Back to St. John
May. 10th, 2009 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkBack in 2001 and 2002, Richard and I discovered that our dream vacation involves white sand beaches, snorkeling, and frozen rum drinks with minimal amounts of the other things that most tourists seem to want in a tropical vacation (shopping, night life, being shepherded on and off a cruise ship). Our first foray into the Carribean took us to St. John in the US Virgin Islands, which turned out to be so perfect that we went back again in Jan 2002 when airfares were low. Well, gosh, that was more than 7 years ago! Every year I dreamed of the ocean, but for family reasons ended up in the desert instead. This year it's time to go back.
Does it seem a little unimaginative to keep going back to the same island? Well, yeah. But I've been searching the Internet and asking globe-trotting friends for advice and can't find another Caribbean Island that is so perfect. St. John is 75% national park, consisting primarily of one spectacular white sand beach after another with lush coral reefs, schools and schools of gaudy reef fish, giant pillowy starfish, sea turtles and rays within yards of the beach. And best of all - NO CRUISE SHIPS. People who like cruises rave about St. Thomas, which has the big harbor and the long waterfront full of shopping opportunities. Some of the more adventurous passengers hop on a boat to St. John and spend two hours at Trunk Bay, which is reputed to be the most beautiful beach in the Carribean. What they don't realize is - St. John has 30 more beaches just as beautiful, but without the swarms of tourists! If you just stay on St. John, every day is like the best day of your cruise, only less crowded and with no timetable.
On our first trip we spent 3 or 4 days in the National Park Campground (gorgeous but primitive) and then moved to a private villa for hot showers and our own private hot tub. It was a wonderful vacation, but the location of the villa looked a lot better on a map than it was in reality. Like most Carribean islands, St. John consists of a central mountain surrounded by beaches. Building roads in this terrain is challenging, so there aren't many of them. The location of our villa was such that you had to drive through the main town on the island to get to the north side, where most of the accessible beaches are. Cruz Bay is charming to walk through, not fun to drive through. Now that I understand the geography, I can see that the ideal location is on the mountain overlooking Coral Bay, where three main roads come together by the smoothie stand. Map: The famous smoothie stand is located at the 3-way intersection south of Leinster Bay. The driveway to Creolla is described as "just past the smoothie stand."
One of the fun things about planning a trip these days is enjoying it all in advance on the internet. St. John is expensive, but one of the side effects of its affluence is its sophisticated internet presence. You can while away many many happy hours browsing the listings for rental villas. I found Creolla back when we planned our first trip, but didn't realize just how excellent the location really was and passed over it. I've always intended to go back for a 3rd trip and stay in Creolla. So that's what we're going to do!
Here's another older website for Creolla with more pictures.
And yet another listing, with yet another of the villa management companies.
Does it seem a little unimaginative to keep going back to the same island? Well, yeah. But I've been searching the Internet and asking globe-trotting friends for advice and can't find another Caribbean Island that is so perfect. St. John is 75% national park, consisting primarily of one spectacular white sand beach after another with lush coral reefs, schools and schools of gaudy reef fish, giant pillowy starfish, sea turtles and rays within yards of the beach. And best of all - NO CRUISE SHIPS. People who like cruises rave about St. Thomas, which has the big harbor and the long waterfront full of shopping opportunities. Some of the more adventurous passengers hop on a boat to St. John and spend two hours at Trunk Bay, which is reputed to be the most beautiful beach in the Carribean. What they don't realize is - St. John has 30 more beaches just as beautiful, but without the swarms of tourists! If you just stay on St. John, every day is like the best day of your cruise, only less crowded and with no timetable.
On our first trip we spent 3 or 4 days in the National Park Campground (gorgeous but primitive) and then moved to a private villa for hot showers and our own private hot tub. It was a wonderful vacation, but the location of the villa looked a lot better on a map than it was in reality. Like most Carribean islands, St. John consists of a central mountain surrounded by beaches. Building roads in this terrain is challenging, so there aren't many of them. The location of our villa was such that you had to drive through the main town on the island to get to the north side, where most of the accessible beaches are. Cruz Bay is charming to walk through, not fun to drive through. Now that I understand the geography, I can see that the ideal location is on the mountain overlooking Coral Bay, where three main roads come together by the smoothie stand. Map: The famous smoothie stand is located at the 3-way intersection south of Leinster Bay. The driveway to Creolla is described as "just past the smoothie stand."
One of the fun things about planning a trip these days is enjoying it all in advance on the internet. St. John is expensive, but one of the side effects of its affluence is its sophisticated internet presence. You can while away many many happy hours browsing the listings for rental villas. I found Creolla back when we planned our first trip, but didn't realize just how excellent the location really was and passed over it. I've always intended to go back for a 3rd trip and stay in Creolla. So that's what we're going to do!
Here's another older website for Creolla with more pictures.
And yet another listing, with yet another of the villa management companies.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 10:55 pm (UTC)Not at all. Novelty only trumps familiarity when the familiar becomes stale.