I am planning a trip to St. John in May 2006 for 8 women who are long-time friends to celebrate a 50th birthday. Husbands and children are staying home.

I have been researching 4 bedroom/4 bath villas and it is now time to make a reservation. I would appreciate any comments regarding Villa Rendezvous. I'm also open to suggestions on other similar villas. The villa must be air conditioned. Thanks or any help.

Do you have any other criteria like maximum amount you want to spend? Must be close to a beach, have a pool, or close to town?

Budget is $5,000 for the week. I'm just not sure which location on the island would be best. We will go to St. Thomas for a day, visit various beaches to snorkel and mainly just hang out at the villa at the pool, so that is a must.

I am the only one of the group that has been to St. John and that was only a day trip from St. Thomas. Went snorkeling at Hawksnest, Trunk and Cinnamon Bays, drove across the island to Coral Bay and ate in Cruz Bay. So with my little bit of experience, I'm leaning toward something close to Cruz Bay but not necessarily right there.

I'm sure this group would appreciate something recently rennovated which is what drew my attention to Villa Rendezvous.

Any help would be apprecaited. I've got to make a decision soon - all of our favorites are already taken.

Haven't seen Villa Rendezvous, but two villas come to mind which are in the Contant Point area and are an easy drive to Cruz Bay which will be nice for your ladies to have a bit of variety. Sapphire Breeze is reputedly a very nice, fun villa. I'm not sure who's renting it out these days. Also, check cateredto.com for Altagracia which has a great set up for your particular needs. Have a blast!

I would highly recommend Las Brisas Caribe. It's spectacular. We rented it this past April for our wedding and the property is gorgeous. The villa is also air conditioned and has lots of privacy. Las Brisas is on Maria Bluff (Chocolate Hole) which is a perfect location as it's only a 10 minute drive to town. Good Luck!

I've decided to increase my budget and have narrowed down my decision to two villas: Villa Panache or Villa Rapture.

I would appreciate any information on either of these.

Party_Planner

My preferred source of St. John villa information is USVI On-Line ( http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/cgi...bbeanAgnesHTML ).

Do a search on the archives there. You find more information on Panache than Rapture, which appears to be somehat new on the rental market.

Thanks for all the input. I finally made my decision to go with Villa Rapture. However, I have just discovered another villa that I had not seen before. Is anyone familiar with the Chateau La Tete Rouge? I would appreciate any information on this one.

That was one of the villas we considered...although beautiful with a wonderful location, one of the bedrooms is behing the kitchen/laundry area with no windows...so if you are looking for "equal" bedrooms, this may not be sufficient.