MAnne,

Unless you are staying in a villa that specifies four wheel drive is necessary, a car will be fine. If you use the "Search" function on this page you will find many discussions about St. John car rentals; some people care most about price, others prefer to stick with a big name chain. In addition to the "Search" function you will also find on this page a pull-down menu on St. John which has some quotes from this board relating to car rentals on St. John, including opinions about a car versus a Jeep. Here are some phone numbers to get you started:

Conrad Sutton Car Rental
340-776-6479

Cool Breeze Jeep & Car Rental
340-776-6588

Courtesy Car & Jeep Rental
340-776-6650

L & L Jeep Rental
340-776-1120
340-693-9436

Hertz
800-654-3131
340-693-7580

On our recent trip to St. John we rented a 4x4 Jeep Wrangler from Courtesy.....they are absolutely fantastic....they allowed us to park in their lot while in Cruz Bay, and believe me there isn't a lot of parking so that was a great bonus. We rented a jeep because our villa location required it however we were so happy to have the 4x4 when it rained as we saw many a vehicles (non 4x4) trying to get around during the little bit of rain and they could barely make it around the switchbacks, we watched 2 vehicles on the same road skid and unable to make it up the road and had to back down. If you are staying in Cruz Bay I'd say rent a car but if you plan to venture out especially to some of the out of the way beaches you definately want a 4x4.

Thanks for the information. I am still a little confused about jeep vs. car, but we may play it safe and rent a jeep. We do like to go to out of the way places. 🙂