Day 1 – Tuesday – flew in for 2:36 pm, taxied to the resort, Secret Harbor, and checked in. They have a taxi line at the airport, pretty easy to navigate, taxi rates are pretty much set (can do a little haggling). Once we got settled in the resort we took a taxi to Red hook to grab something to eat (Island Time Pub) and get groceries (Moe’s). Island Time was standard pizza, calzones, etc. Pizza was very good, had a nice view of the harbor and decent happy hour beer selections. Groceries at Moe’s went pretty smoothly, parking lot security called for a return taxi. Next time, I would order groceries online and have them delivered to the room. Taxi rates are very high in USVI, it was $5 per person from our resort to the red hook area, which was less than a mile. With 5 of us, that got expensive pretty quickly and because of the terrain it was not walkable.

Day 2 – Wednesday – spent the day at the beach at the resort. The beach here was perfect for our kids, water was calm, they had a swim out platform and decent snorkeling right there. Plenty of shade from the Palm trees and resort umbrellas. Hit Cruzan Beach Club at our resort, decent happy hour specials on food (ahi tuna nachos were great), but, the beer they had available to happy hour was bud and bud light. They said due to some made up excuse that is all they had for happy hour. My wife ordered wine by the glass that was also available during Happy Hour. No list was provided, it was basically off the top of the waitress’s head. Had a couple of pain killers and was OK. Ended up buying a bunch of Caribe and presidente at Moes the day before, so no big deal. The only real annoyance was the “no-seeums”. Definitely bring bug spray, these little biting bugs come out around happy hour. We are still itching from the bites.

Day 3 – Thursday – taxied to Coral World, we got there early and followed the tour schedules on the pamphlet, kids loved this and the view here was incredible. If you have young kids I’d definitely recommend it, but, definitely follow the tour schedule. They have multiple feedings and presentations throughout the day. I could see if you just winged It it could be boring. They have other snuba and under water walks that looked interesting but our kids aren’t old enough. We then went to eat lunch on Coki beach at one of the little huts, nothing special and taxied back to the hotel to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach.

Day 4 – Friday – ferried to Cruz Bay / St John and rented a taxi from Lionel Jeep, they picked us up right at the ferry landing and went pretty smoothly. Definitely rent the jeep way in advance as Lionel was the only outfit I could find that rented by the day. We drove to Hawksnest, Trunk and Maho Beach doing the beaches and snorkeling. For the kids, I liked Maho, Trunk and lastly Hawksnest. Maho we snorkeled and saw 6 large turtles and a few stingrays, kids loved that. Trunk Bay they have a nice underwater snorkeling. I personally liked Maho beach a little more than Trunk, but, give the edge with the kids to Trunk as they had bathrooms, showers, food and snorkel rental. Ate dinner at Sun Dog Café in Mongoose Junction, food was excellent. My wife got the shrimp Vera Cruz and I had grilled mahi mahi, both were great, highly recommend. The kids had a healthy smoothie and cheese pizza sticks. There are plenty of nice shops to get t-shirts and other souvenirs in Mongoose Junction. Took the ferry back to red hook then taxi to resort.

Day 5 – Saturday – we chartered a boat with a captain and first mate from aqua action out of our resort and went to Tortola, Norman Island, and a few other spots in USVI to snorkel (Christmas Cove , Salt Pond) and site see. We ate lunch on Norman Island at Pirates Bight, real nice place and food was very good. Willie T’s was close by, but, didn’t get close enough to look since we had kids with us. We snorkeled the caves on Norman Island, that was really cool for the kids and the captain and first mate telling us background of that in relation to Blackbeard and the book Treasure Island. We saw plenty of sea turtles and sting ray. Captain also took us around to sightsee, but, I forgot some of the other places we went. Captain and first mate were great with the kids and very accommodating. It was pricey, but along with the jeep day it was one of my favorite days of the trip. We ordered pizza from Senor Pizza that night, decent pizza that delivered to our resort and quickly. My kids are picky eaters so pizza was an easy call when we were all tired from the day.

Day 6 – Resort beach day, ate lunch at The Cruzan Beach club since it was decent food and at the resort. Ordered pizza from Senor Pizza again that night as I didn’t want to go out to Red Hook.

Day 7 – Took ferry to St John again and took an open-air taxi to Trunk Bay. Maho I liked a little better, but, without a car, Trunk was the easy call with the onsite place to eat (was pretty good) and the showers, bathrooms and snorkel rental. Went back to Cruz Bay to do a little shopping and then headed back to Red Hook and had dinner at Fish Tails before heading back to the resort. Fish Tails was pretty good and had a good view, got a few raw appetizers and the fish tacos, all were good and hit happy hour for a few Moscow mules.

Overall impressions – very beautiful place, but, would spend the entire time on St John next time. St Thomas was nice and the beach at our resort was great for the kids, but, nothing else really going on in St Thomas that you can’t find in St John and beaches in St John are generally nicer and you have better shopping and restaurants / bars. I was surprised how expensive taxis were, next time I will be renting a jeep for the entire stay. Though pricey, the chartered boat day was fantastic even though we only saw a limited area in BVI. Just being on the water going through the various smaller islands was breathtaking and the kids really enjoyed it. The day we rented the jeep was fantastic also, not to hard driving on the left side and the freedom to beach hop was great. The resort we stayed at, Secret Harbor was an older resort and it showed in our unit. It was updated, but, you could tell it was getting up in age. Beach wise it was the perfect fit for our kids and their ages, I think for this particular trip it was the right place for us, but, once the kids are a little older will look to St John to stay. In the future, I would definitely order groceries ahead of time and stock up on more beer and rum as I got what I though was a bunch, but, ran out drinking on the beach and at night at the resort. Everything was on the high side price wise, but, I expected that. I had brought a full-face mask snorkel for myself, would bring fins next time and maybe snorkel and fins for the kids. Renting snorkel gear each day would have been a better idea to bring their own.

Typed this review while sitting at airport yesterday, still stuck in Miami today and flight cancelled until Thursday morning, should have been home Tuesday night - screw American Airlines!!