Virgin Voyage Trip Report - Part 1 (v2)
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 9:17 pm
I tried posting this trip report last night but my pics didn't upload correctly so I'm giving this one more try! Here we go...
Thanks to everyone on this forum for offering your tips to better enjoy the beautiful island of St. John. I spent months lurking online before joining – your insights were invaluable in helping plan our first trip!
This was our first trip to the USVIs, though we spent some time on Tortola and Cooper Island in the BVIs a couple of years ago. On this trip, we flew from Minneapolis to St. Thomas and stayed at the Best Western Emerald Beach for two nights before taking the Red Hook ferry to STJ. Since this is a St. John forum, I’ll start our trip report with our arrival in Cruz Bay…
Day 1 – April 12:
Jon and I were very excited to leave the hustle and bustle of STT and celebrated with a Painkiller for the trip over. We were greeted at the ferry dock and shuttled to Gallows Point, our home for the next week. Our unit, 7C, was amazing! It was kind of a splurge for our first trip but the views were worth it…
After we got settled in, we snorkeled the reef just off the small beach at Gallows. The water was really clear – surprising since it’s so close to the harbor and all of the boat traffic. Then we made ourselves some cocktails and enjoyed the sunset from the balcony of our room – a ritual we followed almost every night!
Sadly, we never saw the green flash. Maybe next trip!
That evening we had a great dinner at La Tapa. Our waiter was very friendly and we found out that he spends his summers in Northern Minnesota – not far from Jon’s sister and brother-in-law’s house. We went to the Tap Room afterwards and tried their special Dark & Stormy made with their very own ginger beer.
Day 2 – April 13:
The snacks we brought from home and picked up in STT weren’t going to last long, so we walked up to the Starfish Market after breakfast. Wow – not what I was expecting! We’ve visited the Out Islands in the Bahamas and I thought we’d find a simple grocery store with just the basics but this was like a Trader Joe’s.
We had a light lunch and headed out to Sail Safaris where I had reserved their 14’ Hobie Cat for the afternoon. First, Jon had to prove his sailing skills by maneuvering through the harbor – not easy when you’re the only one without a motor! Then we set course for Henley Cay where we had a nice snorkel…
And a nice shot of Jon leaving Henley…
We were able to check out Honeymoon and Solomon beaches from the water on our way back to Cruz Bay. They looked pretty deserted so we decided to hike the Lind Point trail to Solomon after we dropped off the boat.
This was the only evening we didn’t watch the sunset from our room because we had reservations at Zozo’s bar. The sunset wasn’t great because it was pretty overcast, but the food was excellent! I had jumbo shrimp as big as my fist (so did Jon because I couldn’t finish all of them).
After dinner we headed up to Woody’s but it was pretty quiet so we got our Painkillers “to go.” Then back to the room to watch the lights from St. Thomas from our balcony.
Day 3 – April 14:
We picked up our jeep from Delbert Hill and set out with our copy of “Feet, Fins and a Four Wheel Drive.” Our first stop was Peace Hill where we saw some great views of the North Shore beaches and the ruins….
From there, we drove out to Salt Pond Bay for a few hours of hiking and snorkeling. We started with the Ram Head trail. It had started to sprinkle so that seemed the best choice for that kind of hot and dry hike to the end of the earth…
The sun had come out by the time we got back to Salt Pond Bay so we were ready to put on the snorkel gear and get into the water. Jon wanted to go all the way out to the rocky island but I stayed closer to shore in the middle of the bay. I think I made the better choice because I saw two turtles, some skates, a lot of baby conch and some very curious squid in the saw grass.
We stopped at Skinny Legs and shared the burger-of-the-day and a couple of Dark & Stormys, and then we went on our way to explore the East End. We decided to take advantage of the calm weather and snorkel Haulover North. We saw some huge fan and elkhorn coral along with an anxious stingray settling in the sand for the night - he wasn’t happy to see us! We also did a quick snorkel at Haulover South on the bay side but it was kind of boring in comparison.
After our sunset/cocktail habit, we had a great dinner at the Fish Trap – one of our favorites of the entire trip. Then we stopped at the Beach Bar for a couple of Painkillers before heading for “home.”
Thanks to everyone on this forum for offering your tips to better enjoy the beautiful island of St. John. I spent months lurking online before joining – your insights were invaluable in helping plan our first trip!
This was our first trip to the USVIs, though we spent some time on Tortola and Cooper Island in the BVIs a couple of years ago. On this trip, we flew from Minneapolis to St. Thomas and stayed at the Best Western Emerald Beach for two nights before taking the Red Hook ferry to STJ. Since this is a St. John forum, I’ll start our trip report with our arrival in Cruz Bay…
Day 1 – April 12:
Jon and I were very excited to leave the hustle and bustle of STT and celebrated with a Painkiller for the trip over. We were greeted at the ferry dock and shuttled to Gallows Point, our home for the next week. Our unit, 7C, was amazing! It was kind of a splurge for our first trip but the views were worth it…
After we got settled in, we snorkeled the reef just off the small beach at Gallows. The water was really clear – surprising since it’s so close to the harbor and all of the boat traffic. Then we made ourselves some cocktails and enjoyed the sunset from the balcony of our room – a ritual we followed almost every night!
Sadly, we never saw the green flash. Maybe next trip!
That evening we had a great dinner at La Tapa. Our waiter was very friendly and we found out that he spends his summers in Northern Minnesota – not far from Jon’s sister and brother-in-law’s house. We went to the Tap Room afterwards and tried their special Dark & Stormy made with their very own ginger beer.
Day 2 – April 13:
The snacks we brought from home and picked up in STT weren’t going to last long, so we walked up to the Starfish Market after breakfast. Wow – not what I was expecting! We’ve visited the Out Islands in the Bahamas and I thought we’d find a simple grocery store with just the basics but this was like a Trader Joe’s.
We had a light lunch and headed out to Sail Safaris where I had reserved their 14’ Hobie Cat for the afternoon. First, Jon had to prove his sailing skills by maneuvering through the harbor – not easy when you’re the only one without a motor! Then we set course for Henley Cay where we had a nice snorkel…
And a nice shot of Jon leaving Henley…
We were able to check out Honeymoon and Solomon beaches from the water on our way back to Cruz Bay. They looked pretty deserted so we decided to hike the Lind Point trail to Solomon after we dropped off the boat.
This was the only evening we didn’t watch the sunset from our room because we had reservations at Zozo’s bar. The sunset wasn’t great because it was pretty overcast, but the food was excellent! I had jumbo shrimp as big as my fist (so did Jon because I couldn’t finish all of them).
After dinner we headed up to Woody’s but it was pretty quiet so we got our Painkillers “to go.” Then back to the room to watch the lights from St. Thomas from our balcony.
Day 3 – April 14:
We picked up our jeep from Delbert Hill and set out with our copy of “Feet, Fins and a Four Wheel Drive.” Our first stop was Peace Hill where we saw some great views of the North Shore beaches and the ruins….
From there, we drove out to Salt Pond Bay for a few hours of hiking and snorkeling. We started with the Ram Head trail. It had started to sprinkle so that seemed the best choice for that kind of hot and dry hike to the end of the earth…
The sun had come out by the time we got back to Salt Pond Bay so we were ready to put on the snorkel gear and get into the water. Jon wanted to go all the way out to the rocky island but I stayed closer to shore in the middle of the bay. I think I made the better choice because I saw two turtles, some skates, a lot of baby conch and some very curious squid in the saw grass.
We stopped at Skinny Legs and shared the burger-of-the-day and a couple of Dark & Stormys, and then we went on our way to explore the East End. We decided to take advantage of the calm weather and snorkel Haulover North. We saw some huge fan and elkhorn coral along with an anxious stingray settling in the sand for the night - he wasn’t happy to see us! We also did a quick snorkel at Haulover South on the bay side but it was kind of boring in comparison.
After our sunset/cocktail habit, we had a great dinner at the Fish Trap – one of our favorites of the entire trip. Then we stopped at the Beach Bar for a couple of Painkillers before heading for “home.”
