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Trip Report Highlights
Trip Report Highlights
We went to St John May 10-22 (3rd trip) and were joined by some good friends (newbies) for the first week. This was the first time we had someone with us, its usually just the two of us because we really like to do our own thing. We loved having our friends with us and enjoyed the island even more through their eyes, because they enjoyed it so much. Our days were close to the same almost every day - breakfast on deck, go to beach, snorkel as long as we could, rain, head somewhere for lunch, back to villa for pool and dinner, interspersed by days with a drive to East End, shopping in Cruz Bay, and a day sail trip. I thought I would share some of the highlights.
Daytrip with Long Distance
Thanks to everyone on the forum who highly recommended this charter. We had an outstanding trip with Rick & Robin on their sailboat, Long Distance. The day was wonderful – one of the few we had with no rain during the day. There were 6 guests – us, our friends and a lovely couple from New York. The first snorkel was in the bay where the Tektite site is located. Robin gets in the water with you and points out things. This site was excellent and we would do it again. Interesting rock formations and lots of good fish. Robin pointed out fairy damsel fish under a ledge; these tend to be hard to spot, so I loved seeing them. We had lunch on board, then sailed to the second snorkel – mangroves in one of the bays in Hurricane Hole. Thanks again to forumites who recommended this type of snorkeling. It sounded kind of creepy to me, but it was wonderful. The variety of life at the base of the mangroves is awesome, including huge starfish in different shades of yellow and orange and a big group of conch. We saw a starfish draped over a piece of coral – appeared to be eating the coral (?). Lots of crabs and little fish. One unusual sight was long white strands, looked like fishing line. I think they said it was type of worm, but I can’t remember now. We looked it up in our reef life book, but couldn’t find it. Rick and Robin were great hosts and interesting to chat with. Highly recommend this trip (although they are out of the water until fall).
Hike on Yawzi point to snorkel spot
Thanks to liamsaunt and on-stjohn, we decided to take the short hike to do this snorkel. It’s a cool little cove where you get in and the snorkel was really nice. Great variety of fish and very clear water the day we were there. Gets a little choppy out near the point. We would do this one again.
Snorkel Waterlemon Cay
The short hike is enjoyable with the views along the water and we always have an excellent snorkel here. Big variety of fish and large ones; beautiful coral gardens, and saw a really cool octopus. We were in the water for a little over 2 hours so I was frozen when we got back. Well, ok, the water wasn’t that cold, but I get cold easily. Unfortunately, the skeeters were so bad here that we got out of the water, dried off and immediately made a quick get-away down the trail.
St John Spice
We shopped here several times on the trip. The first day we went there to buy an electric bug racket due to the mosquito issue – also known as the yellow zappers. My husband loves using it and whacked quite a few of those pesky bugs. The second time, my friend and I shopped while the guys went grocery shopping, so she could get some things to take home. The 3rd time, hubby and I did the big shopping – lots of gifts for friends and family, spices, 2 colorful coffee mugs, chocolate rum balls, St John magazines. We had a nice chat with Ruth and the young lady who works in the kids store and is a chef-in-training. The Cruz Bay Grill Rub is so yummy. I used it with a marinade of orange juice, fresh squeezed lime juice, garlic, onion, lemon and marinated pork chops, then grilled them. We had this meal twice at the villa because it was so yummy. If you’ve never tried CB Grill Rub, get some!
Coconut Coast Art gallery in Frank Bay
This was a lovely spot with a delightful artist named Elaine Estern. She was so nice to chat with and had nice artwork. We especially liked the painted tiles – fish, tropical flowers, etc. I had to buy a St John mouse pad with a tropical underwater scene to use at work. Its so close to Cruz Bay, its definitely worth a visit.
Freebird
We visit Freebird every time we go to St John because (IMHO) they have the best selection of laramar. Their pieces are exceptional in color and the patterns remind me of sun dappled water in Trunk Bay. Each year, hubby bought me pieces for my birthday, so I now have earrings, necklace and this year, the bracelet. I also bought a nice pendant for my admin. The people working there are friendly and helpful. Randy will show you pictures of their visit to the mine in Dominican Republic - the only where laramar is found.
We love to stop at the top of the hill on the drive to Coral Bay (site of (closed) Chateau Bordeaux). The view from there down to Coral Bay and out to the many islands you can see is just stunning. I love it every time we go by there. Be sure to stop by Tutu Much jewelry store there as they have interesting designs. Owners Tutu and Kiko are neat people too.
All of our restaurant meals were great, so they are all highlights. Late lunches at Shipwreck and the Balcony were our favorite. We always love carry out from Sogos – real West Indian food. Ate at Concordia Café for the first time - love the setting and food was good. I wrote up some restaurant reviews on the forum site.
The lowlights of the trip were:
- rain, rain, lots and lots of rain, almost every day during the afternoon; saw one wedding reception at Hawksnest getting rained on; felt bad for the bride as she tried to get to the car without getting soaked; one day we had taken a picnic lunch to Little Lamshur and ended up eating it in the car.
- skeeters; swarms of them, especially at Maho and Francis; some days we couldn't sit outside at the villa which was very disappointing
- I got stung on my hand by an unseen something and it stung pretty bad for a while; had a series of red bumps for a couple days, then it went away (ok, it wasn’t that bad…)
We stayed in Coconuts villa through Caribbeanvilla.com – our second time at Coconuts. This villa on Gifft Hill has a wonderful yard and deck with stunning view out to STT and other small islands. We had 2 small issues with the villa and Caribbeanvilla responded and fixed the problem immediately. Fortunately this villa has screens on all the doors and windows of the bedrooms and living rooms since we were having intense skeeter time. We rented a jeep through Donald Schnell (Bougainvillea Leasing) and had a good experience as always.
Now, I am plotting how to convince my husband to take a fall trip to St John, rather than our usual trip to the mountains.
Daytrip with Long Distance
Thanks to everyone on the forum who highly recommended this charter. We had an outstanding trip with Rick & Robin on their sailboat, Long Distance. The day was wonderful – one of the few we had with no rain during the day. There were 6 guests – us, our friends and a lovely couple from New York. The first snorkel was in the bay where the Tektite site is located. Robin gets in the water with you and points out things. This site was excellent and we would do it again. Interesting rock formations and lots of good fish. Robin pointed out fairy damsel fish under a ledge; these tend to be hard to spot, so I loved seeing them. We had lunch on board, then sailed to the second snorkel – mangroves in one of the bays in Hurricane Hole. Thanks again to forumites who recommended this type of snorkeling. It sounded kind of creepy to me, but it was wonderful. The variety of life at the base of the mangroves is awesome, including huge starfish in different shades of yellow and orange and a big group of conch. We saw a starfish draped over a piece of coral – appeared to be eating the coral (?). Lots of crabs and little fish. One unusual sight was long white strands, looked like fishing line. I think they said it was type of worm, but I can’t remember now. We looked it up in our reef life book, but couldn’t find it. Rick and Robin were great hosts and interesting to chat with. Highly recommend this trip (although they are out of the water until fall).
Hike on Yawzi point to snorkel spot
Thanks to liamsaunt and on-stjohn, we decided to take the short hike to do this snorkel. It’s a cool little cove where you get in and the snorkel was really nice. Great variety of fish and very clear water the day we were there. Gets a little choppy out near the point. We would do this one again.
Snorkel Waterlemon Cay
The short hike is enjoyable with the views along the water and we always have an excellent snorkel here. Big variety of fish and large ones; beautiful coral gardens, and saw a really cool octopus. We were in the water for a little over 2 hours so I was frozen when we got back. Well, ok, the water wasn’t that cold, but I get cold easily. Unfortunately, the skeeters were so bad here that we got out of the water, dried off and immediately made a quick get-away down the trail.
St John Spice
We shopped here several times on the trip. The first day we went there to buy an electric bug racket due to the mosquito issue – also known as the yellow zappers. My husband loves using it and whacked quite a few of those pesky bugs. The second time, my friend and I shopped while the guys went grocery shopping, so she could get some things to take home. The 3rd time, hubby and I did the big shopping – lots of gifts for friends and family, spices, 2 colorful coffee mugs, chocolate rum balls, St John magazines. We had a nice chat with Ruth and the young lady who works in the kids store and is a chef-in-training. The Cruz Bay Grill Rub is so yummy. I used it with a marinade of orange juice, fresh squeezed lime juice, garlic, onion, lemon and marinated pork chops, then grilled them. We had this meal twice at the villa because it was so yummy. If you’ve never tried CB Grill Rub, get some!
Coconut Coast Art gallery in Frank Bay
This was a lovely spot with a delightful artist named Elaine Estern. She was so nice to chat with and had nice artwork. We especially liked the painted tiles – fish, tropical flowers, etc. I had to buy a St John mouse pad with a tropical underwater scene to use at work. Its so close to Cruz Bay, its definitely worth a visit.
Freebird
We visit Freebird every time we go to St John because (IMHO) they have the best selection of laramar. Their pieces are exceptional in color and the patterns remind me of sun dappled water in Trunk Bay. Each year, hubby bought me pieces for my birthday, so I now have earrings, necklace and this year, the bracelet. I also bought a nice pendant for my admin. The people working there are friendly and helpful. Randy will show you pictures of their visit to the mine in Dominican Republic - the only where laramar is found.
We love to stop at the top of the hill on the drive to Coral Bay (site of (closed) Chateau Bordeaux). The view from there down to Coral Bay and out to the many islands you can see is just stunning. I love it every time we go by there. Be sure to stop by Tutu Much jewelry store there as they have interesting designs. Owners Tutu and Kiko are neat people too.
All of our restaurant meals were great, so they are all highlights. Late lunches at Shipwreck and the Balcony were our favorite. We always love carry out from Sogos – real West Indian food. Ate at Concordia Café for the first time - love the setting and food was good. I wrote up some restaurant reviews on the forum site.
The lowlights of the trip were:
- rain, rain, lots and lots of rain, almost every day during the afternoon; saw one wedding reception at Hawksnest getting rained on; felt bad for the bride as she tried to get to the car without getting soaked; one day we had taken a picnic lunch to Little Lamshur and ended up eating it in the car.
- skeeters; swarms of them, especially at Maho and Francis; some days we couldn't sit outside at the villa which was very disappointing
- I got stung on my hand by an unseen something and it stung pretty bad for a while; had a series of red bumps for a couple days, then it went away (ok, it wasn’t that bad…)
We stayed in Coconuts villa through Caribbeanvilla.com – our second time at Coconuts. This villa on Gifft Hill has a wonderful yard and deck with stunning view out to STT and other small islands. We had 2 small issues with the villa and Caribbeanvilla responded and fixed the problem immediately. Fortunately this villa has screens on all the doors and windows of the bedrooms and living rooms since we were having intense skeeter time. We rented a jeep through Donald Schnell (Bougainvillea Leasing) and had a good experience as always.
Now, I am plotting how to convince my husband to take a fall trip to St John, rather than our usual trip to the mountains.
-
mindehankins
- Posts: 3014
- Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:21 am
- Location: Western NY State
Sogos is near Lime Inn. If you were walking from the ferry dock, you would walk down the narrow street (where Connections is), then take a right onto the second street. When you turn onto this street, walk down the block and Sogos is on the right. There's nothing notable about the building; I think there is a hair dresser shop in the same building. It has sign out front with the menu.
We have liked everything we tried there.
- Shrimp dish with tomatoes and peppers (might have been called Shrimp Creole). This was so good that my friend and I had it twice on the trip.
- Curry Goat: my husband loves this dish and gets it every time. Nice West Indian curry sauce.
- Fish of the day in Creole type sauce. Its usually mahi or a steak-type fish.
- Stewed Chicken: our non-adventurous friend tried this and it was very good. Not anything spicy or odd flavored.
Each lunch or dinner came with several side dishes. Mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, rice and peas, plantain, and a johnny cake. It was tons of food and more than I could eat for a meal.
We also tried some of her tropical fruit juices - very refreshing.
Its not fancy by any measure, but we highly recommend this place.
(Note this street is one way coming towards you, so if you drive you have to turn on the first street (along Wharfside Village) and go around the block.)
Sorry - I don't know any street names.
We have liked everything we tried there.
- Shrimp dish with tomatoes and peppers (might have been called Shrimp Creole). This was so good that my friend and I had it twice on the trip.
- Curry Goat: my husband loves this dish and gets it every time. Nice West Indian curry sauce.
- Fish of the day in Creole type sauce. Its usually mahi or a steak-type fish.
- Stewed Chicken: our non-adventurous friend tried this and it was very good. Not anything spicy or odd flavored.
Each lunch or dinner came with several side dishes. Mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, rice and peas, plantain, and a johnny cake. It was tons of food and more than I could eat for a meal.
We also tried some of her tropical fruit juices - very refreshing.
Its not fancy by any measure, but we highly recommend this place.
(Note this street is one way coming towards you, so if you drive you have to turn on the first street (along Wharfside Village) and go around the block.)
Sorry - I don't know any street names.