USVI-On-Line

St John on less than $500/wk (no plasma donation or dumpster diving required)


Disclaimer! The story below is not for all and is not an anti Villa, Caneel, Westin or Gallows rant. We will return to more traditional STJ vacations in the future. If you love STJ, but are thinking about skipping a trip because things might be tight financially right now, the story below may be for you.


This all started as a friendly bet with my wife that went something like this back in mid 2008.

Husband: We need to book a 2009 trip to STJ
Wife: It's the worst economy since the great depression
Husband: Things don't look that bad to me, let's do a camping trip as a compromise
Wife: I'm not a camper and you will still spend to much just camping
Husband: I can do a solo camping trip for under $500 (using frequent flyers on USAir)
Wife: I'll bet you can't.......


GAME ON! I love my wife and we have had many friendly bets over the years. This one was going to be the most fun winning. We normally stay at Gallows Point http://www.gallowspointresort.com/ and spend about $4,000 per week for the two of us. I made a quick mental list of my favorite things to do on STJ and realized that most of them are free or would cost less than $30 per person. We usually don't rent a car for a full week because we like to hike the North Shore trails and find hitch hiking to be fun and easy.

In order to stay below $500 for a solo trip, I came up with the budget shown below.


Plan
$30/day x 7days = $210 for bare camping site @ Cinnamon Bay http://www.cinnamonbay.com/
$30/day x 7days = $210 for food
$10/day x 7days = $70 transportation & misc
$70/day x 7days = $490/wk TOTAL


To pull this plan off would require four main cost saving measures:

1) Frequent Flyer ticket - Easy, most airlines offer 25,000 miles just for signing up for a new card. Trips to STT require 30,000 miles if you do a little work and find mid week dates.

2) Sleeping in a tent - Fun for me, I do a lot of backpacking and motorcycle camping in the Smokies and along the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC. Tents and air mattresses have come a long way in the past 20 years. Part of why I am writing this up is to encourage people to "step out" and try something new. Check out ThermaRest's web site http://www.thermarest.com/ . I used a ProLite 4L mattress and a medium Compressible Pillow. No sleeping bag, just a light sheet. PM me if you want more details. I would be happy to help get you set up with the basic equipment.

3) Large meal for lunch, small meal for dinner - Doctor recommended for me, 25 year as a white collar salve for Mega Corp has given me the early stages of a stomach ulcer and GERD. I brought a box of LIFE cereal, qt bag of dried fruit and a qt bag of cashews. I planned for three lunches at Caneel. Caneel's cold buffet (11:30 to 2:00) is one of my favorite meals on the planet. At $23 + $4 tip this would work in my budget if I had cereal in the morning and fruit or nuts at night. More details on food if you want them. Don't let the Caneel name scare you away. They welcome day guests for meals or the bar. Just put on a clean collared Polo shirt and some nice shorts and sandals and you will look like all the other anesthelogists and CEO's that are staying there.

4) Hitch Hiking - This is always fun, made myself a "hobo sign" this time. In 4" block letters on one side I printed "CINNAMON" and on the other side I printed "CRUZ BAY". Worked like a charm. As mentioned to all 15 people who picked me up during my week, I want to formally say THANK YOU! First names only listed below:

Evan, Kurt, Sherry, Kiswit, Freddy, Bill & Becky, Jan*, Lina, Tony, Diana**, Jim, Noreen, Mark, Oriel, John & Sue

* friendly and knowledgeable Real Estate Agent @ Holiday Homes

** IMHO the best Real Estate Professional on St John (Owner of ReMax in Cruz Bay - 340.775.0949)
watch for Diana's upcoming TV debut on House Hunters Intl (no air date yet):
http://stjohnsuntimes.com/house-hunters-virgin-islands


How did it turn out? Better than expected. My total spend was $444.60. This included unexciting things like $15 to USAir to schedule my free Frequent Flyer ticket, Taxis on STT to and from the airport and a 1/2 price $10 T-shirt from the store at Gallows Point. Great snorkeling and hiking. Always good people. Great views of turquoise blue water from so many lush green vantage points. Snorkeled from Cinnamon to Trunk for a Cheese Burger lunch one day. Four hours round trip!

If my wife would have joined me on a FF ticket, our per person cost would have been just over $350 because we would be able to split the Cinnamon camp site cost.

Was this as good as staying at Gallows or Caneel? No. Was it 85 to 90% as good? Probably. So much of what I / we do on STJ is in the water or away from where we stay. As long as I get a good night sleep, I'm ready for a full day of outside activity. Cinnamon Bay camp ground http://www.cinnamonbay.com/ (I used a bare site, bring your own tent) was fantastic for a base camp. Nice people, great beach, easy access to North Shore Rd. They will rent you a tent or a small cottage if you want...that's no way to win a bet.

Again, this story is not meant to try to get us all to revert to tent sleeping hippies from the 60's & 70's. I just wanted to share my unique STJ experience with those that might think STJ has become to pricy or that these crazy economic times should prevent us from finding a way to do the things we Love.


Peace (from a clean cut Mega Corp guy), Scott

You are right up my alley!I spent most of my camping trips as a child in the Smokey Mnts.And yes we alway's used a tent.We even hiked trails and slept on the ground with only a sleeping bag and no tent.We could have been bear food!So I most certainly could camp at Cinnamon with out a problem at all,but my wife..Im' not so sure.Great post!Parafins...

Loved your story! I am not a camper, but you sure make it sound interesting and more of an adventure than I would have thought. My kids would love trying something like this. Thanks for a giving me a different perspective.

Thanks. Great report. I'd do it and may have to in 2010. Any takers for a SOTB roughing it trip?

great report!

I just wish i could do this with kids and husband--when there is more than one hitchhiking sometimes becomes an issue (to say NOTHING of 4!)
unfortunately, we have a large bathroom repair job we have to undertake and both kids need braces and just had to replace a catalytic converter.....so there goes my hoped for spring trip

Great report and very helpful for us budget conscious folks. Thanks!

I was psyched to see the link about the House Hunters International in St. John! That is one of my and my husband's favorite shows, and we've always wondered if they'd go down to the USVI.

Every time we're at Cinnamon, I mention all the money we could be saving...

Then, I remember a line Jimmy Buffett used in A Pirate Looks at 50 (which I will bungle).

Essentially, he's fine doing anything during the day; hiking, swimming, getting dirty, but at night...we wants a bed, clean sheets, A/C (or heat) and a glass of wine.

I also am reminded that one in our group was in the Army and refuses to ever camp again, one hates camping, one recalls many cold, wet nights in a leaky tent (me) and the other has the ability to withold "happy fun vacation time" from me (the wife, by he way).

I'm hoping to get to StJ in April and save $$. this will include somehow getting into an unused Westin timeshare...and a lot of luck

What a great way to mix things up and have an interesting vacation!

I grew up doing stuff like that, although the camping stopped when my mom remarried. Later, my step-dad hauled us all over the place, travelling very frugally while sit enjoying the destination and culture.

Bravo! Our next trip is going to be low budget, but I'd have to go solo to do a baresite.

Cheers, RickG

Wow nicely done. I am very impressed.

Nice post-my husband's been after me to stay at Cinnamon-I don't think I could do the bare sites-maybe the cottages.... Sounds like you had fun!

I just want to say how refreshing this was to read. I write irate responses every day to threads about air conditioning, swimming pools, rental cars...I almost never post them. I just deleted a tirade about Peter Bay, because I doubt if I could change anybody's mind, even with my mega-decades of St. John senority.
Thanks!

Thanks for all the great feedback. The trip was actually very fun.

Rick,

Cinnamon actually allows 2 small tents per bare site:
http://www.cinnamonbay.com/baresites.html
"Baresites fit one large tent or two smaller tents and include picnic table and charcoal grill.
Campers are responsible for their own tent, bedding, towels and cooking utensils.
Select camping equipment is available for rental. Please inquire at the Front Desk."

Solo on a bare site with a small tent left plenty of room for a second small tent.

Also forgot to include the link for this very cool tent fan I found. I did some summer camping on STJ back in 2005 and would have loved to have had this: http://www.target.com/O-2-Cool-Canopy-T ... B0018EGJNE

O2Cool fan worked great. The base of the fan has several small magnets and is positioned inside the tent "ceiling" (upside down from the picture shown). A 5" diameter circular plastic plate with a smaller piece of metal formed into this circular plastic plate gets located outside the tent directly above the magnets on the fan and you end up with a universal clamp (tent material clamped between magnets and plate) that can be used on almost any tent and be positioned where ever it works best for you.

Scott

That is Awesome. Thanks for letting us in on it. Now back to my high budget villa shopping.

Scott- I loved your story. I have spent many nites in a baresite at Cinnamon and LOVED them all. I don't have a great travel partner to do this with anymore and its a shame. Some of the island experience is lost in the mega-villa lifestyle, I think.

Thanks for bringing back the memories! One day, I will be taking my tent back to Cinnamon!