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Trip Report
-
klikesfins
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Thu Jul 01, 2010 8:03 am
- Location: Bolivar Ohio
Trip Report
Hello everyone and thanks to all that make planning a trip easier by sharing your knowledge.
We returned from St. John on Saturday. This was our fifth trip but our first trip during high season. I was afraid it would be insane but was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is much busier in January than October or June. We tend to be early risers and are on the beach by 8:30/9:00. Some days that meant we were the first car there. However by the time we left the beach around noon, parking was a nightmare and you could find cars parked in the craziest spots.
The other thing to our advantage, we eat lunch out and stay at the villa for our evening meals. Never had to wait for a seat when eating around 1:00.
We stayed at Hilltop Hideaway overlooking Cruz Bay. There are two units, the lower unit has a pool and that is the one we stayed in. One of the cleanest places we have ever rented. 2 bedrooms, 3 full baths and a small but well appointed kitchen make this a great home base.
We rented our jeep from Bougainvillea Car Rental and were extremely pleased with the ease of service. Would definitely use them again.
We are scuba divers but only snorkel on St. John. Our favorite snorkeling site is Haulover North. The conditions were great there this year. No sea urchins on the way in and good visibility. We always say this would be a wonderful spot to dive and this time we were proven right as a dive boat came just as we were leaving the water. This is one of the few spots with a large reef area. The sea fans, elk horn coral and stag horn coral are all doing great here.
We also enjoyed snorkels at Jumbie, Maho, Francis. and Princess Bay. Snorkel highlights were a small green moray eel at Maho, spotted eagle ray at Francis and a very friendly, mobile octopus also at Francis. Speaking of Francis. They have paved part of the road leading to the beach. We were quite surprised to come around the corner and see a bunch of heavy machinery. All those lovely pot holes have been paved over and replaced by quite large speed bumps. The paving is a plus but don't know if the speed bumps needed to be quite so high, lol.
All our lunches were great... Beach Bar, Waterfront Bistro, Sun Dog Cafe, Tourist Trap and Banana Deck. We had take-a-way from Joe's BBQ our first night and we are happy to report the ribs were tender and the chicken was good. We also did take-a-way from Sam and Jack's Deli. Love the Stromboli and Lasagna. Add a salad and some bread for a great evening meal.
Starfish Market had Porterhouse steaks on sale last week and we made the most of it. The first night we grilled all the steak along with some onions and peppers. We had steak with baked potato and salad that night. Another night we re-heated the grilled steak and veggies to made fajitas. Another night we used the grilled steak for a steak salad. It was awesome. Of course, food always tastes better when you are sitting looking out over the ocean, right?
We left St, John on the 11 am ferry. In Red Hook, we ate lunch at the Tap and Still. It is easy walking distance from the ferry dock and the taxi stand will let you store your luggage, bonus! It was a fun meal of burgers, fries, and funnel cakes all served in a brown paper bag. That along with one more Virgin Islands Beer made the leaving a bit easier.
The taxi ride back to the airport got us there about 2 hours before our flight. We were on Delta and there was almost no line. American Airlines on the other hand was a zoo. Glad I wasn't in that line! I had printed our boarding passes at Connections in Cruz Bay, so all we had to do was wait in the line to check our baggage, about 5 minutes. The line to get through the "customs" part took about 15 minutes. Another line to have your checked baggage scanned took about 10 minutes. Then the last line to get through security was shorter for us because we were TSA pre-checked, YAY! That only took about 5 minutes but the regular line was probably another 15. It was long. As always, high season or not, the seating area was completely full.
The restaurant that is at the top of the hill at the airport is open again. It had been closed the last time we were there in October 2014. We had eaten there several times before entering the airport.
Love St. John! Look forward to trip #6 someday. But right now the memories and pictures of this trip will help make winter a bit easier to survive. Thanks again to everyone that posts on the Forum. You are all great!
We returned from St. John on Saturday. This was our fifth trip but our first trip during high season. I was afraid it would be insane but was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is much busier in January than October or June. We tend to be early risers and are on the beach by 8:30/9:00. Some days that meant we were the first car there. However by the time we left the beach around noon, parking was a nightmare and you could find cars parked in the craziest spots.
The other thing to our advantage, we eat lunch out and stay at the villa for our evening meals. Never had to wait for a seat when eating around 1:00.
We stayed at Hilltop Hideaway overlooking Cruz Bay. There are two units, the lower unit has a pool and that is the one we stayed in. One of the cleanest places we have ever rented. 2 bedrooms, 3 full baths and a small but well appointed kitchen make this a great home base.
We rented our jeep from Bougainvillea Car Rental and were extremely pleased with the ease of service. Would definitely use them again.
We are scuba divers but only snorkel on St. John. Our favorite snorkeling site is Haulover North. The conditions were great there this year. No sea urchins on the way in and good visibility. We always say this would be a wonderful spot to dive and this time we were proven right as a dive boat came just as we were leaving the water. This is one of the few spots with a large reef area. The sea fans, elk horn coral and stag horn coral are all doing great here.
We also enjoyed snorkels at Jumbie, Maho, Francis. and Princess Bay. Snorkel highlights were a small green moray eel at Maho, spotted eagle ray at Francis and a very friendly, mobile octopus also at Francis. Speaking of Francis. They have paved part of the road leading to the beach. We were quite surprised to come around the corner and see a bunch of heavy machinery. All those lovely pot holes have been paved over and replaced by quite large speed bumps. The paving is a plus but don't know if the speed bumps needed to be quite so high, lol.
All our lunches were great... Beach Bar, Waterfront Bistro, Sun Dog Cafe, Tourist Trap and Banana Deck. We had take-a-way from Joe's BBQ our first night and we are happy to report the ribs were tender and the chicken was good. We also did take-a-way from Sam and Jack's Deli. Love the Stromboli and Lasagna. Add a salad and some bread for a great evening meal.
Starfish Market had Porterhouse steaks on sale last week and we made the most of it. The first night we grilled all the steak along with some onions and peppers. We had steak with baked potato and salad that night. Another night we re-heated the grilled steak and veggies to made fajitas. Another night we used the grilled steak for a steak salad. It was awesome. Of course, food always tastes better when you are sitting looking out over the ocean, right?
We left St, John on the 11 am ferry. In Red Hook, we ate lunch at the Tap and Still. It is easy walking distance from the ferry dock and the taxi stand will let you store your luggage, bonus! It was a fun meal of burgers, fries, and funnel cakes all served in a brown paper bag. That along with one more Virgin Islands Beer made the leaving a bit easier.
The taxi ride back to the airport got us there about 2 hours before our flight. We were on Delta and there was almost no line. American Airlines on the other hand was a zoo. Glad I wasn't in that line! I had printed our boarding passes at Connections in Cruz Bay, so all we had to do was wait in the line to check our baggage, about 5 minutes. The line to get through the "customs" part took about 15 minutes. Another line to have your checked baggage scanned took about 10 minutes. Then the last line to get through security was shorter for us because we were TSA pre-checked, YAY! That only took about 5 minutes but the regular line was probably another 15. It was long. As always, high season or not, the seating area was completely full.
The restaurant that is at the top of the hill at the airport is open again. It had been closed the last time we were there in October 2014. We had eaten there several times before entering the airport.
Love St. John! Look forward to trip #6 someday. But right now the memories and pictures of this trip will help make winter a bit easier to survive. Thanks again to everyone that posts on the Forum. You are all great!
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Re: Trip Report
Great trip report! We also always rent from Bougainvillea.... I think the secret's out that they are a great rental company! Thank you for sharing 
-
Backtotheislands
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:32 pm
- Location: Rockwall, Texas
-
equineannie
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:24 pm
- Location: Florida
Re: Trip Report
Try a dive next time, go out with Aqua Marine in St Thomas/ They will pick you up at ferry dock, have top of the line equipment and are great folks. St Thomas actually has some of the best vis in the Caribbean and very nice diving. Aqua Marine always goes to the less crowded sites. I was a dive instructor in St Thomas and I can say it has really good diving and I have been throughout the Caribbean, French Polynesia and Asia.
Re: Trip Report
Thanks for sharing. We love Haulover North. We always go in January/February so there have been times we couldn't get in, it was just too rough. We went in May a couple of years ago and snorkeled there a couple times that trip. One time we saw a dive boat. We stayed away from them, but someone on the beach told us that they were doing a survey and they all had clipboards and were documenting what they saw. I sat on the beach and dreamed of what it would be like to have a job like that...
