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First, thanks to this site for making the trip much easier. If anyone is planning a trip, order the lits from here.
Arrival: We arrived Tuesday at 4:30 pm, raining so not much going on. We decided not to use the Westin ferry since it was $72 a piece...should have used the Westin Ferry since we went to St Thomas again and Megans Bay.
Snorkeling was awsome. I HIGHLY suggest if you rent your stuff get a snorkel belt also. If you take snacks to the beach close the bag or secure it, we were robbed by a mongoose...lol Here is a summary:
Caneel Bay: We had never snorkeled so we started here, played in the water figuring things out and then snorkeled to the right.
Trunk Bay: Awsome beach. Snorkeling around the Cay was very good, amazing corals and fish, not too crowded. Nice facilities and had rental equipment if needed.
Watermelon Bay: We followed the directions we were given and drove the jeep to the Annaberg ruins, followed the dirt road and parked. We took the walk to the far end of the beach and hit the water. On the way out we again saw a great assortment of fish & coral. We stopped at Watermellon Cay and took a break. We resumed and went around the Cay, saw several jelly fish and just swam carefully and kept out eye out. From Watermellon Cay we swam across to the smaller beach area, we saw a few sea turtles and sting rays thru there. We then headed back to the large beach area, swimming further away from the bank and saw a ton of starfish...big starfish. EXCELLENT and well worth the long walk!!
Cinnamon Bay: A short walk to the beach, very nice beach area. We swam out to and all around the Cay, the back side was amazing with the huge drop off and very clear water. We swam around between the cay and the beach and saw several rays there.
Maho: Tried to snorkel there but it had rained, we got in the water saw a huge jelly fish and visibility was so poor we got out. Mosquitoes were horrable here.
Hawksnest Bay: We went to the far right of the beach and snorkeled around to the right past the rocks. We encountered 1000's of small fish in schools...maybe millions, a truely amazing sight. We also saw HUGE Tarpon's there...I mean HUGE! I weigh 220 pounds and they made me look small. We started to go out to the reef area but lightning was hitting close by, we got out and got back in the jeep.
Magens Bay St Thomas: Awsome beach but very rude and unfriendly staff. We packed our suits and they had shower facilities there so we had a nice swim. We didn't snorkel due the the staff being so rude and didn't seem to want to help at all.
We rented a jeep 2 different days, Wed & Friday. We drove to the end of Hwy 10 and the scenery was amazing. I highly suggest renting a jeep one or 2 days. We did the math on a taxi to Watermelon bay and by the time we did that and took a taxi again for diner renting was a better option.
FOOD!
Skinny Legs: Good burger, not the best but good. No fries, only chips which again was ok...no big deal
The Fish Trap: When we arrived we found it was closed...I was very sad. It opened on Friday and we drove over. I had the Monk Fish with shrimp and scallops..it was one of the best meals I have ever had, the veggies were great also. My wife had the Tuna with soy glaze and wasabi mayonnaise, another very good dish. We had parmesan-spiced bread (very good) and the scallops. We enjoyed Fridays dinner so much we ate there again Saturday night. My wife had the monk fish and I had somthing else..I can't remember what it was, the Monk ws still the best. The desert was totally amazing...it was the coconut cake with rum carmel sauce...it is a mush...wow!@!!!
The Lime Inn was closed, really wanted to eat there. 🙁
Fagiolis on St Thomas: Small Itallian place beside the HD store...we loved it!! The bread was great, the salad was one of the best I have had, we had one of the chicken dishes (covered with tomatoes) and man was it good! When we left to fly out Sunday we went by to have lunch but they were closed on Sunday. 🙁
The Green House was good, I had the jerk grilled snapper and it was excellent. My wife had the wahoo but it was very dry.
The Beach Cafe (at the Westin): Not too bad but pricy!! $16 for shrimp appetizers and it was 5 small shrimp...damn.
Snorkel's Grill (at Westin): Not that great. We were tired and after parasailing Saturday we decided with the cost of taking a taxi to town and back ($20) we would be as well off just eating at the Westin at Snorkles...take the taxi.
Pizza Uno (at Westin): SUCKED!! I have ate at Uno in Chicago, Charlotte, Orlando, and Concord and love Uno pizza, this was not an Uno pizza...don't order.
Overall the Fish Trap & Fagiolis were our favorites.
The Westin: Very nice place, it looks like they really took the effort to make it fit in and keep a natural look. BE ready to do some walking! You can't drive to your room, so you must walk or get the shuddle. The shuttles runs often (golf carts) so it's no big deal, if you call them they will head your way. I like my room cold, and while the thermostat was always on 65 degees it never got cold, after tossing and turning the first night I had a fan delivered to my room, helped a ton!
OVERALL SUGGESTIONS AND IMORESSIONS:
Pack shorts and many tee shirts! By the time we walked from our room to the beach we were already soaked. I changed shirts several times a day. Sunscreen is a must and apply often!!! We used SPF 48 and 75 and still got burned some (7 hours snorkeling didn't help). We ended up wearing shirts the last 2 days while swimming.
Parasailing was cool...but. We went out to the open water and just went in circles. It would have been much better to go a little closer to land or something so we sould enjoy the view, the only real view we had was the back of the boat.
Rent a jeep! When it rained the hills were so steep we had to use 4 wheel drive to make the turns because the wheels were spinning. It also made for much more fun.
It gets dark early! We were in bed by 10-10:30 each night, but up early each morning. By the time you eat and are back it's only 8pm and not much to do, so be prepaired for that.
I was quite surprised and the amount of trash and junk cars around, really surprised. At the Westin to the far left was a beach, it was covered in trash. When we went parasailing again a beach had all kinds of trash. My wife and I picked up trash on the streets several times. And I was totally amazed and the amount of broken donw junk cars everywhere, it was really bad on St Thomas between Red Hook and Charlotte Amalie.
Junk cars are an eyesore here. Problem is -- where does one take a junk car on an island? There is no market for junked cars, so they just sit where the stop.
Anybody with an realistic idea to use junk cars as a resource can make a forture in no time.
Add a 1% sales tax and use the money to have the junk cars removed, I would have been happy to help out. Something, anything would be better. Simple fact is at some point in time (if not already) it must be addressed and a solution found. A vehicle tax, a disposle fee, or any combination of the above should be looked into.
Hopefully this will find a resolution sooner than later, I can't imagine it in another 10 years.
"Remove them" Again, where do you take them? We don't have a crusher, and even if we did, we crush them and stack them? Or put them on a boat to, where?
This is the same reason we don't recycle metals, paper, plastic. There is no viable market.
I know there must be an answer, just don't know what it is.
What do you mean by send them where? Ship them back to the states where they can be recycled. Like he said add that 1% tax or even 2% that should cover it.
And that sounds so easy, doesn't it? But obviously you've never tried to ship anything from the VI to the US. The cost of shipping a functioning car is, what? say $1,000. So, since the cost is based on weight and volume, if we ship 100 junk cars back, that's $100,000. Not including the cost of collecting on this end and land freight on the other.
With respect, if this was a simple problem to solve, don't you thing it would have been solved already?
Peace.
That's what the 2% tax will pay for and trsut me 2% will cover it.
Peace..................
Again, I don't even start to think I have the answer, being from the mainland I do not understand all the issues. But, I do however understand that at some point in time this must be addressed and solved or the island will be covered with junk cars, it is that simple.
I'm not one to just accept that there is no solution, there must be it just has to be found. I think a simple small tax could be the solution, either way I cannot imagine paradise being littered with junk cars. Right now there are no taxes and liquor is dirt cheap, a ton of money could be generated from either with a 1-2% tax, and again I would have been more than happy to have paid a tax.
We could debate this forever I guess....
If such a tax were initiated, removing junk cars really wouldn't be the highest priority. There's lots of things that residents would want attended to before addressing that problem. Here's an article that gives some insight into residents' priorities:
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=9459159
I’ve heard of some places that remove hazardous or polluting elemnts (like gas and oil) and dump them in the ocean to create artificial reefs.
