USVI-On-Line

As I drove into work today I noticed the parking fee for Caneel is now $20 just thought I would pass it on - guess I will have to have 2 drinks now

Pia.

Wow. That is really expensive.

We stopped at Caneel last year for drinks in our Noah's dinghy, tied up as instructed, and boy did they cop an attitude. The dock master suggested we go to Cruz Bay for happy hour. LOL. Guess our money wasn't as good as their guests'! (I should have carried pictures of the villa we were renting perhaps.) I have no desire to go back there.

As in "It's gonna cost me $20 to snorkel Honeymoon Bay unless I walk it from town" ????

I had a great time visting Caneel last summer, and we were not staying there. My group parked two cars, spent the morning at Honeymoon, had lunch at the Terrace, and then spent the afternoon snorkeling at Caneel's main beach. At no time did any of us get any attitude at all from the staff and we interacted with a lot of employees over the course of the day.

That was in August though. I wonder if things are more rigid towards day guests in the "on season." I guess I'll find out next month.

Lovermont - Our experience was sort of similar. After the dock master asked us what were doing there, and I told him we were just there for a drink, he "suggested" that we go to Cruz Bay for happy hour. I declined, and we proceeded to get out of the boat (which was very difficult because he had directed us to a spot that the rope was too short for and we were VERY far down in the water - but sadly for him we're pretty nimble lol). A security guard showed up right away, spoke to the dock guy, and then proceeded to follow us to the bar. After we were settled in we heard the bartender quietly ask him were we guests or not. The bartender took his sweet time attending to us. It was weird. We were pretty cheerful and tried to be accommodating, but it was clear we were the ghetto guests. I thought, "Oh, get over yourselves!" LOL.

Although we have only been to Caneel once and did not have a problem, we are very unlikely to return. They have nothing there that I require that I can't get somewhere else. My time on STJ is too short to accept this kind of intolerance.

JIM

My question is can you visit Turtle Point if you ask for permission at the front desk?I was there last May and didn't ask and walked up to the trailhead,paused and ask a security officer if it was o.k.He told me no,and was suprised that I made it back that far without being noticed.He was friendly and walk me back up to Caneel Bay chatting along the way.

St John is gradually going to price itself out of business for the average person. Only that famous 1%...similar to the way it is at St Barts..... will be able to go there

Well, geez....
It'll be a few months before our next trip, but could someone post really specific instructions on how to find this trail from Cruz Bay? Does it start across the street from Deli Grotto?

We went to Caneel last May. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves. We parked and walked to the beach with our chairs (we did not use the chairs on the property). At lunch we went to the restaurant and had a great lunch. The parking fee was easily covered by the lunch. At no point did anyone give us a problem or treat us with anything other than respect. We had such a nice time that we went back the last day of our trip when the wind kicked up at Hawknest. Another great beach day and lunch. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Same here Linda. We have visited several times each trip as Honeymoon is a tie for our favorite beach. We always stop for a drink or lunch on the way in or out which covers the parking fee, but we did the same when there was no fee. From the main beach you can snorkel around the point and beyond. If tired we swim up to the beach and rest for a bit then swim on but we've never abused the resort's request not to stroll the private grounds. We've never approached on a dingy or boat so I can't comment on that.

We've never stayed at the resort because we always had our 2 boys with us and they have a policy that only one child can stay in the room with you. The cost of 2 rooms bought us a beautiful villa for twice as long...or Gallows, which we love. Now though, with number 1 son in college he will not be with us at the tail end of our trip. We are thinking of spending our last few days at Caneel, at long last. It will be fun to see if the notion of no TV or internet drives us into the fetal position. We shall see.

We were the second week of December for an afternoon. Four of us with chairs-we stayed right in front, no problems. We had 5 drinks and some purchases in the gift shop.

On our last day, my husband and I had a 5:45 flight. We had to return the car, so we took a taxi (for the first time!). We were thinking of going to Trunk, but went to Caneel. We got 2 drinks, walked to Honeymoon, swam one last time, and dried off with one towel. Then we had lunch there, and went home, a tiny bit sandy.

Guess we'll have 2 drinks at the bar after Honeymoon...om my gosh, not sure we can take it or not