Jewelweed in downtown c'sted. She (Anita/owner/jeweler crafter) has a beautiful selection of jewelery she has hand crafted herself. So it will be unique. They have a decent selection of wedding rings but she will also design anything you have in mind.

Do a buck island snorkel with someone like tesoro or divi if its your first time out. Big beard usually has a very large crowd and you will not learn much about the reef or get any real attention from the staff.

Do eat at Kendricks and Savant, both have excellent food and service as well as being romantic. Carombola on fridays has a pirates buffet (which is actually very good so its always busy) and about 8pm the jumbie dancers start, their dancers are the best on island. On the west end for good food you have blue moon, st tropez and beachside cafe next to cottages by the sea. If you want good local food try villa morales but they are only open thursday thru sat.

If you havent rented a car rent one. This island is not taxi friendly. The rates are high and other then downtown or the airport you will have a long wait for one. Also a rental car will be much much cheaper on stx then a taxi to get around in.

There should be a jump up for july 4 week if your still here definitely go to that. A jump up is when they close the main streets in c'sted and have a big party. There's usually fireworks on the west side for july 4 not sure if the yacht club's will be up and running this year.

The owners at cottages should be able to help you as well with tips of where to go and what to do....they've been there a long time and are very friendly. The snorkeling is pretty good right where your staying. Just swim south of cottages and stay fairly close to the coast withing 10 to 30 feet and you will see some coral and alot of fish,eels, etc.. If you're really lucky a turtle as your not far from sandy point (major nesting ground).

Jasmel
Don't want to scare you, but a coworker stayed at C by the Sea that she won on an auction. We happened to be on STX at Carambola the same week. Stopped by to see them..no phone at C bySea. Anyway, I hope you are not too picky about your rooms. The place they had was the pits. She was embarrassed to let us use the bathroom & rightly so..not a pretty sight. They were right on the beach & the beach was beautiful. It is in an area of STX where locals go to the beach...lots of kids running around when we were there. I may have been able to handle those accomodations in my early 20's, but not now & not my idea of a honeymoon place. You need to rent a car!

Another point of view re Cottages by the Sea. While I have not stayed there, I have visited guests there. Cocosmom is correct, the rooms are spartan, but they seemed to be clean and, I understand the price is very good. The owners are present every day, the beach is beautiful, there is a really good restaurant next door and several within short driving distance. You should rent a car so that you can get a feel for the entire island. There is also a new park and fresh water pool a little further south on the same road.

I would suggest you go with an open mind. And for goodness sakes - HAVE FUN.

Hello everyone, thanks for the tips so far! We aren't expecting much from the Cottages by the Sea. We were looking for affordable rooms on the west side of the island with a kitchen. I figured that they wouldn't be pristine. As long as they are clean we are happy! We are very open minded and are prepared to have a great time. I don't know how we couldn't! We are definitely keeping our eyes wide open. I do appreciate your honest opinion though. I am looking forward to having a dog around too...we will miss ours while we are gone.
Betty, I appreciate your advice on where to eat and what to do while there. I do have news though, can't contain myself...while I loved the idea of getting my engagement ring while there, of course I secretly hoped to be surprised with it. Well, my fiance did just that last night! We went to a lake that is close to our hometown for a picnic. After we ate we were sitting on the beach and I had to get up to go to the bathroom. When I came back he was there on one knee with "Will you marry me?" written in the sand beside him. Of course I said yes, I had already said yes when he "unofficially" proposed at Christmas time. He put the most beautiful ring on my finger. It just made my day, week, month! So, since I have a habit of losing things and am really afraid that I will have to take it off a good bit while there for snorkeling and other adventures, I think I am going to leave it here while we are gone, just one less thing to worry about on our vacation. I want it to be totally stress free.
Although we are not in the market for any more jewelry right now, we are going to save some more money and get our wedding bands closer to the time of the wedding, we will definitely check out Jewelweed on our shopping day. I saw the website and it looked like a very nice place. I liked what I saw, very interesting.
We are planning to do Buck Island for sure and will probably go with Divi. We definitely want a smaller group of people and this will be my first time snorkeling so I am hoping for some help with that. I am not a very strong swimmer either. Any helpful advice for snorkeling? I did see that you shouldn't wear jewelry due to barracudas and I also saw that if you put your fins on at the beach to walk into the water backwards. Good thing I saw that one, saved me an embarrassing moment!
We are definitely renting a car we need to be able to see the island. I am also looking forward to driving on the left. I try to do that here sometimes, just to practice. For some reason my fiance doesn't like it so much when I do that! Thanks again for the advice and please come back with some snorkeling tips and anything else that you can think of.

I dont think you will be disappointed with Cottages with your outlook. They are clean and have kitchens and many offer patios and balconies to watch the beautiful sunset on the west end (look for the green flash when the sun sets). Best views are from the units on the second floors. They recently have done alot of work on their grounds, we share a landscaper, so it should be pretty lush as the plants went in about 4 to 6 months ago. And if you miss your pet while on vacation Cottages usually has one or two that they've taken in (as well as some cute cats). So sneak in a bag of treats if you have room in your suitcase.

Start out with snorkeling at Cottages before you go on the Buck Island tour. The water at cottages is usually like a bathtub this time of year, but at the reef near buck the waters are always a little strong to very strong. I'm sure you will do fine with the snorkeling. Have fun.

Thanks Betty. We are looking forward to our visit and will practice snorkeling at the Cottages first. Counting down the days!!!!

I love the beach there and the food next door at sand castles is pretty good also ..........you will have a great visit im sure

Just a suggestion about trips to Buck Island. Caribbean Sea adventures,formerly Mile Mark Water sports, has a power boat that gets you out to BI in pretty short order. This allows more time in the water and on the beach too. Big Beards looks like fun but they do sail part of the way and always seem crowded. We were on STX last week and there were only 14 people on the power boat. All of the 1/2 day tours to BI are scheduled for 4 hrs total time. So if you get there quicker, you get to spend more time snorkeling. We did the sail boat routine twice and it's fun but I prefer to be in the water snorkeling...

Is ther a guy named Lewellyn that sings and sails a charter there?
how about a singer named DEL ANDUZ?

Did you ever find out if Del Anduz is still around and singing?

Hi Mark,
I am Del Anduze's oldest daughter. I'm sorry to say that my wonderful dad passed away last January 5th 2007 due to a rare form of cancer.
I was so moved to see him remembered here on this great forum. Any other info on how you knew him would be so very nice to hear.

OH NO!
So sorry Mark! I thought I was writing " To " you where it said Author...(delete!delete!) Please forgive, it's my first time on here!