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Wonderful trip to St John in May - Part 1
Wonderful trip to St John in May - Part 1
We had a wonderful 5th trip to St John on May 13 – 26 with great weather (just a few showers & low humidity) and very few mosquitos. My husband and I were there 1 week by ourselves, then another couple (good friends) joined us for the other week. We stayed at Coconuts villa on Gifft Hill and loved it. This is our third time staying at Coconuts and the first time since the renovations were done. We love Coconuts and the renovations, (including a very nice outdoor kitchen) have made it even nicer. One of our favorite features is the gazebo on the deck with a fabulous view and comfortable chairs around a big table. We had breakfast on the deck every morning overlooking a fabulous view down to Great Cruz Bay and across the channel to St Thomas. It was breezy and pleasant every morning and evening (we spent most days at the beach). In the evening, we enjoyed sunset views, and watched the twinkling lights appear on St Thomas. The pool is now solar heated, which made it nice for evening swims. We love having our own private little pool. I posted a review on the user reviews section of this forum with more details.
We took USAir down, Washington Reagan via Charlotte to STT. Unfortunately, our checked bag took a trip to Phoenix instead of to STT. After quite some time at the airport counter, they tracked it down and arranged for it to come to STT the next day. It was a bit of a nuisance, especially the next day trying to figure out where it was, and how it would get to us. When we got home, I wrote USAir about it and asked for a refund of our $25 checked bag fee, which they did refund. I had arranged to meet up with Kevin, the new owner of Coconuts, since they were leaving at the same time we were arriving. We had a really nice chat with him before he went to catch his flight. He has done a wonderful job on the upgrades at Coconuts. On the way back, since we were traveling on a Sat, we took the United non-stop to Dulles. We also upgraded to First Class, so this was a great flight and no stopover, so we were home by late early evening.
I thought I would just give some highlights of the trip. Most days were spent having a leisurely breakfast on the deck, head to the beach, snorkel as long as we could, eat a picnic lunch, rest, snorkel some more, head back to the villa for dinner and relax on the deck with the beautiful view. We did a few new things on this trip, which was nice for a change of pace.
Paradise Massage (a first)
We had decided when planning this trip to arrange for a couples massage on the deck, for our first morning on the island. We had Barbara and Cary from Paradise Massage come around 10am. It was wonderfully relaxing and they both gave excellent massages. We really enjoyed chatting with them about living on St John. We would definitely do this again. It was a great way to start off our vacation and I highly recommend them.
Favorite Beaches
On our first couple trips to STJ, we didn’t go to Maho. Can you believe it? We *love* this beach now and went 3 times on this trip. We had excellent snorkeling (so many turtles, plus rays & starfish) in the center of the bay, and on the right-hand side out to the point and over towards Little Maho. Each time we snorkeled here, it was wonderfully full of sea life. The very best thing was seeing an octopus out of its den and “walking around” feeling under ledges, and slowly moving along the rocks. We were so excited to see this. I saw that another person posted a trip report from May with a video of an octopus at Maho. It looked and acted exactly like the one we saw. Maybe they were there at the same time. One afternoon, we saw a group of 6 stingrays hanging out together feeding along the bottom.
One afternoon, we went to Cinnamon and when we rounded the corner from the path and saw the long, wide beach with the steep hills in the distance, we were wowed. On a previous trip, we had just walked down the path and seen the very small part of the beach to the left, and didn’t go any further. We had no idea it was such a nice beach, and wondered why people liked it so much. Now we know. We spent an afternoon snorkeling out at the little cay. Saw some cool stuff, like a huge (2 ft) mutton snapper, a school of 2 dozen squid, a fish that dramatically changed color from silver & yellow, to dark with stripes. Saw a big hermit crab in his big conch shell walking “tip-toe” across the sand. We enjoyed walking on the beach and the beautiful view. We walked around the restaurant and saw a humungous rain tree in the back. It is a gorgeous tree, and worth walking over there to see it.
We always enjoy Trunk, Little Lameshur, Hawksnest and Francis too. Had excellent snorkeling at all of them, except Francis, which was cloudy the day we were there. We never made it to Waterlemon, because it was very rough the day we planned to do it. We were sorry to miss snorkeling the cay it since it’s also one of our favorites.
We were very surprised to see how crowded all the beaches were in May. We have always visited in late April or in May, and have never seen as many people on the beach. At Trunk and Maho, when we arrived late morning, it was difficult to even find a spot in the shade. Of course, it’s nothing like the crowds on U.S. east coast beaches, but we’ve just never seen that many people on any beach in STJ before. I have to share one funny comment, (well, we thought it was funny), we overheard from a lady sitting close to us. We were enjoying watching pelicans feed along the beach, as they dove over and over, while schools of fish swam along the beach in the late afternoon. She turned to the man with her, made a scrunched up face, and said “That’s disgusting. I wonder how many fish that pelican is going to eat.”
Hike to Peace Hill and Denis Bay (a first)
One afternoon, we decided to hike instead of snorkel. We love to hike, but have done very little on STJ, because we tend to spend most of our time snorkeling, since we really love it on STJ. The hike to Peace Hill is very short, just a few minutes and easy. There were remains of a sugar mill and beautiful views all around. You could see Gibney, Caneel, Hawksnest and Trunk from up there. The colors of the water and views of the beaches and palm trees were wonderful. It was well worth the hike. From there, we decided to hike down to Denis Bay. It was a bit rocky, but not a hard hike, and not very long. Denis Bay was very pretty. We noticed there was tons of night blooming cereus cactus all along the trail. It would be awesome to take that trail when it’s in bloom, since it has beautiful flowers and a lovely perfumed smell.
Sailing
We went sailing with White Wing out of Coral Bay and he took us to two new places for snorkeling. We first went to Flanagan Island and had a wonderful snorkel, but it was a bit rough due to the wind. For lunch, we sailed over near East End, and anchored in a nice calm cove (I think this was Newfound Bay). We snorkeled the cove, then out along a reef and flowed with the current down to the next calm, protected bay. We had seen this bay from the air and always wanted to go there, as it looked like a hidden gem. You can’t get to it by road, I think. The snorkeling was absolutely wonderful, and the coral was abundant and healthy. Lots of fish too. Captain Clark came and picked us up in the dinghy, so we didn’t have to make the long swim back. I've never had the pleasure of getting into a dinghy from the water, and the 4 of us had quite a laugh watching each other get up and flop into the boat.
More to come in Part 2 on shopping, dining and medical stuff.
We took USAir down, Washington Reagan via Charlotte to STT. Unfortunately, our checked bag took a trip to Phoenix instead of to STT. After quite some time at the airport counter, they tracked it down and arranged for it to come to STT the next day. It was a bit of a nuisance, especially the next day trying to figure out where it was, and how it would get to us. When we got home, I wrote USAir about it and asked for a refund of our $25 checked bag fee, which they did refund. I had arranged to meet up with Kevin, the new owner of Coconuts, since they were leaving at the same time we were arriving. We had a really nice chat with him before he went to catch his flight. He has done a wonderful job on the upgrades at Coconuts. On the way back, since we were traveling on a Sat, we took the United non-stop to Dulles. We also upgraded to First Class, so this was a great flight and no stopover, so we were home by late early evening.
I thought I would just give some highlights of the trip. Most days were spent having a leisurely breakfast on the deck, head to the beach, snorkel as long as we could, eat a picnic lunch, rest, snorkel some more, head back to the villa for dinner and relax on the deck with the beautiful view. We did a few new things on this trip, which was nice for a change of pace.
Paradise Massage (a first)
We had decided when planning this trip to arrange for a couples massage on the deck, for our first morning on the island. We had Barbara and Cary from Paradise Massage come around 10am. It was wonderfully relaxing and they both gave excellent massages. We really enjoyed chatting with them about living on St John. We would definitely do this again. It was a great way to start off our vacation and I highly recommend them.
Favorite Beaches
On our first couple trips to STJ, we didn’t go to Maho. Can you believe it? We *love* this beach now and went 3 times on this trip. We had excellent snorkeling (so many turtles, plus rays & starfish) in the center of the bay, and on the right-hand side out to the point and over towards Little Maho. Each time we snorkeled here, it was wonderfully full of sea life. The very best thing was seeing an octopus out of its den and “walking around” feeling under ledges, and slowly moving along the rocks. We were so excited to see this. I saw that another person posted a trip report from May with a video of an octopus at Maho. It looked and acted exactly like the one we saw. Maybe they were there at the same time. One afternoon, we saw a group of 6 stingrays hanging out together feeding along the bottom.
One afternoon, we went to Cinnamon and when we rounded the corner from the path and saw the long, wide beach with the steep hills in the distance, we were wowed. On a previous trip, we had just walked down the path and seen the very small part of the beach to the left, and didn’t go any further. We had no idea it was such a nice beach, and wondered why people liked it so much. Now we know. We spent an afternoon snorkeling out at the little cay. Saw some cool stuff, like a huge (2 ft) mutton snapper, a school of 2 dozen squid, a fish that dramatically changed color from silver & yellow, to dark with stripes. Saw a big hermit crab in his big conch shell walking “tip-toe” across the sand. We enjoyed walking on the beach and the beautiful view. We walked around the restaurant and saw a humungous rain tree in the back. It is a gorgeous tree, and worth walking over there to see it.
We always enjoy Trunk, Little Lameshur, Hawksnest and Francis too. Had excellent snorkeling at all of them, except Francis, which was cloudy the day we were there. We never made it to Waterlemon, because it was very rough the day we planned to do it. We were sorry to miss snorkeling the cay it since it’s also one of our favorites.
We were very surprised to see how crowded all the beaches were in May. We have always visited in late April or in May, and have never seen as many people on the beach. At Trunk and Maho, when we arrived late morning, it was difficult to even find a spot in the shade. Of course, it’s nothing like the crowds on U.S. east coast beaches, but we’ve just never seen that many people on any beach in STJ before. I have to share one funny comment, (well, we thought it was funny), we overheard from a lady sitting close to us. We were enjoying watching pelicans feed along the beach, as they dove over and over, while schools of fish swam along the beach in the late afternoon. She turned to the man with her, made a scrunched up face, and said “That’s disgusting. I wonder how many fish that pelican is going to eat.”
Hike to Peace Hill and Denis Bay (a first)
One afternoon, we decided to hike instead of snorkel. We love to hike, but have done very little on STJ, because we tend to spend most of our time snorkeling, since we really love it on STJ. The hike to Peace Hill is very short, just a few minutes and easy. There were remains of a sugar mill and beautiful views all around. You could see Gibney, Caneel, Hawksnest and Trunk from up there. The colors of the water and views of the beaches and palm trees were wonderful. It was well worth the hike. From there, we decided to hike down to Denis Bay. It was a bit rocky, but not a hard hike, and not very long. Denis Bay was very pretty. We noticed there was tons of night blooming cereus cactus all along the trail. It would be awesome to take that trail when it’s in bloom, since it has beautiful flowers and a lovely perfumed smell.
Sailing
We went sailing with White Wing out of Coral Bay and he took us to two new places for snorkeling. We first went to Flanagan Island and had a wonderful snorkel, but it was a bit rough due to the wind. For lunch, we sailed over near East End, and anchored in a nice calm cove (I think this was Newfound Bay). We snorkeled the cove, then out along a reef and flowed with the current down to the next calm, protected bay. We had seen this bay from the air and always wanted to go there, as it looked like a hidden gem. You can’t get to it by road, I think. The snorkeling was absolutely wonderful, and the coral was abundant and healthy. Lots of fish too. Captain Clark came and picked us up in the dinghy, so we didn’t have to make the long swim back. I've never had the pleasure of getting into a dinghy from the water, and the 4 of us had quite a laugh watching each other get up and flop into the boat.
More to come in Part 2 on shopping, dining and medical stuff.
Last edited by AquaGirl on Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
