Just returned from St John and want to thank everyone here for all of their great advice, certainly made the trip a lot smoother. We loved STJ and already want to go back, actually didn't want to leave. Thanks to you I took plenty of bug spray wtih DEET and never had a problem once I sprayed up.
We flew down on the 7th with family coming in from different areas for our 25th anniversary vow renewal on 6/8 and my sons wedding on 6/9. No problems going down except for a very scary taxi ride in STT to Red Hook. I hate all the tipping and groveling for tips but that's me and we just came to live with it and set aside the cash. I hate it up here in the US even worse, but that's another story.
We used Great Caribbean Getaways for our Villa rental and had a great experience with them, would use them again. We rented 2 Jeep Liberty's from Bouganvilla Leasing (stjohnjeeps.com) and also had a great experience with them. Nice to know there is a place to park when you are in town. The vehicles were great, plenty of room for people and luggage/groceries/beach gear.
Thursday we went to our villa Lost Horizon at Point Rendevous and were amazed at the views, also amazed at the roads. My husband got used to driving on the left after the first night, I never did try it but am sure I would have been fine. We like the relaxing life so didn't mind being out from town. My son rented Poi Pu in Chocolate Hole and was overwhelmed with mosquitos and no seeums, there are no screens on the veranda doors. Even with bug spray they were really uncomfortable. My dad rented Inn Paradise and they were very happy with that, very cute and roomy but Rock Ridge Road is very appropriately named. I forget the other villa rented but it too was nice.
We had our ceremony out on Trunk Bay. Unfortunately it had rained a couple hours before and was brutally humid and sticky, though sunny. It was very meaningful and emotional and still beautiful despite us sweating like crazy. We then had a dinner for 21 at Rhumb Lines that was out of this world. Scott and Hillary were great to work with. The food was just fabulous and we sat under a canopy on a u-shaped bench piled with pillows, very moraccan looking and romantic. It rained again so thank God it was covered. And Ladies, if it rains beware of wearing flipflops because the dirty water from the streets splatters on you clothes in the back.
Saturday we went to Cinnamon Bay, beautiful relaxing day with the family before the wedding. This too was held at Trunk Bay and the weather was much nicer. I had posted a few months ago about the heavy wedding gown, she didn't look like she was even feeling it but later admitted how hot she was. She did look beautiful in it though. My son was grumbling the whole time about carrying it through the airport/STT/the ferry but he did it like a good boy. They had many beautiful pictures taken on the beach at sunset. Their reception was at the Ocean Grill at Mongoose Junction and we really had the restaurant to our selves because for some reason the whole town was slow that night. It was a beautiful place and food was excellent and service was very good. Some of the bunch went to Paradiso afterwards for dancing (if any of you saw Grandmom dancing the sperm dance that was our group, though I wasn't there).
Sad to say we did not do all of the snorkeling etc that so many of you do but we did do a tremendous amount of relaxing and good eating and spending time with family. We also did some shopping in Cruz Bay and wandering around. We've had a very bad year and couldn't have asked for a better vacation. Spent a lot of time on the gorgeous beaches.
Other restaurants we visited were Lime Inn (very good, the owner is great and very friendly) Banana Deck, Woody's, Skinny Legs. Had to get 2 t-shirts from there because my husband and son both have chicken legs.
The only negative we really had was the night we went to Asolare for dinner, it was our last night there and we wanted a special dinner. The waitress knew it was our 25th, we didn't think to ask for a rail table when we reserved but still had a good view. THe service was horrible. The waitress had friends there and was falling over them and would give us a quick "how are you doing" and be on her way. It was very disappointing and I can't say that the food was all that fabulous. We had a swordfish/lobster dish. Though my husband had the fried calamarie for an appetizer which was the lightest that he's ever had. I did mention this experience to the hostess and we got a "gosh I'm sorry" as we were leaving. That will be definate do not return to when we come back. Thought it was a place that was way too full of themselves.
We had Kathy Hurley of A Love City Wedding help us out with the planning and it was really helpful to have someone down there. She was also our officiant for both of our weddings.
Some things I did wonder though, it seems like the locals are not hired by the restaurants and shops much, at least not as wait staff. Is that what others find? Is it because their dialect can be hard to understand or do they not want to do those jobs? I did have a problem is some shops with very unfriendly locals on cell phones and talking with friends which I don't have aproblem with when I'm just looking but if I go up to purchase something i would expect them to stop what they were doing and they did not.
For anyone going down soon, there is a lot of construction going on which we expected in cruz bay but kind of didn't out where we were. Over the weekend we didnt really hear anything but come Tuesday all day long we heard dump trucks and larger trucks blaring their air horns as they were coming around curves to warn other vehicles. You also had to pull off the road if they were coming the other way. You could hear it from our side of the island and on trunk/cinnamon bays as well. I can't imagine that an island that small isn't already outstripping it's resources.
And last, if anyone is getting married on Trunk Bay, if you go to Coconut Coast Studios, Elaine there is wonderful and has beautiful paintings of Trunk and will personalize it for you.
Hope I didn't ramble too much, too many thoughts in my head. Thanks again to you all. This is a great place to find great info, will check it often.;