magga: I am sorry that your experience was so unsatisfactory. I agree with you that Aruba is a different experience. You might want to try St Maarten for a similar vacation. St John is mostly national park- yes, it is camping. Everyone has a different expectation about their ideal destination, sorry we didn't meet yours.

I think we tried to tell you that you were here during a very slow period. That is why you ran into restaurants being closed, etc. I am amazed that you didn't find the weather pleasant. While you were here, we had some of the most wonderful sunny days imaginable. Oh, well! They say you can't please all of the people all of the time.

The weather was pretty nice, the first day monday it poured heavy rain for a couple of hours that was when we were at Magans Beach, the guy that you rented the beach chairs from made my husband wait while he continued to talk on his cell phone then just pointed for him to climb over him to a stack of beach chairs and pull off two didn't even say hello, the bathrooms at Magans Beach should be reported to the board of health when i say dirty and digusting and no running water to wash your hands that just amazed me, one faucet dripped a little but that was it, I mean it didn't have to be perfect but I would think they would clean it up a little. How does a resort Hotel close its restaurant I can see places downtown but if you are booking guest and taking their money how can you not have it open. Anyways that was not all of it we just like the idea of that warm welcoming happy to see you what can we do for you attitude that is the idea of a vacation we are not looking to get waited on hand and foot but just that happy friendly service. We tried to get Pina Coladas at Trunk Bay in St. John and the woman at the snack bar literally said c'mon give me a break then shrugged and said NOPE we don't have any ice!!!! Then my husband had ordered a hot dog plate with fries when she gave him the hotdog without the fries he said oh I ordered fries she gasped again and said AGGGH!!!! she didn't even try to hide that she no more wanted us there than the yankees like red sox's fans.

I think the island is not a "destination" type vacation we were told that the STT goverment makes money off the cruise ships whether they get off the boat or not so they are satisfied with that. They could definitely make more jobs and really help their economy if they were interested. We did get some nice jewelry from Ultra Diamond store. that was the only store opened all the other stores close before 6pm.

Magga, I'm wondering if you ever rented a car to get around STT.

Is Magens the only beach you went to? Did you snorkel? Get around Red Hook?

I'm sorry that you had such a poor trip. I agree that the restrooms should be cleaned up at Mag en's Bay, there is no excuse for uncleanliness. Me and my husband have visited STT twice, both times we really enjoyed ourselves. We also visited during the slow season, so several of the restaurants were closed. We didn't have a problem finding a place to eat though 😎

Again, I'm sorry you had a bad time. I hope you come back some time and try another resort.

Jeniffer

I agree with East Ender, sorry your vacation was not what you anticipated, however you were here during our off season. Even living here we find it difficult to deal with the lack of choices when we venture out to breakfast, lunch or dinner or stores closing early or not opening at all. Since I am a bartender on STJ, I have to say, there are a select few who will not provide you the service you are accustomed to in the States, (or Aruba as you mentioned) but I also have to point out that many of us go out of our way to be friendly and personable to all of our customers, locals and tourist alike, this is our lifeline, we want you to enjoy your experience and return. Possibly you hit a few a people on their "off" days. The USVI is not for everyone, but those that do"get it", have "it" for life.

amazing MU EXPERIENCE THERE WAS OPPOSITE OF YOURS people WERE FRIENDLY AND THE RITZ CARLTON WAS GREAT

You never know is an island is a good fit for you until you try it. You may have hit things just wrong during your stay or maybe STT/STJ is just not for you. Expectations also play a big part in the scheme of things too. You either love it or it's not for you and now you know. We've tried other islands and found them to be not for us and we will never go back to St. Martin or Tortola or Cozemel. Don't let your experience keep you away from the islands. You will find one that is just right for you.

Sorry it didn't meet your expectations. My Husband and I spent our last 2 of 13 days on STT. We stayed at the Frenchman's Marriott and had a wonderful time. Clean comfortable rooms. Great breakfast buffet ( although a little pr icy $20 each). Fun pool bar with great tunes. Had our last dinner at Havana Blue. Excellent food! It was fun to be pampered for our last two days, how ever if that was your total experience you missed the whole point of the VI. It's about experiencing something unique. The people are wonderful. The beaches on STJ and Tortola amazing and it is just a little wild. By wild I mean natural. That makes it, in my opinion more real. We had a wounderful time and plan to return soon, this time we plan to bring old friends to introduce to our new friends.

I think you are all right when you say not every island is right for everyone. The experience we had in Aruba was completely different. They greeted us every day happy to see us, helped us get chairs on the beach and had staff working to take drink orders and lunch orders and even get you a bottle of water if you needed. They were happy to see us and made us feel welcomed the weather in aruba is no rain Sunny all the time if you do get rain it is very rare, also no bugs and every bathroom everywhere on the island is clean.

We relaxed in Aruba and actually didn't want to leave and stayed an extra day. I agree it may have been the off season I would hate to be at either marriott the hotel and or the Cove when it was busy because the pool area and beach area in both places was very small. Another thing our teenagers would never be able to get around STT as easy as Aruba you can't walk anywhere and the cabs get very expensive our teens could never handle driving especially when the residents cut you off and have no patience for the newly left side of road drivers and the Traffiic with it not being busy season i couldn't imagine when it is busy. I did think STJ was much friendlier and the Caneel Bay Resort was very nice and clean and we had a nice pina colada's at their beach bar.

"...our teens could never handle driving especially when the residents cut you off and have no patience for the newly left side of road drivers..."

Interesting -- I have never before heard anyone complain that VI drivers are discourteous, whereas many visitors remark that Vi drivers let them merge into traffic faster than at home!

I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed with your vacation here. I hope you are happier with your next vacation choice.

And I love Tortola, and I love the rain that appears without warning. And even before the Internet, St. John was known more as a camping place for visitors. I never expect restrooms at a beach (how many restrooms are there on many of the Cape Cod beaches? you have to use the restaurants). Magen's Bay is consistently a top-ten beach for its beautiful topography. Yes, you should have been warned by hotel admin about off-season matters, such as the closed restaurant. You're spending a lot of money to get and there, so that information should have been offered to you, you shouldn't have to hunt for it. It's the same on Cape Cod and Cape Ann (both Massachusetts), and you still can't find a low-cost place to stay in off-season (the four Cape/islands youth hostels are all closed by mid-October). I wish American Youth Hostels would find people to open a hostel in the USVI. Unfortunately, more and more hostels are closing by the year, because the national organization gives little support in terms of marketing and programs, except for those in the major cities.

On one stateside island we like to visit, it's advertised everywhere the dates that the merchants and restaurateurs take their breaks and close up. And this is a tiny little island that gets few visitors.

On drivers: my first time on a hairpin turn freaked my out. I pulled over, to walk down the hill and have husband come and get car later (this was when we were living there). Some nice gentleman behind me saw this, pulled his own car over, and drove me down the hill. I live in Boston, where rudeness on the road reigns - imagine my shock at such compassion!

To the O/P - When we resided on STT, I had the chance to observe, over the long term, the treatment of tourists both from the boats, and those arriving solo. There is definitely a different treatment of cruise ship passengers and those who arrive solo. Management needs to do a better job overall of training employees to treat each and ever patron as special. Then again, the same problems stateside - store clerks on the cell phone and ignoring customers, etc. Speak with your voice and your pocketbook, and be sure to let managers know, just as you would at home. The USVI are tourist-dependent. (At a little deli downtown, even as a known-resident, I'd get shabby service - and, except for when it comes to public education, I am not a cranky customer. And restaurants there do tend to cut corners where they can - who ever heard of a sandwich PLATTER where you have to pay 50 cents extra for a pickle?)

As for St, John, never had a problem there. Would ferry over for lunch or dinner and a swim or a hike. Restaurant staff treated us like gold.

Perhaps it is because the islands are so tourist-dependent that problems are downplayed. Hotels should be quite particular on their website about who would be comfortable there. And be sure to post your concerns on sites such as Hotels.com and tripadvisor.com.

In a way, I feel like we are so gung-ho about the US Virgin Islands here that we don't think about what other people might be expecting and that they might not enjoy it.

I like St. John because I can spend a whole week in a tank top and shorts and my hair in pig tails with no make-up, drinking, getting a tan, reading great books -- disconnected from the entire world. I was telling someone the other day about the whole concept of "island time" and waiting to get food and service and she said to me "I don't think I'd like that at all." But, for me it's heaven. I rush in my real life. I get dressed up everyday and stay connected to this computer, and I don't want that there. People will live for a week if they can't email or call me. (I tell people my phone doesn't work there, but it does.) I don't wear a watch and I'm too busy looking at the views to notice it's been 30 minutes and I still don't have my appetizer.

It's a very different kind of vacation. I don't fault anyone who doesn't enjoy it, because if it were for everyone the beaches would be more crowded. I just wonder if we prepare people for the realities. I know this is a travel board, but people need to know about island time and that if you don't say Good Day you aren't going to get good service. They need to know to lock their jeep and villa doors and that it might take 40 minutes to get a cheeseburger. Oh, and the chances of anyone waiting on you hand and foot are slim unless you're at the Ritz.

I had a friend who's a little high maintenance and she asked me about vacationing on STJ. I thought about how you have to take your trash to the dumpster every day or you get bugs in your villa -- no matter how clean it is. I thought about stone showers with lizards in them, and I thought about schlepping all your gear through the campground to spend the day on the most beautiful beach in the world. Then I told her, "You might do better if you go somewhere like Sandals, which they don't have on St. John."

There is always a risk about these types of travel boards that is inherent when you get a common group together. Most folks who participate love the place and are excited to share their love and experiences. In doing so – Sometimes we may build expectations too high. Especially for first time visitors – the concept of island time or no worries can be hard to grasp in the USVI because it is different than the states. A traveled visitor after a few minor or a major incident all of sudden the visitor will be looking for faults or comparisons to their other travel experiences. Each island in the Caribbean is unique and offers a different experience., and lasting memories.

So here is my two cents (IMHO) from lessons learned over the last 30 years of travel and living in the Caribbean:

In the USVI I would avoid the resorts and go for a Villa or Condo or small hotel.
The BVI it is a definitely a sail boat,
SXM timeshare or resorts are great,
Guadeloupe somewhere in a small town or village,
Aruba/Mexico a big resort with all the amenities.

You know what – I have fun in all of them – It is just different

Dear magga,

I too am sorry that we didn't live up to your expectations but the comments posted by you and responders will certainly be helpful to others.

I think I remember from a previous post that you only had a four day stay here and decided not to rent a car. I do think if you had had a longer stay here and had more freedom where getting around was concerned AND had opted for a more "island experience" by renting a condo rather than going to a resort (or had chosen the Ritz or Caneel Bay) your stay might have been more pleasant. I do find it unfortunate that, "after talking to a few people that live there they agreed it is not a tourist friendly place that it is more set up for the Cruise Ships to just come in for the day and leave." I can assure you that this is NOT the stance of the majority of locals and the majority go out of their way to ensure that both short-term and one-day cruise ship visitors enjoy their stay.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about the weather and during hurricane season it's a "given" that the weather might be a bit tricky at times.

Again, I'm sorry that we didn't meet your expectations but thank you for your honest trip report and maybe you'll give us another chance some time. Cheers!

Thanks for being honest and telling it how you see it!

I've been to Aruba a couple times and loved it.

Spent a week on STJ this summer and loved it...

I would love to go back to either...anytime.

Better luck on your next trip, sounds to me like you prefer resorts and/or All Inclusives.

Cheers...
Sherb

Lulu wrote:

I thought about how you have to take your trash to the dumpster every day or you get bugs in your villa -- no matter how clean it is. I thought about stone showers with lizards in them, and I thought about schlepping all your gear through the campground to spend the day on the most beautiful beach in the world.

To me, that life was Heaven. On STT, I didn't mind a bit carrying my own trash down the mountain to the city dumpster for our neighborhood; the lizards were fine; I'd resided in south Louisiana, so I knew a lot about bugs and "creepy crawly things." My joy was also, like Lulu's, sitting around reading a fine book. I hardly ever wore make-up except for a fundraising event or concert, because I wanted to, not because it was de rigeur. I loved every morning on STT, where the same little brown bird would stop by on its flight route, just as dawn broke, and watching the cruise ships in from our own perch on high. We should have purchased that cottage - I think the owners were about to put it on the market. My equivalent here is trips north, to the rural kingdoms of NY State and New England, where I can sit for days with my books, and nature.

However, with a small child, I'm more likely these days to go to a place where other children will be about. We do a lot of Youth Hosteling, where there are plenty of families traveling. However, that's fairly "rustic" - part of the charm (in addition to the low cost).

It has become one of my top priorities in life for no one, including me, to ever say that I cannot visit or enjoy a place because there are too many stairs, hills, and/or elevators - whether I be 75 or 95-years old.

Richard N Kurpiers

We went to Aruba last year and like you said it was a different experience. We both work 10 hours a day six days a week so when we go on vacation we do like the Resort Atmosphere. The Marriott sales person did not tell us anything about the restaurant on the cove being closed so we were just disapointed and not prepared. We did rent a car and drove around the trouble getting on the ferry was also disapoinitng. But I am not knocking the islands STT or ST. John they just were not for us. The year before we went to Aruba we went to Mexico which also was a Resort. So we prefer the long long stretch of white sand, the waiter or bartender at the pool bar or beach bar making us pina colada's everyday. I do agree it is more for the campers nature lovers and that would be fine but we are not campers we do like nature certain ways and the views were amazing.

& don't forget we loved Mafolie's for dinner.

Different Strokes-------. For me it's the Virgins. USI or BVI. If heaven indeed is "A Place On Earth" it has been found. The shear beauty of these Islands alone did it for me. Throw in the people and climate and..... well enough said. On the other hand, it is a good thing not everyone sees the same beauty in every thing. No?