US Virgin Islands, St. John--Food and FAQS

If you’re thinking about where to warm your feet on a white sand beach and absorb some sunshine this coming winter, think about the tropical paradise of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. St. John is rustic, unspoiled beauty. Don’t wait for the dark, dreary, freezing cold winter to descend upon you, forcing you to make a hasty decision about where to vacation. Start researching destinations now, so you can make an informed decision about the best place you can spend your vacation and money wisely.

Two thirds of St. John is the Virgin Islands National Park, so it is refreshingly unspoiled and undeveloped. The scenery is spectacularly beautiful, with calm, translucent turqouise water dotted with verdant, mountainous islands. It’s hard to believe it’s all real when you’re looking at it. St. John is a small island—only 9 miles long and 3 miles wide.

Herds of goats, wild donkeys, cows, pigs, iguanas, lizards, and wild boar roam the island scavenging for food. Colorful hummingbirds flit from flower to flower. At night the music of frogs and other creatures reminds you that you are far from home—unless of course you live on some other tropical island. Surprisingly, the mosquitos were not much of a problem, but at night, while sitting by the beach, the sand fleas were quite ferocious.

This was our second trip to St. John. The first time we visited was in the late winter/ early spring, and the trip was such a relief for a family suffering from cabin fever. On this recent trip I was hesitant to go to a warm weather destination in the middle of the summer, but this was by far a much better trip. The ocean was much warmer than it had been on our first visit, and clear as glass, which made for some incredible visibility for snorkeling. The weather forecasted rain every day, but we never had more than a quick rain shower. The temperatures hovered in the mid 80’s, while our friends and family back in the Northeast were sweating it out in a heat wave with temps up to 104. Winter, summer, spring, or fall--there's never a bad season to visit St. John.

St. John is in the US Virgin Islands, which is great because while it’s a tropical island, you feel very safe. We didn’t encounter any of the unpleasant situations we had in places like Jamaica and Mexico: There are no people begging in the streets, no men with machine guns lurking around making you feel uncomfortable, and if you are a female, there are no men harrassing you. Everyone seems to know each other. Some of the people are very friendly, while others are not so fond of the tourists who fund their existence.

Pack light: At $25 a bag for luggage on most airlines, we just packed our snorkeling gear in our suitcase. You don’t need to bring much as far as clothing goes—shorts, sleeveless shirts, bikinis, maybe a sundress or 4, flipflops, sandals, and sneakers for hiking. A light rain jacket might come in handy. It’s super casual on the island.

Definitely rent a jeep; you'll want to explore the island and you don't want to have to depend on taxis. Be careful you don’t get ripped off by dishonest people trying to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists. You can learn from our experience. Two guys came to drop off our rental jeep. They asked us to survey the vehicle and make note of and sign off on any dents, dings, or damage of any kind. After we'd been driving the jeep for a few days, we noticed that the left rear tail light was partially popped out of its socket. After some ado, we successfully pushed it back into place. When the guy came to pick up the jeep on our last day there, he looked around the jeep quickly and immediately went to the tail light that looked absolutely normal because of our handy work. He said, “Oh, what happened here?” in an accusing tone. We told him—very assertively—that whatever happened to it had happened before we rented the vehicle. He backed down and said, “I’ll let you go on this one.” We think they may have come around in the middle of the night and dislodged the already loose tail light to try to swindle some extra money out of us. So be sure to be very thorough when you are doing that initial assessment. You drive on the left side of the road in St. John, and the roads can be hilly, but you’ll get used to it. You'll sometimes need to drop down into 2nd gear very quickly to get up a hill. The speed limit is rarely if ever higher than 25 mph.

St. John is not a foodie destination, so even though we didn’t really want to cook on our vacation, it was really nice to have a kitchen at our disposal at Gallows Point Suite Resorts. Most of the restaurants are very expensive and the portions are on the small side. I understand that everything has to be shipped or flown in because St. John is an island far from the mainland, but still, I didn’t want to spend our life’s savings on food, so I liked saving a little money by eating in when we could. Cereal for breakfast in our suite was just fine for breakfast most days, and packing sandwiches was easy for lunches on the beach. If you want breakfast out, most of the restaurants only serve it until 11 AM. Our first evening in St. John we were tired from traveling and hungry, so we walked down the street to a restaurant called The Fish Trap. Bad decision, but we just didn't have our bearings yet and hadn't done any research. The conch fritters were conchless, my daughter's cheeseburger was $17, and nothing we ate there was that great. The next morning we ventured out in search of breakfast and found ourselves, unfortunately, at Jake’s. It wasn’t that the food was awful, but bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee for 4 people for $50?!?! That’s just insane! They probably made a $40 profit on our visit. And the place was filthy! I mean really gross. Café Livin’, which is about a 4 minute walk from Gallows Point, has a super delicious breakfast burrito (they also have other things for breakfast that we didn't try), good Cuban sandwiches, gyros, and quesadillas. There is no indoor seating, just al fresco dining at tables with umbrellas, which is totally wonderful and fine. Be sure to try a few squirts of their spicy, addictive curried pumpkin sauce on whatever you get. There’s a sweet, fat-bellied iguana that lives in a tree on the premises. We fed it the little purple blossoms growing on a plant after we saw our waitress feeding it. Rhumb Lines had some decent pad thai. Uncle Joe’s Barbecue in Cruz Bay served melt-in-your-mouth ribs and good coleslaw. The portions were large and the prices weren’t bad at all. The Tourist Trap over in Coral Bay had some killer pulled-pork sandwiches and awesome drinks. The waitress/owner kept bringing around tasty tropical drink samples, which inspired us to try more. Unfortunately, Vie’s Snack Shack in East End was closed for the summer season; we were looking forward to feasting on the excellent conch fritters we had eaten on our previous trip. One night we grilled some freshly caught wahoo that we bought from a guy who’d set up a stand on the side of the road in Coral Bay. Skinny Legs, also in Coral Bay, has good burgers; not as spectacular as I had been led to believe, but not bad, and a fun scene. The Starfish Market in Cruz Bay has everything you need in the way of groceries, and the Gourmet Market next door has some excellent cheeses. Fortunately, the rum was inexpensive and good.

St. John is my new go-to, get-away-from-it-all vacation spot, second to the Florida Keys. A go-to vacation spot is one that I’ve become familiar and comfortable with, don’t have to spend a lot of time learning new things about, is beautiful, casual, and fun. I’ve been to the Florida Keys at least 100 times (I used to live in West Palm Beach), and I’ll never grow tired of it. But it’s nice to have a new vacation destination.