USVI-On-Line

Hello everyone, I just registered on this forum and this is my first post. I realize that this topic has been discussed a lot on this forum and I actually read a lot of previous posts last night, but I still have some questions.
I have been to St John once and I did rent a car from Cool Breeze. It was very expensive and it was the worst rental car I have ever had, even worse than rent a wreck. Broken mirrors, no wiper fluid, worn out brakes that squealed and didnt stop the car very quickly, and the worst thing was that the defogger did not work at all. I was irritated that they would fine us for sand in the car and we had to vacuum the car on return, but in my opinion the sand was the least of the problems with the torn up interior. I am very tempted to rent at STT and take the ferry over with the car. Thrifty says you can do this but if you have a problem with the car on St John they will not help you.
Has anyone had a car problem on St John and needed to find an independant car shop for a St. Thomas rental?
On another forum someone mentioned waiting 2.5 hours to get on the car ferry. We will be there on Easter week so this may be a problem for us with our Sunday departure.
Parking is less of an issue for us because we are staying closer to Coral bay and I dont plan to go to Cruz Bay alot but if we go it sounds like parking will be tight.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Jenni! Last time I checked, regular cars are indeed cheaper on STT. However, 4 wheel drives are about the same price. Probably more on STT if you figure in the cost of the ferry round trip. And I would not drive anything else. All you'd have to do to convince your self of that is to try to make it up a steep hill in the rain - sometimes a front wheel drive car will slip and slide and start to go backwards! I know it scared the - out of me, and I don't scare easy. Sometimes you really need 4WD. You could take a chance that it won't rain or that you won't have to go up any really steep hills.... but why? As a reccomendation, we've always had excellent vehicles and service from good ol' STJ Car Rental.

I, personally, am a total chicken when it comes to renting on STT and dealing w/ the car ferry. Many do it though & wouldn't consider doing otherwise.

The way I see it the big pro to renting on STT (other than possibly the price) would be the ability to just load it up with luggage and groceries and take the ferry over, thus eliminating the luggage dragging from the airport, to the taxi, to the ferry, off the ferry, to the car rental on STJ. That being said. . . I always have rented on STJ.

And I am with Genral ... I would NOT go w/o 4WD on StJ, esp. staying on the Coral Bay side. Just not worth it!

I agree with you about 4WD. I dont like those hairpin turns on steep grades without it, or the unpaved roads I will have to take to get to my rented villa. I got a price from Thrifty for a Jeep Liberty type SUV for 392 per week, which is a substantial savings even with the ferry charges, minus the taxi charges. I'm wondering given the financial incentive to rent from STT and the likelihood of getting a nicer car if it is really worth it to rent in St John.

Not sure if you are in or out of season but we are getting a 4WD jeep liberty from Conrad Suttons (he has his fans and his not fans but his cars are always in great shape and I've always had great experiences esp. w/ Carmen - the daughter I think).

But that's neither here nor there ... off season rates w/ him are $450/week or $75/day. The only thing not included is gas and $2/day car rental tax.

I am not sure how much the car ferry is but that will help you compare. I say if you are curious enough and brave enough, try the STT rental and then let us all know how it goes. I would be very interested to learn more.

Whichever way you go ... you'll end up on STJ so its all gonna be fine

The barge between St. Thomas and St. John can be a HUGE hassle if one or more of the barges aren't running, which does happen now and then. Or, if all the barges are running, it can be a breeze. Of course, there is no way to predict whether all the barges will be running when you're here or not.

jenni, There are several issues you need to consider if you have not already done so. Insurance, which was discussed here not long ago in as much as it pertains to collision and liability.Make certain company allows the take over to STJ. The break down issue is real but all the rentals I have had, on STT anyway are nearly new, less than 10,000 miles and sometimes the more miles the more "tested" the vehicle. I have never had longer than a 10-20 min wait for the ferry, boarding and departure. Timing I guess. One big advantage to me is the no taxi thing from the airport, luggage is done with untill arrival at villa and same holds true for return with flight time and luggage issues. With the luggage in the car your free to spend your last few hours wherever, STJ or STT. There is a nice beach, Lindberg Bay next to the Airport where you can Chill Away before the ultimate bummer. Leaving that is. Pros and Cons to both I guess like all other things. It will be interesting to see how you make out. Good Luck,

BOB

like bobcside, we too rent at airport for convenience. following are copies of my 2 recent posts on another board:

rented at stt airport 6 times and doing again for 1/19 arrival. cars first 4 trips and next 3 with 4 wd. cars did job most always but couldn't get to few places we wanted to see. but once bride had security of higher vehicle and no spinning tries or running starts as we approached peter bay, she insits we go 4 wheeling.
be sure you rent from company that permits cars to leave stt and there are risks. suggest you run search on the other 2 boards for the various comments including mine.

on ease of return:
what we do is leave stj mid morning, take the stt north drive, go to mt top for last look at stj from the observation deck there, if there are several cruise ships in ca, we avoid downtown by driving the west end road around stt to airport, pull in at bw emerald beach for lunch overlooking lindbergh bay, then to airport (final 60 sec drive). that way IF we encounter a missed barge, we drop a part of stt tour and still no rushing and worrying.

papabou

There are always trade-offs to this one. Since we always spend a few day(s) on STT at the end of our trip, we always rent on STT. Like Flip Flop said, it’s nice to load up the Jeep and go. As for the barge – I guess we’ve been lucky and have always got on with out a long wait. If your planning on staying on STT at all – even if it’s a day – I would rent on STT. So much easier to get to the airport.

Jenni, we had an uneventful experience using Thrifty on STT (last June), the best kind. As others are saying, we did it this way for ease of luggage handling and also for the flexibility it gave us on our travel day out. We had a Jeep Liberty with c. 5000 miles, in good shape, and had no problems. The car ferry when we were there was prompt, in fact we just drove right up and on; when leaving STJ we had maybe a 10 min. wait. I think it's the way to go, though I certainly respect the decision to rent on STJ, which has its own simplicity.

Robin

Thanks again to all who have given advice, this is such an active and helpful online community.

One other thing that I noticed about St. John small rental companies is that the insurance that they offer has a 1500 dollar deductible, and that they want you to pay for damages before leaving the island. Even if my CDW or my auto policy covers some or all of that first 1500 dollars I might have trouble making that claim if I have to pay it up front. I am going to check with Thrifty to see if purchasing the insurance works like it does in the states where everything is covered if you pay for the CDW. I am still nervous about the prospect of dealing with a car problem on St. John not supported at all by the rental agency on Stt.

>>>>Probably more on STT if you figure in the cost of the ferry round trip.

Actually, the car ferry is often the cheaper option...by the time you add up the cost of a taxi to the ferry station and the people ferry cost, it can be quite a bit more than the car ferry, since everyone rides for one price on the car ferry.

For example, Love City Car Ferries charges $40 for a round-trip. The people ferry out of Charlotte Amalie is $10 per person...so if you have two people, you're already up to $40 for a round-trip (and that doesn't include the taxi fare that it took you to get to the ferry dock or what they charge you for baggage on the ferry). The people ferry out of Red Hook is only $5 per person (so $20 rountrip for 2 people), but the taxi fare to get there is higher...definitely more than $20, which would put you over the $40 Love City Car Ferries charges.

The renting a car on STJ versus STT is a question that gets asked quite a bit on this forum; in fact we were asking the same question ourselves a couple of years ago. There are opinions (sometimes strong) for both ways; our preference is for renting on STT for the following reasons:
1) A lot less baggage handling – the car rental company (Dependable) picked us up at the airport and loaded our bags into our rental car. The next time we touched the bags was unloading them at the villa,
2) Avoid the whole taxi thing and its associated costs,
3) Avoid the bag handlers/handling at the passenger ferry and the associate cost and tipping,
4) We buy most of our groceries for the week on STT on the way to Red Hook from the airport at lower cost then STJ; same with the booze,
5) When we drove off the barge, our villa rep was right there and we kept driving straight to the villa; we never stopped rolling,
6) Some STT car rental companies (such as Dependable) have no issues with the top being removed from the jeeps, unlike the STJ companies. If fact, Dependable evens boast it as one of their features, and
7) Flexibility when returning to St Thomas to drive around, find a lunch spot, etc, before returning the car and flying home.

Some of the positives on renting on STJ are:
1) Some companies will let you use their lots when parking in Cruz Bay (we never experienced a parking problem in Cruz when we went in June, but some note it as an issue during the high season),
2) It is easier to get your STJ based car fixed if you have an issue. We consider this possibility remote and willing take the risk. I’ve been driving for 35 years, have rented many cars and never had a breakdown while driving.
3) Some people have noted the difficulty in dealing with car barges (lines, getting on), but we found the whole barge loading (backing on) and unloading to be very easy. The hardest thing was finding the Red Hook car barge location off the main road.
4) Passenger Ferries run later; so if you have a late flight or if your flight is delayed, then you might not be able to get your vehicle across if you rent on STT, but some of the STJ rentals can make arrangements for late vehicle pick-up.
5) You generally will have more time on the day you return to STT. This is because you have to allow for more time (1 hour) if you are taking the car barge.

As far a costs go, we believe the costs for two people are fairly equivalent whether you rent on STT or STJ. Renting on STJ you have the costs of 1) the taxi, with tip, from the airport to the dock and then back again, 2) ferry bag handling fees & tips, 3) passenger ferry fare, 4) possible taxi on STJ to the car rental company and 5) higher car rental rates on STJ. Renting on STT you have a 1) lower car rental rate, 2) higher ferry cost with the car barge, and 3) some possible savings if you purchase food/booze on STT. The cost of renting on STJ goes up with the more people in your party since the taxi, passenger ferry, baggage handling fees & associated tips will all be based on the number of people/bags. Renting on STT stays the same since the car barge is the same cost regardless of how many people are in the car.

We rented twince now from Dependable Car Rental, as mentioned above. They were very nice and helpful throughout the whole process – reservations, instructions, picking us up at the airport, rental paperwork, directions, maps, car return and taking us back to the airport. You avoid the airport tax with Dependable since they are just off of the airport property.

If you use the car barge you have the option of purchasing a one-way ticket or round-trip ticket. The one-way gives you flexibility on which car barge company to take back. A round-trip ticket will be less expensive, but will restrict which barge you can take. A two of the barge companies (3 in total) use to except each others tickets, they still may. The loading area and process is the same no matter which company you use – it’s just whichever one is at the dock and available to drive onto.

Great advise, Bob & Anita! Love your photo albums as well.