USVI-On-Line

I am making my first trip to St John next weekend. What's the first thing I should do when I get there? Any suggestions on restaurants, boat trips?

Henry

HenryB70, Welcome to the Forum! Congratulations on choosing St. John. I hope you love it as much as I do. Where are you staying - a villa or a resort? Are you traveling with a group?

We find the travel day is long so we always start our trip at the Beach Bar - just walk on the beach to the right of the Ferry dock and you will find it. It's a great place for some food and a wonderful drink - painkillers are my favorite!

I definitely recommend a boat trip - Jost Van Dyke is the most popular destination and is always a great day.

Reading this forum should give you tons of tips and suggestions.

Any questions, feel free to PM me. I've been there 13 times since 2000 and love it.

Have an amazing vacation!
NancyB

If you don't have to meet your villa rep right away, do go to the Beach Bar for some food and drink. Otherwise, meet the rep, get your rental car and get your villa orientation. Hopefully they will provide you with a snack and a drink until you can get to a store or bar/restaurant. Our villa rep gave us warm water and a bag of chips...so we were anxious to get rid of him and get some real food! It's a long travel day...but try to relax!

We always like to get our rental car and drive the North Shore Road to Coral Bay (sometimes all the way to the East End) then grab a bite at Island Blues then head back Centerline just to get to see the island and any changes again as well as introduce first timers to the "lay of the land".

nothintolose

p.s. welcome to the forum

Kick off your shoes, dip your feet into the water and feel the stress start to go away. If that doesn't work a Painkiller at the Beach Bar should do the trick. Enjoy!

This is how our plans panned out on St. John.

Every morning we'd get up, have some breakfast, pack a lunch, hit a beach, stop at happy hour on the way home. Then we'd go home, have dinner, veg in the pool and maybe go back out for a few drinks in the evening.

We did take the ferry to Jost for a day, which is a must-do on my list. Some girls took the ferry to St. Thomas to shop for a day, but I can shop at home. Other girls took a day sail, which looked pretty cool. I think that was with New Horizons.

The whole point of St. John is just to relax and chill. Those who overplan and have a rigid, hectic agenda never really get on island time.

That being said, I think everyone should have some Tuna Bites at The Beach Bar (with a Lime N Coconut) and a cheeseburger at Skinny Legs. Everything else is negotiable.

We have been to lovely St. John more than six times, and trust us, you do NOT want to miss the great beaches on the west coast. In particular, even if you don't like to lie on the beach, you have to rent a car or take the "taxis" to look at the view from the road overlooking Trunk Bay and go to Cinnamon Bay. The latter is a National Park, and you can go there just for the day for free. This embodies the very, very best of the Caribbean.

At night or in the afternoon, sure, stop by the bar in Cruz Bay that people recommend, but do not miss a visit to the great beaches for driving around all day or sitting in a bar....

Have fun!