USVI-On-Line

My husband and I are planning a trip for the first week in October. Since this will be our first trip to St John I am full of questions. First of all we have looked at staying in a house called Mampoo Hill has anyone ever stayed there before?How was it? Also I know that many business are closed this time of the year. How many resturants usually stay open during October? Also Private or Public Taxi from the airport to ferry, which do you recommend? Also if anyone has any suggestion of things to do on the island let me know? Of course I think I would be happy just staying on the beach all day. Thanks a bunch

Welcome to the Forum! There is no turning back now.

Since you are going in October, I recommend that you get trip insurance. We failed to do that in September, 2010 and lost our trip. Earl arrived at the airport at the same time that our flight was due to arrive.

We generally bring a cooler full of meat from home and cook in the villa. You can buy the other ingredients there. You'll want to go out some times, but your choices will be limited.

Have a great trip.

JIM

Here is a link to St John Spice, they maintain a restaurant closing schedule.
http://stjohnspice.com/stjohnrestaurants.htm

I'd recommend getting a copy of either Feet Fins and Four Wheel drive by Pam Gaffin (we're on our second copy and take it with us each trip) and/or St John Off the Beaten Track by Gerald Singer. Both are available at Amazon.

I'd suggest going with the public taxi for your first trip, odds are there will be people who have been to SJ several times (yes it is an obsession but a sweet one) who usually are happy to share their favorite things to do.

Welcome...

I agree with jwwj about the reading selection.

Feet Fins and Four Wheel drive by Pam Gaffin and St John Off the Beaten Track by Gerald Singer

I use the FFFWD every day on every trip. I actually read it before I went to St. John the first time and it made the trip much more enjoyable-I knew what to expect.

Although they are both available on Amazon, you might want to make sure you are getting the most recent edition. In the past, St. John Spice on St. John has had the newest edition of FFFWD before Amazon.

Welcome! I think Ruth's calendar from the last season stays up throughout the year, so you should be able to get an idea of what might be open.
For other ideas, just start reading trip reports, and see what appeals to you. If you put "trip report" in the search here, you'll come up with trip after trip.

Thank God

I'll second the recommendation for a cooler full of meat! Restaurants are fantastic here but expensive compared to stateside, and if you like to cook, you'll have that whole kitchen your villa just begging to be used.

Whenever I'm stateside, I always buy a bunch of things that are either super expensive on St John or are just difficult/impossible to get here. It's no problem to put them in a cooler with some ice packs, seal the whole thing with packing tape and it travels well and stays cold, with the frozen items remaining frozen (for 10+ hours, in my experience).

Some of the things I brought with last time: pre-marinated meats (Trader Joe's carne asada is fantastic!), fancy sausages, cheese, a little bottle of sesame oil, a couple of really good dark chocolate bars (hey, any excuse to enjoy dark c
chocolate!).

Oh, and agree, go with the public taxi from the airport-- you're very likely to meet St John local as well as frequent visitors, and everyone is usually quite friendly in the van.

best,
Eric

Thanks for all the great advice. We can't wait to get there. October really seems so far away right now.

Ready2Go I'm sure you will love STJ like the rest of us do! The 2 books are great for ideas for snorkeling and hiking. (Ram Head is my favorite hike but there are plenty of others and many I haven't tried.)

Other ideas:
- rent kayaks, stand up paddleboards, or a sailboat at Maho or Cinnamon Bay.
- rent a dinghy from Calypso, Low Key, or Noah's and take it from the Nat'l Park dock along the North Shore beaches. This was one of our favorite days as a family outing.
- do a day sail/snorkel trip, either locally or to the BVI

I've been there 3 times and am still looking forward to trying new things and seeing new beaches. But there are so many beautiful beaches that you could spend every day at a different beach, do nothing else and be happy.

chicagoans wrote: I've been there 3 times and am still looking forward to trying new things and seeing new beaches. But there are so many beautiful beaches that you could spend every day at a different beach, do nothing else and be happy.

so true... I've lived here for a while and still have a list of beaches I've not seen yet...