usvi-on-line
Just returned--TR July 21-31
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gymnastika
- Posts: 291
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:01 pm
- Location: texas
Just returned--TR July 21-31
July 21-July31
Day 1
This is my fourth trip to St. John since May 2007. I have a serious problem. I scrap and save anything I can just to go back for another fix. I started off staying in nice places, but as the trips got more frequent and the desperation grew, I planned this trip as a definite "budget" trip, just so I could go again and even booked a stay at Maho Campgrounds for part of the stay. I said I would never do that, but here I am doing it anyway. I took my 7 y/o son and my 12y/o niece and left my 5 y/o home with my husband. I figured the excuse of taking kids to the island would be a good "learning experience" for them. Basically, I used them as an excuse to go again, even though I just went four months earlier. Plus, I wanted justice from the water being too cold for me in March/April and wanted/needed to go when it is warm and calm in the summer.
I booked Spirit Air because, well, I'm desperate to get to the islands and they are cheap. They started service out of San Antonio recently, with only one hitch. You can't connect too much of anywhere, since it leaves late in the morning and you miss St. Thomas and most other connections as well. We had to stay the night in Ft. Lauderdale, both ways. I booked the evening flight so the stay would not be long in Ft. Lauderdale--just a quick drive to the Hilton, spend night and off to St. Thomas. I get a call the day before we are to leave and they canceled both flights to and from Ft. Lauderdale and I would have to take a 9:45am vs the 6:45pm. That's quite a difference. I now have to find extra day of child care for my 5 yr old, whom I'm leaving at home with my husband, as well as another extra day of child care for the return portion, which is at 4 pm vs a 6:55am return. Okay, so this trip just got longer by two days. I pricelined and at least received a nice hotel in FLL- Hilton. We chilled at the pool for most of the day. It at least had a tropical feel to it and nice landscaping.
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Day 2
No problems taking the flight to St. Thomas. Landed at 3:15 (we carry on only--although I did have to convince my niece when I broke the news to her that she can only have a carry-on when she travels with me and that she CAN fit everything in one bag). We stopped at the first place we saw by the ferry dock, Pizza Hut. Wow. What a great, first culinary island experience, but my niece was happy with that. This will be thier last time to see a chain restaurant for awhile. Thank goodness.
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Off to catch our 5pm ferry to Virgin Gorda. It was beautiful to watch the sun set as we got close to Virgin Gorda. (my niece got her first souvinier, as she called it, she scraped her nose on the bottom of the pool in Ft. Lauderdale)
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We arrive well after the island shuts down, 5 pm. The grocery store is closed and we settle for Guavaberry's commissary, where we are staying. A quick check-in and we settle in. Wow. I was really adventurous in the planning stage that I thought I could go without A/C in late July. Now it's time to see if I can actually pull it off. It sure does feel hot in this little villa! Hmmm. We wonder outside for our first tour of the place at night with flashlights guiding our way. We find hermit crabs and after awhile, head back and turn the fans to high blast. It actually wasn't that bad. By the middle of the night, I even pulled the covers on me. It was hard to communicate back home to let everyone know we had arrived. The office closes at 5 so I couldn't use their internet, and my phone barely works when I put it on roaming outside of the sprint network. I am not looking forward to that bill!
Day 3
The next morning I couldn't wait for my first day of the Caribbean sun and beaches! I got the kids up and we went to Spring Bay, Guavaberry's beach.
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The kids snorkel awhile but are a little alarmed by the amount of moon jellyfish. My 7 y/o is not too fazed, but my niece is not as comfortable swimming around these creatures.
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The kids decide they wanted to go to the baths, but it is after 8am already, and they are charging for admission, but we could swim over. Okay. Feeling a little nervous about a big adventure so soon in the trip, but it's only a quick swim one beach over from Spring Bay, so we go for it. Meanwhile, we've made friends with Guavaberry's resident dogs, and they are great, friendly, cute, etc.. but my feelings quickly changed. The dogs decided they would go for a swim with us to the baths. We didn't even notice they were there until we were almost half-way out. It was cute at first, until the dogs tired out and they used us constantly as their rock for resting. At one point, one of the dogs got so pooped, they clawed and scratched my son, pulling his mask off and caused him to get flustered and he started panicking. I had told him before we started this journey the most dangerous thing in water to do is to panic. Well, here we have an unforeseen circumstance and I'm trying to calm him down, meanwhile now the dog is on top of both of us. Uuggghhh. I had been calm, but things aren't getting any better and I get my first wave of fear. Okay. It's time for plan B. We are in 20 feet of water or so and the shore is still far away. I look under water and find a boulder 20 ft away or so and swim to it, even though it still looks deep under the water. It was a God-send. We got our bearings, got the dogs off, and regained our composure. Now I'm mad. Mad at myself that I even set off on an adventure that I was kinda uncomfortable with. I've swam with my son before like this, but I just didn't have a good feeling about it, and I didn't listen to my gut. Once we reach the shore, I have sworn off any big snorkeling adventures on this trip this day forward. AND I'm going to have a floatie with me from now on!!
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We enjoyed the baths, the dogs that followed us are still following us around the baths, the dogs are going up and down the steps and climbing up and down boulders. Crazy dogs.
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We then went to the Top of the baths restaurant for a late breakfast and a swim.
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We obviously walked back instead of swam back. The walk was only about 5 minutes to Guavaberry. I'm noticing how much more arid Virgin Gorda is than St. John. Reminds me a little of Palos Verdes in LA. Anyway, later we decide to take a taxi to Little Dix to swim at their beach. I tried to be cheap on this trip by not renting a car, relying only on Taxi's. That's fine if you're just one person and going only to one place a day. We enjoyed Little Dix's beach. It was very warm. Warmer than any other beach on Virgin Gorda or St. John this trip.
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We enjoyed strawberry shakes on the beach and no trip would be complete without me breaking a resort rule or two....so we took a quick, I say quick, dip in Little Dix's pool before anyone knew we were there!! How sweet it was.
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Off to get a Taxi back to Guavaberry to shower we get ready to go to dinner. I am really starting to want to be on St. John and had been contemplating leaving a day early. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm really wanting to get the St. John part of the trip started. Oh well, we go to the mineshaft for dinner where the kids enjoyed putt putt golf while I enjoyed the view. Nice views. Pretty good food. We wait for almost an hour in the parking lot for the taxi to return to pick us up. I'm starting to not like this taxi thing.
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Day 4
The next morning we slept in. Sleeping in on the islands is past 8am. I am NOT a morning person, but in the islands, I magically become early rise and shine girl around 6 am! My husband always asks, "what have you done with my wife", when we're in the islands. I just don't want to miss any time at the beaches!!
So, I decided I've had enough of shelling out 40 bucks a day in taxi's when I can get a car for 50. So my thrifty plan of taking only taxi's has been an utter failure. Time to suck it up and enjoy the vacation. Mahogany car rental delivers the car to the villa door. Nice. If you pay cash, it's less. We stop by Buck's market (finally, a grocery store!! we didn't want to pay for a taxi earlier to get to Buck's). So off to gorgeous Savannah bay.
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I noticed there were a lot of people speaking Spanish and boats were lined up one after the other, not 2 feet between them it seemed in Savannah/Pond Bay. We were told it was the Puerto Rican's "Christmas in july". I also noticed them in St. John, as well. They seemed to be having a good 'ol time.
We enjoyed our time at Savannah. I liked pulling my jeep up a few feet away from the beach. Really convenient. While on the beach, I contemplated leaving VG a day early, but this would mean this is our last day and I don't have arrangements made to arrive early in St. John. What to do, what to do. Maho was our next destination and I knew they would have availability so I wasn't that worried. I started scheming and made a decision that I would just go for it and add the extra night at Caneel, making it 2 nights there at the end of the trip. Not cheap, but considering that I wouldn't need a car at Caneel, it sounded better.
After a couple of hours on Savannah, we drive over to the north sound. This area is more dramatic than I thought it would be just for the views alone. I really enjoyed the vistas. Leverick bay is quainter than I had thought. The kids enjoy themselves in the freshwater pool.
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After Leverick, we thought we would hop on the boat to Bitter End Yacht Club, just to look around a bit. The kids were wanting to shop a bit and find souvenirs. A bit disappointing with the souvenirs, but still it was another place to see, although we were all pretty tired by this point.
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The view from Gorda Peak was beautiful.
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When we get back to Guavaberry, I ask if it would be okay to leave one day early. They said it would be fine, but I had to check out right then because the office was closing now. Quick decision time. Okay, let's do it. And by the way, how do I get to St. John tomorrow?? She helped me with ferry, taxi info. They are really nice at Guavaberry. I will consider staying there again. I'll get the ones with A/C, though.
We went to the Rock for dinner. We were the only one's there for awhile. I guess 6:30 pm for dinner was early?? off-season maybe had something to do with it?? The ambience was neat at the restaurant but a bit overpriced. $14 for mediocre kids meals?? St. John was sounding better by the second. The waitress thought we were crazy for ordering tap water instead of buying the big expensive bottle of water. She made us feel that we were making the wrong decision. We had been drinking tap the entire time on the island and hadn't had a problem yet. Oh well. I got nervous that we were going to get sick, but all was well. No problems.
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After dinner, we packed up, I left a message with Maho saying I was on my way a day early and will check out one day early as well.
Day 5
The ferry rides were pretty seamless. On the way over originally from St. Thomas, I had bought round trip tickets, thinking they stopped in St. John on the return. I was wrong. The girl at Speedy's was really nice and refunded the return portion of the ticket. By the way, a round trip ticket for an adult used to be $45 and it went up to $70 July 1!! I did not know this and was a little sticker shocked. That's quite an increase. Our one ways were $40 per adult, $30 kids. My 12 yr old niece was considered an adult ticket. It drives me crazy that some places are 12 and under, and others are under 12. I would always say throughout this trip, "one adult, two children, please". Some considered her a kid, others not.
The ferry ride to Road Town, Tortola was quick and easy. $20 adults, $15 kids. Then taxi over to West End, $25 plus tips. Then ferry over to St. John, $26 adults, $22 kids plus $5 departure tax per person.
Wow. That added up quicker than I had planned on, which was the original $45 for a round trip for me, and $28 for the kids. Instead damage was $254. I will be better prepared next time.
On the ferry ride over, I was reflecting back with our experiences taking only taxi's in Virgin Gorda. Not good. So, I made the last minute decision to rent a car once on St. John. In the planning stage of this, I was motivated that I could do St. John without a car and save money. I guess I thought we would be hippies or something and just spend most of our time at Maho Campgrounds. But I should've known better. I love the freedom of a jeep and driving to the beaches. I would have NEVER imagined that I would do something like show up with no car reservation asking around. But after our taxi experiences on VG, and tasting freedom with a car, here I am doing just that! This trip quickly leaped out of the "budget" category. So here we land in St. John and we pulled our bags across town up the hill to St. John car rental. I figured they would have something. I needed one for our three days at maho--Friday, Saturday, Sunday. "Good Morning, I was wondering if you would happen to have a car available for the next three days?" "You can only have one for today. Saturday's are too busy." Okay. Next. Down the road, see Conrad Sutton, they look busy, keep walking kids, next. Delbert Hill. My son opens their door thinking it's a little shop you can walk into. The boy working there quickly shuts it on him. Then my son stands in their plastic chair outside of their tall window to be able to see in. My son is ready to do business and get a car. Once again, scolded. Okay. We can't win with these guys. But they have a jeep. Pricier on St. John. $75 vs $50 on VG. "We're not in Kansas, I mean, VG anymore," I tell myself. Okay. We'll do it, looking at the kids sweating profusely carrying their luggage.
Whoo hoooo!!!!! Back in a jeep on St. John. It just feels so right. I am so happy. We go to starfish market for some groceries straight away. I noticed the groceries are way pricier than Bucks in VG. I know we are at Starfish, but it's way pricier. I thought VG would have been pricier, given it's more remote. HMM... oh well. Time to load the groceries. Look for my key. Can't find it. Oh no. Getting nervous. By this time we're at the car. I look. I left my key in the door!! With all my luggage within plain sight! A major no, no in St. John. I can't believe it. I think the heat has damaged my brain. Okay. All is well. Moving along. Drive out to Maho, stopping along the way to show my niece, who's never been here, the beautiful overlooks. She's excited.
We pull into Maho campgrounds and they had received my message and my cabin was ready. This is where I am really thankful we traveled light. I'm sure you've heard there are lots of steps at maho, with no porter services. It's true, but it wasn't too bad since advice I read from reviews to get the "C" level. It's close to the office, grocery store, bathrooms, and the goat trail that takes you to big maho. Here is the view of Francis from our cabin.
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We quickly unpack and head over to big maho. Ahhh... maho. All my stresses of travel, my impatience on Virgin Gorda, dealing with the heat of the maho campgrounds, had all been worth it when I laid my eyes on maho...
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After the beach, we clean up get ready for dinner. Now, my original trip planning included staying at the Maho campgrounds for the majority of the time, but now that plans had changed and I had a jeep, the world was my oyster, St. John, anyway. It was time I started using all my past experiences and knowledge of St. John to plan things on a whim. Wow, how fun. I was so excited that I was starting over without any plans! It was exciting, to say the least. Since we're close to Coral Bay, I thought it would be fun to go to Skinny's and shop around and eat. So, off we went. Most of the shops were closed, but some were open long enough for the kids to poke around. We found Journals made out of handmade paper for 2 bucks! We thought it would be a good idea to journal everything we had done, since I didn't have a laptop this time around, nor easy access to the internet, to jot things down.
It was refreshing to buy a cheap meal. The burgers were huge and the kids split one and still didn't finish it.
Back to the cabin to sleep and it was HOT. Since there was no one in the entire C section, I wondered over to the next cabin and borrowed the fan from there so we could have two fans going. One fan can only get the bedroom section of the cabin, and my son was burning up over on the sofa. 2 fans did the trick. I was worried I would blow a fuse, but what the heck. Ahhh....that's better. It sounded like an airport coming from our cabin.
Day 6
Next morning wake up, walk outside and I'm greeted with that view again.
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Resident cat (he was happy as a lark catching all the lizards in the world)
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We have some cereal, buy more ice for the cooler, pack up a lunch, and we're off to Hawksnest. We were there early and I got my favorite spot all the way to the right. Lots of shade. Love that spot.
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I like this pic. It's appropriate, my niece enjoying the ocean, Joshua digging in the sand.
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After Hawksnest, I could tell after 4 days of beaches, they don't want to go to another beach in the afternoon, so we head over to the Westin and have a burger and enjoy the pool. My niece met some other girls her age playing volleyball and was occupied with them for an hour or so while my son and I spent some time together playing in the pool. My niece told me she thought I said it was the off-season and was confused because the pool was packed. There were a lot of people in general. It was feeding time for the iguanas and their tummies are trained to start looking for food around then I guess. While I'm lying in the chair, one of the iguanas walks on top of my foot hoping for a bite of my burger. It gave me a jump.
Back to maho where we showered up and had dinner. They were playing one of the Planet Earth series at the pavilion that night. It is a relaxing, nice environment there. I really like the people at maho, and the view can't be beat from the pavilion. The breeze is nice, too.
Day 7
We TRIED to get up early for Trunk, so we could get there before it opened. Okay, forumites, did Trunk's hours used to be 9am or has it always been 7:30am?? What am I getting it confused with? So, we tried to get there before the 9am opening of the office, but it just didn't happen. We rolled in about 9:15 and noticed the hours were 7:30. All that rushing for nothing. Oh well. We still got my favorite spot down on the right side under the huge seagrape tree that is sprawled out. Do you guys know which one I'm talking about? I get that spot every time. We snorkeled the trail, with floatie in hand. My niece thought that was the neatest thing since sliced bread.
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After a couple of hours, the kids were ready to head back to clean up and hang around the campgrounds. It was good timing, because we needed to pack up since this was our last night at maho and get ready for the Beach Bar gathering.
We arrive and parking was crazy! I thought this was the off-season? Ha! I ended up asking a guy at the visitor info booth if there was a spot I could park. He was so nice, he ended up backing out his own car and then pulled in behind me and just told me not to stay out all night. Ha. We'll be lucky if we make it to 9 o'clock! So, off to the Beach Bar. There are people everywhere. I sit there for awhile and decide to finally start asking where the forumites are. I ask an islandy lady who looks like she lives here "Are you with the forum?" "what?" "the forum gathering." "no, but I know a guy who's really in to that." Then I hear "GYMNASTIKA!" "oh my gosh, how do you know my name?" "well I spent 8 hours on a boat with you awhile back." "Capt Brandi!!!"
At this point I found the forumites under the tree. Everyone is so nice. Great to meet everyone. Thanks PJayer and Bayer for the glow bracelets! That made my son's day. He's still wearing them!
Okay, back to maho. Tomorrow is my favorite part of the trip. Caneel! Air conditioning!!!
Day 8
We're pretty packed up already, all we have to do is the usual maho duties; pull the sheets off the bed, wash the dishes, sweep, and take all linens up to the laundromat. We check out and we are on our way to Caneel. My favorite part of the trip is here! Cold A/C will greet me with a sweet kiss. Blessed modern conveniences! Most of all, I'm excited about the BIG breakfast that is included. I've starved during this portion of the trip so far, and I can't wait for a big breakfast.
Okay, so we check-in, but the room is not ready. I have asked for an upgrade from the courtside rooms to the premium courtside rooms. Forget wanting to be upgraded to oceanview or beachfront. I want premium courtside because they are BIG. I always ask for 148, but they give me 136. well, at least it's a bigger room, but I haven't been in it to see for sure. I drop the kids off in the lobby and return the car, stop at dolphin, taxi back. The room's not ready so off to the pool for well, a few hours. I keep calling the front desk to see if the room is ready. They changed my room. They give me 148!! Come to find out, the other 136 doesn't have the 2 bedrooms that 148 and 143 have, so I am glad I got the switch. Finally, we get the room and they have redecorated since last July. I really like it!!
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Off to my favorite beach in St. John, Turtle Beach, but along the way we see the donkeys. Can't resist.
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We only had a short time to swim so we could get ready for the manager's cocktail reception. Note: always include a Monday stay over at caneel. You don't want to miss the really good free food and drinks. This year's food was way better than last year's. I always enjoy it, and talking with people. The kids were having a great time feeding the local cats shrimp and other delicacies and I was having a great time meeting people from all over the world. A great night.
I have to say going to sleep that night we were freezing. I had to turn the temp up. I think we were all adjusted to being so warm at night that we couldn't handle the cold!!
Day 9
This day is really a blur. I let the busy-ness of the past week just melt away. I think that it was a nice end to an adventurous vacation. All I wanted to do was snorkel turtle beach, sit at turtle beach, relax at turtle beach... All those beaches caneel has and I spend all my time here every time. We went to the pool somewhere in there and finished our beach time at Caneel's main beach and saw some sting ray's. The kids really enjoyed that. We ended the day at Sugarmill and it was an enjoyable evening. The kids said it was their favorite meal. They learned a little about economics this trip with watching their food budget, and to our surprise, caneel had the best deal we have seen since--$9 for a kids meal with an appetizer of fruit or carrot sticks and dip, dessert and a drink.
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Funny side note--my niece said she would pay my son a dollar if he put on a shower cap and pretended to be asleep. He apparently has a price, but his is low....
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Day 10
Last morning, and I'm going to make it last until we have to get on Caneel's 12:15 ferry. Once again, nice breakfast and off to which beach you ask? Turtle. We did try to go to another beach for the sake of trying, but the surf at Hawksnest was really strong and one lady that was there said she was thrown against the rocks and her hand had landed on a sea urchin!! Yikes. It looked painful. So, Turtle, anyone?? Then a quick dip in the pool, a speed shower and off to the ferry. I did loose a pair of earrings as a result of our hurriedness. I put a pair of earrings in a ziplock, thinking I didn't want to loose them on my last snorkel, and the bag had a hole in it, come to find out!! They were my favorite pair of earrings and I had gotten them in St. John in April, but there was no time to look for them. I had to come to peace with it and would tell myself that the earrings that were once part of St. John are now here at rest in St. John, probably in the sand at Turtle Beach.
They ferry ride was glorious. It was so easy, it still felt like vacation and I was still relaxing. Of coarse, the complimentary rum punch might have helped.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for another night's stay at the Airport Hilton.
Day 11
We swam in the pool and well, swam in the pool until it was time to check out around 1:30 for the 4 o'clock flight. Made for a long extra day.
Day 1
This is my fourth trip to St. John since May 2007. I have a serious problem. I scrap and save anything I can just to go back for another fix. I started off staying in nice places, but as the trips got more frequent and the desperation grew, I planned this trip as a definite "budget" trip, just so I could go again and even booked a stay at Maho Campgrounds for part of the stay. I said I would never do that, but here I am doing it anyway. I took my 7 y/o son and my 12y/o niece and left my 5 y/o home with my husband. I figured the excuse of taking kids to the island would be a good "learning experience" for them. Basically, I used them as an excuse to go again, even though I just went four months earlier. Plus, I wanted justice from the water being too cold for me in March/April and wanted/needed to go when it is warm and calm in the summer.
I booked Spirit Air because, well, I'm desperate to get to the islands and they are cheap. They started service out of San Antonio recently, with only one hitch. You can't connect too much of anywhere, since it leaves late in the morning and you miss St. Thomas and most other connections as well. We had to stay the night in Ft. Lauderdale, both ways. I booked the evening flight so the stay would not be long in Ft. Lauderdale--just a quick drive to the Hilton, spend night and off to St. Thomas. I get a call the day before we are to leave and they canceled both flights to and from Ft. Lauderdale and I would have to take a 9:45am vs the 6:45pm. That's quite a difference. I now have to find extra day of child care for my 5 yr old, whom I'm leaving at home with my husband, as well as another extra day of child care for the return portion, which is at 4 pm vs a 6:55am return. Okay, so this trip just got longer by two days. I pricelined and at least received a nice hotel in FLL- Hilton. We chilled at the pool for most of the day. It at least had a tropical feel to it and nice landscaping.
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Day 2
No problems taking the flight to St. Thomas. Landed at 3:15 (we carry on only--although I did have to convince my niece when I broke the news to her that she can only have a carry-on when she travels with me and that she CAN fit everything in one bag). We stopped at the first place we saw by the ferry dock, Pizza Hut. Wow. What a great, first culinary island experience, but my niece was happy with that. This will be thier last time to see a chain restaurant for awhile. Thank goodness.
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Off to catch our 5pm ferry to Virgin Gorda. It was beautiful to watch the sun set as we got close to Virgin Gorda. (my niece got her first souvinier, as she called it, she scraped her nose on the bottom of the pool in Ft. Lauderdale)
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We arrive well after the island shuts down, 5 pm. The grocery store is closed and we settle for Guavaberry's commissary, where we are staying. A quick check-in and we settle in. Wow. I was really adventurous in the planning stage that I thought I could go without A/C in late July. Now it's time to see if I can actually pull it off. It sure does feel hot in this little villa! Hmmm. We wonder outside for our first tour of the place at night with flashlights guiding our way. We find hermit crabs and after awhile, head back and turn the fans to high blast. It actually wasn't that bad. By the middle of the night, I even pulled the covers on me. It was hard to communicate back home to let everyone know we had arrived. The office closes at 5 so I couldn't use their internet, and my phone barely works when I put it on roaming outside of the sprint network. I am not looking forward to that bill!
Day 3
The next morning I couldn't wait for my first day of the Caribbean sun and beaches! I got the kids up and we went to Spring Bay, Guavaberry's beach.
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The kids snorkel awhile but are a little alarmed by the amount of moon jellyfish. My 7 y/o is not too fazed, but my niece is not as comfortable swimming around these creatures.
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The kids decide they wanted to go to the baths, but it is after 8am already, and they are charging for admission, but we could swim over. Okay. Feeling a little nervous about a big adventure so soon in the trip, but it's only a quick swim one beach over from Spring Bay, so we go for it. Meanwhile, we've made friends with Guavaberry's resident dogs, and they are great, friendly, cute, etc.. but my feelings quickly changed. The dogs decided they would go for a swim with us to the baths. We didn't even notice they were there until we were almost half-way out. It was cute at first, until the dogs tired out and they used us constantly as their rock for resting. At one point, one of the dogs got so pooped, they clawed and scratched my son, pulling his mask off and caused him to get flustered and he started panicking. I had told him before we started this journey the most dangerous thing in water to do is to panic. Well, here we have an unforeseen circumstance and I'm trying to calm him down, meanwhile now the dog is on top of both of us. Uuggghhh. I had been calm, but things aren't getting any better and I get my first wave of fear. Okay. It's time for plan B. We are in 20 feet of water or so and the shore is still far away. I look under water and find a boulder 20 ft away or so and swim to it, even though it still looks deep under the water. It was a God-send. We got our bearings, got the dogs off, and regained our composure. Now I'm mad. Mad at myself that I even set off on an adventure that I was kinda uncomfortable with. I've swam with my son before like this, but I just didn't have a good feeling about it, and I didn't listen to my gut. Once we reach the shore, I have sworn off any big snorkeling adventures on this trip this day forward. AND I'm going to have a floatie with me from now on!!
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We enjoyed the baths, the dogs that followed us are still following us around the baths, the dogs are going up and down the steps and climbing up and down boulders. Crazy dogs.
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We then went to the Top of the baths restaurant for a late breakfast and a swim.
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We obviously walked back instead of swam back. The walk was only about 5 minutes to Guavaberry. I'm noticing how much more arid Virgin Gorda is than St. John. Reminds me a little of Palos Verdes in LA. Anyway, later we decide to take a taxi to Little Dix to swim at their beach. I tried to be cheap on this trip by not renting a car, relying only on Taxi's. That's fine if you're just one person and going only to one place a day. We enjoyed Little Dix's beach. It was very warm. Warmer than any other beach on Virgin Gorda or St. John this trip.
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We enjoyed strawberry shakes on the beach and no trip would be complete without me breaking a resort rule or two....so we took a quick, I say quick, dip in Little Dix's pool before anyone knew we were there!! How sweet it was.
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Off to get a Taxi back to Guavaberry to shower we get ready to go to dinner. I am really starting to want to be on St. John and had been contemplating leaving a day early. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm really wanting to get the St. John part of the trip started. Oh well, we go to the mineshaft for dinner where the kids enjoyed putt putt golf while I enjoyed the view. Nice views. Pretty good food. We wait for almost an hour in the parking lot for the taxi to return to pick us up. I'm starting to not like this taxi thing.
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Day 4
The next morning we slept in. Sleeping in on the islands is past 8am. I am NOT a morning person, but in the islands, I magically become early rise and shine girl around 6 am! My husband always asks, "what have you done with my wife", when we're in the islands. I just don't want to miss any time at the beaches!!
So, I decided I've had enough of shelling out 40 bucks a day in taxi's when I can get a car for 50. So my thrifty plan of taking only taxi's has been an utter failure. Time to suck it up and enjoy the vacation. Mahogany car rental delivers the car to the villa door. Nice. If you pay cash, it's less. We stop by Buck's market (finally, a grocery store!! we didn't want to pay for a taxi earlier to get to Buck's). So off to gorgeous Savannah bay.
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I noticed there were a lot of people speaking Spanish and boats were lined up one after the other, not 2 feet between them it seemed in Savannah/Pond Bay. We were told it was the Puerto Rican's "Christmas in july". I also noticed them in St. John, as well. They seemed to be having a good 'ol time.
We enjoyed our time at Savannah. I liked pulling my jeep up a few feet away from the beach. Really convenient. While on the beach, I contemplated leaving VG a day early, but this would mean this is our last day and I don't have arrangements made to arrive early in St. John. What to do, what to do. Maho was our next destination and I knew they would have availability so I wasn't that worried. I started scheming and made a decision that I would just go for it and add the extra night at Caneel, making it 2 nights there at the end of the trip. Not cheap, but considering that I wouldn't need a car at Caneel, it sounded better.
After a couple of hours on Savannah, we drive over to the north sound. This area is more dramatic than I thought it would be just for the views alone. I really enjoyed the vistas. Leverick bay is quainter than I had thought. The kids enjoy themselves in the freshwater pool.
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After Leverick, we thought we would hop on the boat to Bitter End Yacht Club, just to look around a bit. The kids were wanting to shop a bit and find souvenirs. A bit disappointing with the souvenirs, but still it was another place to see, although we were all pretty tired by this point.
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The view from Gorda Peak was beautiful.
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When we get back to Guavaberry, I ask if it would be okay to leave one day early. They said it would be fine, but I had to check out right then because the office was closing now. Quick decision time. Okay, let's do it. And by the way, how do I get to St. John tomorrow?? She helped me with ferry, taxi info. They are really nice at Guavaberry. I will consider staying there again. I'll get the ones with A/C, though.
We went to the Rock for dinner. We were the only one's there for awhile. I guess 6:30 pm for dinner was early?? off-season maybe had something to do with it?? The ambience was neat at the restaurant but a bit overpriced. $14 for mediocre kids meals?? St. John was sounding better by the second. The waitress thought we were crazy for ordering tap water instead of buying the big expensive bottle of water. She made us feel that we were making the wrong decision. We had been drinking tap the entire time on the island and hadn't had a problem yet. Oh well. I got nervous that we were going to get sick, but all was well. No problems.
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After dinner, we packed up, I left a message with Maho saying I was on my way a day early and will check out one day early as well.
Day 5
The ferry rides were pretty seamless. On the way over originally from St. Thomas, I had bought round trip tickets, thinking they stopped in St. John on the return. I was wrong. The girl at Speedy's was really nice and refunded the return portion of the ticket. By the way, a round trip ticket for an adult used to be $45 and it went up to $70 July 1!! I did not know this and was a little sticker shocked. That's quite an increase. Our one ways were $40 per adult, $30 kids. My 12 yr old niece was considered an adult ticket. It drives me crazy that some places are 12 and under, and others are under 12. I would always say throughout this trip, "one adult, two children, please". Some considered her a kid, others not.
The ferry ride to Road Town, Tortola was quick and easy. $20 adults, $15 kids. Then taxi over to West End, $25 plus tips. Then ferry over to St. John, $26 adults, $22 kids plus $5 departure tax per person.
Wow. That added up quicker than I had planned on, which was the original $45 for a round trip for me, and $28 for the kids. Instead damage was $254. I will be better prepared next time.
On the ferry ride over, I was reflecting back with our experiences taking only taxi's in Virgin Gorda. Not good. So, I made the last minute decision to rent a car once on St. John. In the planning stage of this, I was motivated that I could do St. John without a car and save money. I guess I thought we would be hippies or something and just spend most of our time at Maho Campgrounds. But I should've known better. I love the freedom of a jeep and driving to the beaches. I would have NEVER imagined that I would do something like show up with no car reservation asking around. But after our taxi experiences on VG, and tasting freedom with a car, here I am doing just that! This trip quickly leaped out of the "budget" category. So here we land in St. John and we pulled our bags across town up the hill to St. John car rental. I figured they would have something. I needed one for our three days at maho--Friday, Saturday, Sunday. "Good Morning, I was wondering if you would happen to have a car available for the next three days?" "You can only have one for today. Saturday's are too busy." Okay. Next. Down the road, see Conrad Sutton, they look busy, keep walking kids, next. Delbert Hill. My son opens their door thinking it's a little shop you can walk into. The boy working there quickly shuts it on him. Then my son stands in their plastic chair outside of their tall window to be able to see in. My son is ready to do business and get a car. Once again, scolded. Okay. We can't win with these guys. But they have a jeep. Pricier on St. John. $75 vs $50 on VG. "We're not in Kansas, I mean, VG anymore," I tell myself. Okay. We'll do it, looking at the kids sweating profusely carrying their luggage.
Whoo hoooo!!!!! Back in a jeep on St. John. It just feels so right. I am so happy. We go to starfish market for some groceries straight away. I noticed the groceries are way pricier than Bucks in VG. I know we are at Starfish, but it's way pricier. I thought VG would have been pricier, given it's more remote. HMM... oh well. Time to load the groceries. Look for my key. Can't find it. Oh no. Getting nervous. By this time we're at the car. I look. I left my key in the door!! With all my luggage within plain sight! A major no, no in St. John. I can't believe it. I think the heat has damaged my brain. Okay. All is well. Moving along. Drive out to Maho, stopping along the way to show my niece, who's never been here, the beautiful overlooks. She's excited.
We pull into Maho campgrounds and they had received my message and my cabin was ready. This is where I am really thankful we traveled light. I'm sure you've heard there are lots of steps at maho, with no porter services. It's true, but it wasn't too bad since advice I read from reviews to get the "C" level. It's close to the office, grocery store, bathrooms, and the goat trail that takes you to big maho. Here is the view of Francis from our cabin.
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We quickly unpack and head over to big maho. Ahhh... maho. All my stresses of travel, my impatience on Virgin Gorda, dealing with the heat of the maho campgrounds, had all been worth it when I laid my eyes on maho...
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After the beach, we clean up get ready for dinner. Now, my original trip planning included staying at the Maho campgrounds for the majority of the time, but now that plans had changed and I had a jeep, the world was my oyster, St. John, anyway. It was time I started using all my past experiences and knowledge of St. John to plan things on a whim. Wow, how fun. I was so excited that I was starting over without any plans! It was exciting, to say the least. Since we're close to Coral Bay, I thought it would be fun to go to Skinny's and shop around and eat. So, off we went. Most of the shops were closed, but some were open long enough for the kids to poke around. We found Journals made out of handmade paper for 2 bucks! We thought it would be a good idea to journal everything we had done, since I didn't have a laptop this time around, nor easy access to the internet, to jot things down.
It was refreshing to buy a cheap meal. The burgers were huge and the kids split one and still didn't finish it.
Back to the cabin to sleep and it was HOT. Since there was no one in the entire C section, I wondered over to the next cabin and borrowed the fan from there so we could have two fans going. One fan can only get the bedroom section of the cabin, and my son was burning up over on the sofa. 2 fans did the trick. I was worried I would blow a fuse, but what the heck. Ahhh....that's better. It sounded like an airport coming from our cabin.
Day 6
Next morning wake up, walk outside and I'm greeted with that view again.
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Resident cat (he was happy as a lark catching all the lizards in the world)
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We have some cereal, buy more ice for the cooler, pack up a lunch, and we're off to Hawksnest. We were there early and I got my favorite spot all the way to the right. Lots of shade. Love that spot.
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I like this pic. It's appropriate, my niece enjoying the ocean, Joshua digging in the sand.
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After Hawksnest, I could tell after 4 days of beaches, they don't want to go to another beach in the afternoon, so we head over to the Westin and have a burger and enjoy the pool. My niece met some other girls her age playing volleyball and was occupied with them for an hour or so while my son and I spent some time together playing in the pool. My niece told me she thought I said it was the off-season and was confused because the pool was packed. There were a lot of people in general. It was feeding time for the iguanas and their tummies are trained to start looking for food around then I guess. While I'm lying in the chair, one of the iguanas walks on top of my foot hoping for a bite of my burger. It gave me a jump.
Back to maho where we showered up and had dinner. They were playing one of the Planet Earth series at the pavilion that night. It is a relaxing, nice environment there. I really like the people at maho, and the view can't be beat from the pavilion. The breeze is nice, too.
Day 7
We TRIED to get up early for Trunk, so we could get there before it opened. Okay, forumites, did Trunk's hours used to be 9am or has it always been 7:30am?? What am I getting it confused with? So, we tried to get there before the 9am opening of the office, but it just didn't happen. We rolled in about 9:15 and noticed the hours were 7:30. All that rushing for nothing. Oh well. We still got my favorite spot down on the right side under the huge seagrape tree that is sprawled out. Do you guys know which one I'm talking about? I get that spot every time. We snorkeled the trail, with floatie in hand. My niece thought that was the neatest thing since sliced bread.
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After a couple of hours, the kids were ready to head back to clean up and hang around the campgrounds. It was good timing, because we needed to pack up since this was our last night at maho and get ready for the Beach Bar gathering.
We arrive and parking was crazy! I thought this was the off-season? Ha! I ended up asking a guy at the visitor info booth if there was a spot I could park. He was so nice, he ended up backing out his own car and then pulled in behind me and just told me not to stay out all night. Ha. We'll be lucky if we make it to 9 o'clock! So, off to the Beach Bar. There are people everywhere. I sit there for awhile and decide to finally start asking where the forumites are. I ask an islandy lady who looks like she lives here "Are you with the forum?" "what?" "the forum gathering." "no, but I know a guy who's really in to that." Then I hear "GYMNASTIKA!" "oh my gosh, how do you know my name?" "well I spent 8 hours on a boat with you awhile back." "Capt Brandi!!!"
At this point I found the forumites under the tree. Everyone is so nice. Great to meet everyone. Thanks PJayer and Bayer for the glow bracelets! That made my son's day. He's still wearing them!
Okay, back to maho. Tomorrow is my favorite part of the trip. Caneel! Air conditioning!!!
Day 8
We're pretty packed up already, all we have to do is the usual maho duties; pull the sheets off the bed, wash the dishes, sweep, and take all linens up to the laundromat. We check out and we are on our way to Caneel. My favorite part of the trip is here! Cold A/C will greet me with a sweet kiss. Blessed modern conveniences! Most of all, I'm excited about the BIG breakfast that is included. I've starved during this portion of the trip so far, and I can't wait for a big breakfast.
Okay, so we check-in, but the room is not ready. I have asked for an upgrade from the courtside rooms to the premium courtside rooms. Forget wanting to be upgraded to oceanview or beachfront. I want premium courtside because they are BIG. I always ask for 148, but they give me 136. well, at least it's a bigger room, but I haven't been in it to see for sure. I drop the kids off in the lobby and return the car, stop at dolphin, taxi back. The room's not ready so off to the pool for well, a few hours. I keep calling the front desk to see if the room is ready. They changed my room. They give me 148!! Come to find out, the other 136 doesn't have the 2 bedrooms that 148 and 143 have, so I am glad I got the switch. Finally, we get the room and they have redecorated since last July. I really like it!!
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Off to my favorite beach in St. John, Turtle Beach, but along the way we see the donkeys. Can't resist.
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We only had a short time to swim so we could get ready for the manager's cocktail reception. Note: always include a Monday stay over at caneel. You don't want to miss the really good free food and drinks. This year's food was way better than last year's. I always enjoy it, and talking with people. The kids were having a great time feeding the local cats shrimp and other delicacies and I was having a great time meeting people from all over the world. A great night.
I have to say going to sleep that night we were freezing. I had to turn the temp up. I think we were all adjusted to being so warm at night that we couldn't handle the cold!!
Day 9
This day is really a blur. I let the busy-ness of the past week just melt away. I think that it was a nice end to an adventurous vacation. All I wanted to do was snorkel turtle beach, sit at turtle beach, relax at turtle beach... All those beaches caneel has and I spend all my time here every time. We went to the pool somewhere in there and finished our beach time at Caneel's main beach and saw some sting ray's. The kids really enjoyed that. We ended the day at Sugarmill and it was an enjoyable evening. The kids said it was their favorite meal. They learned a little about economics this trip with watching their food budget, and to our surprise, caneel had the best deal we have seen since--$9 for a kids meal with an appetizer of fruit or carrot sticks and dip, dessert and a drink.
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Funny side note--my niece said she would pay my son a dollar if he put on a shower cap and pretended to be asleep. He apparently has a price, but his is low....
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Day 10
Last morning, and I'm going to make it last until we have to get on Caneel's 12:15 ferry. Once again, nice breakfast and off to which beach you ask? Turtle. We did try to go to another beach for the sake of trying, but the surf at Hawksnest was really strong and one lady that was there said she was thrown against the rocks and her hand had landed on a sea urchin!! Yikes. It looked painful. So, Turtle, anyone?? Then a quick dip in the pool, a speed shower and off to the ferry. I did loose a pair of earrings as a result of our hurriedness. I put a pair of earrings in a ziplock, thinking I didn't want to loose them on my last snorkel, and the bag had a hole in it, come to find out!! They were my favorite pair of earrings and I had gotten them in St. John in April, but there was no time to look for them. I had to come to peace with it and would tell myself that the earrings that were once part of St. John are now here at rest in St. John, probably in the sand at Turtle Beach.
They ferry ride was glorious. It was so easy, it still felt like vacation and I was still relaxing. Of coarse, the complimentary rum punch might have helped.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for another night's stay at the Airport Hilton.
Day 11
We swam in the pool and well, swam in the pool until it was time to check out around 1:30 for the 4 o'clock flight. Made for a long extra day.
Last edited by gymnastika on Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Great pictures, too. Thanks.-
msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
Incredible trip report! I felt like I was right there with you! Thanks for all the details and great pics!
Glad you got your fix, now when is your next trip??
Cheers
Glad you got your fix, now when is your next trip??
Cheers
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
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gymnastika
- Posts: 291
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:01 pm
- Location: texas
PA Girl,
the kids did enjoy their time at maho. I had prepared them for it in advance, so when they got there, they realized it wasn't that bad at all. my seven year old thought it was great that we were really close to the bathroom--the closest cabin you could get. our only tough moments were moving in and moving out. we packed VERY light, but the heat will magnify getting each bag up and down flights of steps. Maho has lots of arts and crafts classes for the kids and it is just a family friendly place in general. We missed all the art classes because they are monday through thursdays and our stay was friday through sunday.
I think your idea of following up at Caneel is as good as it gets. being at maho first made the kids feel like royalty when they got to Caneel. I am glad I didn't start the trip off at Caneel or it would have been to difficult for them to make the transition to camping in the high heat of summer.
the kids did enjoy their time at maho. I had prepared them for it in advance, so when they got there, they realized it wasn't that bad at all. my seven year old thought it was great that we were really close to the bathroom--the closest cabin you could get. our only tough moments were moving in and moving out. we packed VERY light, but the heat will magnify getting each bag up and down flights of steps. Maho has lots of arts and crafts classes for the kids and it is just a family friendly place in general. We missed all the art classes because they are monday through thursdays and our stay was friday through sunday.
I think your idea of following up at Caneel is as good as it gets. being at maho first made the kids feel like royalty when they got to Caneel. I am glad I didn't start the trip off at Caneel or it would have been to difficult for them to make the transition to camping in the high heat of summer.
Thank you so much for the wonderful trip report!
LOVED all of the photos. Thank you so much for going into such great detail about the Virgin Gorda portion of your trip. In April of '09, we will be spending 3 nights in Virgin Gorda, 6 nights on St. John - then 1 night on St. Thomas.
Your photos have confirmed that it looks like Virgin Gorda will be great. (And, "Yes" - we have already rented a jeep!)
What lucky kids & HAPPY, too! Loved the photo of your niece on the ferry. How wonderful for them & how great of you to take them on such a wonderful adventure.
Sounds like you never made it to Honeymoon Beach at Caneel. We love that beach. Then, again, we have never made it to Turtle Beach. Do you know if that beach can be used by NON-GUESTS? I think that I remember this question being asked before. I know that we should not use their beach chairs, etc - but, could we go to Turtle Beach & bring our own chairs?
Again, just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your report. And, again, absolutely loved all of the photos!
Sue
LOVED all of the photos. Thank you so much for going into such great detail about the Virgin Gorda portion of your trip. In April of '09, we will be spending 3 nights in Virgin Gorda, 6 nights on St. John - then 1 night on St. Thomas.
Your photos have confirmed that it looks like Virgin Gorda will be great. (And, "Yes" - we have already rented a jeep!)
What lucky kids & HAPPY, too! Loved the photo of your niece on the ferry. How wonderful for them & how great of you to take them on such a wonderful adventure.
Sounds like you never made it to Honeymoon Beach at Caneel. We love that beach. Then, again, we have never made it to Turtle Beach. Do you know if that beach can be used by NON-GUESTS? I think that I remember this question being asked before. I know that we should not use their beach chairs, etc - but, could we go to Turtle Beach & bring our own chairs?
Again, just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your report. And, again, absolutely loved all of the photos!
Sue
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gymnastika
- Posts: 291
- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:01 pm
- Location: texas
Hi Sue, thank you for your wonderful comments! Yes, I have been to honeymoon beach before, and it is beautiful, but I just really enjoy Turtle. The water is more sparkly clear than any others on St. John, at least in my opinion. The snorkeling there is so easy and better than other beaches, again, my opinion. Plus, after all that snorkeling, you can then lay in a lounger to get motivated to do it all again. To answer your question about non-guests using their beaches other than honeymoon and the main caneel beach, that is a tricky question. Technically, all beaches are public and you are allowed to be on any of them up to the high tide line, which would mean you would have to arrive by dingy, since Caneel does not want people walking thru their property. Although, that said, I chit chatted with the trolley drivers at Caneel about my experience getting kicked out of Turtle beach in April because I was not a guest at the time. The drivers would just laugh saying that's silly and that they themselves don't know about that rule even and would see to it that I even had a towel next time. Interesting.
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joanybelle
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:09 am
- Location: SC
What a great report! Thanks for all the details and photos. I'm glad to hear I am not the only one who plans out all logistics to maximize my money and time. Then, when unexpected things arrise, say "to heck with it", and pull out the credit card. Why ruin precious vacation time? Money can be made up...time can't.
Great trip!
Great Report!
Great photos!
I love the way that you rescued the trip and even the kids that first day on VG. There is something to be said for having the ability to adapt and overcome adversity.
The most important thing you did, in my opinion, was to give those two young people some wonderful and long-lasting memories.
JIM
Great Report!
Great photos!
I love the way that you rescued the trip and even the kids that first day on VG. There is something to be said for having the ability to adapt and overcome adversity.
The most important thing you did, in my opinion, was to give those two young people some wonderful and long-lasting memories.
JIM
Man it's like some dream we live down here....
