Bolongo Bay or Secret Harbour Beach Resort, St. Thomas?
 

As you may have seen in our other posts, we are 60+ grandparents taking 13 year old granddaughter on Spring Break. We are very interested in Bolongo Bay Beach Resort and Secret Harbour Beach Resort, St. Thomas that some of you have recommended.

We will need some privacy in our sleeping arrangements, such as a separate bedroom for us and pullout sofa bed in living area for granddaughter. Secret Harbour seems to have the better accommodations of the two resorts for this.

It looks as if there are more activities for kids at Bolongo Bay, and we might take advantage of the ease of the all-inclusive for meals, snacks and drinks. Other than the 2 BR condos, do any of the rooms at Bolongo allow for any sleeping privacy?

Short walk to beach, nice swimming and snorkeling, and not a lot of stairs would be great.

Would love to hear your pros and cons of each resort. Thanks.

I will be very interested to hear what the replies say. I have not stayed at either place but we visited both for a day in June when we were staying at Frenchman's Cove. I was particularly interested in BB since our daughter was going to get married in Dec '11 and was looking for an affordable honeymoon location and I thought it might be an idea for her. On the internet it looked like it might be a great choice; however, on the two visits we made to BB the resort was not nearly as appealing to me as SH- beach seemed smaller and was most definitely rougher- SH seemed a much nicer beach area, much more "family oriented" and seemed to have plenty going on- beach, snorkeling, water sports center, pool, etc.-
I am sure people who have actually stayed at both will chime in and I am interested to hear. BB looked tired and worn compared to SH to me.

www.booking.com will have honest recent reviews also priceline.com Beware TripAdvertizer many fake reviews commercial for profit site.Bolongo my fav better vibe and diving kids activities in that price range.

Happy Hunting!

If it is just about a nice beach Scret Harbor.
St Thomas Diving Club is AT Bolongo the big draw for me.

you will be much much happier at secret harbour. better rooms, better beach, better location. buildings 3 & 4 are optimal. and i'm not sure this is still in place but i think you can get cards at checkin for use at restaurant & beachside snack/bar area. not ai but gd won't need to carry cash around all day just to grab a soda or burger. a quick stop at nearby grocery for some snacks & booze if you drink is nice as the rooms/patios are very inviting, expecially at sunset.
be sure to take a look at coralworldvi.com it's approx 15 min drive from secret harbour and i think your grandddaughter will love the opportunity to interact with the turtles, rays, etc

Thanks for the feedback. We haven't made a decision yet, but the privacy of sleeping arrangements at SH may trump BB, even though I like having the option of AI at BB and the dive center there.

Virginia, I think I saw that SH does have some kind of water sports center? Will there be snorkeling equipment available for GD to use? We will definitely need to stock up on groceries and drinks (yes, booze for us) so is the "nearby grocery" in Red Hook? Other than on-site are there any restaurants close enough to walk to, and is it safe at night? Reason I ask is that we had thought about just using taxis instead of renting a car. Appreciate your thoughts.

sh has dive center too. i have my own snorkel gear, but i believe gd can rent gear from either dive shop for the week.

you will pass Cost U Less grocery on the left on way to sh. it is past bolongo. this store has everything including booze - which you'll find is cheaper than milk :)
fyi we take coffee/tea, pb&j, goldfish, tuna in checked luggage.
there is a smaller deli style grocery in red hook with yummy cheeses, snacks & regular groceries.
if you taxi to resort you can ask driver to stop at the store.

you can not walk to any restaurants from either resort. and other than "downtown" red hook i would not do much walking around at night anyway. you will be perfectly safe in the resorts. at sh i went down on the beach at night several times - the security gaurds made their presence known. assume bolongo has same.

your choice of course but i think you'll want to rent a car. not hard to get a cab to come get you at resort but not so easy to find phone to have then get you home. driving is on the wrong side but i find it easy to adjust, although i find right turns a bit confusing...

at sh, when you snorkel - walk to far end of beach (past restaurant & dive shop). enter water just before the rocks start. snorkel out & around this area. also a small piece of reef just out & to the left of the swim to raft & maybe by the cement pier on the left side of the beach.

Any suggestions where we could get the best rate for Secret Harbour or Bolongo Bay for the first week of April?