diane50

Interested in renting this villa on Great Cruz Bay. Has anyone stayed there? Is location okay or should we stay closer to north shore beaches?

lovethecape

I've been looking at this villa for my family. It's a very short walk or swim (I called the realtor) to the Westin, where we stayed 2 years ago. Other than it's cute decor(from internet photos), I think it's proximity to the Westin and being right on the water are its draw. I like the villa because I thought we might want to use the amenities at the Westin. It's a short drive to Cruz Bay.

We're also looking at Beach Music which is a little further from the Westin and would be better if we had more than our family of 4.

You might do a search for "Splash, St. John, villa", and some tripadvisor reviews will show up.

Tuxedocat

Splash is a wonderful villa. But you should know that being right on the water means you will get more mosquito/bug activity during dawn/dusk and evenings. This is not difficult to deal with if you know it's an issue, but it can be a nasty surprise for people who don't expect it. Great Cruz Bay is a beautiful and high-end part of the island. It is very close to Cruz Bay and about 15-20 minutes to the north shore beaches by short-cut over Gifft Hill. The beach there is not one of those perfect Caribbean ones, but it is lovely and it's not the only one you'll frequent anyway. If you like a fun, unusual waterfront property, Splash may turn out to be perfect.

hlg22

I literally just got back from a wedding on St. John, and the bride's family stayed at Splash and hosted a cocktail party there one evening. It was lovely, very nicely decorated inside and I would think ideal if you want to be right on the water. I personally liked the fact that the villa I stayed at was much higher up and consequently had better views, but we did have to drive to get to the beach/water. I am a mosquito magnet and was getting bitten up a bit after arriving at Splash for the party, but was fine after putting on some bug spray, and I can't really say that I found the bugs any worse than at the villa I stayed at - without bug spray, I got eaten there as well.

diane50

Thanks for the feedback; I didn't even think about mosquitoes potentially being worse right by the water. Our last Caribbean adventure was in Aruba and with the constant tradwinds that was not a problem.

Another question...I know the prices will be high but are there ample grocery stores to get supplies? A friend of mine mentioned that this might be an issue.

I'm sure the view would be awesome higher up. Does anyone have any other villa recommendations either in Great Cruz Bay, Cruz Bay, or north shore area that are only 2-3 bedrooms?

We would love to rent Cinnamon Ridge although am unsure if we can get that many couples to commit.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

hlg22

There are a few markets in Cruz Bay - we went primarily to the Starfish Market at The Marketplace on 104 just out of Cruz Bay proper and their selection was pretty good. Prices were definitely high, but more so on some items than others...for example, orange and yellow peppers were $9/lb., while red peppers were about $2.50/lb. We stuck with red. We cooked about 5 nights out of the 7 we were there, and had no problem getting groceries for the 8 of us, though there were a couple of things we couldn't find - the one that comes to mind is mint as one of my friends wanted to make mojitos. I'm not sure about 2-3 bedroom villas as we had and researched ones with 4 bedrooms, but we used and were very happy with Catered To villa rentals (cateredto.com). We had Watercliff villa - the decor was nice but basic, but the view was phenomenal. I knew nothing about St. John before booking but we were very pleased with both the villa and its location (5 min. from Cruz Bay, 5 min. from the Westin, 10-15 min. from North Shore beaches). You may not want to rule out villas with more bedrooms than you need, since price may be based on the number of people/rooms used, and not the number of total bedrooms.

diane50

Thanks hlg22--helpful information!!