St. John, USVI

We first visited St. John in 2003 and LOVED it. We knew we'd return one day and we finally did in November 2009. Brian booked this trip as a birthday present to me. Sweet! This trip, we spent most of our time at Caneel Bay since we were staying there for just 4 nights. We will definitely make a 3rd trip to St. John.

GETTING THERE: We took a non-stop Continental flight from Newark to St. Thomas. The cost for the Caneel Bay ferry is a little ridiculous in my opinion, so we took public transportation to St. John. We had to wait maybe 10-15 minutes to get a taxi van from the airport to Red Hook Harbor. The driver wanted a full van for that 30-minute drive. We got to the harbor right on time to catch the 2pm ferry. The ride to St. John is about 10 minutes. Once at Cruz Bay Harbor, we grabbed a taxi to Caneel Bay. The total round-trip cost (taxi/ferry) for the 3 of us with 2 bags came to $158 (not including tips). The Caneel ferry would have cost us $250.

RESORT: We stayed at Caneel Bay. There is a very peaceful atmosphere to the resort and the grounds are beautiful. It was neat to see the deer and the donkeys roaming the place. This is a HUGE resort. There are open-air vans that constantly go around the property to pick up guests and take them wherever they'd like to go. We thought the staff was really nice.

~~ CANEEL ROOM: We stayed in an ocean view room (#52). We really liked its location and it had a lovely view of Caneel Beach. However, there was nothing special about the room itself. It was dated but then again, we didn't go to Caneel to spend time in our room.

 

~~ CANEEL BEACHES/SNORKELING: The property is truly blessed with  beautiful beaches. We spent the majority of our time on Caneel Beach, Hawknest Beach and Honeymoon Beach. The day we went to Turtle Bay Beach, we found it a little too rough to swim in. Scott Beach and Paradise beach don't allow children under 13, so my husband and I went separately to Scott in the hopes of seeing some turtles. Overall, we found the snorkeling at the resort to be good but not great. The highlights were the barracuda and turtle sightings (at Caneel Beach and Scott Beach respectively).

Caneel Beach

Patrick looking for fish

Little Caneel Beach

Scott Beach

Scott Beach

Turtle Bay Beach

Honeymoon Beach

Honeymoon Beach

Hawknest Beach

Hawknest Beach

~~ CANEEL FOOD: We thought the food at Caneel was good although not outstanding. We did the Bed & Breakfast plan. The buffet breakfast is what you'll find at any big resort. We had lunch a couple of times on the beach (cheeseburgers & salads). We had dinner once at the Caneel Beach Bar & Grill. Brian had the NY strip steak. Patrick had the penne pasta with marinara sauce. I had the lobster bisque soup.

~~ MOSQUITOES/BUGS: As usual, the mosquitoes were enjoying me. I got about a dozen bites. I had read some complaints about bugs in rooms, but the only thing I saw was a cockroach in the bathroom (only once, thank goodness).

~~ FINAL THOUGHTS ON CANEEL BAY: It was nice but we didn't love it. We had some issues with our final bill, including being charged for the Caneel ferry. We rented a villa when we were in Virgin Gorda and loved that experience. I think we will do that the next time we go to St. John.

OTHER RESTAURANTS: We had dinner at 3 restaurants in Cruz Bay. Our best meal was at Paradiso. Our other meals were at Morgan's Mango and Rhumb Lines. Service was great at all 3 places.

~~ PARADISO: We had our best meal at Paradiso in 2003 so we felt we had to give it another try. We knew things could have drastically changed but we were so happy to find out that it hadn't been the case. Our dinner was EXCELLENT.

Lobster with egg noodles

Steak

Chocolate bread pudding

Creme brulee

~~ MORGAN'S MANGO: It's a more casual place than Paradiso and had live entertainment (the female singer had a lovely voice).

Voodoo snapper

Grilled mahi mahi

 

Rasberry chocolate torte

Cheese flan

~~ RHUMB LINES: This is a casual open-air cool-looking place. The food here was also good.

Mahi Mahi

Cuban Mojo Pork

~~ WATERFRONT BISTRO: This was our one lunch outside the resort. We tried the grilled chicken club wrap and the ham & cheese sandwich. The food was good except for the sweet potato fries.

WEATHER/WATER TEMP: We had great weather. It was in the 80s during the day and comfortable at night. There was always a nice breeze on the island. It rained a couple of times but it was for a short period of time. The water temperature was perfect.