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We stayed in Cowpet Bay West condos, #31 Leeward, the upper row. It was really nice - clean, gated community so we didn't worry about our son as much, nice management. A great home base for adventuring. Ate at Bonnie's-by-the-Sea a couple of times, breakfasts were good, nothing spectacular about the food though. Robert's was closed for vacation. Shopped at Marina Market in Red Hook for groceries. Don't bother going anywhere else, it's just not worth it unless you are really buying a lot. When we went to Plaza Extra in Tutu the meat looked pretty iffy so we ended up going back to Marina Mkt on the way home.
Best Fun - Day sail on Wayward Sailor to some snorkel some real reefs offshore. Snorkeling Coki beach: go to the left and around, Secret Harbor - saw a turtle and some coral growth in the middle; eating Auntie's Rum Cake at Cuzzin's. Driving around the STT & STJ mountains. Seeing mongoose on STJ, playing with iguanas in Cowpet Bay, napping on the beach.
Best Food - Morgan's Mango on STJ. Had ok experiences at Secret Harbor and some not so fresh fish at Off the Hook, although everthing else was good. Had a great dinner at Fungi's. My son said their burgers were the best in the world and drinks good too.
Tip - Parking at the Red Hook ferry is better on the weekends when the local day workers aren't going over on the ferry.
Disappointments - 1. Most restaurants we found to be overpriced and not that great compared to what we can get here at home. We usually tend to do better at the more casual places like Fungi's anyway. 2. Snorkeling off STT was really poor in that there is no coral growth due to silting. Also found the same to be true shore snorkeling off STJ. I guess it's just not what we expected. There was a lot to see shore snorkling, but mostly marine life - turtles, rays, and fish - not reef, sponges, etc. Actually, by the end of the trip we got better at finding the good snorkel spots and saw quite a bit of marine life right off STT. My husband and I are both divers, but were limited to snorkeling on this trip because we had our son along so that's really probably where our point of view comes from here.
Wonderful trip!
Thnaks for the concise and helpful trip report! I wonder if I can do day sails five out of the seven days I am there???? hehe
I wanted to say something briefly about coral reefs. There are lots of different reef types- fringing, bank/barrier, and different sections of reef- rubble area, fore-reef, etc. A lot of snorkelers look at a rubble area and think that the reef is dead, when that is the way it is supposed to look. There are creatures in most underwater environments, but you have to know what to look for. For example, the sandy bottom frequently has various rays feeding on crustaceans. The rubble area may reveal yellow head jawfish. Rocks can hide octopus, eel and lobster. I think that when people go snorkeling they want to see huge sea fans and big colorful fish, and if they don't see them, they are disappointed. At Coral World there are exhibits of the various environments that prepare you to look for something that might be in a certain underwater ecosystem. 🙂
Finally a trip report from STT, we'll be on island in about 10 weeks and staying at the Elysian. Glad to hear you had a good time on STT, lots to see and do. Thanks
Hi Bosie
Yes, it is possible to do daysails five out of seven days because we did it this past April. Actually we did 4 daysails and one motor boat trip to Virgin Gorda/Cooper Island and The Indians. It took a little planning ahead but it was all worth it. I can honestly say we enjoyed all five boat trips and it is hard to pick a favorite. If you want to read our trip report here is a link.
https://www.vinow.com/wwwtalk/read.php?4,53488,53488#msg-53488
ashell
Thank you for the trip report. We also stayed on STT in that same area. A day with Captain Phil is wonderful. The snorkeling spots he showed us were full of coral. He took us to some spots off of Little St. James Island.
We went over to the indians, Hawknest bay, waterlemon cay and were not dissapointed at all. I know what you mean about wanting to see live coral and we did.
We have been snorkeling all over the caribbean and found some of the best colorful reefs in the VIs and BVIs
When you go back down take a day trip and go to The Indians, You wont be dissapointed
