Any recommendations about resort or villas in St. John? Location is very important. Good snorkeling on sight. Close proximity to fine dining, preferrably w/in walking distance. Nice accomodations. Asking for too much?

Cindy,

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The only resort with a decent beach or good snorkeling is Caneel Bay.

Otherwise you need a villa. Unless you want to stay in a campground.

There are not many villas in St John with snorkeling on site. To obtain them you are going to pay premium. Caneel Bay does have great snorkeling, and you would be within walking distance for dining. However, it would be at the same restaurant.

Look at Gallows Point. There is snorkeling from a small, rocky beach and Zo Zo's restaurant is on site. Taxi rides to Cruz Bay would be a minor expense.

St. John offers a lot of great snorkeling. Gibney beach cottages are about the only private villas on a snorkel beach. Understand that the north shore beaches are in the national park and so you will not have a house on the beach senario. If you need a resort atmosphere you have 3 to choose from Caneel bay $$$$ Westin $$$ or Gallows Point $$$. You may be better off renting a car $60 / day and renting a villa .. lots to choose from. Then you can find a different snorkel spot every day. Some of the best dining can be found on St. John. Most not in walking distance. If you want to be able to walk to restaurants and taxi to the beach $3-5 one way... consider Gallows Point, Lavendar Hill Condos,
Mahogany Tree Villas. Need more info let me know.

CindyR -

You need to decide on your priorities, since you can't get all of your wish list at one place. St. John has a good variety of nice restaurants, but you can't walk to most of them. You would enjoy snorkeling at a number of different places, but most are not at the resorts or villas. Most of the villas are in the hills, not on the beach. I would pick the accommodations you like, and get a car to accomplish the other goals.

I would definitely look at Gallows Point. It is a short walk (< 5 mins) to Cruz Bay which is where most of the restaurants on the island are.

I haven't snorkeled right at Gallows and I suspect its not great. However most of the good beaches are easily accessible by rental car or taxi. I was a little skeptical about taking taxi's around the island, because I was envisioning NY-style cabs. In reality, they are basically open air shuttle buses which hold up to a dozen people or so. They are everywhere on the island so you can get a ride whenever you need one.