Trip Report – 3/19-3/24

We just got back from our well-needed trip to St. John and thought I would share our trip report with you. This was our first trip to SJ and our first real vacation alone since our twins were born 2 years ago. Thanks too all of the great information I learned from others on this message board, we were definitely able to make the most of our short time in paradise. We are already planning our next trip back in June 07!

Pre-Trip – We are only 72 hours away and we are in full packing frenzy. We need to pack a bag for two days in NJ, pack the kids stuff for 7 days with the in-laws, as well as our own bags for 5 days in SJ. My wife handles the kids stuff and I concentrate on our own vacation bags. With my trusty checklist in hand, I start to precisely load our clothes, snorkel gear, Neat Sheet (of course), and other items into our suitcase. My wife has laid out a freshly ironed stack of clothes on the bed for me to pack. She enters the room and watches in horror as I tightly roll her clothes in order to conserve space in the suitcase. I try to explain that my method will still minimize wrinkles but she leaves the room in disbelief. No time to argue, too much to do. After losing a debate with my wife over why she needs 4 pairs of flip-flops/sandals for a 5 day vacation, packing is finished at 1am and we leave the next day for NJ with the kids in tow.

Sunday -- 3/19 – Since our time in SJ is very limited, we (well really I) decide to take a red-eye flight to San Juan to minimize our traveling time during day-light hours. With the kids tucked in bed at the in-laws, we head to Newark for our 10:30pm flight on JetBlue to San Juan. Flight is delayed 1 hour. No problem….we have a 4 hour layover. Flight is rather uneventful. JetBlue is a fantastic airline whom I highly recommend. Very new planes, with comfy leather seats and 37 channels of DirecTV at every seat. We watch the horrendous sequel Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and get an hour or so of shut-eye since we are pretty amped about getting to SJ.

Monday -- 3/20 – We land in San Juan at 3:30am (yes…..that is not a typo), retrieve our baggage (whew!….1 for 1) and head to the Caribbean Sun counter which I was explicitly told would be open at 4am. We get there to find an empty counter, a few travelers camped out on the floor sleeping, and one TSA baggage screener leaning back in a chair trying not to look like he was sleeping. I had originally planned to ease our layover by spending a few hours in the Continental President’s Club (which opens at 3am). However, we spend the next 2 hours sitting in front of the CS counter hoping for someone to walk out of the back room to give us our tickets and boarding passes. Finally, at 5:30am, a short-man dressed in a lovely shade of green not seen since the late 1970’s comes out to begin issuing tickets. He is rather pleasant and so I fight back my rage for having to sit 2 hours on the airport floor. I do find myself fixated though on the gigantic “mono-brow” that this guy is sporting. Perhaps this is a new fashion trend.

We get our boarding passes and head downstairs to the inter-island flight gates for our 6:45am flight. Since nothing is open yet, my wife and I settle on two sodas, a bag of chips and some gummy bears for our breakfast of champions. 30 minutes later, who appears behind the Caribbean sun boarding counter but Monobrow! Is this airline that understaffed?? We head out to the tarmac to our turbo-prop plane and find two seats near the back of the plane. We are relieved to find that Monobrow was not also the pilot of our flight. However, we were concerned about the 12-year old looking pilot that WAS flying the plane. No matter….close your eyes for the next 20 minutes and hope for the best. Surprisingly, the island-hop was very smooth and we land in STT at 7:15am. We grab our luggage from baggage claim (2 for 2….sweet!) and head outside.

The warm Caribbean air is just the welcome we needed. It was a beautiful and sunny 75 degree morning as we exit the airport. We find our private taxi driver Freddie (Dynamic Tours) waiting for us as we go outside. He is extremely warm and friendly and got us to Red Hook in record time considering how bad the traffic was downtown. We get to Red Hook 30 minutes before the ferry so we walk across the street to the Marina Market to check out some prices on provisions. However, we decide that we have just too much stuff with us to consider dragging another 3 or 4 bags of groceries and head back to the ferry. We chat a little while with some cruise ship passengers on their way to Trunk Bay for the day only (too bad for them) and pick up our tickets for the ferry.

Our ferry over was nice and smooth and we finally have Cruz Bay in our sights. Our months of waiting are finally over and we are here. We get off the ferry and meet our villa manger from Windspree. She has already set up our Jeep at Cool Breeze Rentals. A lovely brand new blue Jeep Wrangler. We are then off to enjoy the experience of driving in St. John on Centerline Road. I think our villa manager must have forgotten that we were following her, or assumed that we have been here before, because I think it would have been easier trying keep up with Mario Andretti. Nevertheless, we make it to our villa in Coral Bay (Sea Wing) in one piece and get acquainted with our new home. The driveway is insanely steep, but our trusty steed gets us up to the top without having to use 4wd. Sea Wing is a simple, yet lovely home on the side of the hill in Coral Bay half-way between Crabby’s and Shipwreck Landing. Our only surprise was the fact that there was no indoor shower – only an outdoor one. It was a very private outdoor shower in the rear of the house that was tastefully done in concrete and natural stone. I didn’t mind it one bit, but I am sure there may be some who would find this to be unacceptable.

Sleep deprived and utterly exhausted, we slip on our swim suits, load up the jeep and head out. We grab a quick bite at the bar at Aqua Bistro (very good) where I enjoyed my first of what would be many frosty Carib’s. We then drive out to Maho Bay. The beach is rather quiet (about 20 people) for the high season and we find a nice spot to put down our things. We open up the pop-up beach cabana (a decent size half-moon) and lather up on the sunscreen. We take a quick dip in the lovely turquoise water and pass out from exhaustion on the beach. We have now had about 1 hour of sleep in roughly 30 hours and are our eyes are stinging. Even after a few hours of sleep on the beach we are still pretty wiped out. We head back to Coral Bay around 4pm or so and take a quick shower and head out to Shipwreck Landing for a bite to eat. Although the restaurant is crowded we only have to wait 10 minutes for a table. We both devour some seafood/pasta dishes enjoy a nice cold Carib and head home. We grab a few provisions at Lily’s Market and pass out on the couch after about 10 minutes of watching American Idol.

Tuesday – 3/21 – We awake in the morning refreshed and ready to go. It is amazing what a few more hours of sleep will do for you. It was a light cruise day so we head out to Trunk Bay. The parking lot is fairly empty at 9am and we get a nice spot. Plus, there are some plumbing issues and the bathrooms are temporarily closed so there is no admission fee. We find a great spot on the beach along the west side of the bay (east side gets way too crowded as we would come to find out) and setup our beach chairs and Neat Sheet. I have seen the pictures a hundred times but there is really no comparison to viewing the water and beach at Trunk live in person. It was absolutely stunning. I waste no time and grab my snorkel gear. I snorkel the rocky west side of the bay and see some beautiful reef fish, sea urchins and some great brain coral. I then come back and grab my wife to go snorkel Trunk cay. We snorkel around the cay counter-clockwise and enjoy the sites. More beautiful coral and reef fish. My wife sees a reef shark and I spot a large sea turtle. We grab some lunch and head out of Trunk since it was starting to get a little too crowded. We move down to Francis Bay for a little more privacy. My wife enjoys her book and I snorkel for another hour or so. I am getting a little tired so I head back. We then head back to the villa to shower up for an early reservation at ZoZo’s. However, we return to our villa to find that we have absolutely no water. After a quick phone call to Windspree, a local handyman shows up and says that we had some problem with our cistern pump. Fortunately, he was able to fix it pretty quickly, which was surprising since I thought everyone here moved on island time. We quickly shower up and the folks over at ZoZo’s were very nice and able to accommodate our later arrival.

Zozo’s was absolutely wonderful and we enjoyed the tail end of a great sunset on the balcony. We share a delicious calamari w/pesto aioli. My wife has the grilled lobster with crabmeat and artichoke and I enjoy a fresh grilled mahi mahi with a mango relish and sundried tomato risotto. We drive over to Mongoose Junction for little early evening shopping and head back to Coral Bay. Driving at night across the island was a little harrowing at times but we make it back in one piece. We stop at Lily’s for 2 pints of Ben and Jerry’s and enjoy a quiet evening at home since we have early morning ahead of us.

Wed – 3/22 – We decide to rent a dinghy from Noah’s Little Arks for a full-day of sun and snorkeling. After some paperwork and 10 minute video on how not to end up as a castaway on Gillegan’s Island, we hit the water. Despite our best efforts, my wife and I are a little sunburned and do our best to cover up on the water since the sun is pretty intense. We decide to head out to Waterlemon Cay and work our way backward. After a close-call with a powerboat and a charterboat around Mary’s Point, we make it out to Waterlemon. It is still early and we are the only one’s there. We throw on the gear and start snorkeling counter-clockwise around the cay. This was by far the best snorkeling of the trip. Beautifully colored parrotfish, a turtle, more interesting coral, other reef fish and a trumpet-fish. Current was kind of strong on the east side of the island but it wasn’t that bad and didn’t cloud up the water too badly. After Waterlemon, we struggle to get back into our dinghy and head back west. We briefly stop at Cinnamon which is rather crowded and pass by Peter Bay to see some of the ridiculously large homes on the hillside, including a $24 million dollar monstrosity (no pun intended) that is currently being built by the Monster.com CEO. Incredibly beautiful home, but really out of place for St. John and takes away from the otherwise pristine coastline. We then pull the boat up on Jumbie Beach for lunch. The surf is starting to eat up our lunch spot so we finish up and head on over Gibney Beach for some sunbathing and snorkeling. I really wanted to stop at Denis Bay in between but were told that we couldn’t bring the dinghy’s up on shore there because of the coral reefs. I was rather disappointed b/c that was one of the spots I really wanted to hit, but we will be sure to make a note of it for next time. We then try to snorkel Whistling Cay but are turned back after realizing how choppy it was. We pull up on Gibney and it is fairly deserted. We find a nice shady spot under some grapetrees and relax for a little while. I do a little more snorkeling while my wife reads some more of her book. After a near miss with a sea urchin (note to self – always look both ways when snorkeling) I head back, enjoy a nice cold Carib and take a little nap. We then enjoy a nice stroll along Gibney to see the beautiful beachfront cottages and load up the dinghy which at this point is slowly being taken back into the water by the rising tide.

My wife, feeling adventurous, decides to take over as captain of the boat for a quick photo-op and switches back after we get out of the bay into open water. We decide to spend the rest of our afternoon at Honeymoon Bay which was a real treat. Very quiet and calm waters with great snorkeling on the western rocky area of the beach. Swimming back from the rocks I spot a 4 foot stingray swimming along the sandy bottom about 2-3 feet underneath me. It is a little unnerving but I do manage to get a quick photo of him with my underwater camera. We load up the boat one last time and head back to Cruz Bay. After a little shopping at St. John Spice, we head back to Coral Bay to get ready for dinner. We originally had a reservation for Stone Terrace in the early evening but quickly recognized that we could not make it back to Coral Bay, shower, and drive back to Cruz Bay in time for our reservation. So we make the executive decision to cancel at Stone Terrace and to try to find a reservation elsewhere. Big mistake. Everywhere we wanted to go was booked solid – Lime Inn, La Tapa, and Asolare was closed (more on that later). We ended up getting a table at Rhumblines. However, the menu was a little too exotic for my wife and we wound up at Margarita Phil’s near Mongoose Junction. We were immediately seated and I enjoyed a very large and tasty frozen margarita. I would have had a second but my wife flatly refused to drive the jeep back in the dark to Coral Bay. So I decide to switch to soft drinks and we both enjoy some half-way decent Mexican food. It wasn’t top notch, but it was pretty good all things considered. My wife and I end our meal by splitting a delicious Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie which was to die for.

**A note on Asolare – come to find out that the reason why Asolare (as well as Paradiso and Chateau Bordeaux) were temporarily closed was due to some allegations of profit skimming by the local managers. I am very pleased we didn’t have reservations with them or else I would have been pretty disappointed.

Thursday – 3/23 – Another beautiful morning in St. John. However, we are slowly feeling that the end of our trip to paradise is near. We are both pretty sunburned so I decide that today would be a great day for a morning hike to Ram Head. Little did I know how this simple decision would leave a permanent black mark on my up-till-now flawless travel planning. Before I get into it, I should probably give you a little background. My wife and I have very different ideas on how to relax on vacation. My wife’s idea of the perfect relaxation would be head to the beach, curl up under a grape tree with a stack of Oprah’s Book of the Month Club novels and vegetate. While I do enjoy relaxing on the beach with my Ipod and a cold beer, I much prefer a more active vacation. I think I had struck a very good balance of the two up till this point. However, I think my “inner boy scout” got the best of me with our hike to Ram Head.

We arrive at Salt Pond around 10:30am and it is already starting to get pretty warm out. We head down the .2 mile hill to the beach and the sweat is already starting to drip from areas of our body that should not normally do so from where we are from this time of year. It’s a downhill hike though so it’s not a big deal. This would become a much larger issue on the way back. After passing some European men sporting their “banana hammocks” on the beach, we find the beginning of the Ram Head trail. I have already explained to my wife that it the hike is less than a mile long so it will not be terribly difficult. My wife, a veteran of the two day Avon Walk for Life, is not terribly concerned, but is slowly starting to get irritated with my decision to go on two mile hike in 85 degree baking sun. The first part of the hike is pretty well-sheltered, moving along the coast of Salt Pond inside the tree line. However, during one rather narrow section of trail, my wife hits her head hard on a low hanging tree branch while concentrating on her footing. This would mark the end of her effort to humor me by going on this hike and would result in a steady barrage of sarcastic remarks and complaints for the remainder of the hike up to Ram Head. The fact that we were dodging small cactus which line the trails like land mines and dealing with loose rock and gravel didn’t help things. Fortunately, we arrive at the top the mountain unscathed (at least physically) and enjoy some nice cool trade winds coming off the ocean. The views were absolutely incredible and well worth the hike in my mind at least. We kiss and make up and laugh about how out of all the great things we take back from this trip to St. John, this hike will be the story that we will always remember. Our hike back is much less arduous, but the temperature is much higher now and we are pretty well soaked with sweat by the time we reach Salt Pond. To add insult to injury, we have to hike.2 miles back up the hill to the jeep. What was such an easy walk down to Salt Pond feels like trek through the Sahara with nothing but a nice WARM bottle of spring water. We get back to the jeep and crank up the A/C full blast and my wife makes me swear I will never do this to her again.

We decide to spend our last afternoon at Little Lamashur since we already pretty close. We throw the jeep in 4WD and head up the lovely unpaved road. Fortunately, the larger hill at the top is paved now and gives us no real trouble. We find some parking just before the ranger station and find a nice shady spot on the beach. Little Lamashur is a great little hidden gem of a beach and I highly recommend it. There were maybe 10 people there and the water was beautiful and calm. We enjoy some lunch on the beach and I decide to head to the water for my last day of snorkeling. My wife decides that she has had enough adventure for one day and curls up with a nice book and takes a nap. I snorkel along the west side of the bay along the rocks all the way out to the point between Little and Great Lameshur Bay. It starts getting pretty deep and a little choppy, but I do manage to see some much larger fish including another stingray and a large moray eel. I head back for some relaxation of my own on the beach and enjoy a few cold Caribs from the cooler. We discuss going for some conch fritters over at Skinny Legs since we had yet to eat at this fine establishment, but are told that it is closed because of the death of one of the owners – Doug. How sad. We take a last dip in the lovely waters of St. John and head back to the villa for some cheese and crackers. Not exactly the same as the nosh at Skinny’s but it will do. We shower up and get dressed for our final dinner on St. John’s at The Balcony.

We head over to Cruz Bay and park the jeep at our usual spot at Slimman’s pay lot. It’s an annoyance to have to pay $5 for parking but since Cool Breeze doesn’t have a lot and there is no public parking to speak of, we really don’t have a choice. Plus the folks over at Slimman’s are very nice and keep a watchful eye on our jeep. Money well spent. We arrive at the Balcony to find that our table is not ready. We head over to the bar and I decide to try my first Painkiller. I am not terribly impressed and switch over to Red Stripe. 15 minutes later, we are led to a nice table over the Beach Bar and overlooking St. Thomas. My wife has a Caesar salad and I enjoy some delicious lobster crepes. We both have the char-grilled filet of beef in a merlot sauce with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies for dinner and we were both equally disappointed. Perhaps they should have explained that “char-grilled” actually means a ¼ inch of black ash on top of your meat. It was rather disgusting, especially given the price. We decide to get our own desserts since dinner wasn’t terribly filling and my wife goes with the Reese’s PB Pie (again!) and I have the Heath Bar Pie. Really yummy….but then again, how can they screw this up??

As we finish our meal, we have a few laughs when a man who is at the Beach Bar below decides that he doesn’t want to get his clothes wet on the way back to his boat that is moored right offshore and streaks naked across the beach, into the water, and back to his boat. It was rather amusing, especially since no one really seemed phased by the spectacle. After some final shopping in Cruz Bay, we hit the Dolphin Market for some drinks, and back to Coral Bay to pack up our things.

Friday – 3/24 – It is an early morning and we really don’t want to get out of bed. Especially since we know that we need to leave St. John. It has been such an amazing vacation that we ponder whether we can just have our father-in-law sell the house and ship our kids out. We gather our things, load up the jeep, and take some final pictures of our villa for posterity. Fittingly enough, it is starting to rain (the first time all week) and we take the scenic route back to Cruz Bay along North Shore Road. We say goodbye to all the wonderful beaches that we enjoyed all week and drop off the car at Cool Breeze. It is a rather somber mood as we sat at the ferry dock awaiting our departure. We reminisce about all the great things we saw and did and plan our next trip back. Our driver from Dynamic Tours meets us at the Red Hook dock and takes us downtown. He graciously holds our luggage for us so that we can enjoy a few hours of shopping in St. Thomas. We quickly realize how much we love St. John. St. Thomas is so overdeveloped and congested and is just not our style. It is low cruise ship day and we are hit with a steady barrage of merchants wanting us to come into their stores. We do enjoy the shopping though and a have nice lunch at The Greenhouse on the water. My wife picks out and nice silver/gold Caribbean hook bracelet and I load up on some duty-free liquor. Just before we have to leave, we come across a fantastic little art studio called the David Hill Gallery. David Hill is an incredibly talented local artist who paints a lot of impressionist-style works with a local flare. We fell in love with his work and ended up having a large print shipped back to our home. We would have loved to have an original, but they were several thousand dollars and just not in our budget right now. David was extremely personable though and took time to talk with us and help us choose between several of his paintings that we liked. He also agreed to personalize and sign his print for us. We are eagerly awaiting our new purchase to arrive back in the States.

We head back to the meet our driver Murphy who is right on time. I can’t say enough good things about Dynamic Tours. The private taxi was only nominally more expensive than a public one and is worth every penny. Both Murphy (our driver) and Freddie (the owner) are a real treat to work with.

We drive to airport and there is now a sinking feeling in our stomachs. It is time to go back home and get back to reality. We do miss our twins though and can’t wait a few years to bring them to St. John so they can enjoy it as much as we have.

Our Caribbean Sun flight is a little late but we don’t mind. We have become accustomed to “island time” by now. We take off at sunset and say goodbye to St. Thomas. There are only 8 of us on our flight back to San Juan and the flight is rather uneventful. We enjoy another lovely airport meal in San Juan (mc donalds), but are thankful that there is a place open this time. Our bags arrive (3 for 3….we are on a roll) and we check-in at Jet Blue right way without delay time. Thank you JetBlue.

We fly back into JFK around 1am and take a car service back to NJ. We had asked for a regular sedan but were pleasantly surprised when a white stretch limo shows up for us. What a nice way to travel home. We sleep the whole way back and are greeted by our twins the next morning who come running to us when they see that were back from our vacation. What a wonderful way to end our trip!

Final Thoughts: It was our first trip to paradise and it will certainly not be our last. St. John was everything we expected it to be and more. We are already planning our trip (this time with friends) for next June. Here is a quick scorecard of the best/worst of our trip:

Best – Renting a dinghy for the day and getting to snorkel Waterlemon and relax at Gibney Beach.
Worst – Dinner at The Balcony

Car Rental – Cool Breeze gets an A for service and quality but a C for the lack of a parking lot and the ridiculous $70 “sand charge” that they charge people who bring their car back with too much sand in their jeep. I am glad I saw the fine print before we brought it back.

Restaurants – ZoZo’s (A+), Aqua Bistro (B+), Margerita Phil’s (B for food; A- for drinks); Shipwreck Landing (B+); Balcony (C-);

Villa – Windspree is a very good management company and I would work with them again. They had good communication, set up our car rental on short notice, and had someone come out to fix our cistern problem very quickly. Sea Wing is also a very nice property. Very simple, yet elegant, and perfect for 2 people who don’t need some of the bells and whistles of the higher end properties.

Beaches – Best (Gibney); Worst (none really but I didn’t care for Salt Pond since there were was no shade)

Snorkeling – Best (Waterlemon); Worst (none)

Transportation – Freddie at Dynamic Tours was the best!!! $40 per person (round-trip) is a steal considering the regular taxis around about $30 roundtrip w/bags. Worth every penny.

Best Item to Bring – Neat Sheet

To Do Next Time – Skinny Legs; Day Trip to Norman Island/Caves; Sunset Sailing; NPS Hike on Reef Bay Trail; Asolare, La Tapa, Lime Inn, and Chilly Billy’s for Monkeybread French Toast.

Hindsight is 20/20 – Avoid The Balcony; go to Marina Market in Red Hook for provisions, hike Ram Head on cooler day, bring more sunscreen, get rental car company with parking lot.

I hope you all enjoyed our first Trip Report to St. John.

Eric and Danielle Janson – Oak Hill, VA