<p>Okay. D has talked to friends from the USVI and they suggested St John over St Croix. Anyone have any suggestions as to what area of St John. We are 5 people and need space so would like a villa or condo. Thanks</p>
<p>mom60 - why did they recommend St. John over St. Croix??</p>
<p>We are in a holding pattern. Am waiting to hear back from a travel agent we have worked with before to see if she has any other suggestions. She’s the one that booked our trip to the Riviera Maya two years ago.</p>
<p>Kerala. 'nuf said.</p>
<p>mini - if you can figure out how to get us there in a six-hour plane ride or less, I’ll take you up on it!</p>
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<p>St. Johns is up scale and/or “green.” St. Croix has crime and poverty. I’ve been to both. I have tried to recall how often to St. Croix. At least 8 or 9 times. It has “characters” and character.</p>
<p>To St. John’s? Once. It was beautiful and near “perfect.” Almost like a manicured park.</p>
<p>Depends on what you like.</p>
<p>According to D’s friend St Croix closes up at 8 pm. Which for us really doesn’t matter. St John looks beautiful. Whenever we bareboated the BVI we talked of going to St John but have never made it. One problem I see for us is that most of the places in St John are not walkable to the beach.With my 3 children I don’t want to be in a place where we have to get in the car each day to head to the beach. D’s friend suggested Sapphire Beach on St Thomas.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend a villa rental on St. John? Have heard that is the way to go – a hillside villa with pool.</p>
<p>sewhappy- I looked on VRBO and saw some nice villas on St John. I think I am about settled on a villa with a pool on St Thomas near the east end.
I have never rented a vacation home from an owner before. How do you know that it is legit?
I briefly considered trying to trade my house for a beach villa but H is not comfortable with a stranger staying in our house.</p>
<p>mom60-- St. Thomas??? I flew into St Thomas/Charlotte Amalie to rent a bareboat with captain years ago. Even the boat rental company warned us about crime in the area. </p>
<p>St Johns has always had a reputation for being the safest of the three USVI. My assessment was that St Croix was in the middle on the safety scale.</p>
<p>Have you looked at British Tortola? My wife and some of her girlfriends stayed there on several occassions.Try the Sugar Mill. <a href=“http://www.sugarmillhotel.com/[/url]”>http://www.sugarmillhotel.com/</a> They have villas that are free standing houses. I seem to recall that they may have a land/sailing option.</p>
<p>07Dad- we have been to the BVI and Tortola 3 times. It is nice but we want to go somewhere different.
My H said the same thing about St Thomas. He was on a 1 yr sailboat trip and they couldn’t wait to get out of Charlotte Amalie. The house we are looking at is on another part of the island. D works with 3 women from St Thomas and they are recommending certain areas of St Thomas.
The house I liked on St John is now rented.
The whole purpose of this trip is for some family together time not a winter getaway from cold weather. It is something we have not had in almost 6 yrs. Our oldest lives in the midwest so a warm location is important to her. For the rest of us we live in Ca with an ocean view from our house. We have a private beach 2 minutes from our house.
H is still voting for a sailboat in Belize.</p>
<p>07Dad- you have made me rethink St Thomas.
Think I am back to square 1.</p>
<p>For those of you who were suggesting Riviera Maya, do you have any particular resorts that you would recommend?</p>
<p>[Gran</a> Bahia Principe Tulum- Hotels in Riviera Maya](<a href=“Home Bahia Principe - Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts”>Home Bahia Principe - Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts)</p>
<p>This is where we stayed. Worked very nicely for just H and I. But if we were going as a family, we’d have to get two rooms. We enjoyed it and would return again.</p>
<p>teriwitt - the Gran Bahia resort looks very nice and might work for us this Christmas although we’d prefer more of a condo feel. The property looks lovely, though. And it’s priced reasonably. Would you recommend it strongly?</p>
<p>Regarding West Indies islands - we have several friends who rave about Eleuthra. They say it is very undeveloped except for some utterly gorgeous resorts. We’ve thought about going there for a long time. Maybe this year . . .</p>
<p><a href=“http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/travel/28eleuthera.html[/url]”>http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/travel/28eleuthera.html</a></p>
<p>sewhappy- Funny I just pulled out a Bahama book I had on my shelf and thought Eleuthera looked interesting.
I am also now looking into Belize. We have been bareboat sailing in the southern part of Belize but did not get up to the northern cayes. Plus Belize is fairly easy to get to from both the midwest and Ca.</p>
<p>sewhappy - yes, I would recommend it. We really enjoyed it, and left the resort only once for a snorkeling tour.</p>
<p>Regarding Eleuthera, I looked at it on the map, but it still seems just a bit too north for my comfort. I basically want a guarantee of highs in the low 80s every day.</p>
<p>We’ve put one of our kids in charge of planning a Christmas trip to Belize and she’s moving rather slowly on it. If anyone has an itinerary to suggest, I’m all ears.</p>
<p>We went to Harbour Island, off Eleuthera Island, Bahamas last year, and loved it. Dunmore town is like a Caribbean Cape Cod. It is a great mix of tourist and local, and plenty of houses to rent. Lots of restaurants, both gourmet and local. The pink sand beach is one of the loveliest I have seen. There was quite a bit for my 16yo to do, plus he loved driving the golf carts all over the place. He even hung out with local teens a few evenings. We picked it over other places specifically because we had a teenager with us. If I remember right, they have some great local festivities/parties over Christmas. We went in mid March and it was already very hot; I would be fine going there in Dec/Jan.</p>
<p>We stayed in Eleuthera for a few days, also, and I would love to go back, but without the young people, unless there is a bunch of them. It seemed perfect for a romantic vacation. If you stay in Eleuthera it is easy to do a day trip to Harbour Island, or vice versa.</p>
<p>Our next trip is Trinidad & Tobago, which is farther south, which may be what you are looking for.</p>
<p>I talked with some sailing friends tonight and they felt the water in the Bahamas is not warm enough in December.
Puzzled88- When we went to Belize last time we flew into Belize City and took a small plane to Placencia. We had rented a catamaran for 7 nights. We headed right out. For 7 nights we rarely saw another human being.Most nights we were the only boat anchored off a caye. Due to the time of the year we headed south towards Honduras. The water was the clearest water I have ever seen. After the boat charter we stayed on land outside of Placencia at Inn at Roberts Grove. The rooms were very nice but food was expensive and nothing walkable nearby. The surf a bit rough. From there we did an excursion inland to some mayan ruins and cave tubing. We also did a river trip to Monkey River that included a hike.
At Robert’s Grove we met many people who had done a split trip with half the time in the rainforest and half on the water.
This trip I think we will try Ambergris Caye.</p>
<p>Haven’t read the whole thread, but a few years back we stayed at the Marriot Ocean Club villas in Aruba. The Hotel (Stellaris), The ocean club and the surf club are all together. The surf club tended to have more families and younger kids. The Ocean club was closer to the stellaris and the casino there, if you care. We had a gorgeous ocean-front 2 bedroom unit with big living room and full kitchen. They are a vacation rentals property so you can rent through condo traders sites rather than through the marriott and save $$ (we didnt but I didnt discover all that til it was too late). We too, like was mentioned earlier, found lots of activities to do on the island.</p>
<p>We’ve also stayed in Nassau/Paradise Island and Grand Bahama Island. When on Grand Bahama we stayed at the sheraton our Lucaya, which was attached to the westin and we got to use all their facilites (spa, etc). It looks like there may have been an ownership change as it might now be a Radisson. We didnt have a kitchen then but it looks liek those kinds of rooms may be available too. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>