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Hi there,
My wife and I are tossing and turning between the two condo rentals we have option to on St Thomas....We plan on staying 7 nights in November and can either choose a nice newly renovated ocien view condo in the Point Pleasent Resort gated community or the Villa Eau Claire beach house on Maegans bay. Both fit in our budget however we are unsudre of a few logistics:
- we love snorkeling (hear it is better at Sugar beach near PP)
- we want to be as close as possible to a beautiful beach not to busy
- we would like to try local cusine
- we would like to explore a few of the towns and do shopping
- we plan to buy groceries and make our own meals
- we plan to travel to St Johns for a day trip
- we would like a BBQ (Eau Claire condo has one)
- we would like a pool (Point Pleasent has one)
FYI we plan to spend 4 nights in Tortola at the end of our trip at the Sugar Mill or Fort Recovery....another decison in itself...haha
So any help experts can provide us that we may not have considered would be great!!
Cheers
The snorkeling at PP is mediocre, as it is at Magens. Snorkeling at Sugar Bay is equally mediocre. The beaches at Magens and Little Magens are far superior to the beach at Point Pleasant or that at Sugar Bay. Good snorkeling beaches within a few minutes drive of Point Pleasant are Coki, Sapphire and Secret Harbor but these beaches are also only a short (10-12 minute drive) from Magens. Personally I would take the villa over the PP condo. I wouldn't place too much emphasis on logistics. Nothing is far away and at both locations you're within easy driving reach of supermarkets, restaurants, and the Red Hook ferry terminal for daysail charters or ferries to St John (no "s") and the British Virgin Islands. Hope that helps. Cheers!
I wouldn't consider myself an expert, but we've stayed at both Point Pleasant several times and Fort Recovery once.We love both places. Point Pleasant is on a hillside, which is a workout to get to the beach area. On the beach, there is a bar/ restaurant that serves local cuisine.The name of the place is Fungi's, It was fun. There is also a restaurant on the hilltop, Agave, which is fantastic! I would dress up to go there.We have not been there since 2006, so I'm not sure if these facilities still exist. We are planning to go back next week, in fact. Not much snorkeling opportunity there, though. They do have kayaks you can use around the cay. We would recommend Trunk Bay for snorkeling at St. John's. We also rent a car and buy groceries. It saves money for the next trip! We were at Fort Recovery in April 2010. The suite was right on the beach. The food at this resort is local cuisine. Dress is casual. They had a different way of doing things, though. The menu is posted in the morning. You must decide if you want to have dinner there and order it at that time. The local chef then shops according to how many will be dining, and it is prepared that evening. The resort offers a boat excursion to Norman Island for snorkeling and lunch on a ship in the middle of the ocean! It's called Willy T's. You dock your boat there and climb on board! We also went to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. It's a ferry ride, then taxi to get to it, but it was worth the effort. We also went to Pussers, which was a short ferry ride to get there. We would love to go back to Tortola again! Enjoy your journey!
Fort Recovery is on Tortola so doesn't come into the equation but from St Thomas there are also numerous charter excursions to the BVI including The Baths on Virgin Gorda, Norman Island, Willy T's, Jost Van Dyke, etc. as well as ferries to Tortola (Road Town and West End), JVD and VG. You can see the ferry schedules under "Quick Links" top right of this page. Have a wonderful time wherever you end up staying!
I just mentioned Tortola because they said they were going there toward the end of their trip, and they were considering Sugar Mill vs. Fort Recovery.
