Trip Report – St Thomas – 2/15 – 2/21

I'm going to break this report up into several parts for ease of read...

This trip down to STT was very impromptu, with only about 3 weeks of planning. After seeing on the calendar that my daughter (7) had an upcoming 4 day weekend over President’s Day holiday, we decided to add on a few extra days and spend a week in the VI – just she and I. We are annual VI travelers and usually spend about 15 days. I wasn’t sure how we would feel at the end of only a week, but decided to think of it as a quick “hello” – not a vacation.

Here’s the report….

Day 1 - arrival from PHL to STT

We had a 9:30am flight out of PHL (Philly) on USAir. Airport events went smoothy. I decided to splurge for the first class upgrade in hopes of setting the tone and immediately getting into the mood. I won’t upgrade to first class again on USAir. It wasn’t worth it. There was no champagne and nobody ever asked if they could get us anything. They brought the food and left….never returning until they took the dishes, but not the trash. We sat with trash on the trays around our seats for the entire flight….empty cups, wadded up napkins, etc. At one point, I had to move it because we couldn’t get up without trash falling onto the floor. I took the trash up front and asked the flight attendant if I could give it to him, at which point he told me to go put it into the trash bin (hole in the counter in his galley). So, I went and threw away my own trash in the galley while the FA continued his conversation and then he went and sat down to read the paper. Don’t upgrade! Sit in the coach section and be happy…the people in first class don’t have it so good.

We arrived on STT after a smooth flight and went directly to the Avis counter for our car, which I prepaid for via the Hotwire website. $163 for the car and all taxes and fees for 6 nights. Good deal. Pick-up went smoothly and the woman at the counter was friendly.

We then stood at baggage claim and waited for our luggage. My good friend and business colleague, Dex, surprised us and met us to help with luggage, which I was grateful for because that flight of stairs up to the rental car lot is not fun. Dex has an awesome estate over on Peterborg and he hosted us in his 3BR guest house on our last visit (some guest house, right?)...but we wanted to try something new this time, so we chose an East End location.

The car had less than 10K miles on it and was in good shape, except for a few small dents and dings, which I always appreciate since I know there’s always a dent or ding in my future and I don’t want a pristine car.

We called Genie Lupo, owner of USVIP Villa Rentals, to let her know that we had arrived and would be heading out to the East End. Genie had previously agreed to meet us at the airport (as most villa rental agents will do – or, if renting on ST John, they’ll meet you at the ferry dock), but since we know our way around, I told her that I would make my way to the villa and meet her there.

Next...Part 2...The Villa