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We just returned from a week in St. John and definitely had a much different experience than our last visit in 2008. In 2008, we rented an almost brand new villa in Chocolate Hole (Bongo Bongo). It was incredible!! The house was amazing, the views were incredible and the weather was sunny and beautiful the entire trip. This year, we invited another family to come experience the island we fell in love with.
This trip, not so much. First, we decided to stay on the east end of the island this time because we thought it would be nice to be away from everything . . . not so much now that we look back. The drive from our villa to Cruz Bay was 40 minutes each way due to the winding roads. We picked this particular villa (Pebble Cove) because it claimed to have it's own "private beach". This was, in fact, true, but the rocks on this beach were the biggest "pebbles" I have ever seen! The views were amazing though and the snorkeling was top notch. The house -- very disappointing. I am sure if we had had sunny, beautiful weather all week, it wouldn't have been such an issue, but since we had so much rain, we fortunately got to experience the run-down nature of this home at it's best! When it rained, it rained in the main living area and foyer. The ad boasts a "cooks dream" kitchen. Well, not sure whose dream that would be. The sand fleas just about ate my family alive (not the villas fault), but we certainly had our share of bugs everywhere we turned inside. We definitely felt that the home was not properly advertised on the website. For instance, this is a 3 BR villa with 2 MBR's. One of the MBR's advertised a private entrance . . . yes, you had to go out the front door of the villa and into another door to enter the BR. The bathroom for this bedroom was also outside and through yet another door. Not very convenient when it is pouring down rain! And the 3rd BR we were told was downstairs. I was fine with that since it would be my 10 year old and our friends 6 year old . . . of course, what they failed to tell us is that you have to again go outside and down a flight of stairs to this bedroom. The bathroom for this bedroom was completely outside. Therefore, we had the kids sleeping in our beds all week. Not really conducive for romance!
We unfortunately did have a lot of rain thoughout the entire week, so much so that the roads were flooding and quite dangerous to drive anywhere. We had chartered a boat through Captain Alex to go island hopping in the BVI, but the weather caused us to have to cancel. Very disappointed that we didn't get to take this excursion and meet the Captain. Hopefully next trip! 😉 We did get to enjoy breakfast at Donkey Diner on 2 occasions and managed one day trip to Trunk Bay (our last day was sunny!). We also had dinner at the Banana Deck and it was really delicious.
Finally, this year we rented our car in St. Thomas from Amalie Car and we were thrilled with their service and the Jeep. It was almost brand new (less than 5K miles) and the owners were terrific. They were waiting for us when we arrived (over an hour late) and met us at the airport before our return flight. I highly recommend them.
So, recap:
Villa: Pebble Cove - run down, need of repairs but great if you are going for overpriced accomodations with little ammenities!
Car: Amalie Car Inc - highly recommend - Jeeps are clean and in excellent condition
Food: Donkey Diner - breakfast yummy, pizzas were good too
Banana Deck - more family friendly with a killer Ribeye steak!
Still love St. John and cannot wait to return. Just now I have about 10 additional questions to ask before booking a villa!
Glad to hear that you still love the island despite the rain and the villa.
It is tough to rent a villa sometimes. I usually recommend that you ask a ton of questions, both of the villa manager and on forums, to get the true story. I think some owners tend to skate the edge of embellishment to get renters, not that I can blame them, but it does make it tougher for us renters to make the best decision.
Banana Deck is one of our favorites, can't wait to be there...just 2 weeks!
Enjoy Xislandgirl! We rented through an agency and, between the pictures we viewed on-line and the questions we asked I thought we had our bases covered. Needless to say, the pictures must have been many, many years ago and when we confronted her about having to go outside and down a flight of stairs to the 3rd bedroom, she made it sound like we should have understood that! She did say the room was downstairs, but of course, we never imagined that it was not accessable from inside the house! Live and learn and spread the word so others don't fall victim to dishonesty.
One thing I have learned, and this is good advice for anyone planning their first trip, is that 90% of all STJ villas do not have interior staircases. So when there are words like "separate entrance" it usually means that that is the only entrance.
hmmm...
i must let you know that i work for a villa rental company. i cannot speak for that company, and i do not. this is my personal opinion based on my work experience...
that being said, we always get the headcount breakdown of any party before launching a villa search. some of our owners require a notarized liability waiver for children of certain ages.
the owner of the company that i work for will reject a rental rather than place young children in a bedroom that must be accessed from the outside, regardless of whether guests offer to sign a notarized liability waiver.
the comfort and safety of your family and/or travel mates are very important. and to rent a villa that one knows so intimately, without regard to the fact that parents would be cut off from their children, is disingenuous at best, and to quote the original poster, dishonest at worst.
personally i do not agree with how that aspect of the rental was handled, and this should be instructional to anyone renting a property unseen. there are no dumb questions. the renter felt that questions were asked, but i do not feel that they were answered as thoroughly as they could have been.
although i was not privy to the communications, from what was posted here, it appears that the rental company representative should consider modifying how to deal with such a thing for future rentals.
