Construction in chocolate hole?

lisadee · Post by **lisadee** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:05 pm

We're about to put down a deposit on a villa in Chocolate Hole harbor for next summer. The I came across some posts about construction in the area. Should I be concerned that this will impact our vacation?

Would we be better off in the Reef Bay area?

Thanks!
Lisa

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:17 am

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to the forum!

There is pretty much construction everywhere on St. John. The good news is that the work generally stops at 3 PM or so, and they usually don't work weekends.

I'm not sure of the status of the Pond Bay Club, which is the big construction project on Chocolate Hole. I know I saw they cleared some land, but I don't know if they are actually building yet. Has anyone been over there recently that can help Lisa out?

You'd probably find Reef Bay quieter than Chocolate Hole in general, since there are fewer properties out there, but the trade off is that you'd be further from town if that is important to you.

Nancy_B · Post by **Nancy_B** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:20 am

If a longer drive doesn't bother you, I loved Reef Bay area. We stayed this past May and it was great waking up to the sounds of the ocean (even though we were high above). My husband (aka my designated driver) didn't like the longer drive (even though it's only about 10 minutes longer tops), won't stay in that area again but I would - in a heartbeat!

Good luck with your decision!

naturegirl · Post by **naturegirl** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:06 am

I just arrived home from ST John yesterday. If I were you I would contact both the management company and the owner of the villa and ask them both how far away the house is from the new construction site. Unbeknowst to us, we rented a house in Cruz bay about 200 yards from Sirenusa which is a HUGE construction project. The first day we were there, we were awoken at 7:20 in the morning to bulldozers and LOUD dumping of constuction dumpsters. This lasted until after 4pm. They even worked on the weekend. Luckily, they took off on Thanksgiving. I don't know about you, but if you are spending alot of money renting a villa/condo and enjoy coffee with a view on the deck, relaxing and having a peaceful vacation, don't stay in a place with such a big project going on. They say that construction is going on all over the island so there's not much you can do about it but there is a difference between a small villa construction project and a megaplex project such a Sirenusa and Pond Bay. I would chose someplace other than Chocolate Hole or Cruz Bay (near Sirenusa) if you want peace and quiet. We felt we should have been warned ahead of time considering this project had been going on so long before we had arrived.

flip-flop · Post by **flip-flop** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:18 am

We have stayed in Reef Bay, Chocolate Hole (2 times) and Maria's Bluff (basically between Chocolate hole & Cruz Bay). It really depends on the exact location of the house. There was one project ongoing on the road we were off of but it was far from our house, so we had no noise from that. I was concerned that Maria's bluff would be the most noisy least private house we'd had so far & I was completely wrong.

I agree with Naturegirl, it is best to ask specific questions about the house, location, privacy and noise of either the owners or rental agents. I find they won't tell you the bad and the ugly if you don't ask, but if you ask specifically they will.

From now on I will always ask:

1) How is the driveway? Not only how steep but can it accomodate 2 cars?

2) Are the views unobstructed or do you see a bunch of other houses?

3) Is there construction nearby?

augie · Post by **augie** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:42 am

My brother and his wife tried to rent Paper Moon for the time that we will be on the island next November. Since Leslie and I will be at Reef Madness, that was a good choice. But PM is being sold, so they had to look around a bit more.

He just emailed me that they have a confirmation to rent Molly's Cottage, which is in the Chocolate Hole area. Not close to us at all now, but how far away can you really be if you're on STJ?

Do any of you have any experience with this place, and - to stay on topic, is it likely to be subjected to a lot of construction noise?

iowaguy · Post by **iowaguy** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:40 am

Augie---True, everything in St. John is somewhat close, but there are a lot of great 1BR rentals in the Coral Bay area in that same price range that would be much closer to Reef Madness. Try vrbo.com for some of these 1BR houses.

augie · Post by **augie** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:23 pm

Thanks Jim - I sent my brother an email with some of the questions I would ask the management company and let him know that he could almost certainly, this far our, find somewhere that met their needs in Coral Bay, but the ball is in his court now.

I did a search on this, and two other forums as well, and did not find a single review of Molly's Cottage. I wonder if it used to have a different name?

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