How long?

[BillVT]

Sitting here watching my tan fade away to New England pale, I thought I'd pose a question to the forum that we often discuss among ourselves.

If you had the time and the money. (Isn't that the perfect preamble to all the great questions in life?) What would be the ideal length of stay on STJ? Now I know that many of us just as soon move there and raise dental floss if we could, but for the majority of us, what is your ideal time spent on island.

We think that three weeks would be perfect. We have been fortunate enough to be able to afford one week and a friend willing to accommodate us for a second week each year for the last 15 or so years. (We pay for the vehicle.) We know one week is way too short, but that a full month might be too long if we were not going to move in permanently. What do you think?

[Lovermont]

We've done 7 (way too short), 9, 10, 11 & 14 days. On day eleven of our 14 day trip I thought we might be pushing it a bit too long, but by day twelve I was perfectly content to have a few more days. So, my answer - I think - is 14 days.
That being said, our next trip is 11 days, because I have to be sort of mindful about my job, and watch the overall cost too.

[mit43]

We have found that 2 weeks works best for us. However, if time and money were no issue we would Island hop for a couple more weeks.

[ToonMann]

We've done two 7-day stays and two one-month stays on St. John. Each of these have been in December or January . . . escapes from cold weather.

Seven days is too short; one month is too short!

TM

[Myheart'sinSTJ]

I have never been fortunate to have more than 1 week at a time on STJ. I think the perfect situation for me would be settling in the 1st week, chilling out the second week and grateful that I'm still there the 3rd week. One of these days maybe, I have to start playing the lottery...cheers!

[Diana2]

We've been coming to STJ for about 20 years now and have stayed various lengths of time. We've found 3 weeks is perfect. Our next time is for 2 weeks and 4 days which is close to perfect.

[PA Girl]

We have done a couple of 10 day trips and it will be hard to go back to 7 days. Perfect would probably be two weeks. We have kicked around the idea of going for a month in the summer before our son gets into high school.

[melmd]

We normally stay 9 days and that's to short for me, so I would say 14 days would be just about perfect if I can't stay forever.

[augie]

We've been for 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 days.

Was amazed that 14 seems to go by as quickly as 7.

The limiting factor the last few years is available vacation time. I get four weeks, and we've been doing two trips a year for the past three years.

One day I'd like to stay for three weeks, but it's hard to leave the dog for that long...

[Teresa_Rae]

We normally go for 10 nights; if time and money were no object 14 nights or so would be preferable. I think a 3 to 4 week trip would be great but we've got cats at home that I wouldn't want to leave for that long.

If we didn't have the cats, 2 months sounds good to me!

[SmilinJack]

I was going to pass this by, but your dental floss comment caught my eye, and as a major Frank fan, could not resist. The longest we've spent on the island was 2 weeks and we had a ball because we stayed in a different place each week. I, too, am now limited by "allowable" vacation time from work, and we like to do 2 trips a year if possible, so our last few have been only 7-day trips and my wife and I both agree that's too short (though, having said that, we had one of our absolute best visits to the island at the end of February and were amazed at how much fun we packed into those 7 days). I tend to hang in that 10-day range. Of course, like so many others, if I had the time and money, those 10 days could easily stretch to...oh, I don't know...the rest of my life, maybe?

[augie]

Just me and the pygmy mongoose...over by the dental floss bush!

[dhanc1]

The longest we've stayed is 10 days. Those extra 3 days do make a tremendous difference though. It usually takes me a day to get my feet under me after the trip down, so that's sort of a burned day. After about another day, I start the dreaded count down till the end of my stay. I wish I wouldn't do that but I can't seem to help it. The extra 3 days though seem like a gift. I don't have a need to count down outside a week and it feels like I've actually been somewhere after 10 days. I can get settled in good before I have to pack to come home. I'll take a week any day but I'm in the 2 week camp. That seems about perfect to me. I too have the limited vacation disease so 2 weeks will have to wait a while.

[mindehankins]

Blaine's limited to 9 days, so that's what we get. I think 2 weeks would be perfect. I tend to forget routine things if I don't do them for 2 weeks.

[Florida Girl]

If time & money were no object, I'd spend 10 days sailing through the BVIs, 1 week on STX and one week on STJ, and 4 days on STT. Is that greedy?