USVI-On-Line

I found this forum very helpful when planning our trip to St. John, so I figured I would add my observations and opinions to the mix. We are back from a 10 day vacation to St. John. We had to travel during my kids Spring Break so we were dinged pretty badly on the airfare (thanks USairways! a terrible airline in so many ways).
Our finances thus stretched, I searched the net and found a 3 bedroom villa for rent for $1850. It is called Villa Mollo and it is owned by a lawyer from Brooklyn,NY, Peter Mollo.
The villa was pretty nice for that price on a high season week. It had a separate building for the master bedroom, two more good sized bedrooms, an all purpose room with a decent kitchen and a deck spanning the full length of the house looking out on a large salt pond and beyond that Grootpan Bay. The view was spectacular, we watched Black necked stilts, yellow crowned night heron, pin tails, magnificant frigate birds and pelicans from our deck not to mention the stars. It was not 3 or 4 star accomodations, not for the crowd looking for luxury at every turn, but it was nice enough.
On our first trip to St. John, 2 years ago, we stayed at Gallows point in a harbor view condo. I didnt like staying in town with the noise, traffic, congestion. On that trip there was a lot of noise in our room at night from the bars and during the day, starting in the early morning from construction at that monstrosity condo going up in and over the graveyard. That condo is still under construction, so I cant imagine the noise is much better there.
Staying in the Coral Bay area was more our speed. Very laid back, not congested. I think the beaches out our way were better on a busy week. Grootpan is a secluded rocky beach down an unmarked dirt road that has spectacular coral and fish. Salt Pond, Lameshur were wonderful. We swam with a gigantic sea turtle both visits to Salt Pond Beach. We spent a day on the east end of St. John at "Vie's" beach, the beautiful sand beach adjoining Vie's snack shack. She does charge to cross her property to get on the beach (2.50pp) and that irks many people. She does let you park on her property, and she provides lounge chairs, floats, a dressing room, a shaded pavilion, a picnic area, trash cans. Her chicken and conch fritters were fantastic. There is a very nice coral reef to the right of Vie's beach and we saw many fish and coral formations and a spotted eagle ray in the shallow water.
We gave into the kids' whining and spent a day at Cinnamon, because they like it and there are other kids there. It is a beautiful beach, but crowded on a vacation week. The coral out around the cay is nice but not as healthy and alive as other spots on the island. It is nice to have real bathrooms, showers, foot showers etc... When the kids were younger, last trip, a more developed setting was more necessary, but this time we did fine on beaches with outhouses or no bathroom at all, and we didnt visit any beach snackbar except Vie's.

We hiked to Waterlemon once and took a dinghy to it once. It is easier to get there by dinghy, because we carry our kids snorkle equipment for them and lunch and drinks, kinda heavy. We rented the dinghy from Noah's Little Arks. We got the large dinghy with a 30 hp motor. That dinghy is really too heavy to pull up on a beach and the dinghy itself was not in great shape, no handles (all ripped off), motor didnt start easily, hard to steer. Next time we will try to rent a dinghy that has a steering wheel and key (inboard motor?). We saw some dinghys that were rented from Calypso like this, I'm sure you cant pull them up on the beach easily but at least you dont have to spend 15 minutes pulling to get the motor to start when it gets cold. We may look into doing the south side beaches next time. I would love to check out reef bay. We hiked there with the park ranger last visit, but we had no time to snorkle
.
Our food routine was to eat breakfast at the house, pack sandwiches, fruit, snacks and drinks for the beach and go out for dinner. Frequently there was an afternoon smoothie thrown in for good measure.
I will try to post more later and food reviews. Coming soon, a post about Captain Phil, a great guy and the dragon lady at Conrad Sutton.

Thanks for the report

Thanks for the report, Jenni! I just looked at the Villa Mollo site. It looks like a nice villa and location. Did you spend any time at the beach by the villa? (is that Grootpan?)

Enjoying your report. I've never heard of Grootpan? Vie's is a must on my next trip to STJ. Which days is she opened for sure?

DELETED

Thanks for your report! I've never been to Grootpan, another beach to add to my list.

We've spent a few visits to Grootpan. The beach is very rocky, but the snorkle is great, however in June 2005 we were there and their was the worst jelly fish I'd ever seen on STJ. I'm talking freaky thick! It was real hot and still that day.

Thanks for the great report!
I learn something new about STJ every day!

We went to Grootpan bay, which we could have walked to from our house but it was about a mile or so away and with 4 wheel drive you can easily drive there. Grootpan and Kiddel bay are right next to each other and they are the two bays between Salt Pond and Lameshur. There is a dirt road that takes you to both of them (and past Villa Mollo and a few houses). The dirt road is at the bottom of the hill on the left just after you pass the Salt Pond parking lot. Both beaches are rock beaches so you need a chair if you want to hang out there. Someone left a couple of broken down chairs at Grootpan that are somewhat usable but better to bring your own. We had the beach to ourselves for some time but while we were in the water two different sets of local people came to collect bait and fish, and as we were leaving a couple who had come to snorkel arrived. We did not get to Kiddle bay, but Grootpan had excellent snorkeling. For a long day at the beach I still prefer sand, but it was nice for a snorkel. We didnt figure out how to access the large salt pond we were facing in the house, but we saw people kayaking in it in the early morning.
As far as Vie's hours I have heard you really must call to make sure she is open, because she is there when she is there and she is not there when she is not there.

Thanks jenni! Sounds like a great trip!

I looked at Villa Mollo, too, and spoke to the owner once. But then our group grew from 4 to 10 so we needed more space.

Looking forward to more reports!

jenni wrote:far as Vie's hours I have heard you really must call to make sure she is open, because she is there when she is there and she is not there when she is not there.

You know it never once occurred to me to call ahead? I went to Vie's many times over the years and found her Snack Shack closed. I was so disappointed every time. Thanks for the tip, next time I'll call!

Ruth

Thanks for the report! More to add to the list, too.

As to Miss Vie's hours, this a sign on the from of the shack sorta sums it up.[img][img]http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/ ... _07881.jpg[/img][/img]
As to Grootpan Bay here's a couple of pics[img][img]http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/ ... n20bay.jpg[/img]

I can't remember for sure if this is Kiddle or Grootpan, but the beaches are very similar and next to each other.[img][img]http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/ ... G_0817.jpg[/img][/img]

Hey JT, thanks for the pics. We're spending our second week out in that area so it's nice to have a visual!

Vie's address and phone number:

Vie's Snack Shack
Hansen Bay (East End)
Coral Bay
340/ 693-5033