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Trip Report 6/26/10 - 07/3/10
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yourtheexpert
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:05 pm
- Location: St John
Trip Report 6/26/10 - 07/3/10
My beautiful, darling and patient SO wrote out a trip report for you all to read. Barracuda videos at the end.
We are a family of three (two adults, 32m 36f and one child 11m) from Atlanta who just had our first visit on St John. What an amazing place. We arrived Saturday, June 26 late afternoon, took a taxi to the red hook ferry (make sure you ask your taxi driver if the AC is working in the van BEFORE you pack in with 7 other people). We arrived on St John and met our greeter from Cimarron Property Management and walked from the ferry to Denzil Clyne car rental. They had our rental ready and waiting and were friendly and efficient. It probably took all of 5 minutes for us to be on our way at 4pm. We followed our greeter from Cimarron to our villa in Coral Bay, well actually John's Folly a bit past Coral Bay. On the way we got adjusted to the left side driving and the roads. It was pretty easy to remember to stay left and the roads are actually really fun to drive. Arrived at our villa Coral Moon, gorgeous views, amenities were fine, nothing fancy but we’re not too high maintenance. We were supplied with LOTS of snorkel gear already at the villa, so that was really great not having to rent gear.
Here are the beaches/hikes/snorkels we did in the order that I can remember them:
Salt Pond Bay – The hike is around .3 mi not tough, beach is gorgeous and sandy. It was a great first snorkel for us; we are all pretty strong swimmers but it was calm and perfect for us to get acclimated. We went very early on Sunday around 8 am. No one was there. We left around noon and there were probably 6 other people there by then, but as we rode by the trail head on the way to other adventures during the week, we noticed it was more and more packed as the days went on, not sure if that's Carnival related or normal for low season but at one point there were probably 20 jeeps parked there which seemed like a lot for so far out on the Island (but what do I know lol).
Blue Cobblestone - Later in the day we went back to Salt Pond and hiked past it to get to Blue Cobblestone (which is about 2/3 of the hike to Ram's Head?) I think it was about a .6 mi hike one-way. We didn't end up actually snorkeling here, it was quite choppy and we decided we hadn't had enough time in the water to maneuver it quite yet. We had the best of intentions to go back another day but didn't make it so this is on my to do for next trip. The blue cobblestones were gorgeous and the closer you got to the water, the tinier and more sand like the small stones got. We also could see Ram's Head from here and decided we would hike that when we returned as well (which my SO actually did on the last day and said it was epic. I was too exhausted by then lol.
Haulover Bay South/North – These snorkels are out on the East End. It only took us about 10 minutes to get here from Coral Bay, but what a gorgeous drive. We did South side first. The water here was probably the bluest we saw while in St John, breathtaking. The snorkel on the south side was very easy and pretty, nothing too exciting. The North side of Haulover Bay is supposed to be amazing but it was pretty choppy out there and we decided against it. We hiked out further east over a little rock scramble to an unnamed? sandy beach and did a little snorkeling in calmer waters, lots of fry, massive moving clouds everywhere, really cool.
Waterlemon Cay – The hike out is about a mile one way but very shady, easy and flat. Take bug spray, we were trying outrun the skeeters on the hike back. We meandered off the trail a bit to see some of the sugar mill ruins and we ended up all dropping our gear and dancing around trying not to get bitten while we scrambled to find the bug spray and recoat. This is probably a good time as any to say we used the local citronella spray (deet free, forgot the name but small white spray bottle with a colorful label) and it worked really well. It was next to the OFF and all the other toxic wonders in every store we went in on St John so not hard to find. The swim out to Waterlemon Cay was easy, and there were lots of cool things to see all around the cay, lots of massive sea urchin colonies. From lurking on the forum, and reading up before our trip, I think our expectations of Waterlemon were a bit high, it was cool for sure, but not nearly one of our favorite snorkels.
Donkey Bight/Tektite Snorkel – This snorkel was epic. We hiked from Great Lameshur Bay to Donkey Bight, about a quarter mile hike/rock scramble that was really exciting and just technical enough to get the heart pumping. We saw the Auquanaut platforms on the hike, really cool, I had never heard of the Tektite Project before our trip so it was another bit of history we enjoyed reading about. We entered the water from the coral rubble/partially sandy and totally deserted beach. It was gorgeous in its own right; snorkeled around beehive cove, saw lots of different fish, corals, etc. The epic part of this snorkel was the size of the rooms and tunnels. They are just massive and amazing. We did a lot of diving here too and got to see strange unknown (to us) creatures in the deeper parts. I have no idea how long we were in the water but at least a couple of hours so make sure to sunscreen your bum and the back of your legs really well before this snorkel lol. This ended up being one of our favorites.
Yawzi Point – We hiked from Lil Lameshur (again deserted and gorgeous) to Yawzi Point. Fair warning, this trail is pretty overgrown, easy enough to find and navigate, but you will have to walk through some really tall grasses and should read up before you go to make sure you don’t miss the Yawzi entrance. We did a bit of extra curricular scouting and rock scrambling before we got in. The water was somewhat choppy but we decided to give it a go anyway. It was fine for us, but we were much more conscious of where we were and where each other was for this snorkel and made sure not to get to close to the pounding waves on the shore and rocks. If you aren’t a strong swimmer I wouldn’t suggest this snorkel unless the water is really calm. Saw lots of large fish on this one, a huge barracuda, and massive corals and did a bit of diving here as well to see some truly strange things hiding under the rocks. Not my favorite due to the currents but well worth the effort.
Cinnamon Bay – By day 5, I felt obligated to venture out to a north shore beach to see what all the fuss was about. We drove into Cruz Bay to pick up a few supplies and took North Shore past Hawksnest, Trunk Bay (picture perfect) and Peter Bay to Cinnamon. The campsite was really cool and well maintained. The beach wasn’t that crowded and really beautiful. We hiked over to Little Cinnamon (totally deserted) and hung out on the beach, snorkeled out to try and find the Cesna (my 11 year old really wanted to see this) and saw a whole bunch of stingrays. We enjoyed just chillin on the sandy beach and eventually hiked back over to Cinnamon and chatted up a few of the campers and had a great time.
Hansen Bay/Long Bay/Pelican Point – We saved the best for last. This snorkel is about as far out on the East End as you can go and according to what we read about it before we went, suffers from an identity crisis (thus the 3 names in the title). It also wasn’t listed in very many of the snorkel guides at all. Somehow anyway there were about 4 other jeeps at the entrance (no hike to get to Hansen Bay beach). The snorkeling here was not difficult. We saw more color and life out around Pelican point than anywhere else we had been. It was breathtaking. We spent the entire day here. I will post a link below to the at least 4 ft barracuda video and pics from our trip below. The video and most of the pics are from this snorkel, partly because there was so much to see, but mostly because my underwater photography skills were better honed by the end of the week. The most exciting part was on our way back from Pelican Point, we snorkeled in the middle of Hansen Bay over the seagrasses and saw two nurse sharks heading out from shore, one was about 5 1/2 feet and then a smaller one probably about 4 feet. Sharks are so cool. My camera was turned off but I managed to get it back on in time to fire off one shot, and got a blurry pic of one and a half sharks lol. I would suggest this snorkel for anyone; it was our hands down favorite.
Last day was bittersweet. We took a lot of pics on the way back to Cruz Bay of the donkeys, sheep, goats, etc. Went and filled up at the gas station and dropped our jeep back off at Denzil Clyne, again very easy and took less than 5 minutes. We were afraid after reading of other experiences that they were going to hassle us about sand in the car but not at all. They were like no problem, we know you can’t help to get some in it, we just don’t like it when people don’t even attempt to clean out bucketfuls. Haha. Ate a bit of lunch somewhere in Cruz Bay (I forgot the name) and then caught the ferry. Took a taxi from the Red Hook ferry to the airport which took about 30 minutes but air conditioned this time. Got to the airport to extremely long lines of people waiting to get through customs. The airport is so disorganized. I wished we had noticed earlier that people were giving cash to the porters to cut the lines? At least that’s what we thought was happening, I would try that next time for sure but by then, we were all firmly on island time and were like, whatever….we’ll wait an hour to get through the line, no problem mon. Flight was 3 hrs 26 minutes back to Atlanta.
Let’s see what am I forgetting? We ate all but 3 meals at the villa. We had two lunches at Skinny Legs. They had great burgers and the staff was very friendly. My son asked one of the servers if he could try to catch a chicken. She told him yes and that if he could catch one she would give him a free root beer. He tried really hard unsuccessfully but came really close. At one point, the chicken ran into the kitchen and jumped on the cook’s back. We heard a high-pitched scream and everyone had a good laugh at the cook’s expense. Only other meal out was in Cruz Bay right before we caught the ferry. We shopped for groceries for the week at Starfish, and while it was really expensive, they had a good selection and it was still WAY cheaper than eating out all week. We’re not really foodies though so it definitely wasn’t a priority to us by any stretch for our week on St. John.
I’ve posted links below to some pics, a video of a school of blue tang and huge barracuda, and a really cool driving video out to the East end. Enjoy. Thanks for all the advice. I lurked A LOT here before our trip, and all the info was invaluable to us while planning our trip. St. John is an unmatched paradise to those who are willing to work a little for it. We will definitely be back.
Baracuda & Blue Tang
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The Drive to the end of East End:
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We are a family of three (two adults, 32m 36f and one child 11m) from Atlanta who just had our first visit on St John. What an amazing place. We arrived Saturday, June 26 late afternoon, took a taxi to the red hook ferry (make sure you ask your taxi driver if the AC is working in the van BEFORE you pack in with 7 other people). We arrived on St John and met our greeter from Cimarron Property Management and walked from the ferry to Denzil Clyne car rental. They had our rental ready and waiting and were friendly and efficient. It probably took all of 5 minutes for us to be on our way at 4pm. We followed our greeter from Cimarron to our villa in Coral Bay, well actually John's Folly a bit past Coral Bay. On the way we got adjusted to the left side driving and the roads. It was pretty easy to remember to stay left and the roads are actually really fun to drive. Arrived at our villa Coral Moon, gorgeous views, amenities were fine, nothing fancy but we’re not too high maintenance. We were supplied with LOTS of snorkel gear already at the villa, so that was really great not having to rent gear.
Here are the beaches/hikes/snorkels we did in the order that I can remember them:
Salt Pond Bay – The hike is around .3 mi not tough, beach is gorgeous and sandy. It was a great first snorkel for us; we are all pretty strong swimmers but it was calm and perfect for us to get acclimated. We went very early on Sunday around 8 am. No one was there. We left around noon and there were probably 6 other people there by then, but as we rode by the trail head on the way to other adventures during the week, we noticed it was more and more packed as the days went on, not sure if that's Carnival related or normal for low season but at one point there were probably 20 jeeps parked there which seemed like a lot for so far out on the Island (but what do I know lol).
Blue Cobblestone - Later in the day we went back to Salt Pond and hiked past it to get to Blue Cobblestone (which is about 2/3 of the hike to Ram's Head?) I think it was about a .6 mi hike one-way. We didn't end up actually snorkeling here, it was quite choppy and we decided we hadn't had enough time in the water to maneuver it quite yet. We had the best of intentions to go back another day but didn't make it so this is on my to do for next trip. The blue cobblestones were gorgeous and the closer you got to the water, the tinier and more sand like the small stones got. We also could see Ram's Head from here and decided we would hike that when we returned as well (which my SO actually did on the last day and said it was epic. I was too exhausted by then lol.
Haulover Bay South/North – These snorkels are out on the East End. It only took us about 10 minutes to get here from Coral Bay, but what a gorgeous drive. We did South side first. The water here was probably the bluest we saw while in St John, breathtaking. The snorkel on the south side was very easy and pretty, nothing too exciting. The North side of Haulover Bay is supposed to be amazing but it was pretty choppy out there and we decided against it. We hiked out further east over a little rock scramble to an unnamed? sandy beach and did a little snorkeling in calmer waters, lots of fry, massive moving clouds everywhere, really cool.
Waterlemon Cay – The hike out is about a mile one way but very shady, easy and flat. Take bug spray, we were trying outrun the skeeters on the hike back. We meandered off the trail a bit to see some of the sugar mill ruins and we ended up all dropping our gear and dancing around trying not to get bitten while we scrambled to find the bug spray and recoat. This is probably a good time as any to say we used the local citronella spray (deet free, forgot the name but small white spray bottle with a colorful label) and it worked really well. It was next to the OFF and all the other toxic wonders in every store we went in on St John so not hard to find. The swim out to Waterlemon Cay was easy, and there were lots of cool things to see all around the cay, lots of massive sea urchin colonies. From lurking on the forum, and reading up before our trip, I think our expectations of Waterlemon were a bit high, it was cool for sure, but not nearly one of our favorite snorkels.
Donkey Bight/Tektite Snorkel – This snorkel was epic. We hiked from Great Lameshur Bay to Donkey Bight, about a quarter mile hike/rock scramble that was really exciting and just technical enough to get the heart pumping. We saw the Auquanaut platforms on the hike, really cool, I had never heard of the Tektite Project before our trip so it was another bit of history we enjoyed reading about. We entered the water from the coral rubble/partially sandy and totally deserted beach. It was gorgeous in its own right; snorkeled around beehive cove, saw lots of different fish, corals, etc. The epic part of this snorkel was the size of the rooms and tunnels. They are just massive and amazing. We did a lot of diving here too and got to see strange unknown (to us) creatures in the deeper parts. I have no idea how long we were in the water but at least a couple of hours so make sure to sunscreen your bum and the back of your legs really well before this snorkel lol. This ended up being one of our favorites.
Yawzi Point – We hiked from Lil Lameshur (again deserted and gorgeous) to Yawzi Point. Fair warning, this trail is pretty overgrown, easy enough to find and navigate, but you will have to walk through some really tall grasses and should read up before you go to make sure you don’t miss the Yawzi entrance. We did a bit of extra curricular scouting and rock scrambling before we got in. The water was somewhat choppy but we decided to give it a go anyway. It was fine for us, but we were much more conscious of where we were and where each other was for this snorkel and made sure not to get to close to the pounding waves on the shore and rocks. If you aren’t a strong swimmer I wouldn’t suggest this snorkel unless the water is really calm. Saw lots of large fish on this one, a huge barracuda, and massive corals and did a bit of diving here as well to see some truly strange things hiding under the rocks. Not my favorite due to the currents but well worth the effort.
Cinnamon Bay – By day 5, I felt obligated to venture out to a north shore beach to see what all the fuss was about. We drove into Cruz Bay to pick up a few supplies and took North Shore past Hawksnest, Trunk Bay (picture perfect) and Peter Bay to Cinnamon. The campsite was really cool and well maintained. The beach wasn’t that crowded and really beautiful. We hiked over to Little Cinnamon (totally deserted) and hung out on the beach, snorkeled out to try and find the Cesna (my 11 year old really wanted to see this) and saw a whole bunch of stingrays. We enjoyed just chillin on the sandy beach and eventually hiked back over to Cinnamon and chatted up a few of the campers and had a great time.
Hansen Bay/Long Bay/Pelican Point – We saved the best for last. This snorkel is about as far out on the East End as you can go and according to what we read about it before we went, suffers from an identity crisis (thus the 3 names in the title). It also wasn’t listed in very many of the snorkel guides at all. Somehow anyway there were about 4 other jeeps at the entrance (no hike to get to Hansen Bay beach). The snorkeling here was not difficult. We saw more color and life out around Pelican point than anywhere else we had been. It was breathtaking. We spent the entire day here. I will post a link below to the at least 4 ft barracuda video and pics from our trip below. The video and most of the pics are from this snorkel, partly because there was so much to see, but mostly because my underwater photography skills were better honed by the end of the week. The most exciting part was on our way back from Pelican Point, we snorkeled in the middle of Hansen Bay over the seagrasses and saw two nurse sharks heading out from shore, one was about 5 1/2 feet and then a smaller one probably about 4 feet. Sharks are so cool. My camera was turned off but I managed to get it back on in time to fire off one shot, and got a blurry pic of one and a half sharks lol. I would suggest this snorkel for anyone; it was our hands down favorite.
Last day was bittersweet. We took a lot of pics on the way back to Cruz Bay of the donkeys, sheep, goats, etc. Went and filled up at the gas station and dropped our jeep back off at Denzil Clyne, again very easy and took less than 5 minutes. We were afraid after reading of other experiences that they were going to hassle us about sand in the car but not at all. They were like no problem, we know you can’t help to get some in it, we just don’t like it when people don’t even attempt to clean out bucketfuls. Haha. Ate a bit of lunch somewhere in Cruz Bay (I forgot the name) and then caught the ferry. Took a taxi from the Red Hook ferry to the airport which took about 30 minutes but air conditioned this time. Got to the airport to extremely long lines of people waiting to get through customs. The airport is so disorganized. I wished we had noticed earlier that people were giving cash to the porters to cut the lines? At least that’s what we thought was happening, I would try that next time for sure but by then, we were all firmly on island time and were like, whatever….we’ll wait an hour to get through the line, no problem mon. Flight was 3 hrs 26 minutes back to Atlanta.
Let’s see what am I forgetting? We ate all but 3 meals at the villa. We had two lunches at Skinny Legs. They had great burgers and the staff was very friendly. My son asked one of the servers if he could try to catch a chicken. She told him yes and that if he could catch one she would give him a free root beer. He tried really hard unsuccessfully but came really close. At one point, the chicken ran into the kitchen and jumped on the cook’s back. We heard a high-pitched scream and everyone had a good laugh at the cook’s expense. Only other meal out was in Cruz Bay right before we caught the ferry. We shopped for groceries for the week at Starfish, and while it was really expensive, they had a good selection and it was still WAY cheaper than eating out all week. We’re not really foodies though so it definitely wasn’t a priority to us by any stretch for our week on St. John.
I’ve posted links below to some pics, a video of a school of blue tang and huge barracuda, and a really cool driving video out to the East end. Enjoy. Thanks for all the advice. I lurked A LOT here before our trip, and all the info was invaluable to us while planning our trip. St. John is an unmatched paradise to those who are willing to work a little for it. We will definitely be back.
Baracuda & Blue Tang
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The Drive to the end of East End:
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SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
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yourtheexpert
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:05 pm
- Location: St John
My SO edited out all of our negative experiences in writing this. She also gave the villa a 5 star review on Homewaway and left out all of our negative experiences.
Why?
Because we ended up having a great trip. Cimarron and the owners were more than gracious in accommodating us and we didn't want to highlight the negatives in our trip.
Oh and after re-reading it she's also referring to the car rental being quick and easy.
Why?
Because we ended up having a great trip. Cimarron and the owners were more than gracious in accommodating us and we didn't want to highlight the negatives in our trip.
Oh and after re-reading it she's also referring to the car rental being quick and easy.