I haven't stayed at those; however, my mother rented one called Drake's View. It's located at the top of Bordeaux Mountain and thus has excellent views and wonderful breezes. Here is a link:

http://stjohnhouserentals.com/Drakes-View.htm

It seems to be in your price point.

I have La Mirimar booked for July. I was on STJ last week and stayed at Cruz Views and asked my agent about La Mirimar. He said it is a really nice house for the price. He says it is probably that reasonble due to the small "cool pool".

CoCo
Oh my Gosh! I LOVED LaMiramar! Stayed there in May of 2006. This is a beautiful home, wall of windows gives a water view from practically anywhere you sit, 25 feet from water and above it, open and airy feeling, zen garden off master, marble floors, second b/r opens to court yard, downstairs apartment also has wall off windows and wonderful views. The pool is a slash-big enough for two floats-depending on what you want that would be the only draw back in this house. As for Coconuts I can let you know - we will be staying here in 43 days! Great minds!
Let me know if you want more info on LaMiramar! Happy hunting.

Thanks for the info. La Mira Mar looks nice and not at a bad price but the pool is a huge disappointment. Still pondering lol.

coco,

while i have not been in either palm or coconuts, bride and i have stayed in cloud 9 three times and i have toured plumeria. those 4 plus seawatch make up the 5 similar villas that make up the Gifft hill villas (on the drive by the gh sign). the views are some of the best on stj, sunsets year round, lights of stt and great breezes. we love gifft hill location for the views and have regularly followed all 5 villas for rates and availability since we always do last minute trips. following comments are from web site and other comments and staying in neigborhood (go by coconuts to c9 and palm is next door and they share a driveway).

i like palms straight layout vs coconuts u shape, since even kitchens have great water views. neither great room has ac which could become a factor from late spring to early fall especially if using loft bedroom. palm's only relief from direct afternoon sun is an umbrella but coconuts (and the other 3 on hill) has a gazebo. palm's extra master bedroom is on parking lot side and does not have water view. coconuts is on main gifft hill road next to the dumpster and in jan they were still working on villa across st into gifft hill villas.

bride and i are both on soc sec so getting long in the tooth, but both still enjoy stj beaches by day and gifft hill and upper rock ridge road villas in evening for those enchanting sunsets, lights of stt, departing cuise shipsand wonderful breezes as we relax on our villa deck with our favorite beverage. not for everyone but we still enjoy. while i would not consider any of the villas "luxury" i believe all would be as comfortable and enjoyable as c9 to us (except for noted items) so you can relax and "enjoy the view".

papabou

How was Cruz Views? Were you bothered by the Sirenusa construction project?

Papabou,

Since you are familiar with Gifft Hill, do you know anything about villa Eureka? It's on the caribe havens website. Thanks!

Well I officially narrowed it down to these 3 villas.
Jazz Villa
Windchime
La Mira mar

I wanted to rent a villa at the westin but im not having any luck finding a villa for the last part of July. So between these 3 villas comes the decision.

libra,

i'm not familar with eureka but did go to caribe havens web site for a gander. that's chocolate hole in the center of the top picture and the outer portion of gr cruz bay to right. ridge line to extreme right blocks stt view and appears to be the ridge running up lower gifft hill that upper rock ridge road follows up past allesandra. from angle appears elevation under 400 ft so must be on a side street or one of villas to left as you begin climb up gifft hill rd just past the road to fish bay.

at first blush thought rates mighty low then i realized no pool, hot tub or ac. perhaps someone else will have more info for you. sorry i couldn't help.

cypress girl,
I know this is off topic, but which unit did you stay at in Cruz Views? Any report? That is one on my list.

CoCo

I stayed at Windchime in 2004. It was awesome. You're in the Gift Hill area. Perfect, unobstructed views. If you've seen the photos of the place, the real time views are even better. You sit high up in the hillside with only only house kind of nearby but not close to interfere with your privacy.

Positives: Great views and layout, excellent amenities (pool, rooftop hot tub, LARGE decks, outdoor courtyard, good kitchen), has a lot of land to walk around vs other properties.

Drawbacks (for us): Little far from beaches & Cruz Bay. You will NEED a 4 wheel vehicle as its entrance road is unpaved and VERY rutted. We got used to it and it was actually fun to drive on.

Thanks I appreciate all the help. We usually stay at the Westin and weve stayed at CoCo_De_Mer_USVI, so im not used to all this villa hunting. CoCo isnt available the week we want, and were just having a hard time finding a westin villa as well for July. Thanks!!

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to get back on Cruz Views. I was very surprised at how nice it is. We stayed in unit #3. It has a very cute porch-balcony with new looking wicker furnishings which comprised of 2 rockers with a small table and a love seat. It was larger than I expected. The living area is very small, but not used much with the nice balcony. Our unit had the 2 bedroom arrangement with the loft. My room was the queen master, which was very nice, lots of space, big enough closet. The loft was really cute, but it is a real climb up the ladder, and no bathroom upstairs. I would not put anyone that is not in reasonably good shape up in that loft. The big thrill was the NEW bathroom. Absolutly beautiful, newly redone from top to bottom, stained glass, wonderful shower, tons of shorage, new everything!! Now they need to do the same to the kitchen. It is bigger than I expected, but needs a little updating. Dinnerware and such was great. Old frig but worked. No icemaker, but pleny of trays. There were 2 coolers that were small and a little bigger than small. Perfect for beach picknicks.

The view was very nice and we had awesome sunsets. Plenty of parking. The construction next door was not an issue at all. I guess they are passed the really loud stage. I noticed it at times,but not a big deal.

Cons: There were 3 of us and only 2 beach chairs, the key to the safe did not fit the safe, there were 4 beach towels for our trip with no washer to clean them and no one to give us fresh towels. I called the office several times with no answer (got the machine) and finally left a message but no one called back. We made due and had a great time.

For the $$ Cruz Views is a deal. My college girls loved it.

Thanks Cypress girl. We really want to stay in Cruz Bay in order to walk to things at night. Could you walk to any beaches? Trying to cut expenses & maybe only rent a jeep a couple of days and a dinghy one day.

Cocos, a trip to STJ does get expensive doesn't it? After you get a place to stay, then it's airfare, then car rental, spending money, etc. Every year we try to do the best deal and do things smart and im telling a trip down there for 9 days 8 night is still every bit of $6000..

Coco de mer you are so right. Fortunately it is just the 2 of us since our kids are heading to other places with BF's. We went cheap this year staying in STT & ferrying it over most days. While it worked, it is not the best situation. I also want to go on a very expensive week ( the week before Xmas) since my school is closed. This forum has been a great help though! Keep the info & ideas coming everyone.