Seeking advice on timing and transport, STT to STJ

[chicagoans]

Our flight (family of 4) arrives STT at 2:30 on a Thursday. We're renting a car from St. John Cars, which closes at 5:00. We're planning on carrying everything on (cross fingers!) so we shouldn't have to wait for luggage. I really do want to get our car on our arrival day, so I don't have to waste valuable beach time on day 2.

Given about a 2 hour window from leaving the airport to the closing of the car rental place, should I plan on using a private taxi to CA or RH for the ferry and/or a private water taxi to STJ? We are a family of 4 and I'd rather go cheap on the public ferry or taxi... unless it makes us too late to get the car.

If I go with a private land and/or water taxi, I'm assuming I have to reserve in advance, so I can't really make the decision on our arrival day, can I?

Thanks!

[Pia]

You should have no problem making the 4pm Red Hook ferry at all putting you on STJ by 4:20pm - plenty of time.

If you arrive late, you can always hire a taxi to take you directly to Red Hook with no waiting/stopping (any of them will do it) and they charge (I think) $90.00 for the "express" ride to Red Hook and therefore you don't have to book it in advance thus doing away with the concern of having to pay for a private if you really don't need it

Pia

[chicagoans]

Thanks Pia! I'm going to copy this into my doc of 'helpful tips' to print and bring with me!

It's 25 degrees here today and work has been crazy busy -- but vacation in the island sun soon come!

[PA Girl]

Last time (feb 07) flight delays caused us to arrive later than expected and our agent picked up the keys at St John Car Rental. We went down the next morning and completed the paper work - no problem at all.