Trip report from newbie
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:42 am
First, I felt that I should give you all a trip report in exchange for all of the useful information I have learned on this forum. I have been quietly reading this forum for the past nine months in preparation for our trip & I have learned some very useful info.
We went for 13 days, returning the day after Thanksgiving. My husband & I traveled with our two small children (15 months & 3 ½ years) & my folks came along to “help with the kids”. We rented Calypso del Sol villa in Chocolate Hole East from Lisa at Vacation Vistas & could not have asked for a more perfect house. I would love to say how terrible the house was to keep people from flocking to it, however, my only complaint was that the beach towels were too long & I kept tripping on them after getting out of the water! Not a bad complaint. The house was very well stocked & spotless. Lisa was great as well.
As for beaches, we hit the normal: Maho, Francis, Gibney (my new favorite), Caneel & Hawksnest. Due to the small children & my mother not being able to walk without the aid of a crutch, we were limited to easily accessible beaches. Again, not a huge problem given the extreme beauty of those beaches. For children, I would say that Maho & Francis were the best. My 3 ½ year old would probably vote for Francis being his favorite, seeing as he actually took a nap on the float in the water. Don’t worry, there were four adults in the water with him! As for snorkeling, my husband said that Francis was the best. He went way out to the right around the rocks & saw octopus, turtles, puffer fish & tarpons that he said made him walk on water the other way! Frightening fish when they appear out of the depths. We also saw the barracuda that was cruising Francis. It looked to be as long as my son is tall. He now knows exactly what a barracuda is.
Dining out was a comedy in itself. Again, we stuck with family-friendly restaurants, or tried to. Our first visit to the Fish Trap was excellent. The second trip there (our Thanksgiving dinner) was the absolute worst. The service was so awful that we didn’t even leave a tip for our waitress, something I have never done before. Maybe if she spit out the gum, stopped twirling her hair and/or delivered at least one of our meals to us in a timely fashion, we would have left her something. I would have been happy with at least luke warm food. Yeah, it was that bad. On a better note, we went to the Lime Inn –great service, good food. Even better was Pastory Gardens. I wish we went there more. Food was really good, reasonable & service was fantastic. The view was great as well. The whole "twinkling lights of St. Thomas . . ." Mini-golf was great for my son & he enjoyed himself tremendously. I enjoyed myself a bit too much. Boy, those Bushwackers go down easy! We also took my folks out to Café Roma for their anniversary. Note to those with children: DO NOT GO THERE! It is tiny & they do not have any high chairs. My son’s chair actually collapsed on him sending him to the floor face first in a flurry of screams, which in turn made the baby scream, which in turn made everyone look. Needless to say, we ate our wrapped meal in the comfort of our villa later that night. We also dined at the Banana Deck, which was probably my best meal. Great service, great food & great atmosphere. Highly recommend hitting the Beach Bar first for their fantastic Lime & Coconut. Wow, those go down even easier than the Bushwackers! Instead of getting smoothies for the ride home after the beach, guess what we had instead! Finally, we went to the China Shack because the only thing my son wanted was Chinese Noodles. For the price of those noodles, I was sure he licked the plate clean once the noodles were eaten. Strange place, that China Shack. Bad location in the Marketplace, prices were exorbitant, but the food was decent. Wouldn’t go there again, but still, not so bad. While in the Marketplace, I strongly suggest going to Baked in the Sun Bakery. I wish I found that place earlier. Excellent bakery items & there are even toys for the kids. If you run into a rainy day with little ones, head over to the bakery. Great coffee, an internet connection, sugar & different toys; what more could a Mom ask for??
For the remainder of our dinners, my husband cooked at the villa. We stocked up at Marina Market in STT. We called them ahead of time & had all of our meats frozen. Worked out quite well, except they forgot to get our deli order ready, which made us miss the earlier ferry to STJ. Not a huge problem, except when you have been traveling with two children for the past twelve hours. That is a good example of when the secret stash of chocolate comes in handy. Another note, if you are into vegetables, stock up on frozen ones on STT. I almost fell over when Starfish was selling peppers for $11.50/pound. Our salads were pepper-less for a good part of our vacation. Speaking of produce, I have a question for those that live on island: do the green bananas ever ripen? I bought some bananas the first day there & 12 days later they were still green. Am I missing something?
In addition, we went to Cost-U-Less to stock up on booze, juice for kids & water. Do not waste your time with produce there. We did our comparison shopping for booze & found that Mixology was the most expensive & had the smallest selection. Dolphin had the best price on Heineken (make sure you ask for the 10% discount if you are a villa renter). Cost-U-Less had the best price for Ketel Vodka & Myers’ Rum. Didn't go to Pine Peace because parking was non-existent.
Oh, for those wondering about taking rental cars to STJ, we rented from Avis on STT & they are fine with the car going over. We ordered a mini-van thinking we would all fit. What was I thinking?? If you were on island during 11/11-11/23/06 & saw a Clampett family-like minivan with stuff tied to the roof - that was us. Proudly, may I add.
The only major shopping we did was at St John Spice. My husband had to stock up for the year. I think we spent half of a mortgage payment at that place. But, well worth it!
Our final travel day home was spent at Paradise Point on STT. Again, really good Bushwackers. It was sad to leave, but it sure was nice to get home again.
My apologies if you were on any of the USAIR flights with myself & my very vocal baby. We gave her Benadryl, but for some strange reason it had the adverse effect on her. Unfortunately, my Xanax didn’t do much for me either. Do they make a baby dose of Xanax??!!
Well, I think that about does it. Thanks again to all & enjoy your travels, wherever they may take you.[/img]
We went for 13 days, returning the day after Thanksgiving. My husband & I traveled with our two small children (15 months & 3 ½ years) & my folks came along to “help with the kids”. We rented Calypso del Sol villa in Chocolate Hole East from Lisa at Vacation Vistas & could not have asked for a more perfect house. I would love to say how terrible the house was to keep people from flocking to it, however, my only complaint was that the beach towels were too long & I kept tripping on them after getting out of the water! Not a bad complaint. The house was very well stocked & spotless. Lisa was great as well.
As for beaches, we hit the normal: Maho, Francis, Gibney (my new favorite), Caneel & Hawksnest. Due to the small children & my mother not being able to walk without the aid of a crutch, we were limited to easily accessible beaches. Again, not a huge problem given the extreme beauty of those beaches. For children, I would say that Maho & Francis were the best. My 3 ½ year old would probably vote for Francis being his favorite, seeing as he actually took a nap on the float in the water. Don’t worry, there were four adults in the water with him! As for snorkeling, my husband said that Francis was the best. He went way out to the right around the rocks & saw octopus, turtles, puffer fish & tarpons that he said made him walk on water the other way! Frightening fish when they appear out of the depths. We also saw the barracuda that was cruising Francis. It looked to be as long as my son is tall. He now knows exactly what a barracuda is.
Dining out was a comedy in itself. Again, we stuck with family-friendly restaurants, or tried to. Our first visit to the Fish Trap was excellent. The second trip there (our Thanksgiving dinner) was the absolute worst. The service was so awful that we didn’t even leave a tip for our waitress, something I have never done before. Maybe if she spit out the gum, stopped twirling her hair and/or delivered at least one of our meals to us in a timely fashion, we would have left her something. I would have been happy with at least luke warm food. Yeah, it was that bad. On a better note, we went to the Lime Inn –great service, good food. Even better was Pastory Gardens. I wish we went there more. Food was really good, reasonable & service was fantastic. The view was great as well. The whole "twinkling lights of St. Thomas . . ." Mini-golf was great for my son & he enjoyed himself tremendously. I enjoyed myself a bit too much. Boy, those Bushwackers go down easy! We also took my folks out to Café Roma for their anniversary. Note to those with children: DO NOT GO THERE! It is tiny & they do not have any high chairs. My son’s chair actually collapsed on him sending him to the floor face first in a flurry of screams, which in turn made the baby scream, which in turn made everyone look. Needless to say, we ate our wrapped meal in the comfort of our villa later that night. We also dined at the Banana Deck, which was probably my best meal. Great service, great food & great atmosphere. Highly recommend hitting the Beach Bar first for their fantastic Lime & Coconut. Wow, those go down even easier than the Bushwackers! Instead of getting smoothies for the ride home after the beach, guess what we had instead! Finally, we went to the China Shack because the only thing my son wanted was Chinese Noodles. For the price of those noodles, I was sure he licked the plate clean once the noodles were eaten. Strange place, that China Shack. Bad location in the Marketplace, prices were exorbitant, but the food was decent. Wouldn’t go there again, but still, not so bad. While in the Marketplace, I strongly suggest going to Baked in the Sun Bakery. I wish I found that place earlier. Excellent bakery items & there are even toys for the kids. If you run into a rainy day with little ones, head over to the bakery. Great coffee, an internet connection, sugar & different toys; what more could a Mom ask for??
For the remainder of our dinners, my husband cooked at the villa. We stocked up at Marina Market in STT. We called them ahead of time & had all of our meats frozen. Worked out quite well, except they forgot to get our deli order ready, which made us miss the earlier ferry to STJ. Not a huge problem, except when you have been traveling with two children for the past twelve hours. That is a good example of when the secret stash of chocolate comes in handy. Another note, if you are into vegetables, stock up on frozen ones on STT. I almost fell over when Starfish was selling peppers for $11.50/pound. Our salads were pepper-less for a good part of our vacation. Speaking of produce, I have a question for those that live on island: do the green bananas ever ripen? I bought some bananas the first day there & 12 days later they were still green. Am I missing something?
In addition, we went to Cost-U-Less to stock up on booze, juice for kids & water. Do not waste your time with produce there. We did our comparison shopping for booze & found that Mixology was the most expensive & had the smallest selection. Dolphin had the best price on Heineken (make sure you ask for the 10% discount if you are a villa renter). Cost-U-Less had the best price for Ketel Vodka & Myers’ Rum. Didn't go to Pine Peace because parking was non-existent.
Oh, for those wondering about taking rental cars to STJ, we rented from Avis on STT & they are fine with the car going over. We ordered a mini-van thinking we would all fit. What was I thinking?? If you were on island during 11/11-11/23/06 & saw a Clampett family-like minivan with stuff tied to the roof - that was us. Proudly, may I add.
The only major shopping we did was at St John Spice. My husband had to stock up for the year. I think we spent half of a mortgage payment at that place. But, well worth it!
Our final travel day home was spent at Paradise Point on STT. Again, really good Bushwackers. It was sad to leave, but it sure was nice to get home again.
My apologies if you were on any of the USAIR flights with myself & my very vocal baby. We gave her Benadryl, but for some strange reason it had the adverse effect on her. Unfortunately, my Xanax didn’t do much for me either. Do they make a baby dose of Xanax??!!
Well, I think that about does it. Thanks again to all & enjoy your travels, wherever they may take you.[/img]
