sarajkl

Well, I just arrived back from my honeymoon in Young Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Truly, I cannot say enough great things about this resort. Young Island itself is a lush, tropical paradise with a great beach and beautiful grounds and the staff is as friendly and accomdating as can be. The cottages are clean, spacious and oceanfront with plenty of privacy provided by the vegetation. With a private front patio and back patio that led to a private beach and a outdoor garden shower- we were very pleased with the accomodations. Also, the food was top notch with a definite Caribbean flair and spectacular seafood. There was no need for a reservation at any meal- there was always a table available for you for as long as you wanted to linger.

Also, St. Vincent is still largely untouristed and maintains its true Caribbean identity. While it mainly has black sand beaches - they are beautiful. Further, St. Vincent does not have the hawkers or pushy salespeople that harass tourists on many other Caribbean islands. We walked around the main city and other spots and never felt unsafe.

If anyone has any questions about Young Island or St. Vincent- I would be happy to answer them!
And thanks to all who assisted me in choosing this terrific destination!!

joan

Oooh! Your trip report brought back wonderful memories for me! Glad to hear YI is still glorious. Do they still have the little shark/turtle pool near the swimup bar? I know it's politically incorrect, but I loved it. did you get to see the falls of Baleine or the salt ponds at Owia? Truly spectacular. This is making me wanna go back. Yesterday I saw on Luxury Link they have an auction with a quite reasonable price for a 7 night stay at YI...might have to give in!

sarajkl

Yes, they do have a turtle pool - but it is right next to the small dock where you get the ferry. We enjoyed looking to see what was in their each day- lobsters, turtles and lots of fish I cannot identify by name. If you can get a good deal on luxurylink- spring for it- you won't be disappointed!

We did travel to the falls of Baleine which was gorgeous!

Mariarosa

Thank you for posting a trip report. I have a few questions, if you don't mind:

1. How was the beach? It looks pretty small on the website (but looks can be deceiving).

2. Was there any snorkeling from the shore?

3. How easy was it to get to the 'mainland' for sightseeing and going to other beaches?

4. Were there any trips to the Tobago cays from the resort and, if so, how much were they?

5. How did you get to Young Island?

6. What was your favorite part of your vacation? What was your least favorite?

Thanks!

Boonie

My comments are basically in response to Mariarosa's questions.
I spent time on Young Island in
March of 2002. While I enjoyed the
property (comments of sarajikl about food and kindness of staff are correct) I must say that the beach was a terrific disappointment - especially given the time to get to YI
from the West Coast (nearly a day)
since American Eagle has discontinued service from San Juan
and we were re-booked on a LIAT flight (after a 2-stop "red-eye&quot that
made 3 stops! Compared to many
beaches I have visited, including BVI,
Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, even USVI, the beach was marginal.
We took the local day ferry to Bequia,
which was fun, but did not afford a
beach experience. We also (out of
desperation) took the full-day excursion (including air) to Union Island, where we had a lovely day
in Mayreau and 2 other stops in the
Grenadines. It was nearly $200 per person. This in itself was not the issue, but we felt that we should not
have been "forced" to take the trip to
experience the beauty of the Grenadines since the YI beach is
truly deficient, given the time and effort to get there. At the end of the
day, I believe that what should be
factored in is the "time value of money". In my opinion, there are other high end resorts with better
beaches, water sports, etc. when
the distance, difficulty of travel is considered.

DebbieS

We just came back from Young Island on Saturday. I found the beach just fine. Even with about 50 people at the resort there were always more than enough lounge chairs. Oddly enough, the beach wasn't used by a majority of the guests. Their loss! The cottages are very spacious, and we didn't miss air conditioning at all. The weather is just about perfect.

There was a gorgeous black sand beach at Black Point Tunnel park. The next time we visit St. Vincent we plan on spending at least one day there.

The only downside to the resort was the wait for your meals. The staff was very very attentive, but the kitchen was extremely slow at times. We waited over an hour for simple eggs,toast and bacon and even longer for a simple lunch one day. I wish that there was a simple buffet available so so much of the day wasn't spent waiting for food.

The food was excellent, but they ran out of 1 out of 3 choices for lunch/dinner a few times and neglected to mention it until half an hour had passed.

Bianca Porter does an excellent job managing the resort. She couldn't possibly be nicer or more accomodating

We flew direct from NY to Barbados and took a non-stop flight on Mustique to St. Vincent.

The island of St. Vincent is wonderful! The Salt Ponds were beautiful. We didn't snorkle there but a couple that we recommended it to did. They said that the snorkeling there was great.

sarajkl

Well, I wrote a long reply that never posted- but I will try and answer your questions again!
1. Beach was great- there were never more that 15 people on the beach at a time. It is a beautiful beach- but you are right that is is not very big- but it was always relaxing and not crowded at all.(Also- we had a semi-private beach where we never saw anyone, right behind our cottage)

2. Snorkeling from shore was very nice. In fact, we also scuba'd right from shore as well. (beginners)

3. "ferry" to the mainland runs 24hours - only a 300-400 yard trip, so the boat trip takes about 4 minutes and you never have to wait more than 5 minutes to get it.

4. Trips to the TObago Cays are available- includes flight to union Island, lunch and drinks and catamaran ride with Captain Yannis tour. (Captain Yannis is supposedly the best to go on) About $130 US- unfortunately flights were booked due to Easter holiday so we couldn't do it!! Disapppointing, but we found other stuff to occupy our time...

5. We flew AA NYC to Barbados and then SVG Air to St. Vincent. We departed JFK at 10am and were at the resort by 5pm. (cost per person approx. $650 roundtrip)

6. We really just enjoyed the romantic and tropical aspect of Young Island and the attention of the staff. We found the meals to be wonderfully leisurely- if you wanted things served faster I am sure that we could have requested that. Really, it was very indulgent to spend 2 hours talking over a five course meal and we enjoyed every minute.(Maybe if we had children we would feel differently) The market and the falls of Baleine were also great. (Did I mention that we were not harassed at all when we venture to the market in Kingstown? No one tried to sell us stuff or give us a tour, etc...)

We did do the "sail away" and I would say that unless you are a real sailor that it sounds more romantic than it really it. I would do day trips to other islands but the resort is so great that I would much rather stay at Young Island than on the boat (no offense to our great captain and cook- but we preferred the resort to the sleeping accomodations on the boat)

Good luck with your plans!

Mariarosa

Thank you boonie, DebbieS and sarajkl for the detailed and informative answers to my questions.

I understand where the difference in viewpoints comes from - some people really love a long, strolling beach, while some people enjoy small (even a bit rocky) cove for good snorkelling. I like them both. I think we are considering Young Island, as well as some more 'accesible' resorts.