usvi-on-line
Trip Report 2/18-2/28
-
PatrickMcc
- Posts: 223
- Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:43 pm
- Location: Boston
Trip Report 2/18-2/28
We returned to St. John after an 11 year absence. We had visited every year from the early 80's until the late 90's with our kids and then alone in 2001.Our daughters wanted to go back with their husband, boyfriend and 20 month old grandson so we did-7 people total. My wife and I arrived on Friday and shared a suite at the St john Inn for one night with one daughter and boyfriend. I gave this inn a mixed review on Trip Advisor for anyone interested. It is one of the less expensive places to stay, is in the middle of Cruz Bay and is one of the few places to take guests for one or two nights-at least during the high season.
We ate at the Beach Bar the first night- good pub food, great location and a band.
On Saturday we got our rental cars from St John Car rental. I definitely recommend them. Later in the week the rear hatch door on the Dodge Nitro failed and gave my son-in-law a gash on the head. St John Car rental said they would give us a new car the next day but by then we didn't feel like going through that and kept the car for the rest of the week being very careful with the door. Since the failure occurred suddenly after we had the car a few days I didn't really feel the car rental agency was at fault but when I returned the car they gave us a big discount for our trouble- I didn't even ask. Nice gesture and I will definitely use them again. My son-in-law said that Dodges are notoriously cheap cars- I had never heard of a rear hatch failing suddenly like that.
Mid day Saturday the rep from Caribbean villas took us out to our villa- Rara Avis on Hart Bay. I will do a villa review after Anthony helps me get on the villa review page. We didn't stay at the villa because the cleaners were still there.- we returned about 4 in the afternoon. I also liked Caribbean Villas. The woman I spoke to when we rented warned me about a couple of potential problems for my grandson- we considered them minor but it was nice to know. They also showed up during the week to repair a ceiling fan- one of the blades fell off- another weird occurence. It was nice to know where the villa was when my other daughter husband and grandson arrived later Sat. Dinner was take out pizza from Cafe Roma.
During the week we visited all the famous North Shore beaches and everyone fell in love again or for the first time- my son-in-law and other daughters boyfriend had never been. By the end of the week they were talking about moving to St John or buying real estate- reality has since set in but it is a nice dream. The new addition to Cinammon Bay is paddle boarding which all the young crew did and loved. We started camping at Cinammon in 1983 and it is still our favorite beach.
Restaurants that we ate at alone or with the group:
Tap Room- new to us- ate lunch and dinner there- nice- better pub food menu.
High Tide- new to us- ate dinner there twice. Great for small kids because you can play with them on the beach while waiting for dinner to come. Good food.
Morgan's Mango and the Lime inn- We had been to both many times years ago and they are still excellent- slightly more expensive than HIgh Tide.
Skinny Legs, Shipwreck Landing and Joe's Barbecue The first two have great hamburgers but we decided Skinny Legs has a better cheeseburger. Joe's spare ribs are fabulous- better than High Tides (which were very good)
My wife and I returned to the St John Inn for two nights after the others left.
On Monday we headed to St Thomas for one night at the Island View Guest House. I gave this place a great review on Trip Advisor. Unfortunately we had a very nasty and frightening experience with a cabbie on St Thomas-I wrote a post about it on this board the other day if you are interested.
For the first time in our lives we flew home on first class - I don't think I can ever go back and join the herd in Economy again- this is a really nice way to fly-unfortunately the price will probably force me into economy again.
Since we started going to St John in 1983 we were sorry to see some of the development. . We were fortunate enough to have parking at the St John Inn but if we hadn't it looked like that was a hassle. None of this is enough to keep us from going again- everyone wants to go back next year.
We ate at the Beach Bar the first night- good pub food, great location and a band.
On Saturday we got our rental cars from St John Car rental. I definitely recommend them. Later in the week the rear hatch door on the Dodge Nitro failed and gave my son-in-law a gash on the head. St John Car rental said they would give us a new car the next day but by then we didn't feel like going through that and kept the car for the rest of the week being very careful with the door. Since the failure occurred suddenly after we had the car a few days I didn't really feel the car rental agency was at fault but when I returned the car they gave us a big discount for our trouble- I didn't even ask. Nice gesture and I will definitely use them again. My son-in-law said that Dodges are notoriously cheap cars- I had never heard of a rear hatch failing suddenly like that.
Mid day Saturday the rep from Caribbean villas took us out to our villa- Rara Avis on Hart Bay. I will do a villa review after Anthony helps me get on the villa review page. We didn't stay at the villa because the cleaners were still there.- we returned about 4 in the afternoon. I also liked Caribbean Villas. The woman I spoke to when we rented warned me about a couple of potential problems for my grandson- we considered them minor but it was nice to know. They also showed up during the week to repair a ceiling fan- one of the blades fell off- another weird occurence. It was nice to know where the villa was when my other daughter husband and grandson arrived later Sat. Dinner was take out pizza from Cafe Roma.
During the week we visited all the famous North Shore beaches and everyone fell in love again or for the first time- my son-in-law and other daughters boyfriend had never been. By the end of the week they were talking about moving to St John or buying real estate- reality has since set in but it is a nice dream. The new addition to Cinammon Bay is paddle boarding which all the young crew did and loved. We started camping at Cinammon in 1983 and it is still our favorite beach.
Restaurants that we ate at alone or with the group:
Tap Room- new to us- ate lunch and dinner there- nice- better pub food menu.
High Tide- new to us- ate dinner there twice. Great for small kids because you can play with them on the beach while waiting for dinner to come. Good food.
Morgan's Mango and the Lime inn- We had been to both many times years ago and they are still excellent- slightly more expensive than HIgh Tide.
Skinny Legs, Shipwreck Landing and Joe's Barbecue The first two have great hamburgers but we decided Skinny Legs has a better cheeseburger. Joe's spare ribs are fabulous- better than High Tides (which were very good)
My wife and I returned to the St John Inn for two nights after the others left.
On Monday we headed to St Thomas for one night at the Island View Guest House. I gave this place a great review on Trip Advisor. Unfortunately we had a very nasty and frightening experience with a cabbie on St Thomas-I wrote a post about it on this board the other day if you are interested.
For the first time in our lives we flew home on first class - I don't think I can ever go back and join the herd in Economy again- this is a really nice way to fly-unfortunately the price will probably force me into economy again.
Since we started going to St John in 1983 we were sorry to see some of the development. . We were fortunate enough to have parking at the St John Inn but if we hadn't it looked like that was a hassle. None of this is enough to keep us from going again- everyone wants to go back next year.