USVI-On-Line

Sharing a villa with 7 other women will help.

But I was kind of wondering the same thing about 2009. I promised my daughter that I'd take her to STJ for her HS graduation present. I will be looking for a "shack" for us to stay in and will be cutting down every way I can. Maybe we will only rent a car for a few days and stay near Cruz Bay so we can walk to places and take taxis. We will see.

We also go the FF route. Fight to get the flights and then find the house. I lucked out for our friends and found them a $350 r/t nonstop from EWR when I booked last fall. That's a relic that should be saved.

We bring a cooler and shop the heck out of our one big day trip to save $$. We also adopt an "Eff it, it's StJ" mentality

Ask me how I plan to afford our 2010 trip when we finally bring our daughter along with us.

Ask me how we plan to ever afford a week-long trip to Disney.

And, I have gazillions of FF miles and hotel points...

It's nice living here in NC: I can get a lot places by driving that I could not when I lived in NJ.

After 2 trips in 2008, I will be looking to share that shack with sea-nile in 2009. More than likely we will visit family in GA and FL next year instead of going on a "big trip". It's all good. We will get back to STJ when "things" improve.

I just go with the mentality that you only live once, so do it while you can

Serioulsy, We have lost to many precious people in our lives unexpectedly so I am living for today.

We do the cooler thing & luckily are not big eaters, so it doen't take much food to fill us up. Now the booze is another story .

On our last three trips we stayed close to Cruz Bay & took taxi's & the bus to the beaches, it worked out very well & saved a fair amount of $$$ over renting a vehicle. Having said that, our last trip earlier this month we did rent a vehicle,which allowed us to stay out a little further, but there were also three couples. I will admitt it was a bonus having the vehicle.

Try to find a reasonable priced villa & flight.

Not go to St Thomas & shop LOL

The Shopper

One area that can save a lot of money is to not purchase beverages when dining out. We don't drink any alcohol so that alone saves money.
In 20 years I've never purchased an airline ticket, nor do I build up miles as a frequent flyer. We gets points using credit cards (always pay them off each month). Hefty incentive bonuses abound and we end up traveling for free and even get hotel stays free. It's a lot of work to keep up with a multi credit card schedule, but worth it if you're disciplined and have high credit scores. Already have free trip to St. John this year, South Pacific next year and back to St. John 2010.

[quote="sea-nile"]Sharing a villa with 7 other women will help.

I thought the same thing. Leave the spoiled kids and cranky husband at home and go with gals who really love the island as much as I do.

I feel we cut back as much as possible already. No ac, pool, and/or hot tub, is not an option for me. (OK.....yes, I am a bit spoiled.) But I can stay in a condo like Cruz Views and have ac and a pool and be happy. Although I wish they had washers and dryers, I have done without just fine. But if I'm going with my family of 4, that space is just not large enough.

Taking a taxi to the beach is very expensive and not worth the hassle for the little you save. Groceries are more than eating at Woody's or The BB, so cooking, unless you enjoy it, is not that big a savings. I guess skipping the excursions would be a big savings, along with using FF miles for tickets. I'm guessing mile requirements will go up along with ticket prices, meaning I'll get to purchase fewer tickets.

I like my first plan..........leave them at home and go with friends.

Leave the kid's and husbands at home...

Sounds good to me Cyp!

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Pia wrote:Maybe you could arrange to "puppy sit"/house sit for us so we can leave (although not sure how much of that we will be doing soon with the cost of A/F ) but I have to say "Auntie" LMG always gets first dibbs

Pia

Glad I didn't show up too late to agree.


As for how I'm going to pay for more trips... well, I have recently been looking at moving further east, which should help in airfare a little.
Tell me, potential employers, would this be a good answer to the classic interview question of "why do you want to work for this organization?"

LMG wrote: As for how I'm going to pay for more trips... well, I have recently been looking at moving further east, which should help in airfare a little.
Tell me, potential employers, would this be a good answer to the classic interview question of "why do you want to work for this organization?"

Sure! Just say that you want to be closer to "home".

Update...Booked out one way returns yesterday...combination of AA and US air. Don't usually like mixing, but inventory for my travel dates only just opened up and it's down to not much left and we have no flexability. Couldn't wait...the memory of the year (a few ago) that I waited and we ended up missing our April trip to the VI is still searing in my brain.

Now I am just gearing up to watch the reservations for schedule changes for the next 11 months...should be fun...I had to make quite a number of reservations...but at least I made the reservations before the winter heating bills come and we're locked in mentally. Can't change all these one way tickets! $150 change fee each on a $189 one way fare means that's not happening.

To make our trip affordable we decided to go without the kids and to share our villa with friends.

As someone else said, I think it can help alot to be flexible on when you fly too because airfare is a HUGE variable cost.

We work hard for our income, we're planning to enjoy a little of it regardless of our 401k growth (or lack there-of!)...

Pia wrote:Maybe you could arrange to "puppy sit"/house sit for us so we can leave (although not sure how much of that we will be doing soon with the cost of A/F ) but I have to say "Auntie" LMG always gets first dibbs

Pia

Keep me posted if you come stateside and need a puppy sitter.......I would love to take care of your little ones
I am headed there sometime in the fall but would come sooner if you need someone Pia.
of course LMG has dibbs..........

We both have good jobs also and thoroughly enjoy the caribbean. We have been to St. John 6 times and we're returning again in December. Thought about just doing less expensive trips this year but I just happened to check AA for airfares one day on a whim and found a direct flight out of JFK to St. Thomas for $318. It only took 5 minutes to change our minds and book it. We stayed in Peter Bay Gatehouse in December and loved the views on that side of the island so we booked a 3 bedroom villa in the Cinnamon Bay area, a little pricier than we originally planned, but we figure why not. We're definately worth it. We're also taking my son and his girlfriend, compliments of us, and introducing them to St. John for the first time. December can't come soon enough.

we book last minute with spirit air... they'll drop prices from chicago to $99 each way if you have the nerve to wait that long... then it's a scramble to book a place to stay (and a jeep). we like staying in a cottage at cinnamon bay campground. it's primitive, but it's right on the beach, and there's a nice social scene there. we've also stayed at concordia, which is very nice. we even tried bare site camping once ($30/nt) at cinnamon, but decided the $125/nt cottages were worth the money, just for the electric fan. we might try a villa someday.