USVI-On-Line

Being on STJ last week, I can tell you that the restaurants are alot less crowded then I have ever seen them. This does not mean there were less people on the Island, just there were not eating out. I also saw more people with coolers in the airport than ever before.

We spoke to quite a few locals that we have gotten to know over the years that told us they were leaving. It was very surprising. These were not newbies, they were old timers. It was sad to know that they wouldn't be there for our next trip but could certainly see the financial impact on them.

We eat out pretty much our entire trip. I don't like to cook and don't want to when I'm on vacation. Also, the grocery stores aren't cheap so by the time I buy all the food to make a meal just for the two of us, we already pent the same amount we would have at a restaurant.

This trip we took another couple. They unpacked their suitcase and to my surprise they had tons of food. They wanted to eat in and save the money. So, they ate in and we ate out - hehe. No cooking for me!

We eat breakfast in on vacation and lunches and dinners are almost always out. We always enjoy our meals out and I don't like to cook when I'm home so definitely not on vacation. For our upcoming trip, we will have 2 families with us so I'm not sure if that will change things. I think I'll be like Bug and if my friends want to stay in to cook, my husband and I will go out.

A typical day for us will be a bagel or muffin at Baked in the Sun or Deli Grotto. 1/4 of the time we'll grab a sandwich to go from one of those places for lunch and the other 3/4 we'll take snacks or sandwiches (with stuff purchased from the store) for lunch because we don't want to leave the beach. We haven't cooked dinner at the villa yet. We talked about it for this trip, but we all know that we won't want to actually do the cooking once we are in island mode. We all love to cook and spend frequent weekends cooking by the pool at home in the summer. We save money at home by eating in a lot so we have that money to use on vacation.

Dinner we eat out or we have a snack and drinks out and then take dinner home to our villa. We do want to enjoy our villa a bit more this trip since it's so nice, but we are planning to grab Cafe Roma and eat on the deck or BBQ. We often go home after the beach all day, have drinks and an appetizer at home and then go out for a dinner late that evening.

Like FF, there are a few restaurants that we would hate to see disappear. Most of ours aren't the high end places. We'll eat at La Tapa one night, but other than that, it'll be Shipwrecked, Banana Deck, Skinny Legs, Cafe Roma and probably Woody's. We frequent the restaurants, but not the expensive ones!

It's good to see everyones ideas on this topic!

We ate many meals in with our group of 10. So were we hurting the restaurants, or helping the grocers? We had to buy alot of stuff to feed 10 people for 10 days.

We did bring down a cooler full of steaks and fish. But that basically covered 2 dinners for our group, meat only. We still bought drinks, veggies, salad, bread...

Paying for a family, if we ate out every meal, we might travel less often, or we would spend less on excursions, tee shirts, etc. Like everyone is saying, it's all inter-related and everything is a trade off.

Maybe it was because we were on island during the holidays, but the restaurants were usually packed. We used reservations for those places that took them, or had long waits for those that didn't. Even when we went to Miss Lucy's and Aqua Bistro, where they had empty tables, we were told that we should have made a reservation. It was kind of like, "well, we'll make room for you if we have to" and not like they were dying for our business.

I think a drop off in restaurant traffic can also be tracked to the increasing numbers of upscale villas. If I'm spending big bucks for a luxury home, I might want to spend some time there at night. Especially for large groups, eating out can be a pain.

X, your friend might consider delivery service for groups that want to eat in but not necessarily cook. Seems like a good solution for big groups, especially with kids.

It is very interesting to see differnt thoughts on this.

We bring a small amount with us; Chicken, bacon, egg beaters, cheese, and salami.

The chicken is for dinner after we have been on our Jost trip. Afetr a full day of drinking on the water, I need to be home for dinner Leftovers make great chicken salad sandwiches for the beach the next day.
We tend to make breakfast at the house but will go out for 1 or 2. I like to lounge around with a cup (or 10) of coffee so breakfast at the villa fits the bill. The cheese and salami are for Happy Hour snacks at the villa before going out to dinner.

I like to eat out while I am on vacation. I cook 7 days a week at home and while I really enjoy it, I just don't want to do it every day on vacation. It is actually not so much the cooking as it is being waited on. It doesn't happen often at home so I take every advantage on vacation.

It can be very hard to make a living on St. John and I truly feel for the folks that have made it for so long only to find that after the island has progressed so far with deveopment that the economy is forcing them out. There is a price you pay to live in paradise and there is always a chance that the next season may be the one that forces you to make that decision.
Back in my rental manager days it was not uncommon to go to a house to clean it and find that other than the glasses and the coffee pot, not a single dish or pot was used. Those days, I am guessing, are few and far between.

X, this question got me thinking!

I realized after posting that before DH and I had kids, we ate out all the time on vacation. (Heck, we ate out about 5 days/week even when we were at home!)

So the restaurant thing is very different for us now. It's not the expense, but more because it's more fun for us to cook dinner at a villa or condo where we can all hang out and play our music and be loud and silly if we want to. Then we all relax over dessert and play games or cards or whatever. This is even more true when we travel with other families. (For breakfast and lunch, dining in a restaurant just takes too much time away from the beach for me.)

My guess is that families might opt to dine in more often than groups of just adults. But we spend more money on vacation than when we traveled as a couple.

Xislandgirl wrote:
I cook 7 days a week at home

Wow,where were you when I was dating?

chicagoans wrote: I realized after posting that before DH and I had kids, we ate out all the time on vacation. (Heck, we ate out about 5 days/week even when we were at home!)

For breakfast and lunch, dining in a restaurant just takes too much time away from the beach for me.)

We resemble this comment, to a T! Both the pre-kid eating out all the time and the too much time away from the beach.

MIke wrote:Xislandgirl wrote:
I cook 7 days a week at home

Wow,where were you when I was dating?

It is the curse of being raised in Irish Catholic house.

I think it is just Catholic.

We have our first trip coming at the end of May. As seasoned travellers we usually eat only 2 meals a day while away! I usually go food shopping the first morning where ever we are and buy practical things like eggs (so we can do eggs for breakfast or egg salad for lunch), bacon (same and do BLT's for lunch), you get the point! Noshies of course and liquor and beer are also bought on the island! All our dinners OUT!

This year we have absolutely NO business going on this vacation but I wanted to take Hubby away somewhere nice for his 50th b'day! I thought it would be nice to have a couple of romantic dinner(s) in the condo we are renting and eat out on the terrace...but he just rolled his eyes saying "oh come on we're on vacation, no cooking". Much to my surprise he wants to do lunches out also! OK by me!

So even though we are staying on STT, I like alot of the STJ restaurants that I've researched and will certainly be boosting your ecconomy that week. I only plan on going into CA 1 time to walk around and do some window shopping and grab a drink or two. I have no problem taking the ferry over just to eat as growing up in 2 different resort communities it is not uncommon for me (Long Island and Jersey Shore).

It is sad though especially since low season is starting. I've noticed some of our most popular restaurants here in NJ not being crowded at all also. Hard times for all businesses!

We usually stay at Lavender Hill and it's so easy to have dinner in town. I would say we go out for dinner 4 out of 5 days. Breakfast is always in, except for our WOW and lunch is a mix - usually food purchased on island and made to take to the beach. I don't want to leave the beach for anything - except perhaps shark sightings and men in speedos... or at least some men in speedos.


Random thoughts from my March trip: Zozo's was booked every night - we could not get in without a reservation. A friend mentioned that the more upscale restaurants were doing fine. I don't know if someone has already posed the question, but I wonder if there's a corresponding decrease in villa rentals this year and if so, if it's a comparable decline? It seemed like some of the agencies were listing discounted rentals and/or starting low season rates earlier this year?

After a a long day beaching or hiking and then drinks around the pool until sunset, cooking is the last thing I want to do.

We ate in our first night on St. John this year - beers, painkillers and most of the welcome basket. The kids weren't too thrilled...

bugblu98 wrote:
This trip we took another couple. They unpacked their suitcase and to my surprise they had tons of food. They wanted to eat in and save the money. So, they ate in and we ate out - hehe. No cooking for me!

Bug: This same thing happened when we brought another couple with us 2 years ago. We were carry-on only, so you can imagine my surprise when our dear friend pulls out crackers and cereal, spaghetti, a can of sauce.. a whole bunch of stuff. Whatever floats your boat, but personally, I would be pretty pissed if I injured my back on the way to St. John hauling 20 lbs of food to save $15 at the store.