Here is one villa that gets good reviews along with the rental agency having a good reputation. You can follow the link and then access their home page and check out all the other villa's they represent. As far as rain is concerned May is the month that we hope ends "dry season" 🙂 so regardless where you are on island rain will probably not be an issue for you in April. I strongly suggest you rent a car (or 2 if you have a big group) and book them way in advance - they sell out very quickly - even though it is "low" season, April was still very busy (for STJ) this year, as is May. Congratulations you have picked a great vacation spot 🙂
http://www.destinationstjohn.com/la_papaya.htm

I know there are a whole bunch of seasoned St. John visitors on this board... any of you have feedback on a St. John villa with a great view to help Denise with her planning? 😉

Denise, to get more familiar with the island and do some planning you may want to pick up St. John Off the Beaten Path or St. John Feet, Fins & Four Wheel Drive or St. John By Foot & Car; all great books about St. John. We have one of them shown at the top of this message board but you can find it and others on our sister site at http://www.vitraders.com in the Books, Maps, Guide section.

I've seen where winter season is listed as 12/15 to 4/14 and summer from 4/15 to 12/14 but as Pia mentioned April isn't quite low season in terms of number of visitors. I noticed some properties list a low season, high season and mid-season rate and include half of April in high and half in mid. Just wanted to point out that April is an in-between month so the rates as high, mid or low might vary by property.

As far as wetter vs. dryer part of St. John. The east end is dryer. When you go hiking or driving around the island you will notice the difference in the forest/trees. Out at Salt Pond Bay (south-east side of the island) for example you find short shrubs, cactus. Middle of the island, both north shore around Cinnamon Bay and south toward Reef Bay, there are tall trees, moist forested areas.

While researching accommodations you can take a look at those listed on this site at https://www.vinow.com/stjohn/accommodations/, there are links to their websites so you can find more information.

Enjoy,

--Islander

denise,

better views will be higher at higher elevations with BEST view being like beauty "best is in eye of holder". me and the bride (40 yrs of ups and downs so in our early 60's) like sunsets and the lights of st thomas, so we are partial to the west side of island, such as gifft hill and upper rockridge, knock out views very conducive (sp) to dinner and wine on the deck taking in the sites.

there are many east facing villas over coral bay that will give you great views and eyedropping sunrises (but they come too early in the day for us). is either better that locations high over the north shore beaches? probably not, the island and her villas are like ice cream, there's a favor for every liking.

while we've never stayed at lapaya mentioned by pia, we had an excellent experience with destination st john renting temptress thru them in april 05 where we were directly above lapaya. what we saw of her was impressive and the views should be bascily same as temptress which imho are some of the best.

while i have rented 3 different villas from same owner (cloud nine villas) in past 18 mths, owner lived on island and had full time manager. i wouldn't think of renting from nonresident owner without someone on the island to take care of the minor and major problems (waterpump lost prime, propane for stove and dryer ran out) in short order. hard to address with owner in miami or ny.

while there are other rental companies with on island property management that may be better, might start looking at selections offered by caribbean villas, destination stj, and catered to. all of there web sites have good descriptions and photos of there offeringa and their views. find a couple you like then do some further inquiring. to me there's a lot of fun in the hunt, but then i'm 62!

happy hunting

papabou

ps, i give the folks at cloud 9 and their villas (each very different), the best of recommendations; however they don't have a villa large enough for your needs. they do have 2 that are next door (sundance with 3 brs/bths and moonsong with 2br/bths). have stayed at and enjoyed both BUTTTT, as in most villas, all bedrooms and their views are NOT created equal. unless you are lucky, you'll have some problems assigning brs, 2 through 5 (of course he/she who plans gets first choice!)

papabou

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful replies!

We just rented a villa directly from the owner. It overlooks the entire south shore of St. John with expansive, panoramic ocean views to Rams Head Point. Some of the agencies had the price at $5000.00 plus a 5% fee. I had emailed the owner earlier in the week and had kinda forgot about it since I had looked at so many villas. I received an email this morning from the owner and the price was $1000.00 less plus there was no service fee.

This is our third time renting directly from the owner, once on Tortolla, St.Croix last month and now on St. John. This seems to work well for us.

I can't believe how fast things get booked up on St. John. We have never had to rent this far out before. Guess that means good things about the island.

Now I have to find the 4-wheel drives to rent.

Thanks again!

Denise