USVI-On-Line

After two recent trips over the Christmas holidays, we decided to try a less busy time and booked two weeks in February. Now I'm reading several posts that refer to President's "week", and how busy it is. We have President's "Day" in the midwest. And that's it. Is it different on the east coast? A mid-winter break? Is it going to be crazy busy for our second week?

IMO Presidents day "week" is probably one of the top 3 busiest weeks on STJ so unfortunately yes it will be packed.

Pia

Ditto!

President's 'week' is also, usually, the week leading up to the 8 Tuff Miles race. I'm not sure how that affects crowds, but there are several hundred who come in for the race (and Centerline closes down for a few hours on race day.)

This year, because the last day of February falls on Saturday, 8 Tuff (Feb. 28th this year) is NOT the Saturday at the end of President's Week. Maybe the fact that Pres' Week and 8 Tuff don't overlap will help a bit with crowds?

If you're still on island on 2/28, be aware that Centerline will close by about 7a.m. (not sure exactly; I know we cut it close last year getting to the race start from Coral Bay!) Centerline reopens at about 10:00 a.m. If you are still there, it would be fun to find a spot along the route to cheer on the runners! It would be even MORE fun to run it! (OK they're probably sold out for this year... next year!)

We were on SJ for Christmas week last year (sounds so long ago) and have been a couple times during President's week. We found Presidents to be very crowded but Christmas even more so.

To answer your earlier question, here in new Northeast. We do not have a spring break. We have a break in February, and also a break in April for the kids in the grades 1 to 12. College kids however, do have the traditional March spring break. Now, unless of course you live in New Hampshire, where we are quite frugal we have our break a week later. As a side note, that’s why high season normally ends mid-April to account for the April break here in the Northeast.

The week of President's Day is typically a vacation week for public school kids in New England; therefore, the term President's Week. Many of us seek out warmer climates to get a break from winter. Yes, it is busy but that doesn't mean you won't be able to enjoy yourselves. We were there last President's Week and had no trouble eating where we wanted (make reservations if you can but you don't have to do it too early), enjoying mostly quiet beaches, and doing what we wanted. We've not been at Christmas so I can't compare but I don't think you will be overwhelmed by any means.

I have found that most of the businesses here in the USVI consider it the best week of the year for busyness, a lot of families, everyone starved for warm weather by Feb., and the activities like rental cars, daysails and restaurants are often all booked up every day - I do suggest making reservations ahead of time if there are any particular activities that you especially want to do. Maybe not today but certainly not the night before or day of, rental cars excepted, do that ASAP!

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Interesting about the different regional traditions/ schedules for breaks. Yes.... definitely in the Midwest we're craving some warm weather by February. We do have the car rental fixed, and just booked our first sail on Kekoa, so really looking forward to that. 2 weeks and 3 days to go!!!

Hi Kathy

What sail on Kekoa ? (I probably took your reservation )

Pia

I'm sorry to say that we have been down over President's Week twice and we will NEVER do it again. It wasn't so much the crowds and it was crowded but I don't believe we've ever been there when there we so many RUDE people! We pretty much stayed away from town and hung out in Coral Bay. Where do these rude people come from anyway? It's not my idea of a relaxing vacation being around loud stupid people. But that's just me.

Hi Pia,
We're doing the sunset snorkel sail on 2/11 with 2 of our friends. You probably talked with our goddaughter who is treating us with this sail as a thank-you for me being the fairy godmother and helping her a lot with her wedding! They did the all-day sail when they were down in November for their honeymoon, and just raved about it. So, they wanted to give it to us as a gift. Nice, huh?

Diana2 wrote:I'm sorry to say that we have been down over President's Week twice and we will NEVER do it again. It wasn't so much the crowds and it was crowded but I don't believe we've ever been there when there we so many RUDE people! We pretty much stayed away from town and hung out in Coral Bay. Where do these rude people come from anyway? It's not my idea of a relaxing vacation being around loud stupid people. But that's just me.

that's why we call them Massholes here in NH

And Vermonters use the term flatlanders, particularly for people from Connecticut and New Jersey.

What can I say We people from New England loved to be underinflated

We have visited twice during Presidents Week and survived. Main issue we encountered was beach parking but we are not early risers and always managed to find a spot. What is considered Christmas Holiday busy time...days right before Christmas til day or so after New Years Day??

KathyMN wrote:After two recent trips over the Christmas holidays, we decided to try a less busy time and booked two weeks in February. Now I'm reading several posts that refer to President's "week", and how busy it is. We have President's "Day" in the midwest. And that's it. Is it different on the east coast? A mid-winter break? Is it going to be crazy busy for our second week?

If your baseline for crowds is Christmas time, you'll find President's Week a bit quieter. If your baseline is....pretty much any other time (besides perhaps Easter Week), it will be crowded. But, in my few times traveling over each, I've found Prez Week to be noticeably less crowded than Christmas Week. Of course, I'm mostly basing that on this past Christmas which was as crowded as I've ever seen the Island. Still certainly manageable though, but you definitely noticed it - especially on the beach. No issue (at least to me) for restaurants and bars. We got a sunset rezzie at Zozo's only a day or two in advance.