Anna

We are interested in staying at either Gallow's Point, Lavender Hill, or Cruz Views condominiums on St. John. Looking for feedback on any of the places. My husband and I are traveling with a friend. We plan on renting a Jeep for the week.

I've been looking for airfare from Chicago to St. Thomas and it seems to be around $900. Is this about right?

Anna

Our dates of travel are Feb 26 - March 5th, 2000 or March 4-12.

Myrna

Gallows Point is located on a peninsula right outside the small town(5min walk)of Cruz Bay and Lavender Hill is across the street. There is a restaurant on the Gallows Point property but none at Lavender. Again is just a walk across the street. There is a small beach good for snorkeling at Gallows Point as well as a small pool. There is only a pool at Lavender. Cruz Views is on a very steep hill also right outside of town and can be very challenging walking. Cruz Views has awesome views of sunsets, neightboring islands, and the town and harbour of Cruz Bay. Some of the units have a/c and some don't. All the first floor units in the bedroom at Gallows point has a/c. The others don't. Hope this helps.

Martha

You may want to check out Apple Vacations - AIR ONLY charters to St. Thomas. I was looking into them last year, and I think it was around $500 Chicago - St. Thomas.

marianna

Anna: We stayed at Lavendar Hill last year and loved it. It is a short 5 min. walk from Cruz Bay, perfect walking distance. Like the above post mentions, it's right across the street from Gallows. I would highly recommend Lavendar, the condos were nice and affordable. If you want to spend a little more money, the condos at Gallows would probably have a better view, but the view from Lavendar is good also. In terms of the beach at Gallows, it's more like a deck and you probably won't use it much. The reason why I say that is b/c the beaches on the rest of the island are so breathtaking, you'll want to spend your. We decided to go with Lavendar b/c we figured that we would be spending most of our time outdoors (which we did) so we decided save a little money on the accomidations and spend it else where. I hope this is helpful, you'll really like St. John. Email directly if you have any more questions.

Diane

Anna: My husband and I spent a week on St. John last year and stayed at Cruz Views. Did not see Lavender Hill but could see Gallows Point from our deck and also had dinner at their restaurant. We preferred a smaller place and therefore, chose Cruz Views which has only a small number of units. I think only one is air conditioned, Unit #1, which we didn't have. Stayed in #3 and had the place to ourselves except for one other couple. We travelled in October. It's on a hill so tough walking anywhere, but had a jeep. Views were good. Loved the island..beautiful beaches and good food. Be sure to hit Lime Inn...great spot. Airfare sounds a little steep to me. If you can afford to wait to book, I would. Check out priceline.com too. If you're brave, you might get a great deal. Good luck! (We're trying Grenada this year!)

Anna

Thanks for all of the great information. Has anyone stayed at Pastory Condominiums or Battery Hill? Two more friends may come so we may have 5 in our group. Would a condo be big enough or should we start looking into villas?

Patrick

My family of four has stayed at both Lavender Hill and Battery Hill. The condos at Battery Hill are one bath and much much smaller than the two bedrooms at Lavender Hill which have two baths, tremendous deck space and a much nicer pool. The Lavender Hill condos are two floors which also improves privacy although there is an open wall in the upstairs bedroom , probably for ventalation, it is high and you can't see in it from downstairs. We havewn't stayed at Gallows Point but have seen them. They are very nicely decorated but don't provide much privacy for five people- unless you get two condos.