St John: Ferry & Taxi vs Westin Transportation

Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 07:21 AM
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St John: Ferry & Taxi vs Westin Transportation

Hi,
I'm headed to St John for the first time and need advise on transportation.
I'm staying at the Westin and I know they do the $68 roundtrip transportation that you get directly at the aiport in St Thomas to bring you to the Westin on St. John.
My question is if its worth saving the money to do taxis and the ferry instead. It looks like it would be about half the cost to do it this way...but of course less convienient. Is this going to waste a lot of time? Is it not worth it?
Also would you recommend doing the ferry out of Red Hook with the longer taxi ride from the airport....OR the longer Ferry ride out of Charlotte Amelie?
Has anyone done either ferry ride or the Westin option? Any thoughts?
HELP!!!!!
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Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 07:28 AM
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One more thing....we're only there for 5 days so we don't plan on using the Westin service to return to ST. Thomas until we go back to the aiport to leave.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 08:01 AM
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caribtraveler
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I think that if it's just you or you and another adult, and not a lot of luggage...then you can just do the taxi service.
We chose the Westin ferry because we had a baby with us (with 2 big suitcases--lots of baby stuff to carry). But if it were pre-baby days, we would have just done the taxi service (we never went to St. Thomas so we never took advantage of the free back and forth trips).
Taking the Westin ferry doesn't necessarily mean you save time. When we got to St. Thomas, the Westin ferry wasn't leaving for St. John for another 2 1/2 hours! So that was a bit annoying. But overall, it was more convenient for us because of the baby.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck!
 
Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 10:00 AM
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I've done all three. When we stayed at the Westin however, the ferry & taxi was part of our awesome group package deal. So we didn't pay any extra.

It was super-convenient because you land right at the Westin. Then the people hand you a drink and take your bags. We didn't go back to St. Thomas until the end either, but the rest of our group went almost every day.

When we took the long taxi/short ferry trip, someone stole a person's luggage upon landing. It strikes me that is less likely to happen with the Westin ferry b/c they would have to make their escape through the Westin hotel grounds. Additionally, the Westin staff are monitoring and handling the luggage.

Don't forget that if you take a private taxi you still have to figure in the tip.

As for the longer land v. longer water options, I didn't really notice much difference with either option. We chose them based on our schedule and theirs.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 10:28 AM
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Is it 68/per person ??
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Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 10:35 AM
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Yes...its $68/person for the Westin transportation service to the resort on St. John!
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Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 05:40 PM
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yep...$68/person/roundtrip.
 
Old Jul 3rd, 2003, 06:38 PM
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We always rent our car at the STT airport and take the car ferry at Red Hook for about $12 each way(which includes car and passengers). But it would be really cool to go straight to the Westin and be greeted by a drink at the dock. On the other hand it's great to ferry into Cruz Bay and see one of the best little island towns anywhere.
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Old Jul 8th, 2003, 08:03 PM
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Ezron answered my question--I was wondering about a car ferry and glad to hear there is one that goes to Cruz Bay. We arranged everything through the Westin's virtual concierge in advance, not knowing that we could get alternative transportation. We were there 5 days and never took advantage of the free ferry back to St. Thomas. We would have probably done better to have rented a car at the airport and taken the Red Hook ferry. We stayed in Red Hook St Thomas the last night, not realizing that the Westin Ferry only went to Crown Bay Marina, which was on the opposite end of where we needed to be. Hence, we had the extra expense of a taxi ride from Charlotte Amalie to Red Hook. The taxi was $24 with 3 pieces of luggage (2 people). The Westin Ferry arrives in close proxmity to the airport, but it only leaves at certain times--make sure to look into that, expecially if you have an early morning flight. I hope this was not too long and confusing.
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