STJ trip report, Aug. 18-26
Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:48 pm
I think I’ll steal someone else’s format and do this by categories. Here goes:
Background: My family (me, hubby, 11-yo son) had spent the Christmas holidays with my sister-in-law and family on St. John in 2005, and we loved the island so much we really wanted to go back ASAP. At Christmas we splurged and stayed in a very nice villa (Wind Chime), and we pampered ourselves. We could only justify a trip back this soon if we saved some cash, so we decided to “rough it” and stay at Maho Bay Camps. Our camping buddies (mom, dad, 11 yo boy who is best friends with our son, and 8 yo girl) really loved the look of the island when we showed them our photos, and we knew they would like all the water activities, so we decided to go together. It turned out to be a very different experience from our Christmas trip, but still wonderful!
Car rental: Rented a 7-passenger Montero from Denzil Clyne. We had rented from Denzil in December, but got a really old vehicle that time. It worked, but the “Check Engine” light stayed on the whole time which was a bit disconcerting. This time I asked for a newer car, and we got a much nicer one: only 4,000 miles! It was a beauty, and we did fine with just the one car. We even managed to get all 7 of us plus our luggage in the car for the drive out to Maho. Denzil Clyne has a convenient location near the dock, and a parking lot we could use when we were in town. Plus, cheaper rates than most of the other rental companies. I know some have complained about this agency, but we’ve had good experiences with them both times.
Accomodations: Maho Bay Campground is REALLY different from a villa (my son kept reminding me!), but we liked it a lot. The tent-cottages are well-designed, the community bathrooms are spotless, but we thought the best thing about Maho was the community feel to the place. Maybe because it was the off-season and there were fewer people it was easier to get to know different folks--we hooked up with several families while we were there and spent many pleasant hours chatting and playing games and cards with them. Everyone who worked there was so helpful. Plus, $75 per night, can’t beat the price! We went to one of the glass-blowing demos which the kids loved. So, those were all good things. Now for the not-so-good: the bugs were really bad while we were there, I think because the island had just had a lot of rain from Tropical Storm Chris. I had about 50 bites after 2 days, so I slathered myself with bug spray from then on, and used the very cool tennis racket-looking things they sold at the Maho store that zap the bugs with the power of 2 AA batteries. It was also HOT, but luckily cooled off a lot at night. Still, the heat turned out to be more of a problem than we thought which I’ll get into later. And the stairs, oh the stairs! I got a real workout, and the first two days my leg muscles were sore, but after that it got a lot better. I tried to emphasize the positive benefits of all the exercise I was getting! On a jaunt over to Salt Pond, we decided to check out the Concordia Eco-Tents, also run by the Maho folks. Wow, what fantastic views, and a constant strong breeze! And NO BUGS! We decided to move over to Concordia for the last 2 nights of our stay, and we’re very glad we did. Yes, you definitely need a car over there, and yes, you are pretty far from the North Shore beaches and Cruz Bay, and yes, there are lots of stairs there as well, but the change was refreshing. It’s a very different terrain from the other side of the island. And the tents at Concordia seemed like penthouse suites compared to Maho! So cleverly designed, with solar showers, private toilets, a comfy couch, a loft with 2 beds and 2 twins downstairs. A cold refrigerator (so nice after using coolers where the ice would melt in 4 hours at Maho), 2 gas burners, and a sink. But the views of Salt Pond and Drunk Bay from the deck and all the windows in the cottage were the best thing. Even the bathroom had a fantastic view! And there was hardly anyone there at all, only 2 other tents were occupied, so we felt very secluded
Restaurants: We were traveling on the cheap, but even so, the last thing we wanted to do was a lot of cooking over propane stoves in extreme heat and humidity. We mostly had breakfast in our tents, got lunch on the run or bought sandwiches to take with us to the beach, and ate dinner out or at the Maho restaurant. I think we had 3 dinners at Maho, and one thing I didn’t know before we left: in the slow season (Aug. 15-Oct. 15), Maho really cuts back on the offerings for dinner, and the Beach Shack which normally serves lunch is not open at all. That disappointed me a little since I’d heard good things about the food, but we had some okay dinners there anyway. They had 2 nights per week called “Mom’s Diner,” and those nights had the most variety. One night was “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” one was Italian night, and so on. The prices were a little high, especially breakfast since it was all ala carte. So, $3 for scrambled eggs, another $4 for sausage, $1.50 for toast (!), $3.00 for OJ. It added up fast, and that’s when we decided to just have cereal in our tent. Non-Maho dinners: we ate at the Beach Bar, Skinny Legs (once for lunch, once for dinner), Uncle Joe’s, and then our 2 splurges, Pastory Gardens and Sweet Plantains. The Beach Bar was great, same usual laid-back atmosphere. We split the crab dip which was gone in about 2 minutes, and we had burgers, salads, tuna, mahi mahi for dinner, and all were good. We love Skinny Legs and most of us had burgers, but one had the Greek salad which was very good, and the mahi mahi sandwich got raves as well. Uncle Joe’s was a highlight. We ate right at Joe’s which we hadn’t before (got takeout during the villa vacation). It was fun to watch the ribs being cooked, and we all ate every bit on our very full plates. At Pastory we mostly ordered a lot of appetizers, and all were very good. Some were big enough to be entrees--my son got the conch and crab fritters, which were definitely enough for him. Drinks were great, and the kids and I played a round of mini-golf which was a lot of fun. But by far the culinary highlight of the trip was Sweet Plantains in Coral Bay. It was SO good! The menu is mostly West Indian with some other influences as well. Doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is elegantly designed and it has almost a Middle Eastern feel to it. We shared the spicy crab spread and the ceviche special for appetizers, and some of the entrees we ordered included both the West and East Indian curries (one with chicken, one with shrimp, one with mahi mahi) and seafood Creole. We got the coconut flan for dessert, which was also excellent. I highly recommend this restaurant—it’s worth the trip to Coral Bay if you’re staying on the other side of the island.
Medical problems: Yes, we had some. My husband has a bad back to begin with, possibly aggravated by sciatica. After sitting on the plane for 4 hours, he was in agony. Maho was hard on him due to all the steps, and driving on the island was also tough since the roads are so twisty and steep. He was fine by the second day, but really messed it up again on the short hike back from Salt Pond on the third day. If we had been in a villa, I’m sure he could have been perfectly happy and would have stuck it out. But it was so hot during the daytime at Maho that there was no way he could comfortably relax on the bed. Also, the massage therapist who is usually at Maho was on vacation, so that wasn’t an option, either. The Maho folks very helpfully tried to find another massage therapist, but had no luck. After finding out that it would be impossible for his doctor to call in a prescription for pain pills for him on the island, he reluctantly decided he would need to go home early. So he left on Tuesday afternoon after one last snorkel at Cinnamon. My friends’ daughter also developed a minor UTI while there, and we decided to take her to the Myrah Keating Smith Health Clinic. They had a very good experience there, she got her antibiotics, and the doctors and nurses were all extremely pleasant. In retrospect, we should have tried this for hubby, too, before he went home. So if anyone has a minor medical ailment on STJ (and I hope you don’t!), our experience with the clinic was a very positive one.
Most importantly, SNORKELING!: This was what we spent just about every day doing, and we all loved it. One reason we came back so soon after our last trip was that our son had JUST figured out how to snorkel on our very last day, and he was really anxious to go back and have the full experience. Beaches we visited: Little and Big Maho, Trunk (twice), Cinnamon, Hawksnest, Gibney, Salt Pond, Waterlemon, and Francis. I still have never gotten to any of the Caneel beaches—maybe next time. I’d also like to put Haulover on my “to-do” list. We had spent Christmas Day on Jumbie last time, but didn’t get back this time. Still, I think we did pretty well covering the beaches. We saw SO much this time. Many, many stingrays, several beautiful sea turtles, squid, colorful fish and corals, barracuda—and a shark! Okay, I don’t think I saw Valerie’s account of the shark at Waterlemon before, but maybe we saw the same one! My son and I were hanging out about 10 feet offshore, and it was shallow enough that we could easily stand. There was a juvenile turtle grazing on sea grass and we were having a great time just watching him. We were probably 4 feet away from him. All of a sudden this BIG dark shape comes out of nowhere and swims between us and the turtle! I’m almost positive it was a reef shark, not a nurse shark, but it was most definitely a shark! I totally freaked and started flailing away, trying to get to shore ASAP. Probably not the best strategy, but it was so shallow that I couldn’t easily swim. My son, on the other hand, starts swimming toward the shark! I yelled at him to get out of the water, even though I know most sharks around STJ are harmless. But man, I never imagined I would be mere feet from a shark! Very exciting, kind of scary, and I wish I had had time to take a photo. It was amazing how close to shore it was. One downside to snorkeling this time of year: jellyfish. There were lots and lots of moon jellies, which are very beautiful to watch, but hard to spot in the water. They are almost totally clear with a pale purple rim around the edge. I asked the lifeguard at Trunk if they sting and he said they do, although only slightly. We almost swam into them many times this trip, and I never saw any in December. I did take some disposable underwater camera photos which didn’t turn out great, but if there are any decent ones I’ll try to post them. I’ll also post a link to all of our “land” photos once I get them up.
Miscellaneous: There were many fewer tourists there this time of year, but more than I thought there would be. I was also surprised that there were still so many cruise ships during hurricane season. One day there were 3 in port, so we avoided the more popular beaches that day. Last time we didn’t get to any of the historical sites, but this time we went to both Annaberg Sugar Mill and the Annaberg School and enjoyed both. We also drove all the way out to the end of the paved road on the East End, which I hadn’t seen before. Wow, the roads were like a roller coaster for sure! I liked seeing the tree in the middle of the road. I knew nothing about the attack on the tourist before we left, only read about that after we got back. I noticed no tension and never felt unsafe at all, but we were generally in bed by 10 PM so we weren’t walking around late at night. The weather was great while we were there, though very hot and muggy. But we had sunshine every single day except for our last morning when we must have been getting outer bands of Ernesto, and actually, that made leaving just a little bit easier! The Walk of Woe was more like the Run to Get Out of the Rain! All in all, it was again a fabulous trip, and we are definitely going back. I think our friends are totally hooked now, too, and they said they would be up for another trip in the near future as well. Oh, and one last thank you to Ruth, who was so pleasant and took time out of her day to capture several webcam shots of us! It was great to meet you—we’ll be back!
Background: My family (me, hubby, 11-yo son) had spent the Christmas holidays with my sister-in-law and family on St. John in 2005, and we loved the island so much we really wanted to go back ASAP. At Christmas we splurged and stayed in a very nice villa (Wind Chime), and we pampered ourselves. We could only justify a trip back this soon if we saved some cash, so we decided to “rough it” and stay at Maho Bay Camps. Our camping buddies (mom, dad, 11 yo boy who is best friends with our son, and 8 yo girl) really loved the look of the island when we showed them our photos, and we knew they would like all the water activities, so we decided to go together. It turned out to be a very different experience from our Christmas trip, but still wonderful!
Car rental: Rented a 7-passenger Montero from Denzil Clyne. We had rented from Denzil in December, but got a really old vehicle that time. It worked, but the “Check Engine” light stayed on the whole time which was a bit disconcerting. This time I asked for a newer car, and we got a much nicer one: only 4,000 miles! It was a beauty, and we did fine with just the one car. We even managed to get all 7 of us plus our luggage in the car for the drive out to Maho. Denzil Clyne has a convenient location near the dock, and a parking lot we could use when we were in town. Plus, cheaper rates than most of the other rental companies. I know some have complained about this agency, but we’ve had good experiences with them both times.
Accomodations: Maho Bay Campground is REALLY different from a villa (my son kept reminding me!), but we liked it a lot. The tent-cottages are well-designed, the community bathrooms are spotless, but we thought the best thing about Maho was the community feel to the place. Maybe because it was the off-season and there were fewer people it was easier to get to know different folks--we hooked up with several families while we were there and spent many pleasant hours chatting and playing games and cards with them. Everyone who worked there was so helpful. Plus, $75 per night, can’t beat the price! We went to one of the glass-blowing demos which the kids loved. So, those were all good things. Now for the not-so-good: the bugs were really bad while we were there, I think because the island had just had a lot of rain from Tropical Storm Chris. I had about 50 bites after 2 days, so I slathered myself with bug spray from then on, and used the very cool tennis racket-looking things they sold at the Maho store that zap the bugs with the power of 2 AA batteries. It was also HOT, but luckily cooled off a lot at night. Still, the heat turned out to be more of a problem than we thought which I’ll get into later. And the stairs, oh the stairs! I got a real workout, and the first two days my leg muscles were sore, but after that it got a lot better. I tried to emphasize the positive benefits of all the exercise I was getting! On a jaunt over to Salt Pond, we decided to check out the Concordia Eco-Tents, also run by the Maho folks. Wow, what fantastic views, and a constant strong breeze! And NO BUGS! We decided to move over to Concordia for the last 2 nights of our stay, and we’re very glad we did. Yes, you definitely need a car over there, and yes, you are pretty far from the North Shore beaches and Cruz Bay, and yes, there are lots of stairs there as well, but the change was refreshing. It’s a very different terrain from the other side of the island. And the tents at Concordia seemed like penthouse suites compared to Maho! So cleverly designed, with solar showers, private toilets, a comfy couch, a loft with 2 beds and 2 twins downstairs. A cold refrigerator (so nice after using coolers where the ice would melt in 4 hours at Maho), 2 gas burners, and a sink. But the views of Salt Pond and Drunk Bay from the deck and all the windows in the cottage were the best thing. Even the bathroom had a fantastic view! And there was hardly anyone there at all, only 2 other tents were occupied, so we felt very secluded
Restaurants: We were traveling on the cheap, but even so, the last thing we wanted to do was a lot of cooking over propane stoves in extreme heat and humidity. We mostly had breakfast in our tents, got lunch on the run or bought sandwiches to take with us to the beach, and ate dinner out or at the Maho restaurant. I think we had 3 dinners at Maho, and one thing I didn’t know before we left: in the slow season (Aug. 15-Oct. 15), Maho really cuts back on the offerings for dinner, and the Beach Shack which normally serves lunch is not open at all. That disappointed me a little since I’d heard good things about the food, but we had some okay dinners there anyway. They had 2 nights per week called “Mom’s Diner,” and those nights had the most variety. One night was “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” one was Italian night, and so on. The prices were a little high, especially breakfast since it was all ala carte. So, $3 for scrambled eggs, another $4 for sausage, $1.50 for toast (!), $3.00 for OJ. It added up fast, and that’s when we decided to just have cereal in our tent. Non-Maho dinners: we ate at the Beach Bar, Skinny Legs (once for lunch, once for dinner), Uncle Joe’s, and then our 2 splurges, Pastory Gardens and Sweet Plantains. The Beach Bar was great, same usual laid-back atmosphere. We split the crab dip which was gone in about 2 minutes, and we had burgers, salads, tuna, mahi mahi for dinner, and all were good. We love Skinny Legs and most of us had burgers, but one had the Greek salad which was very good, and the mahi mahi sandwich got raves as well. Uncle Joe’s was a highlight. We ate right at Joe’s which we hadn’t before (got takeout during the villa vacation). It was fun to watch the ribs being cooked, and we all ate every bit on our very full plates. At Pastory we mostly ordered a lot of appetizers, and all were very good. Some were big enough to be entrees--my son got the conch and crab fritters, which were definitely enough for him. Drinks were great, and the kids and I played a round of mini-golf which was a lot of fun. But by far the culinary highlight of the trip was Sweet Plantains in Coral Bay. It was SO good! The menu is mostly West Indian with some other influences as well. Doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is elegantly designed and it has almost a Middle Eastern feel to it. We shared the spicy crab spread and the ceviche special for appetizers, and some of the entrees we ordered included both the West and East Indian curries (one with chicken, one with shrimp, one with mahi mahi) and seafood Creole. We got the coconut flan for dessert, which was also excellent. I highly recommend this restaurant—it’s worth the trip to Coral Bay if you’re staying on the other side of the island.
Medical problems: Yes, we had some. My husband has a bad back to begin with, possibly aggravated by sciatica. After sitting on the plane for 4 hours, he was in agony. Maho was hard on him due to all the steps, and driving on the island was also tough since the roads are so twisty and steep. He was fine by the second day, but really messed it up again on the short hike back from Salt Pond on the third day. If we had been in a villa, I’m sure he could have been perfectly happy and would have stuck it out. But it was so hot during the daytime at Maho that there was no way he could comfortably relax on the bed. Also, the massage therapist who is usually at Maho was on vacation, so that wasn’t an option, either. The Maho folks very helpfully tried to find another massage therapist, but had no luck. After finding out that it would be impossible for his doctor to call in a prescription for pain pills for him on the island, he reluctantly decided he would need to go home early. So he left on Tuesday afternoon after one last snorkel at Cinnamon. My friends’ daughter also developed a minor UTI while there, and we decided to take her to the Myrah Keating Smith Health Clinic. They had a very good experience there, she got her antibiotics, and the doctors and nurses were all extremely pleasant. In retrospect, we should have tried this for hubby, too, before he went home. So if anyone has a minor medical ailment on STJ (and I hope you don’t!), our experience with the clinic was a very positive one.
Most importantly, SNORKELING!: This was what we spent just about every day doing, and we all loved it. One reason we came back so soon after our last trip was that our son had JUST figured out how to snorkel on our very last day, and he was really anxious to go back and have the full experience. Beaches we visited: Little and Big Maho, Trunk (twice), Cinnamon, Hawksnest, Gibney, Salt Pond, Waterlemon, and Francis. I still have never gotten to any of the Caneel beaches—maybe next time. I’d also like to put Haulover on my “to-do” list. We had spent Christmas Day on Jumbie last time, but didn’t get back this time. Still, I think we did pretty well covering the beaches. We saw SO much this time. Many, many stingrays, several beautiful sea turtles, squid, colorful fish and corals, barracuda—and a shark! Okay, I don’t think I saw Valerie’s account of the shark at Waterlemon before, but maybe we saw the same one! My son and I were hanging out about 10 feet offshore, and it was shallow enough that we could easily stand. There was a juvenile turtle grazing on sea grass and we were having a great time just watching him. We were probably 4 feet away from him. All of a sudden this BIG dark shape comes out of nowhere and swims between us and the turtle! I’m almost positive it was a reef shark, not a nurse shark, but it was most definitely a shark! I totally freaked and started flailing away, trying to get to shore ASAP. Probably not the best strategy, but it was so shallow that I couldn’t easily swim. My son, on the other hand, starts swimming toward the shark! I yelled at him to get out of the water, even though I know most sharks around STJ are harmless. But man, I never imagined I would be mere feet from a shark! Very exciting, kind of scary, and I wish I had had time to take a photo. It was amazing how close to shore it was. One downside to snorkeling this time of year: jellyfish. There were lots and lots of moon jellies, which are very beautiful to watch, but hard to spot in the water. They are almost totally clear with a pale purple rim around the edge. I asked the lifeguard at Trunk if they sting and he said they do, although only slightly. We almost swam into them many times this trip, and I never saw any in December. I did take some disposable underwater camera photos which didn’t turn out great, but if there are any decent ones I’ll try to post them. I’ll also post a link to all of our “land” photos once I get them up.
Miscellaneous: There were many fewer tourists there this time of year, but more than I thought there would be. I was also surprised that there were still so many cruise ships during hurricane season. One day there were 3 in port, so we avoided the more popular beaches that day. Last time we didn’t get to any of the historical sites, but this time we went to both Annaberg Sugar Mill and the Annaberg School and enjoyed both. We also drove all the way out to the end of the paved road on the East End, which I hadn’t seen before. Wow, the roads were like a roller coaster for sure! I liked seeing the tree in the middle of the road. I knew nothing about the attack on the tourist before we left, only read about that after we got back. I noticed no tension and never felt unsafe at all, but we were generally in bed by 10 PM so we weren’t walking around late at night. The weather was great while we were there, though very hot and muggy. But we had sunshine every single day except for our last morning when we must have been getting outer bands of Ernesto, and actually, that made leaving just a little bit easier! The Walk of Woe was more like the Run to Get Out of the Rain! All in all, it was again a fabulous trip, and we are definitely going back. I think our friends are totally hooked now, too, and they said they would be up for another trip in the near future as well. Oh, and one last thank you to Ruth, who was so pleasant and took time out of her day to capture several webcam shots of us! It was great to meet you—we’ll be back!
(tell him he owes me one 
...