Trip Report: 1st Time to St. John (Paradise!!)

Great report and PHOTOS, Allison!

I love Gibney too. $20 tp park at Caneel??!! That must be new.

Yes, good idea to stay at Coral Bay side next time. Great breakfasts at Donkey Diner...and if you rent one of the cottages about 5-10 minutes drive high up the hill from Coral Bay village and have a deck or , the VIEWS of all the islands are magnificent. You may end u,p, like many visitors, preferring that quieter side of the island.

LOL re your comparisons of the best tropical punch dirnks

Thanks CaliNurse! I guess the price to park at Caneel just increased from $10 to $20. I am glad that we went, just to check it out. Thanks for the Coral Bay info and I am glad you liked the drink comparisons! Can you tell we enjoy our tropical beverages? lol

Oh yes, i can tell those drinks were a big part of the trip In Hawaii, my fav is a "tropical itch"--how can you NOT love a drink with a name like that?
Thanks again, although in a way I should be upset....your photos made me miss St J too much!!!
And you're right to keep Vie's on your list--yummy food and a lady with whom you'll have a great conversation.

Loved the photos---brought back many memories. I have to ask though, we parked at Caneel Bay and said we were there to have lunch and paid nothing.

We did have an expensive, but wonderful lunch and then snorkeled off the beach. Do they now charge to park and have lunch?

Hi TPAYT, Thanks for reading! As far as I can tell, as long as you buy lunch or drinks to validate the $20 parking fee, you don't have to pay anything to park at Caneel. We wanted to snorkel Honeymoon so took a ticket to park, showed the front desk that we bought two cocktails and received a validated ticket and drove out without paying the $20 fee (this just went up from $10).

Great report..thanks for all the detail.
My wife and I are taking the family this June to celebrate a BU graduation. (I have daughters who are 22 and 20 and an 18 year old son). We are staying in a villa above Fish Bay.

I bought a St. John guidebook and have been trying to narrow down which beaches are a "must visit". We are all going to have snorkel gear and are planning on Waterlemon Cay and will now look to include Cinnamon Bay. The guidebook mentioned that Jumbie was nice but it said it was St. John's unofficial nudist beach. Any truth to that as far as you know? Don't really need to experience that.

You restaurant and drink recommendations were great as well. We can't wait. I do wish we could have gotten there during this time of year, but June was the only time we could get all of the school vacations to work.

Thanks again... fellow Mass resident.

Paul, i have been during Decemer, June and July and it was ALL fine. Maybe a bit more humid and a few more mossies in June, but not a big difference that I recall. Any problems pale in paradise!!
Youporbalby know fro reading thta Trunk Bay has an underwater snorkeling path. If you go there, make it eary a.m. and not on a day when cruise ships are docked on St Thomas. It'sa grogeous beach, but VERY popular.

I dont know about Jumbie being a nudist beach. Some books will tell you that Honeymoon (as mentioned above) is "clothing optional" but if that was ever true, it's not so now.

We definitely did not see any nudity at any of St. John's beaches, including Jumbie or Honeymoon. Have a great vacation, fellow Mass resident! Make sure you have Maho on your list, we loved our early morning there, so peaceful.