St. John trip report with LOTS of pictures!
Sep 10th, 2007, 06:59 PM
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St. John trip report with LOTS of pictures!
Well, we’re back from our trip to St. John, and I really want to thank everyone on this board for all of your great recommendations and reviews. It really helped us with planning our trip. As we took tons of pictures (I’m quite the picture junkie), I went about doing my trip review as captions to the pictures. So you can either sit back with a Carib and read it all, or skim through them quickly. I only have gotten the first 4 days of the trip done so far, and will hopefully have the rest of the trip posted by the end of the week. I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible to help anyone else who’s planning on going there.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...uf3aj&Ux=0
All in all, we LOVED it! We do prefer islands less built up, but the beaches, food, villa we stayed in, and people here were wonderful. I’d have to say so far in order of Caribbean islands we’ve been to (counting places we’ve stayed on for a week-not day trips), below are my favorites (from most to least), due to our likes of remoteness and nature.
Virgin Gorda, St. Lucia, St. John, St. Maarten/St. Martin, Bahamas, Barbados
Please let me know if you have any questions. More to come later this week
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...uf3aj&Ux=0
All in all, we LOVED it! We do prefer islands less built up, but the beaches, food, villa we stayed in, and people here were wonderful. I’d have to say so far in order of Caribbean islands we’ve been to (counting places we’ve stayed on for a week-not day trips), below are my favorites (from most to least), due to our likes of remoteness and nature.
Virgin Gorda, St. Lucia, St. John, St. Maarten/St. Martin, Bahamas, Barbados
Please let me know if you have any questions. More to come later this week
Sep 11th, 2007, 04:33 AM
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Thanks for sharing your pictures!You have a beautiful little girl! Glad to hear that you had a great time!
We plan on going back to STJ in March and maybe a daytrip to Virgin Gorda and JVD.
Christie
We plan on going back to STJ in March and maybe a daytrip to Virgin Gorda and JVD.
Christie
Sep 11th, 2007, 05:52 AM
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Hello! Glad everyone is enjoying our pictures. Hope it’s not too many! I have a hard time deleting any, since those become our memories.
Katie, we rented the villa “Caribbean Wind” on Mahoe Bay in Virgin Gorda. I would rent that villa again in a heartbeat if there weren’t so many other islands I wanted to get to! And if I went there again, I’d fly direct to St. Thomas and take the ferry over-definitely the best way to get there. Our trip pictures from there can be viewed at the below link if you’re interested. Brooke was 10 months when we went on that trip.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...share&Ux=0
Andante by the Sea in St. John was also very nice, and I’d highly recommend it.
Katie, we rented the villa “Caribbean Wind” on Mahoe Bay in Virgin Gorda. I would rent that villa again in a heartbeat if there weren’t so many other islands I wanted to get to! And if I went there again, I’d fly direct to St. Thomas and take the ferry over-definitely the best way to get there. Our trip pictures from there can be viewed at the below link if you’re interested. Brooke was 10 months when we went on that trip.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...share&Ux=0
Andante by the Sea in St. John was also very nice, and I’d highly recommend it.
Sep 11th, 2007, 11:20 AM
#11
kellybeaches:
Loved your pictures-so glad you shared them!
I relate to "picture junkie"- I'm always coming back with tons of pictures. When they're as good as yours are-it's hard not to take that many! ;-)
Please keep posting! And if you have time-details! (Where you ate, excursions, rank the beaches)
I love Virgin Gorda too, my husband loves St. John.
Already planning your next trip?
PS-what a cutie pie daughter-no wonder you take so many pictures with that model!
Loved your pictures-so glad you shared them!
I relate to "picture junkie"- I'm always coming back with tons of pictures. When they're as good as yours are-it's hard not to take that many! ;-)
Please keep posting! And if you have time-details! (Where you ate, excursions, rank the beaches)
I love Virgin Gorda too, my husband loves St. John.
Already planning your next trip?
PS-what a cutie pie daughter-no wonder you take so many pictures with that model!
Sep 11th, 2007, 12:04 PM
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Hi Blamona,
Glad to hear there are other “picture junkies” out there! I really enjoyed your trip report of Eleuthera, and am eyeing up your recommendation of “Capricorn House” there for our next trip. It’s between Eleuthera, Anguilla, or Nevis. So hard to choose! It will really depend on who all ends up going-it probably won’t be for another couple years, but it will be fun planning until then.
I posted all the details of the trip below each picture-are you able to see the captions? You might have to scroll down to view them depending on your browser setting. Hopefully you can view them.
Thanks for the compliments on my daughter. Everyone always asks where the blonde hair came from! She got it from my husband-he was a toehead as a kid
Glad to hear there are other “picture junkies” out there! I really enjoyed your trip report of Eleuthera, and am eyeing up your recommendation of “Capricorn House” there for our next trip. It’s between Eleuthera, Anguilla, or Nevis. So hard to choose! It will really depend on who all ends up going-it probably won’t be for another couple years, but it will be fun planning until then.
I posted all the details of the trip below each picture-are you able to see the captions? You might have to scroll down to view them depending on your browser setting. Hopefully you can view them.
Thanks for the compliments on my daughter. Everyone always asks where the blonde hair came from! She got it from my husband-he was a toehead as a kid
Sep 11th, 2007, 03:09 PM
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Great photos, Kelly. Your little girl is adorable. How lucky she is to have parents that aren't afraid to take her on trips. She'll have many happy memories to remember you by.
You didn't mention Bermuda on your list of favorites. Have you ever been? If so, how does it compare?
You didn't mention Bermuda on your list of favorites. Have you ever been? If so, how does it compare?
Sep 11th, 2007, 04:41 PM
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Christie,
Too cute with your boys being toeheads too! I keep wondering when it will go dark-but I don't see it happening anytime soon!
Maggie,
We haven't been to Bermuda yet, although that, among almost every other island is on our list! I’ve always read the reviews about it on fodors whenever they pop up. It does look beautiful (and close!). My parents honeymooned there and loved it, and we have friends who have been going every year and rave about it, although they always stay at hotels, which we’ve moved away from. Honestly I don’t think I could stay at a hotel again. We’re hooked on the villa route. Have you been?
I also read your TR on Vieques. What an interesting experience with your villas! Good thing everything worked out well in the end It looks like you had a great time. You wouldn't happen to know what the very small island is directly East of Puerto Rico is, would you? We flew over it on our puddle jumper flight from St. Thomas to PR, and were wondering what it was since we haven't seen it on a map. I'm guessing the larger island southeast of PR was Vieques. Just curious.
Too cute with your boys being toeheads too! I keep wondering when it will go dark-but I don't see it happening anytime soon!
Maggie,
We haven't been to Bermuda yet, although that, among almost every other island is on our list! I’ve always read the reviews about it on fodors whenever they pop up. It does look beautiful (and close!). My parents honeymooned there and loved it, and we have friends who have been going every year and rave about it, although they always stay at hotels, which we’ve moved away from. Honestly I don’t think I could stay at a hotel again. We’re hooked on the villa route. Have you been?
I also read your TR on Vieques. What an interesting experience with your villas! Good thing everything worked out well in the end
It looks like you had a great time. You wouldn't happen to know what the very small island is directly East of Puerto Rico is, would you? We flew over it on our puddle jumper flight from St. Thomas to PR, and were wondering what it was since we haven't seen it on a map. I'm guessing the larger island southeast of PR was Vieques. Just curious.
Sep 11th, 2007, 05:10 PM
#17
kellybeaches: If it's a tiny island-I believe it's the tiny island that belongs to El Conquestador Resort-they water taxi over there for the beach.
I was in Bermuda 15 years ago! i'm feeling old-but it's very upscale and nice.
Ahh-so many islands!
I was in Bermuda 15 years ago! i'm feeling old-but it's very upscale and nice.
Ahh-so many islands!
Sep 11th, 2007, 06:08 PM
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kellybeaches, love love the new boat. won't that make your trips fun. thank you for posting the wonderful pictures and comments - yes they can be seen! the villa on vg looks really nice. can it be rented as 2 br for a lower rate?
it looks like you had a perfect vacation.
where is brooke's next photo shoot?
it looks like you had a perfect vacation.
where is brooke's next photo shoot?
Sep 11th, 2007, 06:13 PM
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Kelly we have been to a few Caribbean islands so far: St. John, St. Barts, Vieques and Virgin Gorda. My first love are the Hawaiian Islands. Bermuda appeals to me because it seems that everything is well kept up, not a lot of local poverty and there are lots of good restaurants to choose from. But we, like you, have become hooked on villa rentals and I can't really find one I want to stay at on Bermuda. Another thing I don't like is they don't allow tourists to rent cars and we are used to the freedom that allows us.
My criterion for an island vacation is not too touristy, beautiful beaches, lush and green (rather than arid, like Aruba), and a good selection of restaurants and rental villas at a reasonable cost. Currently in the running for our next trip are Grenada, Guadeloupe and Bermuda.
About the little island, Blamona is probably right. The only other thing I can think is that you saw Culebra...?
By the way I also take a ridiculous number of photos. In fact, it's one of the reasons I love to travel - good photo ops. Yours are really good.
My criterion for an island vacation is not too touristy, beautiful beaches, lush and green (rather than arid, like Aruba), and a good selection of restaurants and rental villas at a reasonable cost. Currently in the running for our next trip are Grenada, Guadeloupe and Bermuda.
About the little island, Blamona is probably right. The only other thing I can think is that you saw Culebra...?
By the way I also take a ridiculous number of photos. In fact, it's one of the reasons I love to travel - good photo ops. Yours are really good.
