Beach Trip Ideas

[Winston]

dotman wrote:
my brother was telling me about the u.s. virgin islands. anyone been to st.thomas, st.croix or st.johns? Any preferences or places to recommend?

dot.

Have not been to St. Croix, but have visited both St. John and St. Thomas either on a cruise ship or sailboat charter. St. Thomas is more developed and is where the airport is. Most of St. John is national forest, with a village at one end and a few resorts. To get there you'd fly into St. Thomas and take a boat to St. John. My guess is that resorts on St. John will be a lot more expensive. If you do go to St. T. you can take a day trip to St. J if you want. St. T is large enough that you can probably find everything from fancy resort hotels to something close to a bed and breakfast. There is good shopping in the main town, Charlotte Amalie, if you are into that. I was just in Nassau, Bahamas, and by comparison St. T feels more prosperous.

My favorite site for checking on places to stay is tripadvisor.com:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/

and for airfares I use Kayak.com
http://www.kayak.com/

One other tip: I have found that it is often MUCH less expensive to buy a package with airfare and hotel together. It seems when you do this you can get airfares which are a good bit lower than published rates.


Good luck.

- Winston

[Winston]

The other place which comes to mind is Yucatan, Cozumel or Cancun.

Most beach places should be inexpensive until the week before Christmas, and in some cases until just after Christmas.

- W

[Bo]

How about the Mayan Riviera about an hour south of Cancun. I've been down a couple of times and it's a great place to chill out...surprisingly low key given it's proximity to Cancun.

We've always stayed on Soliman Bay which has about 15 or so rentals that are all literally on the beach. You truly open your door and you're on sand, walk 30-40 feet and you're in the water. Lodging ranges from simple 1 and 2 bedroom bungalows/casitas to 5-6 bedroom houses.

locogringo.com is the main conduit for rentals and has a lot of info and pictures.

http://www.locogringo.com/maps/tour/051a-t.html

Casa Canciones and Casa del Corazon from the above link might fit your needs.

-Bo

[AlphaDog]

Bo wrote:
Casa Canciones and Casa del Corazon from the above link might fit your needs.

-Bo

Totally cool! Casa del Corazon features 24 hour electricity!

OK, so the truth is they look very civilized and nice. The comment about electricity just caught me off guard.

[Bo]

AlphaDog wrote:
[quote=Bo]
Casa Canciones and Casa del Corazon from the above link might fit your needs.

-Bo

Totally cool! Casa del Corazon features 24 hour electricity!

OK, so the truth is they look very civilized and nice. The comment about electricity just caught me off guard.
They do some "eco" casitas down the coast a ways that only have electricity for a couple of hours a day. Sounds like spin to me! No matter how you cut it though the location is spectacular.

[A-Polly]

St. John is indeed less developed, very beautiful, and the resorts are more expensive. There are ferries from Charlotte Amalie.
However, if you don't mind something a bit more rustic, you can camp at the National Park:

http://www.cinnamonbay.com/home.html

Still not cheap, but cheaper, and the beach and snorkeling are great.

(Oldster reference: the Mamas and the Papas stayed there for a while, many decades ago...)

Just along the coast a bit is an "eco-resort" (not a Park property) called Maho Bay which is also lovely.

I think the winter is probably the most costly time, though.