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just back yesterday from STJ-trip report
just back yesterday from STJ-trip report
We just came back from a wonderful trip to STJ. We stayed at the Westin and rented a studio up on the hill with a beautiful view. We were happy there, the only complaint was that right in front of our door was a turnaround point for the shuttle which went back and forth every 15 minutes or so and went into late at night. Another minor complaint is that the TV is in the livingroom section and not in front of the bed. (I can't sleep without the TV being on, so it is my complaint, it would be fine for most.)
We did not have time to explore other islands but did a lot of off road 4 wheeling and snorkeling on StJ. We started to go down the decent of Bordeaux Mountain but chickened out, other than that we went everywhere.
We went snorkeling at Salt Pond and swam with a friendly turtle and then took the hike to Rams head. It was not a bad hike but very hot, but the top was worth it. I found though that after doing the hike, it was grueling to say the least to make it to the top of the pathway (washed out road) that takes you to your car at Salt Pond.
We followed the path behind Caneel Bay to Honeymoon and then headed off to snorkel at Trunk Bay. They had advisories up that day and when we got to the beach it was very choppy, not ideal for snorkeling at all. Cinnamon was the same so we went to the East end instead to sitesee. The people being dropped off (probably cruise ship passengers) were not happy with the conditions that day since it was their only shot.
Next day the water was much more calm and went to Trunk where we followed the trail and as we were finishing going from the trail to the other side, we looked up and a cruise ship must have dumped everyone off because it went from a few people to very crowded in 15 minutes. We left and went to Cinnamon which was great snorkeling, we snorkeled to the cay and had great snorkeling around the left side. Cinnamon was our favorite beach.
Next to the Annaberg ruins and then to Waterlemon. We thought we would enter further down from everyone else and found an entrance point with a ton of tiny sea urchins. Not a good plan. Someone found an octopus, I found a huge jellyfish which almost got me. It was choppy out to the Cay but beautiful Coral. If we did not have our patches on (Transderm Scope) we would have been a little seasick. I think the Coral out shone the fish. Someone met us as were were sitting on the cay and he was hanging onto the boey (sp?) and had a huge welt or rash or something which he said was from hanging on it. I did see 2 barracuda or at least it looked like them.
We did do the Reef Bay trail on our own and very glad we did. We made it down in about an hour. (we stopped to read the signs) and 1 1/4 hours straight up. We are both pretty physically fit but it was a challange. If I were to do it over, I would have gone straight down without reading anything and taken the time to read everything on the way up. When we got to the Plantation the roof was covered with bats!! Tons of them, yuk!! On the way up we did see the tour from the Park Dept and they were moving very very slow. Some women even had shoes with little heals on them. I am glad we went on our own, even if we had to go back up ourselves. On down to the beach we saw 2 little sharks but we were getting eaten alive with noseums!! Speaking of those little buggers....
I was eaten alive while I was there, my husband was not. I came home with over 50 bites. I flew home with someone who works for the Parks Dept. and she said it was a bad week for them. She said it was very dry and then it rained overnight and they all came out the next day. It really was the only negative for the visit and I had 3 kinds of spray I used and nothing helped.
We have been to Aruba, Hawaii (twice), Bahamas and Mexico and I would have to say this ranks up there with our favorite, Hawaii. Hawaii is more rainforesty, tropical and STJ has a bit of ARuba with the Cactus. Hawaii is more green, STJ has nicer water and beaches. STJ has a charm about it but if you hate the beach and to snorkel you may get bored. The town of Cruz Bay did intimidate us at first and even felt unsafe for the first night but then we felt safe as we realized the "locals" really didn't pay much attention to us either way. I was a little surprised at some of the restaurants that looked like nothing on the outside to be a really nice restaurant.
Restaurants- I must say that the food experience for us was pretty lackluster on the whole but that is only because we are not super adventurous with food in general. We really don't care much for seafood other than shrimp and salmon so it does limit our choices.
WE went to Miss Lucy's for Sunday brunch and while the food was good (I had the banana pancakes) I was expecting a little more "WOW".
Rhumblines - I had a great Salmon. My husband wasn't hungry and just got soup.
In general the food is good but with the price you pay it always left us feeling a bit like the price should have left us with "WOW" but it never really did.
Lunch buffet at Caneel - the food was pretty good for being a buffet and the dessert selection was good.
Skinny Legs - I had a great burger and my husband had a delicious chili dog.
Banana Deck - food was good, we were both happy with what we got (we went for Lunch)
Paradiso - I had speghetti and meatballs (boring I know) but it was very good and my husband was happy with his choice. They had a killer choc. cake too.
Panini Beach - OUr food was good but felt ripped off a little by the appetizer. $10 for to tiny tiny pieces of toast with chopped tomatoes.
Bakery above Starfish market. (sorry forget the name). WE had breakfast a few times there. Good and reasonable.
Cafe Roma - good food bargain for what you get
Morgans Mangoes - I wasn't feeling super good that night but my husband had filet with crabmeat and was his favorite meal.
Simple Feast - has a sign that it was closed for remodeling since August.
The Lime Inn - very good food, delicious french onion soup.
Fish Trap - My husband thought was he ordered was very dry and didn't care much for it. I had Salmon and it was good but I liked Rhumlines a little more.
We rented from Conrad Sutton and it was very convenient to leave the car in his lot. We were happy with our Jeep Wrangler and we liked Conrad.
We had a 4 hour direct flight from Philly, not a bad deal. The only complaint is that we had a flight that was leaving at 2:00 and the Westin told us to take the 9 am ferry and we didn't realize that once you get dropped off at the airport you have to stay with your luggage or check in and go to customs. In other words we sat in the airport from 10-2 and felt like if we could have gotton rid of our luggage we could have spend the time touring St. Thomas.
Please ask any questions as I am sure I forgot to mention a lot. We had a great time and would go back in a heartbeat! The island has something about it that you fall in love with. We left our 3 kids at home and I do believe that our vacation would have ended up different had we brought them and we could not have done as much exploring, snorkeling ect. Thanks everyone for their help!!
We did not have time to explore other islands but did a lot of off road 4 wheeling and snorkeling on StJ. We started to go down the decent of Bordeaux Mountain but chickened out, other than that we went everywhere.
We went snorkeling at Salt Pond and swam with a friendly turtle and then took the hike to Rams head. It was not a bad hike but very hot, but the top was worth it. I found though that after doing the hike, it was grueling to say the least to make it to the top of the pathway (washed out road) that takes you to your car at Salt Pond.
We followed the path behind Caneel Bay to Honeymoon and then headed off to snorkel at Trunk Bay. They had advisories up that day and when we got to the beach it was very choppy, not ideal for snorkeling at all. Cinnamon was the same so we went to the East end instead to sitesee. The people being dropped off (probably cruise ship passengers) were not happy with the conditions that day since it was their only shot.
Next day the water was much more calm and went to Trunk where we followed the trail and as we were finishing going from the trail to the other side, we looked up and a cruise ship must have dumped everyone off because it went from a few people to very crowded in 15 minutes. We left and went to Cinnamon which was great snorkeling, we snorkeled to the cay and had great snorkeling around the left side. Cinnamon was our favorite beach.
Next to the Annaberg ruins and then to Waterlemon. We thought we would enter further down from everyone else and found an entrance point with a ton of tiny sea urchins. Not a good plan. Someone found an octopus, I found a huge jellyfish which almost got me. It was choppy out to the Cay but beautiful Coral. If we did not have our patches on (Transderm Scope) we would have been a little seasick. I think the Coral out shone the fish. Someone met us as were were sitting on the cay and he was hanging onto the boey (sp?) and had a huge welt or rash or something which he said was from hanging on it. I did see 2 barracuda or at least it looked like them.
We did do the Reef Bay trail on our own and very glad we did. We made it down in about an hour. (we stopped to read the signs) and 1 1/4 hours straight up. We are both pretty physically fit but it was a challange. If I were to do it over, I would have gone straight down without reading anything and taken the time to read everything on the way up. When we got to the Plantation the roof was covered with bats!! Tons of them, yuk!! On the way up we did see the tour from the Park Dept and they were moving very very slow. Some women even had shoes with little heals on them. I am glad we went on our own, even if we had to go back up ourselves. On down to the beach we saw 2 little sharks but we were getting eaten alive with noseums!! Speaking of those little buggers....
I was eaten alive while I was there, my husband was not. I came home with over 50 bites. I flew home with someone who works for the Parks Dept. and she said it was a bad week for them. She said it was very dry and then it rained overnight and they all came out the next day. It really was the only negative for the visit and I had 3 kinds of spray I used and nothing helped.
We have been to Aruba, Hawaii (twice), Bahamas and Mexico and I would have to say this ranks up there with our favorite, Hawaii. Hawaii is more rainforesty, tropical and STJ has a bit of ARuba with the Cactus. Hawaii is more green, STJ has nicer water and beaches. STJ has a charm about it but if you hate the beach and to snorkel you may get bored. The town of Cruz Bay did intimidate us at first and even felt unsafe for the first night but then we felt safe as we realized the "locals" really didn't pay much attention to us either way. I was a little surprised at some of the restaurants that looked like nothing on the outside to be a really nice restaurant.
Restaurants- I must say that the food experience for us was pretty lackluster on the whole but that is only because we are not super adventurous with food in general. We really don't care much for seafood other than shrimp and salmon so it does limit our choices.
WE went to Miss Lucy's for Sunday brunch and while the food was good (I had the banana pancakes) I was expecting a little more "WOW".
Rhumblines - I had a great Salmon. My husband wasn't hungry and just got soup.
In general the food is good but with the price you pay it always left us feeling a bit like the price should have left us with "WOW" but it never really did.
Lunch buffet at Caneel - the food was pretty good for being a buffet and the dessert selection was good.
Skinny Legs - I had a great burger and my husband had a delicious chili dog.
Banana Deck - food was good, we were both happy with what we got (we went for Lunch)
Paradiso - I had speghetti and meatballs (boring I know) but it was very good and my husband was happy with his choice. They had a killer choc. cake too.
Panini Beach - OUr food was good but felt ripped off a little by the appetizer. $10 for to tiny tiny pieces of toast with chopped tomatoes.
Bakery above Starfish market. (sorry forget the name). WE had breakfast a few times there. Good and reasonable.
Cafe Roma - good food bargain for what you get
Morgans Mangoes - I wasn't feeling super good that night but my husband had filet with crabmeat and was his favorite meal.
Simple Feast - has a sign that it was closed for remodeling since August.
The Lime Inn - very good food, delicious french onion soup.
Fish Trap - My husband thought was he ordered was very dry and didn't care much for it. I had Salmon and it was good but I liked Rhumlines a little more.
We rented from Conrad Sutton and it was very convenient to leave the car in his lot. We were happy with our Jeep Wrangler and we liked Conrad.
We had a 4 hour direct flight from Philly, not a bad deal. The only complaint is that we had a flight that was leaving at 2:00 and the Westin told us to take the 9 am ferry and we didn't realize that once you get dropped off at the airport you have to stay with your luggage or check in and go to customs. In other words we sat in the airport from 10-2 and felt like if we could have gotton rid of our luggage we could have spend the time touring St. Thomas.
Please ask any questions as I am sure I forgot to mention a lot. We had a great time and would go back in a heartbeat! The island has something about it that you fall in love with. We left our 3 kids at home and I do believe that our vacation would have ended up different had we brought them and we could not have done as much exploring, snorkeling ect. Thanks everyone for their help!!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
I so agree with you about the walk back from Salt Pond! Why is it so easy to go down, out to Drunk Bay, and Ram Head, and back, and all of that is fine...
But man, that walk back to the car is such incredible torture!
I so agree with you about the walk back from Salt Pond! Why is it so easy to go down, out to Drunk Bay, and Ram Head, and back, and all of that is fine...
But man, that walk back to the car is such incredible torture!
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Thanks
thanks for the report!
your comment about the Reef Bay hike and the little heels made me laugh. When we did the hike, one family took the "bring a lunch and water" directions a little too far and literally carried several grocery bags along.
I think the speed of the guided hike depends on the ranger. When we went, the ranger raced down the trail, (our own little group is used to hiking the PA woods and consider ourselves to be fairly fit), leaving many of the collected group trailing behind.
your comment about the Reef Bay hike and the little heels made me laugh. When we did the hike, one family took the "bring a lunch and water" directions a little too far and literally carried several grocery bags along.
I think the speed of the guided hike depends on the ranger. When we went, the ranger raced down the trail, (our own little group is used to hiking the PA woods and consider ourselves to be fairly fit), leaving many of the collected group trailing behind.
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Bob & Anita
- Posts: 611
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 pm
- Location: Charlotte, NC
WE used Deet, I forget what percentage but the highest you can buy. It didn't work at all on me but my husband did not get bit. I came back on Saturday and here it is 3 days later and I have itchy welts everywhere. I am itching in the middle of the night too. I heard people talking at breakfast the day we were leaving that it was the worst they have seen in a long time.RickG wrote:Good review, it's nice to see things through fresh eyes. I'm curious what kind of bug spray you were using? The new Picaridin-based sprays seem to be working pretty well. I'm allergic to DEET...
Cheers, RickG
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Jan&MikeVa
- Posts: 1084
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:32 pm
- Location: The Chesapeake Bay