USVI-On-Line

Fourth trip back for my husband and I, mid-May. This time we're bringing our 16-month old son (I know, I know) and my mother for a little help with the kiddo (See? It will all be okay).

Changes this time:
- Bringing along a newbie and a baby. Should be interesting.
- Staying in Chocolate Hole (stayed in Cruz Bay and Coral Bay previously). Very excited about it.
- Renting car on STT instead of STJ (for ease of transport with baby).

Any tips on STJ with a toddler are much appreciated!

Have never done St. John with babies (well not true - but mine at 28 and 33)but I thought this idea was great when I saw it on the On St John blog.

http://islandbabyvi.com/

Just kick it back and enjoy your vacation Sasky

We have travelled a couple of times with our kids to STJ. First time DD was 2.5 and last time DD was 4 and DS was 9 months. It was wonderful both times. Having a "helping hand" is the only way to go. Both times we had relatives helping out and it made the trip so much easier.

There are lots of posts on here about bringing babies and toddlers, I read them all, it's a lot of great advice.

I would reccomend some kind of pop up tent with sun protection. We bought the Pea in The Pod tent off of Ebay and it worked great. Sun guard hats and shrirts.
Pack lots of snacks and maybe send down a box of goodies for when you get there, we did and it was helpful not having to go straight to the store.

Some say stroller and some say no stroller, we brought ours and that where the little guy ate most of his meals and we used it in town with no problems it was also very nice in the airport for containment, lol

have fun

Sasky, our kids are probably the same age. We took our son when we traveled to St. John back in October. We had my in-laws come for part of the trip to help out. When we do it again, I'll bring help for the whole time.

Our son was 9 months old when we went, and I opted not to bring a stroller. I wish we had, even if just a collapsible umbrella. I'd recommend it.

If you haven't thought about this, consider bringing your monitor along if it's not too big. We brought our video monitor, and it really saved us a lot of trips up and down stairs since our villa was spread out.

Also: bring DVDs and some toys! At 16 months, your child will enjoy the water much more than our son did at nine months. I think you'll have fun - enjoy!

I completely agree with all of the above advice! You'll be really happy to have some kind of stroller and a small pop-up type shelter is a must.
Another suggestion: the first time we brought our kids our youngest was 2 and I bought a Sea Window raft online for him to lay on. It's a really cool inflatable raft with a big plexiglass window on the head part and your little one can lay on his tummy and see into the water - it's like his personal glass bottom boat! Our 2 year old loved it!! We attached a short rope to ours so we could pull him along with us as we snorkeled and he could see what we saw! We also put him in his life jacket in case he rolled off, but the sides are slightly raised and that never happened. We saw several turtles in Maho Bay and the turtles seemed to very intrigued by the raft and they actually swam around it several times and kept surfacing near it. Our son was giggling up a storm, squealing, "It's Crush, it's Crush!" (A big Finding Nemo fan at the time!) You can find them on line if you google Sea Window - around $30. That raft is one of my favorite discoveries ever! Have fun!

Congrats on your trip. Took my son when he was 1 & 2 yrs old. I alway took "his" car seat. He used it for the ride to the airport, then in the plane (purchased a seat for him) and then in the rental Jeep , it was his and he was comfortable in it and always slept well in it. Maho and Francis are great beaches for young kids, short walk and usually calm water.

We traveled with our 18 month old daughter and found two items to be invaluable: the Kelty backpack carrier and small collapsible umbrella stroller. The Kelty was perfect for the rough terrain (stairs, beaches, ect), the stroller for the smooth (sidewalks, airport, etc).

Another item I wouldn't consider a must-have, but it certainly came in handy for us was the Safe-T-Seal swim trainer (http://www.swimways.com/). It was nice to be able to let her go in the water without having to hang onto her the entire time. We used it in both the pool and the ocean and she quickly, and to our amazement, learned to paddle around by herself:
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Wow, some really great tips! Thanks everyone.

BostonMike, on island the same week. Massholes takin' ova.

alw, your posts about bringing your in-laws are what convinced me to invite my mom. Now I feel confident we made the right decision.

Too early to start packing?

sasky wrote: BostonMike, on island the same week. Massholes takin' ova

You arrive the same day. We are flying through Charlotte. Who knows, maybe the massholes will bump heads.