OT St. John's USVI

[rwsaunders]

Any thoughts or comments regarding vacationing here?

[J.Greene]

Any thoughts or comments regarding vacationing here?

Loved it. I felt safe everywhere on the island.

JG

[stevep]

i had a great vacation there w/ my kids years ago.
super place...easy access to a million beautiful beaches...
always felt comfortable.

st thomas not so safe i am told.

[J.Greene]

st thomas not so safe i am told.

like most of the islands once you get outside of the resorts. St John felt like Key West to me.

JG

[rsl]

I was there when I was a kid. My parents were big on cruise vacations, and I remember having a blast at Trunk Bay and thinking it was just beautiful.

My wife's parents have been there more recently. I think they've been down twice in the last three years or so, and they love it.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

I think trunk bay was rated as one of the top ten beaches in the world by some source and some point. not too helpful, I know.

[old_school]

2/3 of the island is a nature preserve
an endless array of picturesque small beaches
great place to escape

[thwart]

It's been a few years since I have been there, but if memory serves there is a world-famous beach fairly nearby you can hike to---it is not immediately accessible by car.

Definitely worth the hike. Most beautiful beach I've ever seen!

[11.4]

A beautiful place that hasn't been nuked by development. On the island, your most important decision is where to stay. The resorts are beautiful if you like resort vacations. However, right in the harbor or right above (mostly to the south and west) you can rent condos for a few days. It's a lot cheaper and gives you closer access to the central harbor area and you don't have to feel resortified.

Don't just stick on the island. It's beautiful, but definitely take the passenger ferries to Jost van Dyke and to Tortola. Tortola is beautiful in its own right, possibly more than St. John. It's a big island but you can cruise around and experience a rather different perspective from St. John. (St. John is a combination of big American resort and '60s American hippie refugees. Tortola has had a more stable population and hasn't done the resort thing as much.)

Jost is just superb. There are a couple tiny little hotels right on the water that are stunning if you want to stay the night. The main harbor where the ferries come in has beautiful sand, a famous bar, and some superb Caribbean food. The harbor is tight so not too many sailboats can get in, and the cruise ships have trouble there. If the harbor is crowded, just walk over the hill to the west and enjoy one of the great beaches of the western hemisphere. It's a small island that you can hike in a few hours.

Also consider a ferry up to Marina Cay. On the western side (where the little harbor is), there is a superb restaurant and nice reef diving. Walk up to the top of the hill (the cay is basically one small lump sticking out of the water) and there's an open-air stone sailors' library -- leave a book and take a book, and sit under the roof and watch a squall blow by while you read. Just pass the library are some cottages perched on a steep hillside looking across the Francis Drake Channel at Virgin Gorda. You can see 30 miles and watch everything happening. Definitely a place to spend a night if you want to move around at all.

And don't leave St. Thomas too fast. It is the most developed island but has a huge duty-free retail neighborhood, some great restaurants, and other places to wander around. There's an old hotel a couple minutes' walk from the harbor that has a world-class restaurant and beautiful old island rooms. Lots of big hotels and resorts if that's your thing, but I prefer sailors' accommodations.

Everything has cockroaches, no matter where you are, and ants in many places as well. Keep track of your valuables. Definitely go diving at one of the beaches. Waterlemon (sometimes written wrongly as Watermelon on maps) is a big beach with nice accessible reefs. Walk along the shore and up to the old plantations on the western end.

Need a guide? Or a charter boat captain? That's really the way to see the islands. Just anchor at each beach and live off the boat.

Did I say that I sail?