I recently was fortunate enough to spend an entire week on the island of St. John with my girlfriend and her sister, and for a lack of better descriptive words, it was incredible. We flew into St. Thomas which is a relatively tiny airport and where one first gets a taste of island time (people move at a very slow pace). The 30 min cab ride across the island from the airport to the ferry at red hook was nauseating. St. Thomas did not impress me a whole lot. The hotels along the beach were beautiful, but the interior of the island was very impoverished looking. This was my first time anywhere tropical and I was told that this is how it generally was. I was hoping St. John offered something a little bit different.
We took the red hook ferry across to St. John and it was about a 15-20 min ride. We sat up top, it was beautiful out, and there was an amazing breeze. Excitement began to build as we approached St. John. St John was a completely different experience for us as opposed to St. Thomas. There is a small town called Cruz Bay right where the ferry drops you off. There are no towering hotels anywhere, and beyond this tiny town and a few stops on the other side of the island, a majority of the island is made up of beaches, hiking trails, and undeveloped wooded areas. The island apparently only has 4000 residents that all seem to know each other. The island was incredibly beautiful. We got a ride up to the Condo we were staying in (Serendip) and we finally had our first chance to unwind after an entire day of traveling. I’m pretty sure I kissed the ground a few times after the multiple plane rides, cabs, and ferries, but we were finally here and it was time to soak it all in. The condo was incredible. It was nestled at the top of the hill overlooking Cruz Bay and you could see St. Thomas in the distance. The balcony was massive and my only regret was not spending more time relaxing out there. After driving around on the island for a whole week I was convinced that we had picked one of the nicer places to stay by far.
We stopped at the local grocery store (one of the only drawbacks of the area) and food was unbelievably expensive but still better than eating out each day. One other thing to note, you drive on the left side of the road in St. John as well. Seems scary at first, but once we hopped in the car and started driving, we got used to it and didn’t have an issue the entire time we were there. The only scary part about it is that all the roads seem to go at 90 degree angles uphill and the local residents drive extremely fast. After this we rode back downtown to Wharfside village which constituted the area right next to the ferry drop off. Wharfside has a ton of fantastic restaurants and shops. We ate at one right along the water and the food and the view were top notch. Later in the week we ate fish tacos at another restaurant in Wharfside and the food was amazing, but unfortunately the name escapes me. The first night was an early night for us.
We spent our first full day in St. John hiking and exploring beaches. We found a trail that led to honeymoon beach and hiked down. The beaches in St. John are out of this world. The sand is white, the water is clear and warm and very calm in most areas. Every beach has great snorkeling opportunities and even just sitting in the water provides an experience like no other as tropical fish swim around you. Honeymoon was a great beach. There were never more than a handful of people on any of the beaches we were at for most of the week which definitely added to the experience. We walked over to Caneel Bay later in the day. Caneel was amazing as well. There is a resort there that apparently is very expensive and we ended up eating in the restaurant there. Caneel had some of the best snorkeling I saw all week. Later in the week we made it over to Cinnamon Bay which was one of the larger beaches we were at, but it also had a pretty strong current running through it and it was quite windy. Perfect for people doing windsurfing. We also made it to Maho which was my favorite beach. The water was beautiful and extremely calm. We spent time hiking other trails including one around ruins of a sugar plantation. Trails are all over the island and most are clearly marked along the main road and none of the ones we attempted were very difficult. It was definitely nice to escape the sun every so often.
We decided on our third day to do a day sail and this was by far the highlight of my trip, and I recommend this to everyone. We had to ferry back to St. Thomas to catch the Catamaran (Coconut) only to sail back towards St. John. The Catamaran was slightly over 50 feet long and we maybe had 14 people total on the boat so there was plenty of room. We sailed over to some of the smaller islands right by St. John and tied up and we were given plenty of time to snorkel, swim, or just lay out in the sun. We also sailed over to St. John and tied up in Caneel Bay and spent time snorkeling and eating there. We were out for about 8-9 hours and everyone in our group thought it was one of the best parts of the trip. It wasn’t overly expensive for three people either. The same company apparently does a day sail over to the British Virgin Islands on a sister Catamaran (Daydreamer) but we were unable to try this sail as a member of our group forgot her passport.
The fourth day was spent shopping in Mongoose Junction. This is an area of Cruz bay that has a ton of fantastic shops and restaurants. We did most of our shopping for friends and relatives in Mongoose Junction. There are a lot of clothing stores, jewelry stores, trinket stores, and all around things you would never think of stores. I would definitely recommend spending at least half a day perusing the different shops and eating in one of the restaurants located here.
We spent another day driving to the other side of the island. It is worth doing, but the main part of the island closer to Cruz Bay offers much more. Most of the beaches on the other side are quite rocky and only accessible by trail. There are a few restaurants and shops, but not many and it can take near an hour to get over there. The rest of our week was spent beach hopping and hiking.
St. John is far and away the best of the U.S. Virgin Islands as it is underdeveloped and not over crowded. The beaches are straight off a travel brochure. I didn’t have a meal that I didn’t like the entire time we were there. We felt safe and comfortable everywhere on the island which contrasts to what I’ve heard about places such as Jamaica. It was a vacation of a lifetime for me and I would jump at the chance to do it again.