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Hello, I had a couple of questions about a day visit to St John (it is killing me to not say St Johns just to see the reaction 🙂
1) I have read all of the Trunk versus Cinnamon posts out there, although I do know more people visit everyday for more opinions/reviews and peoples minds do change as they see different things so we are open to hear more responses. We want to relax and not rush so we are going to visit just two different beaches. We limited the choices to Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Maho. Right now I am leaning towards getting to Trunk first thing for a few hours and then heading to Maho. I would say the group would like to see pretty scenery, snorkling, restrooms/food, and just plain relaxing perhaps at a picnic table under trees where you can see the beach like some of the tables at Magens. So out of any new changes or people making recent visits, which two would you pick?
2) Long story short the person that reserved the car in our group went through either Discount or Dependable, I always confuse the two. They are a little freaked out that if something happens on our trip to STJ we are not covered for them to come over and get us or whatever the situation may be. Yes I know with the speedlimit so low nothing major "should" happen, but they are getting all paranoid so we came up with another idea to keep their mind at ease. We would spend about $70 extra in total to just get a car over on STJ, taking the passenger ferry instead of the car barge ($48 instead of $60 because we planned to do a one way ticket with the car barge for the option to take a different ferry back). The problem is in peak season it seems all of the places only take reservations for a 5 day minimum, but they do say they talk "walk ins" for single day rentals. I was just curious in February how often can you get a walk in rental for just the day? I am only familiar with STT and I know it is not the smart thing to plan on. Is STJ different and they have more walk in rentals available? We planned on taking the 8 a.m. ferry over if that helps.
Thank you all very much for any responses!
All I can do is tell you that of the thousands of visitors every year who take STT rental vehicles over to STJ there are maybe one or two incidents of related problems reported annually and those I've seen have been (a) lost keys - two incidents and (b) flat tire issues and I recall 2 of those. Of the two incidents related to lost keys, in one case the STT rental company sent an employee over to STJ on the ferry with a spare - at no charge, and in the other the agency sent an employee to the ferry dock at Red Hook where the customer hopped onto the next ferry and picked up the spare from them. The tire changes haven't been an issue and the rental agency involved in both cases had contacts on St John who came out and quickly took care of the problem. These incidents are so isolated that they really don't bear much consideration and both Dependable and Discount have very good reputations.
As far as your finding a one day rental on STJ in peak season, that may indeed be a big problem and not possible. Reservations in high season are often made months in advance and even visitors leaving it to the last minute often can't find a rental on STJ and are forced to rent a vehicle on STT instead. Hope that helps!
Thank you very much, it will help. Again, it was not me being paranoid but when the other member of my party called to make the reservation they just got a little freaked out by the wording of coverage when taking the jeep over to STJ. I'm thinking this should put their mind at ease though, thank you!
I would not count on a 1 day rental on StJ's during peak season. Unless the increased number of available rentals has increased because of newer limits the one thing you can count on is that there will be a shortage of jeeps on StJ during peak season.
Where ever you rent the vehicle make sure to check (and take pictures of) existing damage and check the spare tire and make sure there is a complete vehicle jack on the jeep.
That should minimize the most likely troubles while on StJ. Make sure you are back at the car barge early to be sure you get on before either the last barge of the day or the barge that gets you back for your cruise departure If you are on a cruise.
I had freinds who rented for one day on STJ last March. Keep calling. Time is on your side. Try all the different rental companies. They rental agencies make a higher profit on multiple ay rentals, so they may want to hold out.
While it's more money to rent a car on STJ. It does provide much more flexiblitly. The Car Barge LInes can be long and hot. The ride on the passenger ferry is more comfortable and senic. The last car barge is before dark (6 pm i think, better double check). The last passenger ferry is 11pm. So taking the passenger ferry allows you stay in STJ for drinks or dinner.
With a full day you can enjoy some exploring (Ananberg/ Cinom) and relax on 3+ beahes.
