donnapg

We are cruising on RCCL Explorer of the Seas in about 2 weeks. I am trying to find some "interesting" stuff to do on the above islands rather than following the hordes to town and the most popular beaches.

We are 2 adults and 2 teen boys - All the guys get bored with too much beach time, though they like snorkelling. Me, give me a chair, a rum drink, and a book and just flip me over ever so often - I take my vacation time seriously.

We are in San Juan from 2 til Midnight. Is Old San Juan worth a look for the kids? Since we get in so late it is probably too late to hit the beaches - what other things are good to do for an afternoon?

St Maarten - Someone told me about Loterie Farm - They had said it had some time of wire - slide thing there. In all my research all I can find is the eco hikes. Does anyone have any other info? There are so many beachs on the island - what are some of the less crowded beaches that have good snorkelling where we could rent equipment and have something to eat as well?

St Thomas - Hubby is golfing at Mahogany Run and kids and I are doing the BOB in the am. I don't have an urgent need to drag them shopping in the afternoon so I will ask the same beach question as above for St Maarten.

If there is anything non-beachy that can be recommended that would be grea as well to give the kids a taste of the islands. I have been to all these places, but the kids have not.

Thanks.

Donna

swimmr

Here's my suggestion for San Juan. When you get in, walk up from the cruise ship terminal and check out the ruins of the Spanish forts San Cristobal (go first) and El Morro (second). The kids will enjoy climbing around the forts. When you finish up at El Morro, you can walk down through the historic district and hit some shops or grab food at any number of restaurants.

There is also a children's museum across the street from the big cathedral, next to Hotel El Convento. There are a couple other museums in that area.

You can also walk along the outside of the huge city walls down from El Morro. The park service has constructed/renovated a walking path on the outside of the walls, along the bay with entrance points into Old San Juan.

RAB

On St Martin, Loterie Farm has hiking and a very good restaurant, but I don't know of anything else there. I would suggest going to Petit Plage at the Grand Case Beach Club. The watersports desk can provide snorkeling at Creole Rock just off shore, which is one of the few good snorkeling sites, while you can have the beach. The restaurant there is pretty good too.

donnapg

Thank you both for the wonderful suggestions!

virginia

hi donna, re: st.thomas - i have been doing some reading as i will be there in june. there are a couple posts on fodors that suggest that mahogany run may not be the best course. i am dying to know what the BOB is?? and with 2 teens i would def consider going to coral world/coki beach. shark, turtle and ray feeding and a variety of undersea experiences should be fun for all.

ScottB

We were just in both ST Thomas & San Juan last week, here are a few thoughts:

San Juan we can't be much help as our stop was at night. We just went to a recommended restaurant (Aguaviva), a bit of gambling, and that was about it.

In St Thomas we hit three differnt beaches: Saphire, Coki, Magens.
Saphire was very nice, with decent snorkeling (not great). The beach itself is beautiful, and the least crowded of the three.
Coki was small, and very crowded. The snorkeling is supposed to be best here, but we thought is was a tad better than Saphire, but not much. Way too crowded for us.
Magens also a beautiful beach, but virtually no snorkeling to speak of. The area where you enter the beach was very crowded, but it's a longer beach where you can walk a ways down and get away from the crowds.
Out of the three, my wife & I wished we had simply spent the entire day at Saphire. Now we know...

Being it was just a cruise stop for us, we are by no means experts on St Thomas, but hope this will help a little....

donnapg

The BOB looks really cool - it is short for Breathing Observation Bubble and is like an underwater scooter. Her is a link with a description: http://www.bob-diving-center.com/bob_en.htm

Sapphire Beach is lovely. We stayed at that resort for a week a few years back and loved every minute of it.

Thanks.

Donna

donnapg

Has anyone done the 12 metre challenge America's Cup Race? From what I read it looks great but would love to hear more before I book it.

Thanks

Sunnyboy

The 12 Meter Yacht Race on the SXM is a great deal of excitement and fun. It's good for people with all levels of sailing experience from the novice to "old salts". You can go along just for the ride or take an active part as one of the crew. You can read quite a bit about it on the SXM forum on www.traveltalkonline.com (use the search feature there to check out many previous threads). Every report I've seen has been unnanmous in it's praise. It's the closest thing to actual yacht racing you can get. I've never read or heard a negative report about this adventure. It gets plenty of repeat customers. Don't pass up the opportunity - you'll get a lifetime of memories.

tropicaldan

If you like sailing Americas Cup class raceboats then the 12Metres are not to be missed. The Stars and Stripes, Canada 11, are just some of the Cup winning boats you will sail on.

Loterie Fram is a completely different pace - very tranquil, nice place for lunch and the new aerial tour of the forest is apparently ready and operational. No idea how good it is though.

lilipad

Since you're in San Juan until midnight, I'd look into some of the Bio-bay kayak trips from the Fajardo area (about 1 hour drive from San Juan). If it's around the new moon time, and you can find a tour group to take you and sons by kayak, it's a momorable thing. The bioluminescent oranisms light up when disturbed in the water ... thousands of them create that affect like in the movie Cacoon, when they lit up in the water. It's amazing. check out some of these sights for more info:

http://www.rainforestsafari.com/activity.html

Kayaking from Las Croabas into the bioluminescent lagoon in the Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve.
Caribe Kayak and Las Tortugas with Mark, shown at right. Tel. 787-889-7734

Oh, for St. Marteen, the suggestion for Creole Rock sounds good, or you can also go to the island off the north east coast that has snorkelling/lounge chair rentals/2 beach side restaurants, a drinking shack on the hill, and a secluded beach on the other side a 5 minute hike away. I think it was called Pille Isle, or something like that...

Statia

You were close, lilipad! It's Pinel Island.