We had initially decided that we would stay home for Thanksgiving to give ourselves and our budgets a break from all the travelling but we both knew that there was no way that we were going to waste a 4 day break "relaxing at home". We went for a walk one evening and by the time we came back, we were ready to book tickets and accommodation for our trip to the US Virgin Islands.
With an Indian passport, it is particularly important for us to find out where we can go without having to go through the hassles of a visa and the US Virgin Islands was an easy pick.
We decided we would do only St. John and just relax there rather than attempting to do both St. Thomas and St. John. The airport is only there at St. Thomas and you have to take a ferry from there to St. John. In the airport, there are taxis which technically you share with a lot of others. They are minivans which drop off all passengers where they need to go. We were headed to the Red Hook ferry point to take the boat to Cruz Bay and once we got there, we paid our share and waited for the boat. The weather was so glorious particularly because we had run away from such ghastly weather in New Jersey.
We had picked a car rental place which was walking distance from the ferry and there was only one option available- Jeeps! And once we started navigating the roads, we realized why we needed them. The driving in itself was confusing because the wheel was on the left just like the rest of the US but we drove on the left like in India so it was a bit disorienting each time we made a turn.
We had booked our accommodation at the Hillcrest guest house, deciding to deviate from our usual hotel routine to try a bed and breakfast. The room was very basic though the location was fabulous. The common balcony had a beautiful view but the room by itself was underwhelming. The amenities felt too basic and at the end of the day, we would have preferred a hotel where housekeeping would clean our rooms at the end of the day. The room did come with a fully equipped kitchen and a fairly well stocked fridge. We were swayed by the rave Tripadvisor reviews but realized it was not our cup of tea.
We had planned to take a drive on the first day and get the lay of the land but it was such beautiful weather that we relaxed with a bottle of wine in the balcony and just soaked in the beauty of the place rather than rushing out. The hotel was so well located that we could walk to all the restaurants in the tiny downtown.
Our next morning we headed straight to the Westin Resort there to try parasailing. I had tried it before but this was the first time for Saranath. I love parasailing because it is such a gentle way to enjoy both the height and all the water around you. We used Cruz Bay Watersports since we were also taking ½ day snorkel tour with them later the same afternoon. We went back to the resort, had lunch and then headed for our post lunch snorkeling tour. No matter how many times we snorkel and know that each time is different, we are never able to fully prepare ourselves for disappointment when we don’t see much in the water. The tour itself was nice but we barely saw anything. The captain of the ship was wonderful though and gave me a small lesson in Sailing as we went back to shore and we did get to enjoy a beautiful sunset from the deck so all in all not a waste of time!
The next day, we only had the Virgin Islands National Park on our list and knew that all we had on our agenda were a couple of beaches and snorkel by ourselves in every one of them. The road into the national park was gorgeous and the spots to the beach very well marked. Trunk Bay and Maho Bay were definitely our favourites since the snorkeling were fabulous! In Maho bay, the turtles swam right beneath us making it a pretty wonderful experience. If we had done this the previous day, I don’t think we would paid for the snorkel tour since we got such an amazing snorkeling experience even by ourselves.
On the very last day of our trip (it was too short as always!), we took a trip into the National Park once again and went to Maho bay to see the sunrise and also see if we could work in a small dip before we had to leave to St.Thomas again to ctch our flight but the water was too rough for us to get in and we had to be content with sitting by ourselves at the beach and watch the sunrise and head back.
St.John is a wonderfully convenient travel option for those in the United States with an Indian passport and is one of those rare places outside Mainland US where we can go without having to bother with a visa. If we had more time or go back another time, we might spend a little time in St.Thomas but from what we saw of it, St.John would continue to be our favorite of the two islands.
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