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Hi, My husband and I will be visiting Maho Bay for a week in June to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We are very excited to explore the island. Does anyone have any pointers for staying at Maho (things to bring/do) and/or things we MUST do on island.
Thank You!!
Get either book 'St John Off the Beaten Track' or 'Fins, Feet & Four Wheel Drive'. Both are a wealth of information for exploring the island. Others may respond on Maho campsites but in the interim, do a search on this forum for Maho for past postings and recommendations. You can aslo get a great deal of information by using the St John link in ht ebanner at the top of this page.
Jodi- My husband and I spent 10 days at Maho last year and loved every minute of it! We had brought a number of meals with us, but found the restaurant on site to be fantastic - both for price and quality of food - and the view from the restaurant is spectacular! If I could advise of 2 important things to bring, they would be bug spray and strong legs... there are a lot of stairs to climb! We didn't rent a car; if we wanted to spend a day exploring the beaches on the north shore or browsing around Cruze Bay, we would hop in Mr. Fritz's taxi and never had a problem. He'll even detour for you if you want to go to Leinster bay to snorkel Waterlemon Cay (which I highly recommend - the starfish are amazing!). The only disappointment we experienced was the fact that, because it was off season and there weren't many people around, we were unable to book the day trips we wanted because they have a minimum number of people required. We got cancelled on twice. However, the good news is that... it's off season and there aren't many people around. We rented a dingy out of Cruze Bay for a day and every beach we stopped at was completely deserted - that was the hightlight day of our trip! We're booked for the first week in July at the Estate Concordia, a third generation Maho Bay - can't wait. Enjoy and happy anniversary!
We stayed at Maho the first couple of times we went to STJ in the mid-80s. We stayed other places after that, then went back to Maho last year. We'd learned that Maho will be losing their lease in a few years and wanted to get back there one more time.
What to bring---in addition to what you'd expect to bring to a tropical island--bring flashlights and a combination lock.
We enjoy it there. Most of the people who choose to stay there are pleasant and friendly. There are opportunities to interact with other guests in comfortable ways. The pavilion restaurant has great breakfasts, decent dinners and is in one of the best locations on the island. The little store stocks most of what you'll need. There's usually entertainment or an educational program in the evening.
There are several good snorkeling beaches within an easy walk. There are also organized excursions (for a fee) to other parts of the island. You could also sign up for sails (for a fee). We never went to the BVI until our third trip to STJ. We'd thought about it sooner, but there was always so much to do and see on STJ that we never left the island. Maho rents snorkel gear and kayaks.
Maho is probably one of the places on STJ that you could manage pretty well without a vehicle. You can walk to a lot of places and there is a regular shuttle (for a fee) running between Maho and Cruz Bay which would drop you off at any of the north shore beaches. I would suggest renting a vehicle for a day or two anyway, just to be able to get to some of the other areas of the island.
Maho is losing their lease in a few years??? Can you elaborate on this?
Still plenty of time, but an end is in sight. Stanley seems to be putting his energy (and $) into building up Concordia. It saddens me because it was the first place we ever stayed on STJ and i like to think that some things will remain forever.
From what I remember, they only had the lease for x number of years and its almost expired. Why they aren't renewing it I don't know but they are putting their energies into replacing some of features and conveniences into Concordia, only on a smaller scale. So ultimately, from what the Concordia folks told us, Concordia will be like a mini-Maho within a year or two. I'll look forward to the restaurant and a store if they do that and will also enjoy the extra quiet and coziness at Concordia we loved in November.
