Hello Christina,

For information on moving to the USVI you might visit our other web site:

www.vimovingcenter.com

--Islander

As far as affordable accommodations, Starlit Escape (www.StarlitEscape.com) advertises as the best value on St. John, and it's a nice place. Don't have if they have Christmas / New Yeras vacancy but it's worth checking out.

That is the ultra peak and most expensive time of year. If you find anything reasonable and nice, take it. Many people come back year after year and this little island is very hard to get on that week so lock up now. If you wait a few months longer, there won't be anything left unless you are lucky enough to sneak in a place with a recent cancellation.

BTW: It's St John, not Johns (the latter is in Antigua)

Try Concordia or Harmony at Maho for a really different type vacation. Not luxurious, no room service; just stunning, clean and well-planned to fit in with the unbelieveable setting and beautiful views. A bit of exercise is involved, and ecology. These cottages were built by Stanley Slelengut of Maho Bay fame. Maho Bay also has inexpensive tent like cabins overlooking one of the most incredible bays.
The entire set up is enviromentally designed and oriented. You do have to walk down boardwalks to get to the mini-store and open air amphitheater for nightly talks, and of course, the beach...and back up...!
Check out the Majo website- http://www.maho.org/ ; they may also be sold out for that peak week, but it's worth a try for a very unique, very environmentally perfect stay.
As to moving there- go onto the official website andhave them send you a packet of info. When you are in St John, go to places locals work and frequent, ask them what's available.
Although St John has gotten quite a bit tourist-y in the past 15 years, it is still a funky place with unique housing variety- from hippy-like Coral Bay and Hurricane Hole, to stunning designer houses to local galvanized covered shacks . The thing that saves it is that so much of it is protected National Park land.
That plus it's distance from an airport, keep all prices high. Remember, to get anywhere to shop for lower cost goods or catch a plane out, you would have to take a ferry (or own a runabout boat, or like some twins who used to live there years ago: windsurf across Pillsbury Sound !)

I concur about it being busy- actually the Tuesday or Wed after Xmas are usually the heaviest cruise ship days all year, and MANY cruise passengers take the ferry over to St John, but usually don't go any farther than Trunk Bay- or Cinnamon if they are saavy...so Maho is pretty safe .

That all said; St John is where non-boat owning St Thomians go for mini-daytime "vacations"- to save their sanity when they can't get off the rockl

thanks so much for all your suggestions. maho might prove to be the place since my friend is an die-hard protector of the environment.

thank you again for all your help.

we are going to st. johns march and staying in the camp gronds in a cabin for 6 nights.
I wanted to stay in a nicer place but not real real expensive for another 4 or 5 nights.
we will have our 4 year old with us. any ideas.

Lori

Greetings, I own a nicely furnished condo on St John. My unit sleeps 4 comfortably. Check out the website at Serendipstjohn.com. I own unit "Echo" which is real nice and only about a half mile walk to Cruz Bay. You wont be disappointed by this complex and the rates are very reasonable. Dont forget to ask for unit Echo. No stairs to climb, ample parking and spectacular sunsets off my huge 30 foot covered veranda with dining and seating. Enjoy Paradise! Bill

Christina- We did find a "gem"-Pastory Estates Condos. Stayed there in July. Quiet, with beautiful view. We rented from Don Blumenthal who also lives on site. His unit is called "Coral and Blue" and you can find it at www.stjohnvi.net. It was our first visit to St John and Don's hospitality and helpful advice made all the difference,,,and we made a new friend, too. The kitchen was stocked with bread, bagels, eggs, wine, beer, soda, all the spices and condiments you could think of, canned goods, some rolls and hots dogs in the freezer, some "Stoli" vodka in one of the cabinets.....dvd/cd player, a/c in bedroom, ceiling fans, cooler for beach, beach umbrellas,,,just check out the web site. Don even burned my digital camera pics to cd for me. We'll be returning next summer !
Your're more than welcome to email me with questions. If you decide to rent from him, tell him Mark and Debbie said "Hi"! I told him I'll be recommending him to everyone!

we are going to visit st. john for a week in early March and we'd like to find a small hotel on the beach, or in the national park to stay in. We'd like something clean and pretty but not very expensive. We love exercise and don't mind walking a lot, or climbing, but don't want to stay in a tent. And we'd prefer not to have to rent a car. thanks for your help!

I can second that - Don is a good friend of mine and a wonderful host so definitely investigate this one. I also have a number of friends with vacation villas so if you can give me more details I may be able to help.

PS. The great thing about Don is he'll take you snorkelling and takes wonderful digital photographs to capture your memories.

Does anyone have anything avil. for 12/26/03- 1/03.

Marty

Martin-
check out www.stjohnvi.net . I rented Coral and Blue from Don (he's the owner) but he manages other properties. Absolutely the best host, lives on site, takes you to cool snorkel places if you want and will even burn a cd of your digital pictures before you leave. If you email him he'll call you back pretty quickly day or night to let you know what he has available and is very willing to answer any and all questions. We're renting from him next year and feel that we've made a new friend as well.

I agree - saw this and couldn't help adding my 2 cents worth - We looked at several Coral Bay villas when we were planning our trip to STJ in January (only 3 months to go!) We compared La Sirena, Captain's Quarters, Pocket Money and Starlit Escape. We decided on Starlit Escape because it has a pool, AC in the bedroom, and it was huge enough to fit our party of 6. The deciding factor for us was the price - fantastic! We rented direct from the owners - a very nice and very helpful couple - at www.starlitescape.com.

All of the reviews we found for Starlit were great. We'll post a review when we get back.

Many thanks for all the great tips on this board!

Wendy, St. Louis, MO

To all, I highly recommend staying at unit "Echo" in the Serendip complex on St John(serendipstjohn.com). This is a truly Caribbean gem of a complex. The rates are very affordable both "in" and "off season". My unit, "Echo", had a great layout with all the amenities of home. We especially loved the huge terrace with dining and living areas. The view of the sunset over St Thomas is beyond spectacular. Tons of hummingbirds, bananaquits, iguanas, butterflies, geckos... all from the veranda of this well appointed unit. Our unit had no stairs to climb, frontside parking, very safe area, with great staff who live on site. This is Paradise found. I highly recommend Serendip for a memorable trip. Enjoy, Wilhelm and friends.

I strongly urge you all to stay at Serendip condos for a week or two (serendipstjohn.com). You will experience St John in the most pleasurable way and probably wont want to leave the island. Cant wait to return. Enjoy, Howard