OT: In St Thomas & St John for the week
- Thread starter Bulldogg31
- Start date
I've seen this post on Facebook a million times...
Hi friends! I'm headed to or am at some badass place that you're not. While you're driving to the Flowood Walmart during your lunch hour at work to get more diapers and pedialyte because your one year old has a stomach virus, what can you recommend I do in this 17ing paradise of a location?
Turn off your phone and order a boat drink. Repeat step 2.
Hi friends! I'm headed to or am at some badass place that you're not. While you're driving to the Flowood Walmart during your lunch hour at work to get more diapers and pedialyte because your one year old has a stomach virus, what can you recommend I do in this 17ing paradise of a location?
Turn off your phone and order a boat drink. Repeat step 2.
No kidding. If you can't find anything good to eat or fun to do on your own
in the Virgin Islands I'll take your ticket.
in the Virgin Islands I'll take your ticket.
Thank you for the feedback. I've answered a few guys requests for cool stuff to do while traveling and thought I'd see if you guys knew of some good spots down here.
Hate on I guess. Awesome how some of you guys go through life that way.
Hate on I guess. Awesome how some of you guys go through life that way.
Last edited:
Despite the other posts in this thread I'll give it a shot.
St Thomas:
Rent a car. Go exploring! The island is your oyster. Don't take your car on a ferry. The roads are 3rd world country, but for the Caribbean, USVI has one of the best income rates. The people are very friendly and not hostile toward americans, because they *are* americans.
Stay at Marriott Frenchman's Reef unless you can afford the Ritz. Tell them you're allergic to mold. Most of the bathrooms will have at least a little bit in it from people letting the ocean breeze blow into their rooms and the extreme lack of fart fans in the bathrooms. Go to their plug for the timeshare and rack up points if you're into that since it's a good points deal.
Mountaintop has excellent banana daiquiris and a great view.
Night life can be hard to find but it's out there. I'd stick to tourist traps though unless you're adventurous. Most places pack it up before 11 or earlier.
Tons of good places to eat. Seriously go anywhere they have food; from dives to fine restaurants. Be warned though, you will get some of the worst service in your life no matter where you go.
Also have fun finding parking. Expect to park far and walk up to a mile. Speaking of walking, they have a place that claims 100 stairs. It's more.
Lots of pirate **** all over the place, from seminars at your hotel to blackbeard's castle.
Lots of shopping if you have females with you.
If you're a beach person there's plenty to do and plenty of beaches
St John
Spend all your time here at the beach. They have some of the best beaches in the world. Go check out the killer trees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel
St Thomas:
Rent a car. Go exploring! The island is your oyster. Don't take your car on a ferry. The roads are 3rd world country, but for the Caribbean, USVI has one of the best income rates. The people are very friendly and not hostile toward americans, because they *are* americans.
Stay at Marriott Frenchman's Reef unless you can afford the Ritz. Tell them you're allergic to mold. Most of the bathrooms will have at least a little bit in it from people letting the ocean breeze blow into their rooms and the extreme lack of fart fans in the bathrooms. Go to their plug for the timeshare and rack up points if you're into that since it's a good points deal.
Mountaintop has excellent banana daiquiris and a great view.
Night life can be hard to find but it's out there. I'd stick to tourist traps though unless you're adventurous. Most places pack it up before 11 or earlier.
Tons of good places to eat. Seriously go anywhere they have food; from dives to fine restaurants. Be warned though, you will get some of the worst service in your life no matter where you go.
Also have fun finding parking. Expect to park far and walk up to a mile. Speaking of walking, they have a place that claims 100 stairs. It's more.
Lots of pirate **** all over the place, from seminars at your hotel to blackbeard's castle.
Lots of shopping if you have females with you.
If you're a beach person there's plenty to do and plenty of beaches
St John
Spend all your time here at the beach. They have some of the best beaches in the world. Go check out the killer trees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel
Thanks Sutterkane, good stuff.
We're at the Marriott and it is as you say. Good tip on the car also, we did the jeep route, very cool.
HailState
We're at the Marriott and it is as you say. Good tip on the car also, we did the jeep route, very cool.
HailState
Just go full Ozarka on the whole island. Oh, and the beaches are better in St. John IMO. Enjoy and don't let the pack dictate your vacation. If it looks fun, 17'n do it. Get off the internet. It'll be here when you get back.
post updates hourly please.
include pics too.
in fact... you can provide hump day pics for tomorrow.
chop chop.
include pics too.
in fact... you can provide hump day pics for tomorrow.
chop chop.
Beene to the VI's numerous times
Here are my suggestions:
St. Thomas:
1. East End all the way. Far away from cruise ship crazies. Duffy's is an awesome bar in a parking lot. They got tired of hurricanes blowing it off the beach.
2. Eat at Latitude 18. A hole in the wall hangout overlooking the water. Great food and drinks and have live music most nights. Would definitely get a cab because road to restaurant is basically a goat trail. Truly authentic Caribbean vibe.
3. Snorkel at Secret Harbour. A great little beach with a nice reef less than 20 yards from shore. We normally stay at Secret Harbour when on St Thomas.
4. Banana daiquiri at Mountain Top.
5. Rum Punch at Magen's Bay Beach Bar. Good pizza here as well.
6. Mim's for coconut curry lobster or baked stuff lobster. Amazing meal on the water at Bolongo Bay. Try to go on a night when Bolongo Bay is having Caribbean Carnival night. Lots of fun.
Lastly, do a day trip to the British Virgin Islands, either by ferry or charter. Jost Van Dyke is my favorite Caribbean island. The Soggy Dollar Bar is my happy place and the painkiller is the drink of choice here. Wily T is a converted mail boat outfitted to look like a pirate ship. It is only accessible by boat and turns into a wild time. You are encouraged to jump off the top. About a 30 ft drop. If your female jumps topless, she gets a free t shirt. What a deal!
sorry for rambling. If you need St John suggestions let me know. Woody's for happy hour is a must!
Enjoy America's Caribbean islands. I'm very jealous!
Here are my suggestions:
St. Thomas:
1. East End all the way. Far away from cruise ship crazies. Duffy's is an awesome bar in a parking lot. They got tired of hurricanes blowing it off the beach.
2. Eat at Latitude 18. A hole in the wall hangout overlooking the water. Great food and drinks and have live music most nights. Would definitely get a cab because road to restaurant is basically a goat trail. Truly authentic Caribbean vibe.
3. Snorkel at Secret Harbour. A great little beach with a nice reef less than 20 yards from shore. We normally stay at Secret Harbour when on St Thomas.
4. Banana daiquiri at Mountain Top.
5. Rum Punch at Magen's Bay Beach Bar. Good pizza here as well.
6. Mim's for coconut curry lobster or baked stuff lobster. Amazing meal on the water at Bolongo Bay. Try to go on a night when Bolongo Bay is having Caribbean Carnival night. Lots of fun.
Lastly, do a day trip to the British Virgin Islands, either by ferry or charter. Jost Van Dyke is my favorite Caribbean island. The Soggy Dollar Bar is my happy place and the painkiller is the drink of choice here. Wily T is a converted mail boat outfitted to look like a pirate ship. It is only accessible by boat and turns into a wild time. You are encouraged to jump off the top. About a 30 ft drop. If your female jumps topless, she gets a free t shirt. What a deal!
sorry for rambling. If you need St John suggestions let me know. Woody's for happy hour is a must!
Enjoy America's Caribbean islands. I'm very jealous!
There used to be a small sailboat that left Red Hook on St Thomas on Sunday mornings and headed toward St. John. They took all day to get there and stopped a couple of places to snorkel and swim and then pulled up to the beach bar/restaurant on St John. After you eat and get toasted, they load back up about sundown and come back into St Thomas after dark. The run back to St Thomas at night was awesome. The stars and harbor lights and all.
Don't know if they still do that, but it is one of my best vacation memories.
Don't know if they still do that, but it is one of my best vacation memories.
Been a few years since I've been to St Thomas. Do they still have that shack for liquor/ice cream joint on the way to mountaintop next to the golf course? That place was the tits for milkshakes.
Well, I don't want to brag, but...it was fantastic. All your recommendations were spot on.
If anyone here is headed that way, read through these recommendations and follow these guys' advice. Great stuff.
Rent a jeep if you can but be prepared drive on the left. A bit weird, but it's great to be able to explore the islands. Ride the car ferry to St. John ($50) and drive to Cinnamon, Trunk, Hawksnest and the other Bays. Grabbed a few drinks at Cruz Bay.
Definitely charter a boat and hit the BVI's. Soggy Dollar alone is worth it, and there's a Mississippi State flag hanging over the bar. Pretty cool.
Yes, by the way, Mountain Top is still there and the banana daiquiris are pretty special. Lots of rum, lots of banana, pretty good buzz after a few of those so don't plan to drive back down the mountain too soon after, although apparently drinking and driving isn't illegal on the islands. Crazy.
Lots of great "scenery" all over the island. I have no idea how to posts photos from mobile so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Thanks again for all the ideas, much appreciated.
If anyone here is headed that way, read through these recommendations and follow these guys' advice. Great stuff.
Rent a jeep if you can but be prepared drive on the left. A bit weird, but it's great to be able to explore the islands. Ride the car ferry to St. John ($50) and drive to Cinnamon, Trunk, Hawksnest and the other Bays. Grabbed a few drinks at Cruz Bay.
Definitely charter a boat and hit the BVI's. Soggy Dollar alone is worth it, and there's a Mississippi State flag hanging over the bar. Pretty cool.
Yes, by the way, Mountain Top is still there and the banana daiquiris are pretty special. Lots of rum, lots of banana, pretty good buzz after a few of those so don't plan to drive back down the mountain too soon after, although apparently drinking and driving isn't illegal on the islands. Crazy.
Lots of great "scenery" all over the island. I have no idea how to posts photos from mobile so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Thanks again for all the ideas, much appreciated.
I don't want to brag but I saw a guy with a "mamma tried" back tattoo walking into the restroom on the public beach in Gulf Shores. Sounds like you wasted your money sucker!***
I think that's just the island way in general. When we we're in Punta Cana, they told us drinking and driving was a $15 fine, but texting and driving was $25. And cops only worked 8-5 Monday through Friday. I guess it's true, we never ran into any when we left the resort.
Great! We're planning another trip in January. I think we may charter a boat for the week. If you have a group of 6 or more, the price is about the same as staying at a resort. Never tried it this way but should be a great way to see all of the cool beach bars. Blenders ran off of car batteries and such...I'm thinking the week after the college football playoff...just in case and to make it MSU related.
We may have crossed paths. My wife and I were in St. John from the 21st-27th. I agree with the recommendations and your assessment.
I'll add some change from our experience for others that might be interested. The beaches at St. John are incredible (we didn't get any time in St. Thomas), and renting a jeep is convenient as cabs can get scarce. We did a bunch of snorkeling. Trunk Bay has the underwater self-guided snorkel tour, but we really enjoyed Maho Bay which was less crowded. We found a couple of sea turtles and some rays there one afternoon which was pretty awesome as they will swim right up next to you. We didn't make it to Francis Bay, but were told by another group that it was empty when they went and they got to swim around with 10+ turtles and a large nurse shark. Jumbie Bay is a nice spot too, but a much smaller beach.
We did a booze cruise on the Bad Kitty which was fun. It moves pretty quickly, so you don't have a lot of time at each spot, but it was a nice way to scope out the BVI's and get an idea of where we might want to plan another trip in the future. Yost Van Dyke/Soggy Dollar is the last stop and, I agree, is incredible and worth a trip alone. Saw the MS State flag too and couldn't find any Ole Miss representation so I'll have to mail them a flag to hang.
Lots of great bars and restaurants in Cruz Bay Landing. We had a fantastic dinner at ZoZo's, but be prepared to pay for the view. Also really enjoyed the Lime Inn.
We're hoping to go back at some point with a group. I spoke with a vacationing travel agent that claimed there are 4BR villas on the beach available for $2500-3500/week around this time of the year (it's hot and humid, but it's still much cooler than MS). We stayed at the Westin with points, but shelled out a lot of cash on cabs getting around, but not quite enough to make a $90/day jeep rental make sense for our whole stay.
Finally, we were told by a waiter that the island is overpopulated with white-tailed deer and the local gov't is planning to open a bow season, in case someone would like to do some hunting on vacation.
I'll add some change from our experience for others that might be interested. The beaches at St. John are incredible (we didn't get any time in St. Thomas), and renting a jeep is convenient as cabs can get scarce. We did a bunch of snorkeling. Trunk Bay has the underwater self-guided snorkel tour, but we really enjoyed Maho Bay which was less crowded. We found a couple of sea turtles and some rays there one afternoon which was pretty awesome as they will swim right up next to you. We didn't make it to Francis Bay, but were told by another group that it was empty when they went and they got to swim around with 10+ turtles and a large nurse shark. Jumbie Bay is a nice spot too, but a much smaller beach.
We did a booze cruise on the Bad Kitty which was fun. It moves pretty quickly, so you don't have a lot of time at each spot, but it was a nice way to scope out the BVI's and get an idea of where we might want to plan another trip in the future. Yost Van Dyke/Soggy Dollar is the last stop and, I agree, is incredible and worth a trip alone. Saw the MS State flag too and couldn't find any Ole Miss representation so I'll have to mail them a flag to hang.
Lots of great bars and restaurants in Cruz Bay Landing. We had a fantastic dinner at ZoZo's, but be prepared to pay for the view. Also really enjoyed the Lime Inn.
We're hoping to go back at some point with a group. I spoke with a vacationing travel agent that claimed there are 4BR villas on the beach available for $2500-3500/week around this time of the year (it's hot and humid, but it's still much cooler than MS). We stayed at the Westin with points, but shelled out a lot of cash on cabs getting around, but not quite enough to make a $90/day jeep rental make sense for our whole stay.
Finally, we were told by a waiter that the island is overpopulated with white-tailed deer and the local gov't is planning to open a bow season, in case someone would like to do some hunting on vacation.
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