usvi-on-line
Long over do trip report - The arrival
Long over do trip report - The arrival
We took our extended family- 2 middle aged snorkel lovers and 4 college studets- to St. John a while back. I have been procrastinating sending a trip report and made it my New Year's rsolution. So here it goes...
Arrived on St. Thomas with no problems - a first! I couldn't believe things ran so smoothly. We even made it to St. John earlier than expected. We were met by folks from Great Caribbean Getaways. This was the first time we had dealt with them and our experience was ok- but not great. I often had difficulty getting them to respond to e-mails and calls but once on island we did not have any need to bother them.
We rented Tamarind- in spite of some of the advice I had received from this forum. Tamarind is an older, well loved villa close to Cruz Bay. We selected it because it had lots of room and was very close to town. With 4 college students with us we wanted them to have a great deal of flexibility. We wanted to be able to all go our own ways when needed and didn't want anyone to feel stuck at a villa when they really wanted to be at a beach or shopping. This villa worked out perfectly for us! We are probably not the best to write a villa report. We live rather modestly and have no need or care for a fancy place. We come to St. John for the snorkelling, hiking and overall enjoyment of nature. We have stayed at numerous places on the island and have found all have their good point as well as drawbacks. To us Tamarind was fabulous. The kids enjoyed lazing around the very large pool (an amentity wasted on me as I would rather high tail it to the beach!) and their was so much living space that no one felt the least bit crowded. Yes, there was construction noise - but we had more noise one time when we stayed in COral Bay. Construction happens- noise is an unfortunate by-product. It didn't seem to bother those in our group who like to sleep until noon!
One of the drawbacks I had heard from others about this villa was safety. I worried about that at first. There is only one key and the villa is very open. In fact, it would be almost impossible to completely lock up this villa. We decided to make one of the bedrooms the "safe" room and made sure that valuables were locked into that room. We found a hiding place for the one and only key and never took it out of the villa. Yes. The villa was unlocked the whole time. Never had an inkling of a problem. I would recommend this villa to anyone who wants a lot of room for socializing, being close to town and does not want to pay an arm and a leg.
After settling in to our villa we ambled down to The Fish Trap and had a lovely dinner - except for the karaoke singers who were trying to serenade us. They had had one too may pain killers and, unfortunately, we had had none. It had been a long day and we were pooped. Headed back to the villa, took a dip in the pool (okay, so I did enjoy the pool at times) and hit the hay. Tomorrow we head for the beaches and one of many long trips into St. Thomas.
To be continued...
Arrived on St. Thomas with no problems - a first! I couldn't believe things ran so smoothly. We even made it to St. John earlier than expected. We were met by folks from Great Caribbean Getaways. This was the first time we had dealt with them and our experience was ok- but not great. I often had difficulty getting them to respond to e-mails and calls but once on island we did not have any need to bother them.
We rented Tamarind- in spite of some of the advice I had received from this forum. Tamarind is an older, well loved villa close to Cruz Bay. We selected it because it had lots of room and was very close to town. With 4 college students with us we wanted them to have a great deal of flexibility. We wanted to be able to all go our own ways when needed and didn't want anyone to feel stuck at a villa when they really wanted to be at a beach or shopping. This villa worked out perfectly for us! We are probably not the best to write a villa report. We live rather modestly and have no need or care for a fancy place. We come to St. John for the snorkelling, hiking and overall enjoyment of nature. We have stayed at numerous places on the island and have found all have their good point as well as drawbacks. To us Tamarind was fabulous. The kids enjoyed lazing around the very large pool (an amentity wasted on me as I would rather high tail it to the beach!) and their was so much living space that no one felt the least bit crowded. Yes, there was construction noise - but we had more noise one time when we stayed in COral Bay. Construction happens- noise is an unfortunate by-product. It didn't seem to bother those in our group who like to sleep until noon!
One of the drawbacks I had heard from others about this villa was safety. I worried about that at first. There is only one key and the villa is very open. In fact, it would be almost impossible to completely lock up this villa. We decided to make one of the bedrooms the "safe" room and made sure that valuables were locked into that room. We found a hiding place for the one and only key and never took it out of the villa. Yes. The villa was unlocked the whole time. Never had an inkling of a problem. I would recommend this villa to anyone who wants a lot of room for socializing, being close to town and does not want to pay an arm and a leg.
After settling in to our villa we ambled down to The Fish Trap and had a lovely dinner - except for the karaoke singers who were trying to serenade us. They had had one too may pain killers and, unfortunately, we had had none. It had been a long day and we were pooped. Headed back to the villa, took a dip in the pool (okay, so I did enjoy the pool at times) and hit the hay. Tomorrow we head for the beaches and one of many long trips into St. Thomas.
To be continued...
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beachluvers
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Jan&MikeVa
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California Girl