Island Hopper – The View from Lajeune

I was born in a blizzard in Newport, RI on Valentines Day, 1962 so it comes as no surprise to anyone that I have spent the majority of my birthdays bundled up in winter coats, gloves, scarves and snow boots.  So this year, as my 63rd Vday Bday was fast approaching, I decided to switch things up and spend my special day sunbathing in the United States Virgin Islands.

For our 7 days/6 nights island getaway, James and I departed Bradley International Airport on Sunday February 9th and returned on Saturday February 15th.   By the way, it snowed in Connecticut both ways (smile).

St. Thomas was our island dream destination, but we had previously discussed that while on this island we would travel by ferry on day trips throughout the week to both St. Johns, USVI and Jost Van Dyke, BVI.  My mother-in-law Irene, who was born in St. Thomas but grew up in Jost Van Dyke, reminded us to bring our passports.  I’m so glad she did as we would not have gotten on that island without them.  Jost Van Dyke is part of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) so you need your passport to get through Customs and Immigration.

We rented a car for this vacation which we picked up at the airport (it makes sense to rent a car on St. Thomas because there are no Ubers or Lyfts and taxis can get pretty pricey pretty quick) and James drove us on the wrong side of the road (smile) to our hotel, the Island View Guesthouse.  We normally stay in resorts when we travel to tropical islands and if necessary, we get around by Uber or Lyft so it felt different staying in an actual hotel and using a rental car.  What really sold me on this particular hotel was the free daily breakfasts, plus the hotel’s proximity to downtown Charlotte Amalie which featured a waterfront, local shops and restaurants and nearby beaches.

Since I used a 3rd party app (Expedia) to book our travel, I chose the bundle package which in our case consisted of airfare (United Airlines), a hotel (the Island View Guesthouse) and a car (Budget Car Rental).  I would not recommend using a 3rd party app to book your travel anywhere because as I found out from Libby, the friendly and accessible owner of  the Island View Guesthouse, the 3rd party app folks take 20 to 30 percent off the top of your bundle packages which in my case meant we were put into the tiniest room at the hotel with no amenities and the car we rented came without GPS.  James quickly took care of the hotel room issue the very  next morning when he had a talk with Eileen, the Island View Guesthouse Manager.  Eileen was a dream – she not only upgraded us to the largest suite in the hotel for 3 nights, but she also managed to upgrade us into 2 more spacious hotel rooms over the final 2 nights of our week long vacation.  Libby, the hotel owner, arrived with her Executive Chef Husband Marshall on the Wednesday of our vacation and ensured that the remainder of my Vday Bday week went off  without a hitch.  Libby and I hit it off right away and even shared a similar sober conscious story that begun at the height of the Pandemic.  I can’t begin to thank both Eileen the Manager and Libby the Owner for attending to all of our needs and would highly recommend anyone looking to book a hotel on St. Thomas to make their reservations at the boutique style Island View Guesthouse.

Sunday — Day 1 – Travel Day

All things considered, the trip to St. Thomas, VI from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT was not too shabby.  There were no delays and the time spent in the air was for the most part uneventful.  We flew from Connecticut to Washington, D.C. in record time and the same can be said for our flight from Washington D.C. to St. Thomas, VI.

Monday – Day 2 (Coki Beach at Coral World on St. Thomas)

Coki Beach is a small and very quaint public beach on St. Thomas (one of the 11 beaches on the island!).  The sand is silky smooth and the water, crystal clear.  We rented a large beach umbrella and 2 beach chair loungers for just $40 dollars.  Thank goodness we did because it rained off and on all day with blustery winds.  The large umbrella saved us from running back to our car for cover.

Tuesday – Day 3  (Trunk Bay on St. Johns)

The first of two day trips that week was to St. Johns.  And everything I heard about it was true.  It is truly paradise, the weather was picture perfect and it was not too crowded.  We drove to the Red Hook marina to catch our island ferry – the round trip fare was only 16 dollars and the entire ferry ride took all of 20 minutes.  We then caught a trolley/cab to Trunk Bay (one of the 10 beaches on the island!) and spent the entire afternoon there.  Trunk Bay Beach is gorgeous with fine, silky smooth sand and crystal clear baby blue water.  It was 80 degrees outside but the sun did not seem that strong so we laid out on our beach blankets and soaked it up.

Wednesday – Day 4 – Downtown St. Thomas  – Charlotte Amalie  (Walking on the Waterfront, Shopping for gear and Lunch at Gladys Restaurant)

Wednesday was primarily a rainy day (way too much rain to dry up on the beach) so we turned it into a shopping day – there are a ton of shops downtown in Charlotte Amalie (mostly local merchants) selling lots of wares.  By the way, if you are looking for any kind of jewelry, downtown Charlotte Amalie is the place to be to buy gold, silver and diamonds all in one central area and best of all everything is tax free!

Thursday – Day 5 (Magens Bay Beach on St. Thomas)

We spent our 2nd to last day at Magens Bay Beach which had come well recommended by the trip advisors.  It truly is a beautiful must see and do beach. Magens Bay was super crowded the day we arrived with rows and rows of beach chairs and umbrellas lined up in formation.  There was also a sun and surf rental shop, a souvenir shop and an indoor/outdoor bar and grille.  Lots going on.  We were in the mood for peace and quiet that day so we headed further down the mile long beach where there were no beach chairs, and very few people.  Another well thought out idea…

That evening we went out for a late dinner in downtown Charlotte Amalie to a restaurant that was recommended by one of the locals in town.  It was called the Sugarcane Grille at Bunker Hill.  It was way up a hill on a narrow winding road with no parking.  We lucked out though because we managed to squeeze our rental car into a tight space.  The restaurant was so cute.  We had to walk a bunch of stairs to get there but at the top was the dining room with a view of a well-lit swimming pool.  The food was awesome.  Our super friendly waiter even talked me into a delish mocktail made with Ginger, yummy!

Friday – Day 6 – My Vday Bday – Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

We popped out of bed at 530am that morning to catch the 730am ferry leaving from Red Dock marina to Jost Van Dyke, BVI.   There are only 3 ferry rides a week to Jost Van Dyke so if you miss one, you have to wait a few days for the next one.  It’s much more involved then going to St. Johns.  First of all you need your passport.  Second it’ll cost you $120 round trip per Adult to ride the ferry plus 10 dollars to enter the island and 20 dollars to exit it.  Third, you have 7 hours on the island to spend as you wish and believe me, the time flies by.  We spent half the day on White Bay beach which we had to catch a cab from the harbor to.  White Bay beach was breathtakingly beautiful. I felt like I was in a Hollywood movie because it painted the picture of a true tropical beach scene.  There  was so much all at once to take in.  And it wasn’t even crowded!

The second half of our day was spent at Great Harbor – we were on a mission to grab lunch at Pinky’s restaurant and we could not leave without visiting the likes of Foxy’s Restaurant Bar and Grille!

Day 7 – Saturday – Travel Back Home

We purposely took our sweet time on Saturday morning because our flight was not leaving until 3pm and we would not arrive into Connecticut until 12midnight.  We realized we had a long day of travel ahead of us which included 3 airplane trips this time around – St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico; San Juan, Puerto Rico to Washington, D.C.; and finally Washington, D.C. to Windsor Locks, CT.  We spent the better part of the morning shopping in downtown Charlotte Amalie at one of our fav surf shops, Ocean Surfari, which,lucky for us, was having a huge storewide sale.   Then we picked up our lunch at a local grocer.  We arrived at the airport at 115pm and dropped off our rental car so we could relax, eat and soak up a little sun before we headed to Cape Air Airlines to check in.  This is where the disconnect happened.  Neither one of us realized that because we were flying from St. Thomas, VI to San Juan, PR it would be necessary to go through Customs and Immigration so consequently, after we checked in at Cape Air Airlines, we were told to get in line with the rest of the travelers.  The said line was super long and wrapped around and around  and around the airport about 3 times!   I looked at my Fitbit and it said 215pm which meant we had all of 45 minutes to catch our 3pm flight.  There was no way in Hell we were going to make that flight.  After about 10 minutes panic started to set in and James said ‘why don’t you call Cape Air and see if there is something they can do to get us to the front of the line?’  I looked at my Fitbit again – it was 230pm now and I saw 3 missed calls from Cape Air.  I immediately called them back and explained that we were stuck in line and was there anything they could do for us.  They said they would send someone to get us but we could not find that person and ended up trying to move through the line ourselves as time was ticking by.  I said a quick prayer to God and the rest of the time was a blur as we were pushed and pulled and stopped and started before we found ourselves at the point where you take your shoes off and load your stuff into gray bins.  One of the airport workers familiar with our situation stopped us and told us that we were wasting our time, it was 250pm and our plane was now preparing to leave without us.  We felt dejected but went through the motions of looking for and finding our original departure gate.  When we arrived to that gate an employee mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and told us that this never happens but they had a backup plane outside and a pilot who would get us to San Juan well in time for our Washington, D.C. connection!   The pilot had a Cessna 402 and James and I  were the only 2 passengers on board.  The pilot flew 6500 feet up in the air to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 35 minutes!  Not only did we make our next connection to Washington, D.C., but we were only a half hour behind what would have been our original time of arrival to San Juan airport!  I thanked God for answering my prayers so quickly and thanked the pilot of Cape Air Airlines for safely flying and landing us.

Cheers to our next adventure!