Thanks to everyone for their patient and informative help on this forum. All of the information I gleamed here was very helpful. I thought to post a trip report in the event that someone might gain some information from me.

This was my first time to the Carriebean at all, with the exception of a short jaunt to Mexico a decade ago. I am very happy we choose Saint John because of the pristine and relative undeveloped side of the island. We walked around St Thomas a bit on our way out, and the architecture is cool, but just observing the island form the water it does appear to be way overdeveloped.

GETTING THERE
Saint John is not an easy place to get to. Coming from a person who travel to Egypt at least once very 18 months this is saying something because getting to STJ from NY is almost as difficult at getting to Egypt. This was supposed to be a long weekend getaway with the hsuband for the first time with the kids, which it was, and it was great. If I was to do it over I would choose some place closer if only because we lost almost two full days to traveling.

We flew direct from JFK New York to STT on the way there, We arrive at 5ish, caught the 6ish ferry from Red Hook to STJ. We had some time to use up before the Maho Shuttle by Frett's left at 9:20. All in all we left at 8 in the morning, checked in a 10 for a 12 flight, the air time, the travel time from the airport to the ferry and the shuttle to Maho all in all was A LOT because we didn't get to Maho until about 10 pm, a full 12 hours of traveling.

I knew Maho was far, but by the time we were through it, I had myself wondering what other warm destinations might have served this weekend getaway. This was probably the most remote place I have been with the exception of being in the middle of the Sinai desert, and the some very interior parts of the USA.

Coming home was even worse. We were booked on the direct flight home, but due to being pulled aside by customs for an "investigation" we ended up missing the direct flight by 3 minutes. A word to anyone who might possibly be mistakenly on a no fly list, or for any other reason you think you might have problems going thourhg customs give your self that full TWO hour check-in. I don't mean just checking into the flight, I mean gling through the class doors, and seeng the customs agent and all that. I am really angry with American airlines, because despite talk of "Island time" our plane departed more than 5 minutes early.

Unfortunately travel is very hard for our familyeven though my husband is a legal resident of the US and has been through more security checks that one could possibly count. The truth is none of these computer systems are integrated and someone needs to manually check through like 5 different systems. We did not anticipate this problem because we were still in US territory, and he is a resident, but alas it really messed up our whole day .

After we missed the direct, we then had to wait about 3 hours for a flight to San Juan. This is a tiny plane, and for me, not a terribly good flyer it was pretty nerve wracking. We arrived in San Juan and our plane was delayed to NY by an hour and half. When we arrived in NY we got stuck on the tarmac for an hour and half due to a snow storm. The whole trip, from waking up early, STJ to STT, the plane mishaps and delays, the tarmac lead to travel time of more that 18 hours. It was TOUGH!

ACCOMODATIONS

I LOVED MAHO BAY! I have never camped before, and I am what my husband calls a "four star hippy". I love my luxury hotels, but environmentalism, caring for others and the earth are passions of mine. It was so great for me to let go of any expectations and just "be" and enjoy being away on vacation but still self sufficient.

We arrived at night, with our flashlights ready. It was both fun and a bit scary to navigate the campgrounds in the dark with the map and flash lights. The gigling adventure was just the sort of thing I was looking forward to with my husband. The beds were made, with fresh linens, when we arrived in the cabin tent. I found the tents to be clean, and had everything we needed. We stayed in tent B4 which I loved because it was equidistant from the beach and the restrooms. We had a few flights down to the beach, and a few flights up to the restrooms and reservation/store/activities area. The one down side to this tent was its proximity to the beach and dampness. Our towels or anything else for that matter never quite dried. Someone mentioned microfiber towels, and if our family camps int he future I will consider those.

I was happy someone recommended bringing locks. Maho is very safe, but being a city girl I loved having our lock. For those of you who plan on cooking this is what they have:

A propane stove
Basic silverware and one or two cutting knives. The knives aren't great but enough
A frying pan
Two sizes of pots
Plates, bowls, coffee cups and drinking cups
A cutting board
A strainer with a large bowl to catch the water

I found cooking to be easy enough and loved learning to camp in a way that was easy on the learning curve. I liked figuring out that as the water melted from the ice int he cooler I could use that in a pinch to wash my hands or rinse something.

Washing dishes can be a real pain. They give you two basins and tell you to bowl water to clean the dishes. I bowled a big vat of water, used the two basins one with soap, the other for rising, and then the pot of boiled water to do a final rinse.

We brought some groceries down with us an brought some stuff there. I think we saved some money by eating breakfast in the tent on two days and making and eating our own lunches every days. Not a ton of money mind you, but somewhere between $80 - $100. This is mainly because we brought staples down with us. The biggest savings came in by buying our beer in town, iceing it, and making our own mixed drinks.

DAYS AND NIGHTS
Little Maho doesn't get much sun in the morning but DH an dI got there early and enjoyed having our private beachj. The water and view are just lovely. Swimming, laying on the beach, reading, drinking, swimming laying the beach, reading, drinking. It was a nice relaxing day.

We rented a kayak one day and paddled over to Francis Bay. That day we saw three sea turtles and I was just thrilled. They are my favorite animal and this was a life long dream. Kayaking is a bit hard to learn I think. If we did it over we might to do individual kayaks, vs. the cheaper version of a double kayak.

Big Maho, down the goat trail is just an amazing beach. We went there twice, and yesterday I also saw sea turtles there. What a gift! The snorkeling is okay at big Maho. i was really expecting my socks to be knocked off, but after snorkeling in the Red Sea I found it only to be adequate at best. I am sure it is such a sight to someone else, and I would never want to take that away from someone. Its just that I have been blessed with the abilaity to snorkel in one of the most famous snorkeling and diving spots in the world. HOWEVER, I never ever did see a sea turtle in Egypt so there you go! Blessed be to Maho!

On our last day I got a massage with Suki at Maho in the F pavillion. This is a SERIOUS walk from the cabin. The massage was expensive, but we choose not to do any other day sails or anything. We were content being beach bums. The massage was $80 plus tip and the therapist was very nice. I consider myself a bit of a body work connoisseur and I am not sure I would spend this amount of money again on this massage. I didn't really think it was so great to justify the cost. I did read about some other day spas on the island but didn't check them out.

We went into Cruz Bay two of our three nights there, which leads me to the EATS section!

[b]EATS[/b

We ate two breakfasts at Maho and both were very good but a bit pricey in general. Not island pricy, but just stateside pricey. The view from the eating pavilion is wonderful though. We also made eggs in our tents one day, ate cereal we brought. I still trekked up to the food pavillion every day for coffee. In the future I will get the brew a cup a day packets.

For lunch we also brought down with us a half a load of bread, mayonnaise packages, a can of tuna. I made tuna sandwiches one say, and egg salad sandwiches another day. In STJ we bought a dozen eggs and this was a great way to use them up besides breakfast. We also brought a box of pasta, an onion, a few cloves of garlic. I bought a tomato, a sad zucchini, and a mushroom and made a nice pasta salad for lunch one day. Most lunch sandwiches at the beach cafe were $7 or more so we definitively saved on those days. Breakfast averaged about $22 for two plates, a bowl of fruit and drinks so we saved there also.

I read quite a bit about the Starfish market but I will tell you I thought the produce was better at the Dolphin market. I didn't spend a ton of time comparison shopping but I did find myself a bit resentful that we walked all the way to starfish to be so dissapointed. I would save the time next time and just get any all supplies from Dolphin, especially if you aren't looking for more than eggs, tomatoes, a zucchini, fruit juice, beer, rum etc.

The Maho store has just fundamentals, and anything that can be bought there can be bought in town for cheaper. With the labor of cooking, clean up, and buying such expensive items I don't think you would save money if you bought food there and cooked it. Might as well just buy direct from the beach stand or food pavillion.

We decided to use that money we saved on traveling into Cruz Bay two night. This is expensive. $16 for two people one way is $32 just to get there. So you pick and choose how and when to spend. I really enjoyed Cruz Bay and having a little night life.

The first night we arrived got off the ferry and stopped off right to the right of the ferry dock into High Tide. We had some decent conch fritters, a good burger, and a good mahi mahi. The pain killers there were the best we had anywhere. We had to eat in town because the Maho food pavillion closes at 7:30.

The second night we asked at Maho for a good local place and man did we find it! DO NOT MISS SOJO'S!!!! We had delivious carribean food for a fraction of the costs of the other restaurants. I had a kick *** roti with four side dishes including mixed veggies, plantains, afunig (a local dish made with corn meal and okra) and something else for $12.50. My husband had a good fish dish. The fish might have been frozen but it was still good.

The next night we at at Maho. I had linguine with seafood Alfredo which was pretty good. My husband's had a very good meatloaf. The food is good at Maho and comparable to Cruz Bay prices.

The following night we went back into Cruz Bay early to buy presents for our kids and walk around a bit more. We stopped off in Sojo's again and had BANGIN conch fritter and a side of plantains and a round of painkillers. We walked around and enjoyed the STJ art festival in the little park the in front of the ferry docks. Lots of handicrafts and local artists. We debated were to eat dinner. On our way back to Sojo's we looked into The Lime Inn. We, mistakenly, decided to eat there instead of Sojo's. I had read quite a bit ab out the Lime Inn but a dry grilled Carribean lobster and a dry fish dish and an $87 bill later it was a mistake for us. I would have rather have had a cheap delicious meal at a "real" place.

Sojos is not upscale at all, the tables are on an indoor porch. You may be scared off byt the menu outside, but look at the specials board on the inside for the good stuff. A local couple next to us said the counh in lemon sauce was amazing. I regret not trying it.

We had drinks at various bars, but we did enjoy High Tide the best. And as I said, despite tasting various painkillers, High Tide took the title.

So now I have to go and be with my kids. I wanted to write this while it was still fresh. I will come back and add more as I remember.
Thanks again everyone for your advice and help in planning our trip!!