honeymoon questions.

[thebuckest]

hello all,

my name is andy and me and my wife will be traveling to st. thomas for the first week in october. I was wondering if I could get some tips on some fun things to do around the island including st. johns. we are the adventorus type and love to have a good time. not really looking for a ton of r&r although we will spend a few days on various beaches.

if you could please include the bbest beaches all types, night life my wife loves to dance and would like to get a taste of the local nightlife safely, and anything fun like zip lining scuba etc. thank you and all your advice will be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
andy

[ski2play]

Buckest,
First, congrats on your upcoming honeymoon. You will certainly enjoy your trip to the USVI. I do not have any information for you on St Thomas. We did enjoy St John for 10 days in June 2011 for a mini-moon! The beaches are fabulous so take the ferry from STT to STJ and either hike from Cruz Bay to Salomon and Honeymoon Beaches, or take a taxi to one of the many other beaches. Our favorites on the island are Trunk, Maho, Francis, and Haulover. You can rent a jeep for the day on St John also! Zozo's for a romantic dinner with sunset can not be beat! Also, the Beach Bar is a delightful way to spend the evening people watching....Hope this helps!

[jimg20]

Scuba is easy enough to arrange. Just to your right about 50 yards as you get off the ferry is Low Key Watersports. There are several other scuba opportunities as well. Taking a day sail on one of the many boats is also an option. You could rent a Jeep and drive out to Waterlemon Cay for a snorkel. Once you are in the Jeep all sorts of beach opportunities are within a 30 minute drive. You could finish the day at Trunk Bay. After about 2 pm the cruise ship people have left for the boat and the beach is much more accessable. You could then use the Truck facilities, shower and change into clean clothes to spend the evening eating, drinking and dancing.

Have a great time planning your trip, enjoying your wedding and getting addicted to the the island life.


JIM

[SusanNJ]

You may want to check out the Scubadu and Captain Joe. He is docked right in Red Hook, St. Thomas and can take you and your new bride out on the water for the day. He can also cook you a great lunch! His website is www.sailvi.com

[thebuckest]

those are all wonderful ideas, can I get any help on where I can find affordable one bedroom villas on st. john or st. thomas? looking at around 2500.00 as our budget but that can be flexible if airfare is included and depending on how expensive meals are on the island cause I don't believe there are any all inclusive villas right?

thanks again

[Xislandgirl]

There are no all inclusive villas on STJ, so your best bet is to come up with a full vacation budget (airfare, villa, rental car and food) so we can try and help you find a great place to stay.

You can enjoy STJ or STT on all types of budgets, you just have to be more creative on some than others.

[thebuckest]

If I had to put an overall number on it right now I would say we are prepared to spend about 4-5000 dollars. but that number may go up just depends on my work bonus coming up. I have found some villas on expedia that fall well below that range and include airfare so I know there is some out there just not sure which is the best.

we really don't mind having breakfast and lunch in the villa I know there's a kmart around so I can grab some groceries in there. but we would eat out pretty frequently. we don't get to into fine dining as neither one of us like fish. what's the average price of a good meal down there?

[Xislandgirl]

That is a fine budget and you can do a lot with that.
Next you need to decide what island you want.
Neither island is super active, no ziplines or things like that but you will find great hiking, great shore snorkeling, boat rentals, and people on STJ. STT has less hiking, but great beaches and great shopping so that is your decision to make.

No matter what island you decide you will need to rent a jeep so put that in your budget as well

[thebuckest]

as far as island I just figured I would go with the one with the best deal, from what I've been told st. johns is beatiful and a little less active but gets the best reviews. with the convenience of getting back and forth between the islands I figured it really doesn't matter.

with all that said I believe st. johns would be amazing but seems pricey. if I could find a villa that is nice and had alot of amenities I would go for it. but if there not that much better than the resorts on st. thomas and if st. thomas is cheaper then I would rather go to st. thomas. so not confuse anyone I would like something really nice with u know room side pool if possible on st. johns. but I believe this to be out of budget. I am just as happy staying at st. thomas if the resorts or villas there are just as nice.

[California Girl]

With your budget you can find a nice villa on St. John (no "s"). They come in all price ranges and usually end up being less expensive for a week than a resort. Plus you have privacy, and often your own pool.

Personally, I wouldn't go with Expedia for a "package deal," someone's making money off you somewhere along the line. Make your own plans, and you will end up much happier. The people here on the forum are most willing to help you with any questions.

Check out these links as a place to start to find a villa on St. John:

http://www.destinationstjohn.com/
http://cateredto.com/
http://www.caribbeanvilla.com/

Also, you might want to check Grande Bay. It's a condo building that's walking distance from downtown Cruz Bay an all it has to offer. A few of our forum members own condos there and rent them out. They are listed on VRBO.

If you want a recommendation for St. Thomas, I will point you to "Rockworks" http://www.islandhideaways.com/stthomas ... rockworks/ and "Stone Cottage" http://www.islandhideaways.com/stthomas ... e-cottage/ They are both on the same property and can be rented separately. I know the owner and she takes extremely good care of her property. You won't be disappointed!

Happy planning!

[Chicken]

You can find a lot of villas here:

http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/ca ... vi-st-john

Since the night life is more important to you, you might want to stay closer to the Cruz Bay side of the island. Just a warning, though, you won't find any dance clubs or anything like that on St. John. You WILL find some great live music and people having a great time, but nothing like what you might be used to states-side. If you are looking for bigger, more typical "night clubs" you might want to stick to St. Thomas.

If you do wind up on St. John (which I would highly recommend) there are TONS of hikes and boat/kayak trips to choose from. No zip lines on St. John. The beauty of St. John far surpasses St. Thomas in my opinion because so much of it is unspoiled national park.

The national park service offers guided hikes on the Reef Bay trail and is an opportunity to learn a lot about the island history and culture. Plus you get a boat ride back to town and don't have to trek up the mountain you just came down.

The entire island is a network of hiking trails. You can read about most of them in "Feet Fins & Four-Wheel Drive. You can buy the book on this site or wait until you get to the island. Most villas will have a copy for guests.

There are also some great kayak trips you can take. This is the one I plan on doing when I'm down next:
http://www.hiddenreefecotours.com/20110125/home.html

There's tons to do. You won't be bored.

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