When are you going to St. John? I think that you said your first trip is in November, and you are staying at "St. John Livin'". We will be going for the first time in May, and that is the villa that we have booked too. I would like to hear all about your trip and the villa when you get back. Thanks and have a great trip!!

amtw, thanks. We are going to STJ the week after thanksgiving. Sure I will write a review when I get back.

Great, thanks!!!

Are you back yet? I'm anxious to hear your report! I hope that you had a wonderful time!! amtw

amtw, sorry could not write my review sooner. The good news is I am sure you would absolutely love St John Livin’. We’ve been back for two weeks, I still check bookitvi website occasionally, just to look at these pictures to relive my island dream. It’s exactly like the pictures on the website and better.

You will need about 30-45 minutes to get to Cruz bay, and about 5 minutes to Coral Bay center (if there is one) A side note on grocery stores, we found more fresh produce in Starfish market in Cruz Bay, and the prices seem better, but you should be able to find all you need in Coral Bay too. The road leading up to the villa is called Carolina (??), most of it is paved; there are a couple of rough spots. We rented a basic 2 door Vitara, four-wheel drive will help. Bill picked us at the ferry deck, I believe he owns both the bookitvi agency and the livin’ villa. He was really helpful.

This villa is not too big but it’s perfect for a couple. And the most amazing part of it is of course the view. My first impression was I could stay here my entire vacation, and enjoy every minute of it without leaving the villa. You get the same view from the living room, the bedroom and bathroom window. For me, the best part of the day is waking up and enjoy a beautiful sunrise from the bed. Since this house is facing east, you will have a nice sunrise but no sunset view, and it’s pretty bright and hot in the morning, and very, very nice in the afternoon with the breezes. My suggestion is leaving the villa early, you can avoid the beach crowd and come back enjoy your villa in the afternoon. There are still some construction going on near the villa, but they are far enough that I did not hear any noise.

Living room: I really like the entertainment center equipped with satellite TV (a flat screen LCD TV) and DVD player. There are plenty of channels to choose, even satellite radio stations, only I could not find one local station, I was thinking about to get the wind advisory, surf information, etc from a local station. Lucky the weather was perfect the week we were there. There should be wireless internet connection too, but I did not bring my laptop. I should mention the lighting in this house is great too, all with dimmers, and there are ceiling fans in bedroom, living room and bathroom.

Kitchen: The kitchen is really part of the living and well stocked, you will find very nice dishes, utensils, cooking pots and plenty of seasonings. There is a gas grill on the outside patio, but we could not get it to work, the knob was too tight even for my DH. That’s not a problem at all, we just use the stove inside. Actually it’s just cooktop without the oven, but you can use the microwave to bake or roast, I was told. And there is a water filter installed, we normally fill our water bottle and freeze it overnight, so we don’t need to bring extra ice in our cooler next day.


Bedroom: it’s a very, very comfortable King size bed, with tons of pillows of different size and softness. And a down comforter!!(I can’t imagine that anybody in STJ need to use it). There is a shelf with four baskets where you can store your clothing, and extra supply of bath towels and beach towels. And they do provide bath robes too. The bedroom has an air conditioner (the wall unit kind). Since the bedroom is not totally enclosed, not sure how effective the AC will be, we did not use it. There was a couple of nights with very light breeze I did feel hot while sleeping with the ceiling fan on. And since the bedroom is just separate from living room/kitchen by a sliding paper door and the bed is really close to the fridge, if you are a light sleeper you might be bothered by the humming of the refrigerator at night.

Bathroom: picture perfect, love the high quality bath towels they provide. And the view from the window by the shower! I was warned that better not taking a long shower as water is very precious in STJ. All the water supply for the house are actually collected from rain waters. There is no need to bring shower gels and shampoos, and I do find big bottles of sunscreen and insect repellent behind the mirror. Funny thing they have plenty of supply of everything you could think of except bath tissues, I had to add that to my grocery list. LOL.

Deck: This is my favor part of the house, it wrap around the house and is huge. It has both a pool and hot tub. My DH used the hot tub every night, it has color changing lights and a waterfall!! And the night sky is so unbelievable, he said he saw shooting stars too, that’s his favor time of the day with a beer in hand. We use the pool only once in an afternoon, the deck do gets sun most of the day this time of the year. There are plenty of patio furniture and a outdoor shower.

What else? There are washer/dryer and supplies in the laundry room, and they do provide beach chairs and coolers.

The only downside (I am not sure that is the right word to use here), actually it is not of the house, but you will have it anywhere in St. John, is bugs and mosquitoes. We saw a few dead bodies of bugs on the floor everyday, not sure how they got in, we made sure we close the screen door carefully. And for a few nights we had mosquitoes in the bedroom, it really bothered me and I could not sleep well. We checked the screen windows and doors and found some wear and tear, and tried to fix it.

I would recommend St John Living 100%, and would love to rent it again in a heartbeat. Let me know if you have other question.

Thank you so much for your report mmstl!! Sorry I have been so anxious, there are not many reports on this villa. You have been very helpful! LOL about the TP (bath tissue), I might bring some. I am glad to hear that overall everything was good, though.
We are early risers, so leaving the villa early and hitting the beaches before they get crowded will not be a problem for us.
Were there other villas right on top of you, or did you feel like you had a little space of your own? I know there is alot of growth in the area. How close is it? I have tried to locate it on a map. Can you help with where it is?
We have rented a Jeep already. We decided to go with Courtesy. Who did you use? Were you happy with them?
Thank you!
amtw

amtw, the only map I used is actaully the national park map, you can download it from here http://home.nps.gov/applications/par...s/VIISmap1.pdf. Carolina road is the first road on you right when you get off Centerline road and drive south toward Saltpond. St John Livin' is not too far down Carolina, less than 5 minutes drive I am sure, the first gravel road branch off on the right. There is really no villa on top of you, I think there are 6 villa down that dirt road, Livin' is the second one. You can see next villa's roof, driveway, garden(patio) from the deck, but it' not like you can hear them talking. The deck is big enough, for me, I think it's pretty private.

We rented the car from Conrad Sutton, OK in terms of customer service, but overall no problem.

Forgot to mention, just back two weeks, we've already received my deposit refund from Bookitvi, that's very fast.

Thank you mmstl, you have been very helpful! That map is much better than others that I have seen. I am printing it right now.