USVI-On-Line

Hello everyone! I've never been to St. John, it's been on my bucket list for years I've just never been able to afford to go. Now I'm 53 and my husband, daughter, brother and sister in law are all headed there together! Is that fantastic or what! We are staying in sol inclination, I know about the drive up there, but we're adventurous people and we will be back to the villa for sunsets every night.
But I wanted to ask about a private taxi I reserved from STT to red hook. We land at 2:50pm and my hope is to catch the 4:00 ferry. So I scheduled a private taxi for the 5 of us, thinking that we won't have to wait as long to get going as we would if we took a regular taxi? What do you experienced travelers think? It's not that much more expensive for 5.
Thank you! I dream about what it will be like on St. John every day!

We also take a private taxi, but we take the private water taxi as well rather than the ferry! We like to get to the rock ASAP !!! Private taxi is great, but there are taxi drivers lined up to take folks to the ferry!!!

We always use Rachel for a private taxi! Easiest way to ease into vacation

lazylane wrote:We also take a private taxi, but we take the private water taxi as well rather than the ferry! We like to get to the rock ASAP !!! Private taxi is great, but there are taxi drivers lined up to take folks to the ferry!!!

So do we. Last time it cost us $7 more per person to use Christopher/Domhs. OP, if you are interested in both a land and water taxi, this is who we have used since 2005 -

http://www.watertaxi-vi.com/

If you are checking luggage, you will need to get your luggage asap and get on your way to Red Hook...
Last trip we were in a hurry and of course our luggage was about the last to come down..took forever. If you are carry on only, then no worries..

We have always taken a regular taxi. There is a taxi "co-ordinator" just outside of the luggage carousel. He finds us a taxi-van headed to the ferry and the driver loads our luggage into the taxi. When the taxi is full we are on our way. With a group of 5 you will fill the majority of the taxi. Most of the time the taxi is loaded with 6 or 7 passengers before leaving. I usually figure it might take a maximum 45 minutes to get from the airport to Red Hook.

Xislandgirl.....do you know how much Rachel charges to take you from airport to Redhook. I am considering her this year. My flight comes in at 3:25 and was hoping to get to Redhook for the 4:00 ferry. I thought maybe using her would get me there a little faster than waiting on a full van before we can leave for the ferry dock.

It depends on how many people in your party.
Just a note that if you are checking a bag, you will not likely make the 4:00, even with her. That can be a busy time of day for traffic and if there are ships in port, it can be even busier.

toes in the sand wrote:We have always taken a regular taxi. There is a taxi "co-ordinator" just outside of the luggage carousel. He finds us a taxi-van headed to the ferry and the driver loads our luggage into the taxi. When the taxi is full we are on our way. With a group of 5 you will fill the majority of the taxi. Most of the time the taxi is loaded with 6 or 7 passengers before leaving. I usually figure it might take a maximum 45 minutes to get from the airport to Red Hook.

We have not had that much luck in the past. Our experience has been that we are assigned to a 15 passenger van, and that van does not leave until every seat is filled. When we leave we must stop at every hotel on St Thomas. I know it skips a few hotels, but it seems like every one. Since we are going to the Red Hook ferry, we are the last ones in the van. We have, by this time, been traveling for many hours. The van is crowded, and the A/C seldom works. This is not my idea of a good time.

We discovered Rachel last year. The van is much nicer. The driver speaks to us and tells us about the island as we drive. We leave when we are ready. It is a nonstop trip to the ferry. We discovered that we spend a few dollars more with her, but found it to be worth it. We also spend another $20 on a porter when we leave. We could do it ourselves, but we enjoy the comfort and convenience of having that help. I classify the extra cost of the private taxi the same way.

The water taxi also sounds interesting. We may need to look into that next year.

JIM

This year we are arriving ON my 50th birthday! Because I want to see the St. John sunset ON my birthday, we have booked Rachel to take us to the ferry dock and Dohm's water taxi to take us to St. John. Definitely faster this way. More costly, but it is a special occasion and worth it!

We used Rachel to coordinate a "private" taxi for us last year and were a bit disappointed. The driver did not come and let us know he was there,and we had search the airport parking lot for his car-not easy to do when you have your luggage with you and you are not sure who you are looking for! When we finally found our driver and started driving towards the ferry, the driver stopped about 5 minutes into the trip to wait 20 minutes for another couple that needed a ride which made us miss our ferry. Between trying to hunt down a scheduled driver, being cramped in a taxi with another couple, and missing our ferry because of the addition of this couple, we are not planning on relying on this service next trip. I am sure others have had a positive experience, but we are not willing to risk it next time.

When I called Rachel a couple weeks ago she said it would be her, or two other gentlemen. She said to look for a sign with our name, etc..Am I correct that you do not take other people since it is a private taxi? (wondering from previous post)...
I really want her to come..She is the reputation I am willing to pay extra for. I will touch base with her before our arrival to make sure we have a suitable driver whether it's her or one of her acquaintances..Has anyone had someone other than Rachel when booking with her?

She has 2 drivers that work for her. If there is another couple on the same flight going to Red Hook and they have hired Rachel, then you may be in the can with them.
If you want no one in your cab, just call her and tell her.

Wow, I don't know who Rachel is but she's popular! I contacted Judith from Wheatley taxi service for a private transfer. They are suppose to have my name on a card by the luggage area. I've never done that before so I hope it works out! The private water taxi is interesting too...but this time we'll just try the private taxi and the worst that can happen is we arrive at our villa in the dark, but Marc miller will be taking us there so it will all work out. Thanks to everyone for your input! As we get closer to our travel dates I'd like to get a list of can't miss restaurants from everyone too.

I'll throw out another recommendation for Dohms/Christopher. I let the folks at Dohms know our flight time and they coordinated with Christopher to be waiting at baggage claim. Sure it's a bit more to have the private taxi and water taxi, but well worth it in my opinion. We got off the plane, grabbed our bags and were straight on our way. No waiting anywhere and both our land taxi driver and water taxi driver were friendly and fun. We'll be using them again this spring for sure!