Our First Trip to St. John:

When selecting a destination & hotel, I spend hours researching other reviews & websites and usually feel fairly comfortable with a choice by the time I actually make a decision. We've travelled about 10 times to several different Caribbean islands & decided to try the USVI for a change. Other places we've especially enjoyed include Anguilla & Provo (Turks & Caicos).

Our Hotel:

I decided we would spend our 7 nights at Estate Lindholm (7/31-8/7/05).

Estate Lindholm is a beautiful property with only 10 rooms, located very near to Cruz Bay... near=a 2 minute drive into town. We stayed in a "garden level" room. The rooms have nice furniture - seemed most (all?) rooms had similar decoration - 4-poster beds, armoire, wood chest. Our room had a kitchenette - microwave, small bar sink & small refrigerator, coffee maker - which also included glasses, plates, bowls & plastic cups. Small reading area with sofa. The bathroom was large enough, tastefully decorated & decently tiled. The room was very clean, good air conditioning & cable tv, reasonable view for "garden level" with a pleasant deck to sit on.

What is most notable about this property is the view from the terraced area around the back. The buildings and terraces are beautiful - made of stone with wrought iron railings & incredible "landscaping". There is a very small pool and lovely tables & umbrellas. This property has apparently been in the same family for some time. They still live there & do a nice job with it.

I've read some visitors complaints about the continental breakfast. It was a simple affair & yes, there were some sugary cereals & prepackaged pastries (sans packaging). We tended to have a quick bite of fruit & english muffin, some juice/coffee and were on our way. Sitting on the patio with our coffees, though, was a great way to begin our mornings. It's quite a view of Cruz Bay & other islands.

A few touches we felt were unique &/or appreciated:

1. Honor Bar: in the breakfast "room"/terraced area. Included water, soda, beer & alcohol and was open 24/7. Guests can help themselves & write what they used on a piece of paper which gets put into a wooden box, it then gets added to your bill. There's a price list so you know what you're getting into.

2. Beach Chairs: we kept 2 in our jeep for the entire week. free for guests.

3. Coolers: the one we used all week was a life saver! We kept in with us every day, filled with beverages & fruit. Leads up to #4.....

4. Ice Machine: another life saver! Filled the cooler every morning. (located near the honor bar/breakfast area)

5. Plenty of Beach Towels: There was always a pile of clean beach towels on the patio/terraced area. We took 2 each morning & would return them to the same spot to exchange for clean ones as necessary.

I would definitely stay here again & would highly recommend it to anyone. We actually stayed in one other room for our last night. At the time I made the reservation, we were considering spending our last night in St. Thomas, but changed our minds. Our room was booked for that night, but they relocated us into another "garden level" room, which was equal to the other one - in ammenities & in cleanliness. We scouted some other places, at both ends of the spectrum, and were very happy we landed at Estate Lindholm.

The Island:

In all the reading I did, St. John is billed as a friendly, laid back island. And it is laid back. It was not, however, as friendly as I expected... although we are always very friendly & polite to everyone. There is definitely some animosity among the natives towards tourists - and at least some of it is definitely legitimate.

That being said, we felt *very* safe on St. John. While folks weren't always friendly, we never felt ill at ease or in any danger.

The island itself is beautiful. As you've probably read, much of the island is National Park. Loads of ultra green hillsides. And it is hilly - very steep hills with lots of crazy curves! Driving was an experience. Drive slowly & carefully & be sure to stay completely on the left side of the road. Many of the islanders drive way too fast and large trucks definitely cross the yellow line around curves. I would still recommend renting a jeep & exploring. You'll definitely miss out on lots of neat experiences if you only taxi/walk everywhere. There's lots to explore, and only 3 main roads. It's hard to get lost. With the jeep, we saw most of the island over the week (including one wild donkey, many mongooses (like our squirrels), lots of geckos, baby iguanas (no big ones) and hermit crabs.)

The beaches are narrower than I'm accustomed to, which took some getting used to. The sand is pretty darn white, the water is turquoise for some ways out before it gets deep blue with the depth. The snorkeling was good, but not as fantastic as I experienced in Provo (Turks & Caicos). Of note, we did see octopus (Cinnamon), a large sea turtle (Waterlemon), stingray (Waterlemon, Trunk Bay) & lots of 4-5 foot tarpon (Trunk Bay). Sea urchins & the typical colored fish were common. Pleasantly surprised by nice snorkeling at Cinnamon Bay, which I hadn't read much about. Very few to no shells on any beaches.

We enjoyed Trunk Bay, even on cruise ship days. It was fun to watch everyone learn about snorkeling - entertaining people watching. We love quiet beaches, but admit it was fun to have the snack bar & a place to rinse our feet & use real bathrooms. Cinnamon Bay & Hawksnest were very nice, much more quiet. Hawksnest parking lot was closed for work, but people (incl. us) parked there on the weekend & on the side of the road on weekdays anyhow.

Of note to anyone considering the Westin or Caneel...

Westin: the beach is awful. Heard it's man made. Either way, it's really bad. Dirty chairs on the beach. We weren't very impressed with the place, although admittedly didn't see the rooms. The pool area was very nice though.

Caneel: beaches seemed good, restaurants looked nice. We would've tried dinner there, but didn't find much we wanted on the menu. Nice grounds.

Cruz Bay was cute & fun to wander through. Cute shops. Not tons of the typical tourist stuff.

We took a day trip to Virgin Gorda to see the Baths. Worth the trip. We were satisfied with the day. We took the ferry for $60pp & felt it was reasonable & fairly fast (about 90 mins maybe?). The ride iteself was enjoyable. We sat up top & it was neat to see St. John from the water & to identify the beaches we recognized. You pass Tortola & many other islands as well. Interesting. Bring a passport, as you're travelling through British islands & must go through customs (we did this on Tortola). The Baths were amazing & the small beach there was beautiful. Lots of pictures to take there.

Restaurants & Food:

We had some disappointing experiences with dining. I had read lots about restaurants. We tried Chateau Bordeaux, Stone Terrace, Zozo's, Morgan's Mango, Skinny Legs, Cafe Roma, Grotto Deli, Ronnie's Pizza. We had heard positive things about most of these places.

For pizza or "easy" food in Cruz Bay, we liked Ronnie's Pizza & Grotto Deli. For dinner, we liked Cafe Roma a lot. It was really busy, but worth it. We just sat at the bar, and watched the people cram in. Skinny Legs was pretty good. Nice to stop in for a post-beach snack. And there were some cute shops there to browse in. Stone Terrace was good. Worth the money. Excellent tuna - very fresh & well prepared.

We are pretty picky about restaurants. We happily pay $150 for dinner if it's good. We were extremely disappointed with Chateau Bordeaux & Zozo's. Expensive and mediocre food & service. Not worth the $130 bill for 2 people. Morgan's Mango - we went only for appetizers & wasn't good enough to make us want to stay for dinner.

Wish we had tried Rhumb Lines & Ten Tables. Heard La Tapa is great, but it was closed while we were there.

For groceries, we like Starfish Market best, but did go to Dolphin Market also. Starfish was larger & the prices better, although only a bit. Food is not cheap.

Miscellaneous:

We saw very little of St. Thomas, but what we did see, we weren't impressed by. Seemed very touristy, very run down, had more of a dirty urban feel to me. Glad we didn't decide to stay there, although some people seem to love it.

Regarding the weather: Like many people, I'm always nervous about traveling to the Caribbean & being rained on during my week of sun & relaxation. I always get nervous, and always forget the timeless reassurances I give people --- Yes, it will probably rain, maybe even every day. But most every day starts sunny, and it rains for usually no more than 15 minutes in the afternoon and then the sun always comes back out. I always forget that, and I still get nervous, after 10 trips. We never had a completely cloudy day, saw passing clouds, an occasional rain shower (literally 3 minutes long) followed by intense sun again. We turned *brown* by the middle of the week. Be careful with the sun & wear sunscreen. There's nothing worse than burning & losing your tan to peeling when you get home. We both get tan & even with gobs of spf 30 & 15, ended up as brown as ever.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions about our experiences. The best way to learn is through word of mouth.