This report will depart from the conventional day-by-day diary format mainly because 1) I was too lazy keep a journal, and 2) we were there almost two weeks and each day was more or less like the one before it. (Ahhh, heavenly monotony!) So instead this will be a series of impressions, opinions, and a sprinkling of facts grouped into categories. We got a lot of great information from the forum while planning for our trip, and I hope some of this will be useful to others who follow.

Part One covers logistics — villa, transportation, provisions, and the like. Part Two will deal with activities and impressions of the island and how all that has evolved since we started going there. I’m sure Part Two will also cover stuff I forgot in Part One.

CAVEATS & DISCLAIMERS. Opinions are of course shaped by the experiences, attitudes, and personal preferences of the person expressing them, so we need to set a little context here. For some of you, our viewpoints will serve as contrary indicators, as they say in the stock market — take what we say and do the opposite! We are a middle class, childless married couple aged 47 and 54. We try to take a quality vacation once a year and about half of them are to islands. Sometimes we go with other couples, but usually it’s just us. We’ve been to St. John 10 times between us over a 20+ year period, and it, along with Kauai, has been our traditional favorite. We are not cruise shippers. We prefer wine to umbrella drinks, villas to hotels and resorts, cooking in to dining out, snorkeling to shopping, and limin’ to clubbin’.

GETTING THERE
The trip began ominously when we got the only airport limo driver in the northeast who actually drives below the speed limit. Way below. Stops for yellow lights, slows for green ones, naps at red ones. There goes our leisurely airport breakfast. Then the security line at PHL, normally not too bad, extended for miles. There goes ANY breakfast. But we made the flight just fine and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for an hour because of weather (it was raining a little) and traffic (all those airplanes showed up unexpectedly?). Now is when even veteran travelers like me get a little edgy worrying about their connection. If it’s a business trip, no big deal really, you get there eventually and you still get paid. But this is vacation costing hundreds of dollars a day and there is only ONE flight from Charlotte to STT this time of year, and if we miss it, what about our friends who are meeting us at STT and have never been there and won’t know what to do and we still haven’t eaten anything and the world as we know it will end and…. Well, now you see why we needed a vacation in the first place.

Of course everything was fine. Wolfed down a crummy turkey sandwich from a kiosk at Charlotte. Made the flight, which was jammed, but we were one of the early boarders so overhead carryon space was no problem. I swear the ONLY empty seat on the plane was the middle seat between us. Okay, things are now looking up. Except every copy of the airline magazine had the crossword puzzle filled in. But we did get another crummy turkey sandwich!

There is no feeling quite like your first glimpse of turquoise waters and verdant bumps of land, is there? STT was fine. Hot, but did we think this was an Alaskan cruise? As regular visitors know there is only one baggage handler at that airport, who walks over one bag at a time and takes 15 minute breaks every half-hour. This is a deliberate attempt by the Chamber of Commerce to force you into island time immediately on arrival.

And if that doesn’t work, there’s the taxi ride to Red Hook. We always prefer the ride from Charlotte Amalie, but there is a scheduling conspiracy among major airlines to land every flight 5 minutes later than you need to make that ferry. So once again it’s off to RH! Here again we got a little bit lucky in that there was another foursome sharing the van so we had to make only one stop on the way. Otherwise, with all the traffic in CA we surely would have missed the 5:00 ferry. But we didn’t, and soon the ocean breezes were blowing in our hair on the top deck as we bumped our way across the channel to Cruz Bay.

Everything went like clockwork after that, which was ironic since by then we had no need of clocks.

VILLA
We rented One Particular Harbour from Caribbean Villas. I posted a ridiculously detailed review on another site, which only people who are thinking of renting it should even think of reading. Here’s the short version. There have been several other reviews of OPH posted lately and, while we weren’t as ecstatic over the property as the others were, it is a very good, almost new home that delivers fine value for its price range. A true Romancing-the-Stone drive to the top on a mostly-paved, very steep road leads to postcard-worthy views of Coral Bay and the BVIs. AC in the 3 bedrooms, which we needed and used. Heated pool, which did not need artificial heat this time of year. Comfortable, though not luxurious, furnishings. Built on three levels with a lot of stairs between them, this home is not for young children or anyone with mobility problems. Very private and secure (what burglar is going to make that drive?). Nicely maintained and managed by Caribbean Villas, which was a pleasure to work with.

JEEP RENTAL.
We rented our jeep as usual from Penn’s and once again couldn’t have been happier. It’s a weird company to deal with in a way because they have no web site and when you call to reserve a vehicle they don’t ask for a credit card or provide you with a confirmation number. As often as we’ve rented from them, I still get butterflies wondering whether a jeep will be there when I show up. But there always is, and if you show up after hours (we always do), there’s a jeep with your name on it, keys in the glove box. We had a flat tire out near Annaberg and they had somebody there within 30 minutes to fix it. When we turned the car in we even got a cheery “thanks for your business.” Wish they’d open a food market. TIP: Don’t skimp on jeep rentals! This vacation is not cheap, so spend the extra few bucks a day and get a 4WD that’s big enough for all your people and all your stuff and has the power to get up and down the hills. And don’t whine because you can’t take your top off (of the jeep, I mean) — what you really want is the AC.

PROVISIONS.
We dragged along a softside cooler full of frozen meats with us and shipped ahead some dry goods and still managed to spend about $700 on island for stocking the villa with food and drink for two weeks. Liquor is really cheap but wine is not, so a big part of the tab was for that. We also went though a lot of bottled water, and those little individual bottles cost a small fortune. After a few days we got smart and bought a couple of the big 2.5 gallon jugs with the taps and refilled the small bottles to take to the beach, etc. This also cut down on the size of the daily trash runs to the dumpster. TIP: Put some of the small bottles in the freezer and use them as ice in your beach cooler. You can drink them later in the day and you haven’t wasted precious water on ice.

As for buying groceries, you can spend half your trip tracking down specific items, because while everything you need is probably on the island somewhere, it’s like a scavenger hunt going from place to place to get it all. Our advice, just make a big run to Starfish. Yes, they’re expensive but for just a few days of provisions the hit on your budget won’t be that much different. They’re at least twice the size of anyplace else and you’ve got a much bigger shot of getting what you need there. If they don’t have it, get something else. If you absolutely must have it, bring it from home.

If you’re staying out on the Coral Bay side, there’s Lily’s Gourmet Market. While “gourmet” might be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s a fine place to pick up what you forgot or ran out of after the mega trip to Starfish. They had a surprisingly good wine selection at decent prices. TIP: Make out your shopping list before you leave. It’s something else to do while you’re waiting for the calendar to get to that magic day. Plus you have time to think about the things you need rather than figure it out on the fly once you’re there. Be sure to include things like trash bags and paper towels and laundry detergent and flashlight batteries, then check the villa to see what they already have you can use. This can greatly reduce over-buying of stuff you don’t need and won’t use. And don’t throw that list away — make notes for the next time.

The big challenge is finding fresh produce. It is for the most part just awful. If you manage to get to the store soon after they’ve had a delivery, you’re in good shape. But later in the trip we could not find a bag of salad with an expiration date that hadn’t already passed. We grabbed fresh produce whenever we could and went with frozen veggies the rest of the time. TIP: Travel only with carnivores.

Next installment: Things to do, stuff to see, etc.