Disney Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. St. Thomas was one of the ports and I'd always been intrigued ever since some 80's TV show. I was determined to see Trunk Bay but all the excursions were cancelled due to Northern Swells. I didn't care. We hopped on the CA ferry and had a taxi driver take us straight to Trunk Bay. The waves were crashing up into the tree line and there was very little beach but I didn't care. I was hooked and it was love at first sight! I practically cried having to leave to get back to STT and I promised myself and made Honey promise that we'd go back for an island stay ASAP!

Ron, I have to laugh everytime I read the once my kid goes to college sentence and I've reaed it a lot. I said the same thing too! I just knew that vacations were bust for several years. Guess what? Their not! You find a way. House, bills, cars, college, IRS, Braces, St. John...It's all in the budget!

Maggy, I'd love you to PM me about Virgin Gorda, I'm planning a trip!

[ScottB]

All very fun stories to read!!

My wife & I discovered the caribbean for the first time in 1990 on our honeymoon to St Kitts. Since then, we have been to many other islands, while also discovering what we like best in our vacation spots.

After our first visit to Grand Cayman, we fell in love with snorkeling, and soon found ourselves only considering places with good snorkeling. Well, of course we had read about St John and the great snorkeling it had to offer. I found this forum 5+ years ago, and had been wanting to see STJ for years. We finally made our first trek to STJ back in Decemeber, and there is little doubt about our favorite island so far. It was simply magical as a rookie, and we both agree that we'll be back many times over as time, work, and family permits!!

Nov/Dec of 2008 is our target date....only about 599 days to go!!

[nascarfan59]

Found St. John on one of the cruises we took. Fell in love, starting skipping the cruises, and Nuf Said.

[RJ in Wisconsin]

When we decided to get married in 1994, we had our heart set on a Jamaican wedding/honeymoon. Well, it turned out that my husband-to-be (who was born in Mexico, but had lived in Wisconsin since he was 2) could not get to Jamaica without first obtaining a passport - from Mexico (this would have been very difficult & would have involved a trip to Mexico among other things.) His parents had never bothered to become naturalized citizens, and so he remained a legal alien. Well, our travel agent, then steered us towards the VIs because my hubby-to-be didn't need to get a passport to get there or to get married there.
So, we were married at the Elysian Beach Resort on St. Thomas, spent one day of our honeymoon exploring St. John, & simply fell in love with this little island. We vowed we'd go back again & again - and we did. St. John - we get it.

P.S. My husband got his U.S. citizenship by the end of 1994 & his parents got theirs in 1995.

[lpowmacback]

Yup, same as many of you here - a cruise

After all the islands one gets to see on several cruises, we FOUND ST. JOHN and no longer had a need to search for PARADISE.

I started writing about the virtues of St. John and why it is so different from all the others- but then realized how silly it would be - YOU ALL KNOW WHY

[obsessedmuch]

Same ol' story.