Hi There,

Morningstar shares the same beach as its sister Marriott property, Frenchman’s Reef. Morningstar is the low rise resort on the beach while Frenchman’s is the high-rise hotel up on the hill. Morningstar’s rooms are in three story buildings, each having four units per floor. These buildings run along the beach and depending upon which direction your door faces, you either get beachfront or gardenview prices. The rooms are nice and IMO don’t have that ‘hotel/motel’ room feel that you get at Frenchmans. The property is beautifully planted.

Morningstar shares all the amenities that the Marriott offers including the shops, restaurants, entertainment and services located in Frenchman’s. There are tennis courts as well as pools available. The resorts are located just across the harbor from downtown Charlotte Amalie. This allows the resort to run its water taxi that is a great way to head into town for some shopping. For a couple of dollars you can take the trip across the water into town and avoid the roads altogether.

The beach here is very pretty but not one of my favorites. Besides it being crowded at times simply due to the large number of people staying at Frenchman’s, I’ve found that it can be ‘cloudy’ which makes it tough to snorkel there. But that shouldn’t be a major concern since it’s so easy to visit any of the STT beaches. It is a nice place to ‘beach it’ and it’s nice to be able to walk out of your room and onto the beach without having to go through any over A/C’d halls or elevators. You get the latter at Frenchman’s along with views out over the harbor that many folks really enjoy.

You have a variety of restaurants to choose from without leaving the resort. I happen to really enjoy the bar/restaurant (formerly Caesar’s) which is located right on the beach and is one of my favorites for lunch. Tavern on the Beach is also a decent place with a great view out over the beach and water. I’m not a fan of the restaurants inside Frenchman’s. I much prefer the open-air atmosphere of the two I mentioned.

Overall, Morningstar would be my choice of the two Marriott properties. It is a nice place to stay and is one of the resorts I usually consider when I’m making plans to visit STT.

Schultz

Thank you for the information and you recommendation. You paint a clear picture of each hotel's ambience and it makes my selection between the two much easier. It sounds as though I probably won't need to rent a car for my entire stay, as the property has a water taxi that will be able to shuttle us to town.

Which prompts another question. When taking a day trip to St. Johns: Is it less of a hassel to rent a car on St. Thomas and ferry it over, or would you recommend taking a taxi to Red Hook (I believe that's the name) catch the ferry and rent a car on St. Thomas for a day?

Once again, thank you for your thoughts regarding which hotel to select.
McMullen

Would suggest you rent a car on St. Thomas, make sure the rental agreements allows you to take car to St. John, though. The car ferry to St. John doesn't run as frequently, but you can easily schedule your trip around the ferries. Drive to Red Hook take the ferry, enjoy your day on St. John and then take ferry back. Depending on when you rent the car and for how long, it would allow you to see more of St. Thomas on your own. When we rented a vehicle on St. John it was about $45 for the day, when we could have paid less on St. Thomas for a 24 hr rental. Definitely recommend an automatic transmission, vs stick, especially since St John is so hilly. Driving on the left will be enough of a challenge for you without trying to shift. Personally I recommend vehicle with a/c, vs a jeep, it just depends on when you are going and where you live. The a/c feels great with the humidity but that is just my opinion.

I'll have to disagree and say you'll be better off renting your car on St John - it's no extra hassle to do it there. In fact, depending on your plans you don't necessarily need a rental. See my notes about different ways to see st John in a day a couple messages back under the thread "St Thomas in 3 days". A day trip to St John is a lot of fun and can be a full day...saving time and retaining flexibility is important in my opinion. Perhaps you can save a couple of bucks on the rental but what's the tradeoff?

First off - It sounds like you'll be staying at one of the Marriott properties. There's a passenger ferry that runs to and from St John frequently from Charlotte Amalie (i.e., town)...that can save you the drive (i.e., time) getting to Red Hook. Adding to flexibiliy is that you can take either ferry...for example leave from Charotte Amalie in the am and return late to Red Hook and taxi back to Marriot - or visa versa. In fact, the Marriott may be able to provide transportation directly to/from St John.

Second, the car ferrys run on a less frequent basis and quit earlier in the evening than the passenger ferrys - limiting your flexibility. The ferry schedules are available from the main page of this website. I believe the last car ferry is at 7 pm...the last passenger ferry is at 11 pm. This can make a major difference if you want to have dinner on St John and perhaps some late nite libations...

JMHO

bob

I agree completely with Bob. I rented on St Thomas from a company that allowed their cars to go to St John and took the car barge once. Once was plenty for me. We had car trouble with the rental, it was around 4pm on Sunday and we were stuck with no car till almost noon on Monday. Never again.
The small amount more you'll pay to rent on St John IMO is worth the peace of mind you'll get knowing that help is only a phone call away.
Since then we rent jeeps or Vitara's on St John. The jeep like vehicles are really much better suited to the roads on St John, the 4WD and tighter turning radius makes driving much much more comfortable, again IMO.

Thanks Bob for your suggestions. I just finished reading your post from 3 Days in St. Thomas and found it very helpful. I'll try to include several of the options you mentioned. Thanks again.

We are making our 5th trip to VI, third to Marriott Frenchmen's Reef. We have stopped renting cars unless we have a specific reason on a specific day and use cabs and water taxi. Much more flexible and relaxing. Driving on the left is nerve racking even when the driver is English trained! We find Morninstar beach a very pleasant beach for beaching and go to St. John's for snorkeling.