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This message board has been a wonderful source of information. I will be arriving in St. Thomas on Saturday, July 1 and have rented a villa on St. John -- with the help of the wonderful information on this message board!!!
I have asked numerous questions, but need a refresher course based upon my final plans. I will definitely be renting a car for the week, but still cannot decide whether to do this on St. Thomas or St. John. There have been as many pro's as there are con's for this decision. Therefore -- I need help.
Many people are telling me it is a pain to take the car over to St. John via the barge and just to rent on St. John. In addition, there have been concerns in the event we encounter car problems on St. John if renting on St. Thomas which lead me to initially decide to rent on St. John. However, someone mentioned it is great to have a car on the last day in St. Thomas since our flight leaves late in the day. One of our options is to rent a car for the last day on St. Thomas, but then we have to go through the trouble of doing this after we take the ferry or at least having the car available for that day.
Can some of you give me some more advice on this. We are staying in a villa on Gift Hill (not sure where this is), so we also have to factor in enough time to leave on the last day and get back to St. Thomas.
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for all the help with the villa, day excursions, etc. This will be our 3rd trip to St. John (one was only for a few hours via a cruise) and spent 5 days last year for our anniversay.
We will also be there during Carnival so this should be an experience in and of itself!
Gifft Hill is just a short ways out of Cruz Bay via the Centerline Rd. Have stayed at houses on the Hill several times. Any location for car rental in July should be able to help you.
I have recommended Hospitality Car Rental several times only because I use them every time I go. the owner Thomas Matthews is easy to deal with, and I suspect becasue of when you are going, if you call him he will have a pretty good rate.
One more thing, at the intersection you will be turning off Centerline Rd. to go to Gifft Hill, check out the food van that is parked there. They have the coldest Red Stripe on the island....
RM
Which houses have you stayed? I have been to St. John (when I had a car) only once, and can still not figure out where Gift Hill is. We are staying in a villa by the name of "Plumeria".
CJ - I got married last July in St. John....and we stayed at Plumeria with 4 of our closest friends. Everyone loved the house and we have tons of great pictures...We even had a local photographer come to the house. The owners were really great.
We rented a car at the STT airport...I think it was the easiest...but the car ferry can get a little pricey depending on how many times you go back and forth.
I can email you the link to my pictures...
I have rented a Jeep at the airport and taken the auto barge in the past. I enjoyed it because I didn't have to pay for a taxi to and from the airport (plus baggage costs), or the regular ferry (plus baggage costs). I didn't have any trouble with the costs of the auto barge because I didn't want to go between the islands with the vehicle. On the last day I went to St. Thomas a little early, shopped, and ate lunch before returning my Jeep and departing. Worked well for me. Just keep in mind that the auto barges stop running earlier than the "people ferry"...about 6:30 I think. Also, if you buy a round trip ticket, you'll need to be sure to pay attention to that particular company's schedule. There are three companies running I think?
Have a super trip!
That would be wonderful! My husband and I are going for a week with our best friends. Do you need my e-mail address?
Thankard referring tos for this information. I am tired of trying to figure this out -- so I have a car rented on St. John for the time being. I am worried that we will have car trouble and then have to get stuck figuring out how to deal with -- not what I want to do on vacation -- so I have decided to just take the ferry and have no worries!
Besides -- the little stand near the Red Hook ferry has a great Rum Punch -- maybe because I had to drink it very fast since I could not take with me -- but it was still one of the best!
Christine -- please send me those photos! You are making me beg!! Just kidding -- I can't wait to hear from you though as you are the only person that has acutally stayed in the same villa! Come on -- don't tease me anymore!
CJ - Send me your email. I have some pics on snapfish that I can send you...
Sorry it took me so long to reply!
Christine -- I just sent you an e-mail to your Yahoo account! Can't wait to see those photos!
We too will be landing in St. Thomas on July 1st. We will be spending a week on St. John and the next week on St. Thomas. We are renting a Jeep on St. Thomas (from Dependable) as we have done for years. They have always been very helpful. The car barge is interesting but not bad besides we will purchase provisions on St. Thomas for the week and bring them with us. The barge is easier with a Jeep. Our second week (St. Thomas) we switch to a sedan. It might be fun, if there is a group from this board is on St. John for that week, to have a get together one evening. We have done that a few times on St. Thomas and it is always fun.
Rick -- where are you staying?
We're staying at Pastory (St. John). It will be our first time there. We like to try different places all the time. We'll be staying at Bluebeard's Beach Club (St. Thomas) the second week.
We stayed at Bluebeard's Beach Club a couple of weeks ago, and we had a loft unit. We were told that there'd be an ant problem, but we never saw even one! I was pleasantly surprised with our accommodations. The beach is nice and it's really a quiet resort that's private. Not a lot of traffic, which really is nice. The restaurant there has pretty good food. I hope that guy at the poolside bar (Jeff) is gone. He is one foul-mouthed bartender with a bad attitude. I hope you all have a very nice trip. For car rental, we used Thrifty. It's near Dependable and we were really happy with them. They were a bunch cheaper than Dependable too.
We will be staying on St. John this summer as well, and have been pondering the same rental question. Someone mentioned to me that some rental agencies on St. Thomas will not allow you to take a car to St. John on the ferry.
Has anyone encountered this?
I had originally thought that we would grocery shop on St. Thomas, then take the ferry across. Does that make sense, or is there not much difference in availability/price of groceries?
We've stayed on St.T but this will be our first time to stay on St. J.
I was thinking of going to the Virgin Islands and ran across this post. How are you? Forward your email so I can keep in touch.
Who are you talking to? CJ?
