USVI-On-Line

Anyone have anything to share about Vieques?

We are breaking away from STJ for our next winter trip, somewhat under my protest. (I guess 3x to STJ in one year might be pushing it....)

The BVIs are out for the time being. We are seriously considering Anguilla.

Vieques also interests me. I seem to remember someone mentioning they had a co-worker that owned a rental there? Or maybe that was Culebra.

There would be 2 couples and one 5 yo. We would want to rent a house.

Friends of my brother were there over July 4th holiday. They stayed in a villa/house. The husband liked the laid back, casualness of the island. The wife was not as thrilled. She had an interesting experience...they went horseback riding, she's never ridden before and was given a gentle horse. Partway thru the ride, the horse got spooked and threw her. She got up and seemed ok until she noticed two of her fingers had been badly injured as she had landed on a broken tree branch.

The hospital was rather basic, the doctor stitched her up without novocaine, there was none in the hospital. When she asked the doctor, who spoke very limited English, about a painkiller, the doctor replied "tequila." She thought the doc was joking. She was not. She received a prescription for an antibiotic, but the pharmacy was closed for 2 days. The pharmacy's sign said "open sometimes, closed sometimes." Wow. When she got home, her doctor looked at her hand and said he hadn't seen stitching like that since the 50s. Double wow.

They said a lot of the roads that were labled on the maps had overgrown entrances and no signage. Kinda hard to navigate to find the beaches or places they were looking for. They did say the W Hotel was nice when they went for drinks. All in all, they probably won't go back.

Holy cow! No wonder she didn't love it. I can overlook a lot but stitches without some sort of numbing goes above and beyond the call of vacation duty. WTF?!?! Friends of ours travel to Africa and take this wacky medical kit so they can basically do their own surgery, one is a doctor, but it never occured to me to worry about that in PR.

Our wife of our traveling friends as well as my husband are itching to try something new.

The thing is, Mrs. Friend is a SHOPPER!!! and Mr. PA is into going out at night for dinner and drinks.

I have a gut feeling that Mrs. Friend thinks most places are going to be like STJ, a little town with enough cute shops to satisfy her shopping lust. She was disappointed with VG's lack of "town-ness" and shopping, which is why we aren't returning to VG just yet. To her credit, she supports the local economy!

Mr. PA doesn't want to even consider a cooking-in type of vacay because I am the family cook and there will be an issue if I need to do that on vacation.

We did Vieques back in 2006 and had a great time. The beaches are as plentiful and beautiful, the bio-bay is really cool, there are some great restaurants, and the vibe is a little different/still good though. We rented from Casa Ladera and had a great experience. There are multiple units that can be rented, it has a massive pool, and is walking distance to a beach. http://www.casa-ladera.com/

Let me know if you have any other questions.

PA Girl wrote: We are seriously considering Anguilla.

I know you were asking about Vieques, but Anguilla is pretty awesome. If you like STJ, you'd probably like it.

VickiH wrote:

PA Girl wrote: We are seriously considering Anguilla.

I know you were asking about Vieques, but Anguilla is pretty awesome. If you like STJ, you'd probably like it.

Were your ears ringing Saturday night? Our friends were over and we all crowded around the kitchen table to show them your trip report. At one point, my husband suggested we run it through the TV but I couldn't find the wires.

I work with someone who goes to Vieques every year at Christmas for two-three weeks. He loves it. What size house do you need? I can ask him for some recommendations for specific villa names.

Two or three bedrooms. Two couples plus our son are confirmed, we may have a 3rd couple. The boys would like a pool. Thanks!

We flew over Vieques on Monday on our flight to San Juan. The beaches looked amazing from the sky! From what I get looking at it, alot of the beaches are in a protected area somewhat like SJ.

Went there 32 years ago with friends whose parents lived there. Not a tourist island at that time. Island folks took to my dark eyed/tanned hubby but wouldn't give me the time of day ( blue eyes/pale).Hope they are used to visiting folks since then. Wonderful beaches! Would love to go back