Up early for our 7am flight from Reagan National. Of course, the cab was late and we had to call several times. Next time, Lyft.
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Arrived early afternoon on St Thomas, very hungry and very ready for a cold cocktail. Traveling during Covid is stressful! \240Called Amalie Car Rental as soon as we entered the terminal and they met Mike in the parking area, while the rest of us got the bags. He picked us up in a brand new Jeep Wrangler just as we left the terminal building. Very quick!
We stayed at the Emerald Beach Resort for one night, because we did not want to feel rushed to get the ferry to St John. Just wanted to relax. Convenient, nothing fancy.
View from our hotel room:
View from the restaurant:
Another view from our hotel room:
So what’s it like traveling in the time of Covid? We left from Reagan National at 7am, so not very busy, and everyone was wearing masks. Easy to stay 6’ apart. You may carry on up to 12ounces of sanitizer per person. Plane (American Airlines) was full, no food/drink service, except for a bag when you board, containing water, pretzels and wipes. Masks on at all times or you get blacklisted.
USVI has rules for entering, you have to fill out a form with Covid Questions, they take your temp and if you are from a state with a positivity rate higher than 10% (currently about 15 states) you need to show a negative Covid test from something like 72 hours before. No Customs & Immigration, so it’s quick. Masks on at all times except on beaches/hikes. Restaurants are at 50% capacity and well spaced out. Bars that serve drinks only are closed, and bar counter service in restaurants are closed. No cruise ships. This is actually low season for the Caribbean so beaches are pretty quiet.
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Lazy morning at Emerald Beach Resort, then we drove for about 45 minutes to get to the ferry in Red Hook. Got there just before noon and was the last car on before they left. $35 one way, and it takes about 30 minutest to get to Cruz Bay, St John.
I texted our villa management company and they were okay with us checking in early. Advantages of visiting in low season. When we arrived at Cruz Views Villas, the guy from Landlubber Logistics was just leaving after stocking up our villa with our requested food and drinks. (Avoiding local supermarkets to do our part for prevention of Covid spread)
Friendly lizard in the tree
Car barge in and out of Cruz Bay. Two of them take turns to Red Hook so there’s one leaving every 30 minutes to an hour, early till late.
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We just dropped our bags, put on our swimsuits and went to get lunch. Stopped at Mongoose Junction and had lunch at The Tap Room. We had to be at Cinnamon Bay well before 4pm as the beaches were closing that time on weekends due to COVID. And just at 4pm, it started to drip and the national guard showed up to tell people to leave. But the beach was nice, just a pity we only had about 20 minutes here.
Our first view of the beautiful Trunk Bay en route from Cinnamon Bay.
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Beautiful morning in Cruz Bay! We phone in an order of sandwiches to North Shore Deli, pack a cooler, pick up the sandwiches and are off to Maho.
Cute wild donkeys, a feature of St John
Maho is a gorgeous, long beach with a lot of grass, so the turtles love it! We saw several turtles, rays and lemon and nurse sharks.
We haven’t snorkeled in years. Opened my snorkeling bag only to find my mask in pieces. Luckily they rent equipment on this beach, so off Mike goes. Kids and I start snorkeling and now they complain of leaky masks and snorkels. Off Mike goes again to get more equipment.
This was the busiest beach on St John, but it’s a big bay, so lots of beach. We brought chairs and got a shady spot amongst the seagrapes.
Then we went on to Francis Bay Beach, where we snorkeled the right hand side, this time more rocky, so lots more fish, but we still managed to see rays, turtles and sharks.
We parked and just grabbed snorkeling gear and off we went.
Again, a big bay beach so easy to space out.
View point of Maho Bay
Cruz Bay, where we bought new snorkels and masks before going to dinner at Morgan’s Mango.
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Today we are driving via the Centerline over to the other side of the island. Note we are on the left.
Coral Bay area
Coral Bay
More cute donkeys!
First, we tried rocky North Haulover beach, but had to pass by a huge area of sargassum, then the water was very choppy, which is usual for this beach. Beautiful under water, though! Lots of plants.
Then we crossed the road to South Haulover, which is all rocks and has fantastic visibility. We snorkeled both the left and right and is was outstanding!
Again, we just grab snorkeling gear and off we go. No need for towels or anything else. Water shoes are important, though, as there are sea urchins and sharp rocks. We were the only people on the beach
Driving back to Coral Bay for lunch.
Lunch at Skinny Legs. This is an extremely popular place for burgers and cocktails. I had my first Bushwacker, the popular St John cocktail, and loved it. The food was just okay, though.
Headed to the southern side of St John, and after about 14 miles on an extremely bad dirt road (do not try this in a regular car) we reached Lameshur Bay which turned out to be my favorite beach for snorkeling on St John.
We snorkeled the left hand side to the point, and the visibility was excellent. We were the only people there except for a small group that left when we got there, and another that got dropped off by boat just before we left.
Sunset from Cruz Views
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Beautiful Trunk Bay. Probably the most popular beach on St John, but easy to space out.
It has an under water snorkeling trail out on the left of the island, but it was disappointing. Snorkeling overall was disappointing here...
Hermit crab
In the afternoon we grabbed water, hats and snorkeling gear and hiked the Leister Bay trail to Waterlemon Cay. Beautiful views but super hot and very rocky in the beginning. Hard on the feet when you are hiking in water shoes.
Snorkeling-wise, Waterlemon Cay was only okay for us. Not sure if it was the heat and hike that made it hard to enjoy.
Dylan trying to find a bit of shade.
Beautiful views of BVI and other islands from Annaberg ruins
Waterlemon Cay to the right of the boat. BVI behind.
Again, little Waterlemon Cay, with Tortola, BVI in the back, and the Leinster Bay trail in the front.
Annaberg plantation ruins, reachable from the same parking area as the Leinster Bay hike.
Tortola, BVI in the back.
Mary Point across from Mary Creek
Jost Van Dyke, BVI there in the distance
And every time we pass this view point of Maho, we cannot resist and have to stop to take a pic!
Beautiful Cruz Bay evening with Red Hook, St Thomas in the back. To the right is where we will be staying next week.
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Isaias: So yesterday everyone was worried about a possible hurricane coming through today. We were given instructions to tie furniture down, move it out of the way, or even bring it inside. Everyone to shelter in place. No community shelters due to Covid. Luckily, we only got a bit of rain, and it formed into a Tropical Storm after it passed USVI. By the time it hit the US on 31 July, it was a Cat 1 hurricane.
What else to do, but eat, drink and relax.
Even with the storm, the view is good! Carib, of course, can be found on most Caribbean islands, regardless of nationality. It’s from Trinidad and Tobago.
Cruzan Rum, product of USVI. So many flavors! And nice enough do drink neat.
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Shelter in place instructions lifted at noon, so we were on our way to Hawksnest Beach. Sun peeking out every now and then.
Mike making us laugh every time with how white his face is after sunblock. But rather too much than too little, right?
Lady-with-crazy-nails showing us some weird kind of starfish she picked up while we were swimming
By now we have realized that we are not the bring-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of people when we go to the beach. We like to get there with minimal stuff, find a spot in the shade, hit the water immediately, snorkel a couple of times, have a snack and drink, and hit the next spot. So shady picnic spots work great for us!
Cruz Bay resident
Dinner at Longboard, Cruz Bay
Ceviche
Sushi
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This morning, Mike and I left the kids at home to sleep in while we went for a hike. This is Salt Pond Bay beach, and the start of the Rams Head Trail.
We left our snorkeling gear on a picnic table under the seagrapes and took off
Beautiful views all along the hike
Cross ‘blue pebble beach’...
... and then you start climbing
And climbing...
And climbing...
Made it! Very windy and VERY hot! But magnificent 360• views!
Back to ‘blue pebble beach’
I cannot get enough of the views!
After a swim and unsuccessful snorkel (water very cloudy after the storm) we go to Miss Lucy’s for lunch
The famous St John Bushwacker!
Cute ducks at Miss Lucy’s. This turned out to be our favorite meal. We shared a grouper platter and a cornflake crusted grouper sandwich and it was outstanding. The platter had a weird local vegetable which was delicious!
The road back to Coral Bay
Coral Bay
Back home, the kids decided that Maho was their favorite beach, so off they went for one last swim. (I would have loved to go back to Lameshure if it wasn’t for the bad road). Meanwhile I took a last video of our neighborhood
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Here’s what I like/dislike so far:
- can add multiple pics in one go
- Collaboration- although not yet tested, concerned that collaboration can only add to the bottom, which mean you need to work side-by-side with collaborator to get the sequence of events right
- No preview of the shared blog
- The ability to change dates - this means I can create a blog in retrospect, or convert all previous blogs into this app
- shared Travel blog is sorted by date ascending, but Journo ap is sorted descending, which is good
- No ability to organize by moving pics/videos up or down. Everything is appended at the end so you have to plan out before you start.
- Nice to have would be in app simple edit of pics and videos, like cropping
- The blog map takes up too much real estate. I want the blog post to be wider and will add a map pic myself, or want to be able to toggle. Update: have started adding locations and I am warming up to this map idea! But definitely on a laptop, the map section is way too big!
- Looks like the printed book is one photo per page. Can you imagine the cost?!
- love the idea of being able to read other travel blogs here
- I would like some kind of download, like pdf, for my own records
- Can you make some entries private?
- it would be great if the blog can be editable on a laptop via browser. This would enable adding text/descriptions with ease, but also may be an easier infrastructure to enable the ability to move pics/video up or down
- This list is not showing up as bulleted in the shared blog
- I am also reviewing the following: Day One and Travel Diaries
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