Hi all,
Just returned from a great week in St. John. Stayed at La Barracuda Villa through Great Caribbean Getaways. The villa was very comfortable with "pods" for the main house, two separate bedrooms and a guesthouse with additional bedrooms. The pool deck was lovely and we loved taking a swim after the beach while sipping pina coladas! Ah! La Barracuda has a sound system with separate speakers for the main house, the front deck (which has amazing views of STT) and the pool area. I brought my Ipod and a stereo connector so we always had great music! Great Caribbean was very responsive when one of the ac units wasn't working and fuse blew. Had someone out there the next morning.

Favorite meal, hands down, was ZoZo's. We went twice it was so good! The views are outstanding (get there for a drink in the bar during sunset) and the staff was nothing but friendly. Also had a great meal at Panini and Paradiso, good casual food at the Banana Deck, okay meal at the Lime Inn. Had lunch at the Balcony and the Geiko Cafe in Mongoose Junction - both very good.

Favorite day - definitely our boat day with Born to Rhumb. There were 7 of us and we had this great boat to ourselves with Captain Kevin and First Mate Andy. We went to Roadtown Tortola, snorkeled at the Indians and the caves at Norman Island, went to Willie Tee's for lunch (where one of group got the T-shirt - what a hoot!!), Foxy's, the Soggy Dollar Bar and Sandy Spit. Kevin and Andy were fantastic, the boat was comfortable and I cannot recommend Born to Rhumb highly enough.

We went to the beach every day, home to the villa for a cocktail swim every night, out to dinner in Cruz Bay, stopped at the Beach Bar several times (great band!), Lizard's Landing, Quiet Mon at night - all good times. Then we'd head back to the villa for a midnight swim or hot tub.

Obviously, we had a great time!

Only bad spot - jeep rental. We rented on line from Budget, called a week ahead to confirm our Jeep Liberty, got to the airport, no Jeep Liberty. We waited over 2 hours for a Jeep Wrangler, which is really no good if you are putting anyone in the back seat. Once on STJ, we rented a larger (Vitara) from Spencer Jeep. DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE! The Vitara DIED while we were going down the hill from Chateau Bordeaux!! The people at Spencer were abusive when they found out we were getting a jeep from someone else! (Turns out these vehicles can't stand the steep roads if you have the AC on!) We gave that one back and rented a Ford Escape from Delbert Hill. My advice - go right to Delbert! They were lovely to deal with and we could park there at night.