First Visit Trip Report 1/10-1/17 Part 2
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:54 pm
After a day of hiking on Sunday, we hit Trunk Bay at 9 a.m. on Monday. This was the only place I'd ever been on STJ before via a cruise ship docked in 1999 in STT.
We snorkled and saw a lot of fish and lots of cool coral, but lying on the beach was chilly as it was quite shady in the morning. After a couple hours we headed North to Cinnamon and hung out there until early afternoon.
We went back to the villa and heated up left over Cafe Roma for lunch. We then packed up and headed to Caneel Bay. Yes, we were only at Caneel Trailside for the weekend -2 nights- as a deal had come along at Caneel Bay that was too good for me to pass up as I have always wanted to go there. It was book 4 nights, get the 5th night free plus breakfast included. We had booked Courtside as it was the only category available under this promotion, and were upgraded to beach front on Turtle Bay. I have never slept so close to the beach before, the waves were wonderful to listen to at night. We swam with a sting ray that afternoon.
We had reservations at La Tapa for jazz night but attended the Manager's cocktail party from 6 -7 and ate a lot of appetizers and drank a lot of champagne for "free" and then headed back to our room to finish off the complimetary bottle that was waiting for us in our room upon arrival. We called and canceled La Tapa and headed over to the Caneel bar where we played a mean game of checkers- neither one of us won, though, as a little girl came over and "helped" us play by wiping out the board!
The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and then kayaked from the beach at Caneel. We then hiked over to Salomon and snorkeled the point between Salomon and Honeymoon. We saw about as many fish and as much coral as we had at Trunk. We are used to snorkeling in Hawaii and there is sooo much more coral to see in STJ. We split a burger at the Caneel Grill to save $ and calories and then walked back to Turtle Bay where we sunned on the beach for the afternoon. We did not experience any bugs and were often out on the beach until sunset at 6 p.m. Dinner was grilled lobster at Morgan's Mango accompanied by some yummy vodka and lime juices.
After bfast the next morning, we drove Centerline and hiked the Reef Bay trail down and back. We enjoyed the hike and the little trail to the pool and petroglyphs where a small waterfall was flowing. We headed East on Centerline to Coral Bay out to Salt Pond where we checked out the beach and onto Lameshure (which we later realized we weren't supposed to drive to!) We ate lunch at Shipwreck Landing. Derek really enjoyed the fish and chips. I had looked at villas in Coral Bay, but for our first trip thought it would be good to stay on the Cruz Bay side and am glad we made that choice. We stopped at he smoothie truck and I got a banana smoothie with rum, which was delicious, but the girl at the truck talked on the phone the whole time she was making the smoothie, barely acknowledging us...We headed back North Shore road and went snorkeling at Scott Beach when we got back to Caneel. Saw my first turtle and another stingray, lots more coral and fish. Had another bottle of champagne that we bought at Dolphin Market while watching the sunset from Turtle Point. Dinner was at Rhumblines, which was our favorite restaurant of the trip (we never did make it to La Tapa). I had the tuna appetizer and Derek had the duck. For entrees, I had the ultimate pad thai and he had the tuna barely seared. This meal was excellent and I loved the intimate courtyard setting.
Thursday morning we hiked the Leinster Bay trail and snorkeled around Waterlemon Cay. We were hoping to see some big fish here but didn't see anything "exciting" except for several starfish, which were really cool. We enjoyed sunning on the rocks after snorkeling, hiked back and drove to Skinny Legs, which we discovered is NOT overrated. The burgers were delicious, the Presidentes ice cold and cheap, and we enjoyed talking to Moe, as we are runners and he had just returned from the Disney Wold half marathon. We also loved the chalk board, which listed Boston at -6 and STJ at 86 degrees-we picked a great week to be away...
I'll finish Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday, and our departure
on Saturday as well as some observations in Part 3. Thanks for reading!
We snorkled and saw a lot of fish and lots of cool coral, but lying on the beach was chilly as it was quite shady in the morning. After a couple hours we headed North to Cinnamon and hung out there until early afternoon.
We went back to the villa and heated up left over Cafe Roma for lunch. We then packed up and headed to Caneel Bay. Yes, we were only at Caneel Trailside for the weekend -2 nights- as a deal had come along at Caneel Bay that was too good for me to pass up as I have always wanted to go there. It was book 4 nights, get the 5th night free plus breakfast included. We had booked Courtside as it was the only category available under this promotion, and were upgraded to beach front on Turtle Bay. I have never slept so close to the beach before, the waves were wonderful to listen to at night. We swam with a sting ray that afternoon.
We had reservations at La Tapa for jazz night but attended the Manager's cocktail party from 6 -7 and ate a lot of appetizers and drank a lot of champagne for "free" and then headed back to our room to finish off the complimetary bottle that was waiting for us in our room upon arrival. We called and canceled La Tapa and headed over to the Caneel bar where we played a mean game of checkers- neither one of us won, though, as a little girl came over and "helped" us play by wiping out the board!
The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and then kayaked from the beach at Caneel. We then hiked over to Salomon and snorkeled the point between Salomon and Honeymoon. We saw about as many fish and as much coral as we had at Trunk. We are used to snorkeling in Hawaii and there is sooo much more coral to see in STJ. We split a burger at the Caneel Grill to save $ and calories and then walked back to Turtle Bay where we sunned on the beach for the afternoon. We did not experience any bugs and were often out on the beach until sunset at 6 p.m. Dinner was grilled lobster at Morgan's Mango accompanied by some yummy vodka and lime juices.
After bfast the next morning, we drove Centerline and hiked the Reef Bay trail down and back. We enjoyed the hike and the little trail to the pool and petroglyphs where a small waterfall was flowing. We headed East on Centerline to Coral Bay out to Salt Pond where we checked out the beach and onto Lameshure (which we later realized we weren't supposed to drive to!) We ate lunch at Shipwreck Landing. Derek really enjoyed the fish and chips. I had looked at villas in Coral Bay, but for our first trip thought it would be good to stay on the Cruz Bay side and am glad we made that choice. We stopped at he smoothie truck and I got a banana smoothie with rum, which was delicious, but the girl at the truck talked on the phone the whole time she was making the smoothie, barely acknowledging us...We headed back North Shore road and went snorkeling at Scott Beach when we got back to Caneel. Saw my first turtle and another stingray, lots more coral and fish. Had another bottle of champagne that we bought at Dolphin Market while watching the sunset from Turtle Point. Dinner was at Rhumblines, which was our favorite restaurant of the trip (we never did make it to La Tapa). I had the tuna appetizer and Derek had the duck. For entrees, I had the ultimate pad thai and he had the tuna barely seared. This meal was excellent and I loved the intimate courtyard setting.
Thursday morning we hiked the Leinster Bay trail and snorkeled around Waterlemon Cay. We were hoping to see some big fish here but didn't see anything "exciting" except for several starfish, which were really cool. We enjoyed sunning on the rocks after snorkeling, hiked back and drove to Skinny Legs, which we discovered is NOT overrated. The burgers were delicious, the Presidentes ice cold and cheap, and we enjoyed talking to Moe, as we are runners and he had just returned from the Disney Wold half marathon. We also loved the chalk board, which listed Boston at -6 and STJ at 86 degrees-we picked a great week to be away...
I'll finish Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday, and our departure
on Saturday as well as some observations in Part 3. Thanks for reading!
We are pretty lazy whil on STJ - we find one beach and pretty much hang there ALL day. With us it's all about the relaxing the limin'