The homeowner is fabulous and full of so much valuable information!! Organized too! The villa was perfect for our stay and had everything we needed and then some! I love all the neat little knick knacks, sculptures and small touches that make it feel so homey. We used the villa to its fullest extent, we cooked all our breakfasts there and enjoyed them on the screened porch with the company of a lizard we named Bob, he came out every morning and hung out. We packed the cooler provided at the villa with water, drinks, lunch items like meat cheese fruits chips and packed up the car and headed to the beach for day. The island is expensive and we were on a slight budget so we cooked most of our dinners at the villa as well, utilizing the grill outside with the wonderful steaks and other items we purchased at Calabash Market. We never encountered something that wasn't available at the villa. We did have one day of rain as tropical storm fred skirted past the island, we lost power for maybe 2 hours but nothing major and there was never a time we didn't feel safe.
The hills are steep, we are somewhat more used to this then most as we live in the mountains of Colorado, but the road to the villa can compete with some of the back roads here in Colorado, when our car rental company gave us a small Ford Ecosport we got a little concerned we can make it every where.. we did without any issues even on the road to the villa which was the roughest we encountered, actually the small gas efficient car ended up working out well for just us, parking was easy every where, turns on switchbacks were easy to maneuver, we used only 1 tank of gas for our week rental, so just filled it up ($40) once on the way to return it.
Groceries are expensive, food out is even more expensive. We did a quick bulk shop on our way to check in at villa at the Midway Market, this is cheaper than Calabash Marker for staple items (eggs, milk, bread, water, soda, coffee, rum, mixers ect) but Calabash had better meat cheese choices and convenient, a tad on the pricey side overall but worth it.
It was our first visit to the Virgin Islands and St John and we were not disappointed by the beaches, wildlife, experience and our villa that was all fabulous, Coral Bay was full of the stinky seaweed stuff that was affecting the islands during our stay so we didn't get much opportunity to experience it like we hear about it unfortunately a small letdown of the trip but o well.
