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does villa location determine your daily routine?

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:25 am
by jp
Our family is making a return trip to STJ in June. We stayed at Le Lapin last year and really liked it. Our daily routine was to pack a cooler, pick up sandwiches from Deli Grotto, and hit the beach around 9:00 am. We would stay until 3:00 or so and then head back to the villa for pool time in the sun. That particular villa had sun all day and it was nice to happy hour after beach time.

This June we are staying at Coral Oasis which is on Mamey (?) Peak near Coral Bay. While the villa looks very luxe, my understanding is its location offers limited sun during the day. So I'm thinking we should change up our routine and lounge around the pool early until noon or so, eat lunch at the villa and hit the beach in the afternoons.

What beaches have the best sunsets? How concerned do we need to be about late afternoon bugs? Are some beaches less buggy than others late in the day?

Any and all comments welcomed.

jp

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:44 am
by DELETED
DELETED

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:49 am
by flip-flop
You could always hit the big belly deli (in Coral Bay near Lilly's market and Aqua bistro) for your sandwiches and head to the beach. If we end up staying in Coral Bay next time, this will be our routine.

I am a huge fan of deli grotto, but Big Belly was great too and much less expensive.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:02 am
by Bug
Watching the sun set while foating in the ocean is awesome. If you don't believe me you can ask the MILLIONS of no-see ums' that will agree! Of course they also love the fact that your there so they can EAT YOU ALIVE. I know I'm a bug magnet but I've never seen anything like it. I personally make sure I'm far away from the beach by the time the sun is starting to set!!!

XOXO
Bug

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:21 am
by mia
Isn't the pool at Coral Oasis solar heated?
IMHO...nothing beats an early morning beach day :D

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:58 am
by RickG
We were on Ajax Peak last April and it did limit our pool time. There was no sunset either. We kept the same routine and hit the beach early. Maho and Francis are so convenient that to Mamey peak that you may want to pack lunch at home or head out for lunch at Skinny's or Island Blues from the beach.

Cheers, RickG

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:20 pm
by liamsaunt
We definitely plan our days around where we are staying. We are almost always up at the sunrise or just after and out the door to the beach after a very light breakfast. We are often on the beach by 7:30 AM. We stay until around noon. Then, about half the time we go back to the villa for lunch, and half the time we eat out someplace. We go back to the beach around 3:30 PM and stay until sunset or just before. Half the time we go out for dinner, and half the time I cook.

We are changing the routine this year though. For our first week we are in Chocolate Hole, and we’ll probably follow the routine above. Our second week we are in Coral Bay and apparently the road to the house we rented is a real killer. So, for that week we are planning on not going back to the villa until we are ready to be in for the night. I’m bringing food to cook at the Coral Bay villa for almost every night that week. We are planning most lunches out in Coral Bay. We might do a couple of beach picnics, but I hate sand in my food, so it’s not very likely.

We’re planning most of our Cruz Bay dinners out for the last four nights, when we’ll be at Caneel.

As for the pool, I like having one for quick dips after coming back from the beach, but we have never really spent a whole lot of time in/around the pool. I’d rather be snorkeling!


As for beach sunsets, my favorite is Maho. You get a great view, and your car is right there to run for when the noseeums come a munchin!

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:34 pm
by RickG
liamsaunt wrote:As for beach sunsets, my favorite is Maho. You get a great view, and your car is right there to run for when the noseeums come a munchin!
Maho! You can run the blender off the cigarette lighter with a voltage converter!!

Maho does seem to be less buggy than Francis at dusk. When the water is clear the sun slanting through has a beautiful dusky pink tint.

Cheers, RickG

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:47 pm
by jmq
RickG wrote:...the sun slanting through has a beautiful dusky pink tint.
Ya mean like this? (sorry for semi-hijack of thread)

Image

maybe we'll just mix it up

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:00 pm
by jp
and spent a few mornings by the pool and hit the beach early for the remainder.

I've looked high and low and can't find any reviews of Coral Oasis. Yes, my understanding is the pool is solar heated. Does anyone know anyone who has stayed at this villa? I believe it opened for rental last November.

On the Coral Bay deli, is it even close to Deli Grotto?

many thanks, jp

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:48 pm
by JT
Our "routine" is very close to liamsaunt in that we do the early to noon thing.
That said, it's a small island. You can do whatever schedule you want from wherever you stay. It's not like there's a rush hour.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:46 pm
by Pete (Mr. Marcia)
We're villa rats so we pick the villa with the idea that we are going to spend a lot of time there, by the pool. We like the beaches, for about an hour or two a day...too sandy, no tunes and primitive bathroom facilities.

The key for us is a villa that has a pool that gets all day sun. Also, it must have a stunning view so that when we feel guilty about hanging by the villa pool all day, we can assuage our guilt by saying that we at least have a stunning view.

Yes, we are non-hiking, marginal beachers, villa pool floating, crank the tunes, baby oil slathering, keep the blender running, villa rats. We're okay with that...it's fun.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:30 pm
by Palmtrees
Remember, you can't spell routine without r-u-t.

You're on vacation - mix it up! Do it differently every day. Some days get up early, some days sleep in. Stay up late and listen to the sounds of night, or go to bed early and get up before the sun. One day eat nothing but junk food, some days nothing but the finest. Roll with it!

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:16 pm
by RickG
Pete (Mr. Marcia) wrote:Yes, we are non-hiking, marginal beachers, villa pool floating, crank the tunes, baby oil slathering, ...
Oooh, slippery! Don't drop the remote control for the ipod. BTW, we are picking ours up this weekend.

And, to be on topic, we seem to end up at Maho more often each trip. It works from Coral Bay and from Cruz Bay. Brilliant!

Cheers, RickG