Very Belated Trip Report: May 27-June 4
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:00 am
Have so much enjoyed all the recent trip reports and feel very guilty about be so tardy with my own! Do not have a lot to add but I have to say, for all the research I did ahead of our first trip, there were still some surprises!
Arrival: Our connection to STT on Delta from RDU through Atlanta was moved up so we had less than an hour layover; we were meeting a son and his girlfriend coming from Chicago and they had even less time, but all went well—connections made, luggage arrived. There were eight of us, so we used Dohm’s water taxi. Very dependable and professional; why, they even answer email promptly! If it were just the two of us we would definitely do the regular taxi/ferry routine but with a big group, a lot of luggage, and not knowing where the heck we were going this just made sense and was so easy.
Heaven’s Gate Villa: We were met by Josephine’s (yes, of Josephine’s Greens!) husband Hugo at the ferry dock. What a sweetheart he is—took us to St. John Car Rental to pick up the rental cars, guided us to Starfish and even waited patiently while we picked up a few things. We followed him out to Coral Bay to the house. The place is drop dead gorgeous, well-furnished (the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in), spotlessly clean, great kitchen. I could hardly stand to stay in the house though, day or night, the outdoors is so lovely. Sunny pool area, but plenty of shady nooks as well and the grounds are beautifully landscaped. But the view! Lovely and unspoiled (you see very few villas or roads or boats); honestly, I was astounded and couldn’t stop looking.
There was an odd incident the day we arrived—the people ahead of us got their villa departure date confused and “forgot” to leave (perfectly understandable, we didn’t want to leave either when the time came)! They were out of the house and couldn’t be contacted so the housekeeper had to pack their belongings in plastic bags; poor things, imagine coming back from the beach to find you had been evicted from you villa—later in the week the fella at Crabby’s said a group of people returning equipment had asked him if he knew of a place where they could spend the night! If it was anyone reading this, I am so sorry!
Anyway, we settled in and made a quick but delicious meal of “Dreamshark Quesadillas” (onion sautéed in butter layered over cheddar cheese on a tortilla-instead of bread-topped with another tortilla and grilled). We brought all the makings (and a whole lot more) in our carry on cooler and checked bag-would definitely do this again.
One quirk about the house—twice couples got locked into their outdoor showers and had to yell for someone to come unlock the door. Was funny (and possibly a little embarrassing) but could have been a lot more interesting if they had been alone!
Favorite Things:
•Walking in the morning with a cup of coffee—on the driveway alone we saw Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbirds, Mangrove Cuckoo, Gray Kingbird, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, a smooth billed Ani and lots of doves and warblers.
•Haulover South: went twice and mostly had it to ourselves. Not too much sandy beach but such a pretty bay with decent snorkeling. Fun place to gently turn over rocks and look at the critters underneath.
•Princess Bay Mangrove snorkel: favorite of the others though I didn’t much care for it. Very different environment than the other beaches for sure, warm shallow water, and fire coral inches from your nose!
•Hike: Brown Bay to Leinster Bay to Skinny Legs! Hiked to Brown Bay (actually did this hike twice as it is near the villa; could not find the ruins either time in spite of studying directions prior to the second visit—maybe the third time will be the charm!), then on to the Leinster Bay overlook. Here we split up; oldest son, husband and I went down to the bay to swim while the others returned to the car at the Brown Bay trailhead. After our swim we hiked over the Johnny Horn trail to Skinny Legs and met up with the rest of the crew. Nothing like drinks and burgers after a long hike!
•Going to bed exhausted but not being able to sleep because it feels like Christmas Eve!
Not so great:
•Olympus Tough wasn’t and drowned early in the trip; no one else had a camera so we didn’t take a lot of pictures.
•Driving: will do it, but I still don’t like it--find it stressful. Ideally would like to go to the beach or for a hike early in the morning, come back to the villa for lunch and a siesta, and go back out in the afternoon; however, after we returned to the villa the driving dread factor combined with villa gravity usually kept us from a second trip out.
•Sucker attack!: After swimming at Leinster I had attached my board shorts to the pack with a carbiner to dry while we hiked out. Suddenly—chomp---something sunk its teeth into my calf! Took off running down the trail; husband and son saw something green, about six inches long, attacked to my leg and they ran, too. Finally, my son turned back to help; turned out the board shorts had picked up a sucker and slapped it onto my leg. It was the devil to remove, and left me with a large bruise punctuated with red dots—pretty in its own way, wish I had gotten a picture.
Things that surprised me:
•People were so nice! Had read some posts that led me to believe local folks could be aloof or even unpleasant with tourists. Did not have that experience at all; in fact, the epitome of grace in my mind will be the sole waitress at Shipwreck Landing dealing patiently with a group of 14 who wanted several separate checks. Son’s GF heard she no longer even worked at the restaurant but had stepped in when no one showed up that day.
•It could get downright chilly up at the villa, the “breeze” was that strong! We never needed the AC in the bedroom; in fact, I needed to hunt down an extra blanket from the closet. Someone had mentioned taking a sweater for the plane, so I had a light sweatshirt and was happier for it.
•The water was a tad murky more often than not the week we were there. We did have some storms and perhaps it was windier than usual as well. Still, was the first time snorkeling for about half the crew and everyone really enjoyed it.
•More people and cars than I expected. Three times we walked from the villa driveway along the East End road to the water, each time crossing to the “wrong” side of the road at one point to avoid a dangerous (for walking) hairpin turn. This took all of maybe 30 seconds but each time someone drove past and educated us about being on the wrong side of the road!
A big, big THANK YOU to all who have posted gobs of useful information and to those who did a lot of hand-holding to get me through the trip planning; we had such an amazing time and I will forever be grateful for your help. And oh yeah, I think you’ve created a monster….hardly had unpacked before I started planning the next trip!
Arrival: Our connection to STT on Delta from RDU through Atlanta was moved up so we had less than an hour layover; we were meeting a son and his girlfriend coming from Chicago and they had even less time, but all went well—connections made, luggage arrived. There were eight of us, so we used Dohm’s water taxi. Very dependable and professional; why, they even answer email promptly! If it were just the two of us we would definitely do the regular taxi/ferry routine but with a big group, a lot of luggage, and not knowing where the heck we were going this just made sense and was so easy.
Heaven’s Gate Villa: We were met by Josephine’s (yes, of Josephine’s Greens!) husband Hugo at the ferry dock. What a sweetheart he is—took us to St. John Car Rental to pick up the rental cars, guided us to Starfish and even waited patiently while we picked up a few things. We followed him out to Coral Bay to the house. The place is drop dead gorgeous, well-furnished (the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in), spotlessly clean, great kitchen. I could hardly stand to stay in the house though, day or night, the outdoors is so lovely. Sunny pool area, but plenty of shady nooks as well and the grounds are beautifully landscaped. But the view! Lovely and unspoiled (you see very few villas or roads or boats); honestly, I was astounded and couldn’t stop looking.
Anyway, we settled in and made a quick but delicious meal of “Dreamshark Quesadillas” (onion sautéed in butter layered over cheddar cheese on a tortilla-instead of bread-topped with another tortilla and grilled). We brought all the makings (and a whole lot more) in our carry on cooler and checked bag-would definitely do this again.
One quirk about the house—twice couples got locked into their outdoor showers and had to yell for someone to come unlock the door. Was funny (and possibly a little embarrassing) but could have been a lot more interesting if they had been alone!
Favorite Things:
•Walking in the morning with a cup of coffee—on the driveway alone we saw Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbirds, Mangrove Cuckoo, Gray Kingbird, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, a smooth billed Ani and lots of doves and warblers.
•Haulover South: went twice and mostly had it to ourselves. Not too much sandy beach but such a pretty bay with decent snorkeling. Fun place to gently turn over rocks and look at the critters underneath.
•Princess Bay Mangrove snorkel: favorite of the others though I didn’t much care for it. Very different environment than the other beaches for sure, warm shallow water, and fire coral inches from your nose!
•Hike: Brown Bay to Leinster Bay to Skinny Legs! Hiked to Brown Bay (actually did this hike twice as it is near the villa; could not find the ruins either time in spite of studying directions prior to the second visit—maybe the third time will be the charm!), then on to the Leinster Bay overlook. Here we split up; oldest son, husband and I went down to the bay to swim while the others returned to the car at the Brown Bay trailhead. After our swim we hiked over the Johnny Horn trail to Skinny Legs and met up with the rest of the crew. Nothing like drinks and burgers after a long hike!
Not so great:
•Olympus Tough wasn’t and drowned early in the trip; no one else had a camera so we didn’t take a lot of pictures.
•Driving: will do it, but I still don’t like it--find it stressful. Ideally would like to go to the beach or for a hike early in the morning, come back to the villa for lunch and a siesta, and go back out in the afternoon; however, after we returned to the villa the driving dread factor combined with villa gravity usually kept us from a second trip out.
•Sucker attack!: After swimming at Leinster I had attached my board shorts to the pack with a carbiner to dry while we hiked out. Suddenly—chomp---something sunk its teeth into my calf! Took off running down the trail; husband and son saw something green, about six inches long, attacked to my leg and they ran, too. Finally, my son turned back to help; turned out the board shorts had picked up a sucker and slapped it onto my leg. It was the devil to remove, and left me with a large bruise punctuated with red dots—pretty in its own way, wish I had gotten a picture.
Things that surprised me:
•People were so nice! Had read some posts that led me to believe local folks could be aloof or even unpleasant with tourists. Did not have that experience at all; in fact, the epitome of grace in my mind will be the sole waitress at Shipwreck Landing dealing patiently with a group of 14 who wanted several separate checks. Son’s GF heard she no longer even worked at the restaurant but had stepped in when no one showed up that day.
•It could get downright chilly up at the villa, the “breeze” was that strong! We never needed the AC in the bedroom; in fact, I needed to hunt down an extra blanket from the closet. Someone had mentioned taking a sweater for the plane, so I had a light sweatshirt and was happier for it.
•The water was a tad murky more often than not the week we were there. We did have some storms and perhaps it was windier than usual as well. Still, was the first time snorkeling for about half the crew and everyone really enjoyed it.
•More people and cars than I expected. Three times we walked from the villa driveway along the East End road to the water, each time crossing to the “wrong” side of the road at one point to avoid a dangerous (for walking) hairpin turn. This took all of maybe 30 seconds but each time someone drove past and educated us about being on the wrong side of the road!
A big, big THANK YOU to all who have posted gobs of useful information and to those who did a lot of hand-holding to get me through the trip planning; we had such an amazing time and I will forever be grateful for your help. And oh yeah, I think you’ve created a monster….hardly had unpacked before I started planning the next trip!
!