Thoughts on a two week stay off season, one villa or two?

fmzip · Post by **fmzip** » Tue May 24, 2016 9:59 am

Thoughts on a two week stay off season, should we rent one villa or two?

If we can get a discount for a two week stay, pros and cons of renting just one villa or renting two different ones?

PatrickMcc · Post by **PatrickMcc** » Tue May 24, 2016 10:24 am

Well it is hard to say without knowing how often you have been and where you have stayed before. However my wife and split our 10 day stay this winter between Coral Bay (Estate Zootenvaal) and a Star Villa studio in Cruz Bay and we really liked the experience of staying in both places. We have been going to St John for over 30 years and had never stayed in Coral Bay. Although i guess that a good discount would be hard to turn down.

loria · Post by **loria** » Tue May 24, 2016 10:29 am

I think that you may be more likely to get a good discount renting one place -- BUT that being said -- at that time of year you probably have some negotiating power (but maybe more with a longer stay i would think ) --
the thing i DON'T like about moving is the whole packing up and moving your crap in the middle of vacation -- depending on where you are moving to the house may not be ready for you until the afternoon (and you probably need to vacate the first property in the morning ) so you are schlepping your leftover food and whatever else with you all over --- and you've effectively wasted a day of vacation. On the other hand if you like to look at something different then a change of scenery might be a good thing .... still i am more of a get into the house and stay there -- having moved a couple of times while on vacation ....

fmzip · Post by **fmzip** » Tue May 24, 2016 10:51 am

Next trip will be our fourth.

The last trip was a two week stay as was the previous. We weren't so pleased with our villa and the owner did't offer a discount for the off season / two week stay.

Our prior trip was our wedding/honeymoon at Andara far out on the east end but a fantastic villa. Other than the lack of breeze and mosquitoes, this place was grand!

I am not fond of the Coral bay side so it wouldn't be for that but maybe to get a different view

kklay · Post by **kklay** » Tue May 24, 2016 11:46 am

I would just rent one villa/condo. We've been on island before when we stayed one place for 3 days and the remainder of the time at another and like a previous poster said, it just takes time and effort to pack up, move and relocate items. You basically lose a day and if you have items that need to stay refrigerated, either you have a larger cooler that you fill and ice down, or sometimes you can get in early to the next place, but it's always a crapshoot if you can do this. Two years ago this coming Fall check in time was 3:00 PM however the previous occupants were very late to leave and they also left the place a mess so we didn't get into our condo until almost 6:00 PM! Good thing we had some drinks so we could sit on the patio while they finished cleaning up!

jofus · Post by **jofus** » Tue May 24, 2016 2:32 pm

I've done the split villa on a two week stay and loved it! For some reason it made the stay on island feel longer. We had absolutely NO issues relocating and DID NOT lose a day changing villas. Yes we had to be out of 1 villa in the morning and couldn't get into the 2nd till the afternoon. However, we notified the rental agency of our situation so we packed up our bags and food (we travel with a cooler bag) and were able to drop them off at the 2nd villa, went to the beach for a while then to town for lunch. When it was time we went back to villa #2 to unpack. A little pre-planning and good communication was all that was needed to pull it off. I say go for it!

joanne

toni · Post by **toni** » Tue May 24, 2016 4:09 pm

We don't mind moving to different places; for us it's like starting another vacation

might depend on how light you travel, how many of you there are and how much food you carry around. For us (2), we pack lightly and not a lot of food so it's easy to move. We like different views too, or we like to be in Cruz Bay for restaurants and ease of walking, then somewhere more remote. We haven't done a two week trip though, but we have moved around for shorter stays. Enjoy!

Pulley · Post by **Pulley** » Tue May 24, 2016 4:13 pm

We've moved once and would never do it again. As you can see you will get 1/2 the crowd saying don't split the time and the other 1/2 saying split the time. None of us know what you and your group prefer. We can only share our experiences and mine sucked.

If you end up hating staying in one place for two weeks or hated the experience of packing and moving mid-vacation the bottom line is you are spending two weeks on my favorite island so "it's all good!".

papabou · Post by **papabou** » Tue May 24, 2016 6:35 pm

several yrs ago we spent 6 nites on mt bordeaux then moved to villa on maria bluff for 4 nites. agent for maria bluff allowed early move in and it was time to regrocery so no big deal on move.

the 2 locations saved a bunch of travel time. on arrival with stopped at starfish for food and libations then to mountain. while there we only went to beaches on south shore, east end and east end of north shore - waterlemon, francis, maho and cinamon. we also ate out in coral bay. once we moved we dined in cruz bay and did west end north shore beaches around to trunk thus eliminating the switchbacks east bound.

another benefit of course is different views from decks and going from sunrises to sunsets. good experience for us.

papabou

Coconuts · Post by **Coconuts** » Tue May 24, 2016 10:36 pm

As you might expect, we split most of our visits between two villas, and while our experiences aren't typical, we can still chime in on this general theme of splitting stays between villas. We cook in much more often than we eat out, and so face a more challenging refrigerator wind-down and ramp-up when the time finally comes to move. Granted, some of that food is actually take out from St. John Market, and the villas do happen to be adjacent to each other, but we would be the last to underestimate the effort required to pack up the coolers, spotless the first fridge, and schlep all the left-over stuff next door. It might just be that our refrigerator organizational skills could use a tweak here or there. Finally, while inapplicable to most visitors, we also need to wind down all of our villa improvement projects, put away the tools, erase all trace of our personal effects, move all said tools and personal effects to the other villa, and then, in many cases, race down to the ferry dock to greet our new guests. FWIW, though, you can hardly do better than to stay at a villa immediately after it has been occupied by a pair of obsessively detail-oriented owners, with a week to spot and then address any imperfections.

All the best,

Kevin

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Wed May 25, 2016 11:10 am

I split stays all the time off season, and have always had a good experience. If the second house is not ready, we have always been allowed to at least drop off our bags and come back later. I do cook a lot on the off-season trips and always have food to transfer, but we have three Polar Bear coolers between various folks (largest, medium, and backpack sizes), and those keep the food cool until we can get everything into fridge #2.

I don't find it a hassle to move. With everyone helping, it takes no more than an hour to pack up, clean the villa, and load the jeeps--sometimes less, depending on how organized everyone got the night before.

We are home before sunset most days on our off season trips because I am the driver of jeep #2, and I don't like to drive in the dark. Therefore, we really take advantage of the varied views and pool areas a split stay offers. My group is doing a two-week long split stay between Klein and Francis Bays in a couple of weeks.

Marcia (Mrs. Pete) · Post by **Marcia (Mrs. Pete)** » Thu May 26, 2016 11:12 am

We enjoy splitting our trips up into two pieces; makes it seem longer and offers variety. On the day you transfer from one villa to the other, make that your exploration day. Get out of the first house by 10, pack up your stuff in a cooler or two (maybe drop your bags and cooler(s) at the other villa if you are allowed) and do the hikes/snorkels/lunches/beaches you have wanted to spend more leisurely time at. At 3 or 4, head to the new villa and start an entirely new vacation.

Not that it's particularly relevant to STJ but this is the way we do our Florida vacations on Anna Maria. We spend three nights in a bungalow on the beach at the south end then move to a cottage at the other end of the island. The two parts of the trip are entirely different and yet, both wonderful.

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