St John Trip Review

Here's what I know about St. John, having just returned from a week there.

-It is breathtakingly beautiful.

-It is the perfect location for people who want to do something active in the morning (hiking for us) and then waste away on a beach for the rest of the day.

-It is quite expensive. We intended on buying groceries to save some bucks, but peanut butter was $11/jar, bread $6 a loaf, lunch meat was $11 for a regular pack....etc

-On the 'expensive' note....Michelob Ultra was 25.99 for a 12 pack. I asked a local where I could find reasonably priced beer - his response was - yeah...just drink rum.

-I thought I hated snorkeling. I was wrong. I just hadn't done it in a place worthy of snorkeling before. Buy yourself a decent $25 snorkel and mask from amazon before you go. It will make a huge difference. The ones we ended up renting were just junk.

Restaurants:

Skinny Legs - an absolute must. We ate there twice, and almost went back for a third. Drinks were awesome, environment was awesome. All we ate was the burger of the day, but it was worth every penny.

Aqua Bistro - HARD PASS. Maybe we got it on a bad evening, or maybe it just ain't what it used to be. Combination of poor quality and being very expensive is a bad combo.

Extra Virgin - Good enough experience with good service...but very, very pricey. $305 for 2 of us (including 2 cocktails each) after tip. To be fair, if I had ordered differently, I'd probably have felt better. I ordered catch of the day which was an interesting sounding mahi, but it just wasn't that good. Had I ordered the filet, I'd have likely been less disappointed.

Banana Deck - Fun place, good environment, food was pretty good with plenty of options. Worth the visit.

The Landing at Cruz Bay - had breakfast there. EXCELLENT. Probably my favorite food stop of the trip.

CoCo Jims - potentially the nicest, coolest guy I've ever met. Exemplifies island life. Super hospitable and gracious with us. Food was good and very interesting. ALSO-GOOGLE MAPS IS A LIAR! It tells you Coco Jims is down in Cruz Bay...it is not. It really is that small outdoor place right next to Midway Market.

Salty Mongoose - We enjoyed it, but we were all very drunk and very hungry before we ever walked up. Pizza was awesome.

Wok on the Beach - Super, super awesome. They were absolutely hopping the night we ate there and apparently short staffed, but took care of us and everyone else. Food was really, REALLY good and a pretty good value. Could have gone there on one of the first nights and had leftovers for a couple others.

LIMEOUT - What a cool place. Floats in the middle of Coral Bay, but the tacos (even @ $10-12 each) where really awesome. Drinks were awesome. We got swept up in the awesomeness and kept ordering drinks and souvenir shirts for the girls. Spent a ton there, but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

CHARTER BOAT TRIP, Rockhoppin Charters

On the recommendation of VAbuckeye, ( i think) we spent a day with Captain Steve of RockHoppin Charters. Spent a few minutes shooting the shite with him and telling him what we hoped for.....he made it happen. Snorkeled, limeout, more snorkel, just taking in the scenery and then a private beach. Great, great day. Cost right at 1,100 for the day, but that included $200 tip. Again...drunk, happy, and feeling gracious. Definitely a good idea to do this early in your trip as it gives some perspective and scope of where you are and what you have access to.

Coral Bay is where its at. Quiet. Peaceful. Beautiful. Likely wouldn't consider staying anywhere else.

You don't need fancy clothes. Decent shorts and a goofy tourist Hawaiian shirt is as fancy as you'll ever need. That could have saved us some room in packing....which leads me to the next opinion.

Don't check bags. Its just a headache and you really don't need that much stuff. Should be able to fit everything you need in a carryon and a backpack.

Parking was a racket in cruz bay. We used slim man's a couple times and the lumberyard a couple times...be sure to check with your jeep rental company - some of them let you use their spaces when you rent from them. We paid nearly $200 total just for parking.

Any questions just ask. Just wanted to get my musings documented