First, let me further explain why my husband and I give Garden by the Sea the "1 star" rating of terrible. It may be an acceptable place to stay for someone that is traveling on a budget and doesn't mind sweating to death, swatting insects and lack of privacy. My husband and I found Garden by the Sea on the internet. We were charmed by their website which contained the most beautiful pictures of tropically colored rooms, beautiful gardens and lush tropical vegetation. It looked like a romantic little paradise. When we arrived at St. John, a cab driver took us down the road leading to Garden by the Sea. The slope of this hill rivaled many of the most thrilling roller coasters I have ever ridden. We got out of the cab and went in. We had reserved the garden suite. The entrance was a sliding screen door with several holes in it -- portals for the ravenous mosquitoes. The room was nicely decorated, much like I remembered it from the website only it seemed a bit smaller. Not much room to walk around the bed. As I swatted a few bloodsuckers off my arms and legs I decided to check out the bathroom.
It was fairly large, had a good amount of light coming in from the big screen-covered skylight over the "garden shower". The garden shower idea would have been nice, however with the other guests and the owners of the Inn being in such close proximity, privacy is a big concern. Not only does the screened skylight offer the upstairs guests a spectacular view of whoever is the shower, but also I would imagine that a guest in the garden suite wouldn't have much privacy sitting on the toilet either. The thought of my husband and I spending our first night together as a married couple sweating and swatting insects and having to worry about other guests overhearing us doing the things that all newly married couples do on their wedding night did not appeal to us at all. So we expressed our concerns to the owners and told them we needed to find accommodations elsewhere. They suggested we try Gallows Point and only refunded us a small portion of the $750.00 we placed as a down payment. We did end up staying at Gallows Point and we highly recommend it! For a slightly higher price per day we had air conditioning, a large bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen and beautiful balcony overlooking Cruz Bay and excellent service from all the staff.