St. John

[Violeta]

Hi all! I'm interested in the shore diving situation in St. John. Is there any good shore diving that is accessible?

Also, for late december (17-27th), anyone know for a less expensive place to stay (2 people, pref. 2 beds or a bed and sofa, etc.). I'm having no luck finding anything under $150/night. There might not be any but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Finally, what is a really good dive shop that does boat dives and rents gear?

Thanks for any info!

 

[mike_s]

check out http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Caribbean_/St_John_/index.htm


BTW... how was your spiegel grove trip?

 

[larrandall]

Shore diving: Haulover, Kiddel, Grootpan
Dive Ops: Cruz Bay-Low Key for boat dives and gear rental / Westin-Cruz Bay Watersports for boat dives (also have rental and retail in Cruz Bay at the Lumberyard) / Caneel-Paradise Watersports / Other-Try a search on "6 paq scuba" I don't know much about her but she does have a boat / Coral Bay-St. John Dive Adventures (down for now but I may be starting it back up soon)
Lodging under $ 150 a night: Good luck. I'm surprised you found something that cheap over the Christmas Holidays. Probably the least expensive thing on the island is going to be Sweet Plantains in Coral Bay. Rose and Prince are really nice folks and they run a restaurant along with their very basic rooms for rent.

Have fun!

 

[mike_s]

Also, for late december (17-27th), anyone know for a less expensive place to stay (2 people, pref. 2 beds or a bed and sofa, etc.). I'm having no luck finding anything under $150/night. There might not be any but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Good luck finding anything. That's prime season there. Right after Christmas
the USVI gets packed in by tourists. If you don't already have reservations
somewhere you will have trouble finding anything.

you won't be able to find $150/night even in the off season most of the time.
We paid $285/night in the offseason for a room with one king bed and
a sofabed in USVI.

There are the tent villages. (I think more than one) places like https://www.maho.org

You can get a cottage at Cinnamon Bay for about $$125-140/night. (note cottage means no power except light and fan. No AC, no running water, no bathroom),
http://www.cinnamonbay.com

 

[Violeta]

What my brother and I have now talked about doing is seeing when the spike in prices happens in certain places on the island, and maybe stay 5 or so nights in St. John and then move to St. Thomas for the rest of the stay. Are there more shore dives in St. Thomas? Is the lodging situation more favorable? I would assume so, since it's a bigger island.

Thanks for asking about the Spiegel trip! It went well, but it was the first time I had seen the "darker side" of diving. We dove the Spiegel 3 times, and a guy on the boat had been diving it all week. I think he finally ran out of no-deco time, and he got bent. It was pretty scary - he passed out on the boat, and it was touch and go there for a while. The trip from the Spiegel back to shore is about 30 minutes riding in the boat. We had an ambulance waiting for us at the shore, and everyone had to fill out an incident report. The diving itself was wonderful; I loved it. The currents got a bit strong at one point (out of the blue), and I almost went up the wrong line, but other than that, the diving was great. I know the guy that got bent had to do a 5 hour stint in the deco chamber; not sure how he fared after that.

I got Nitrox certified on that trip as well, so now I'm looking forward to some nice diving in St. John / St. Thomas.

 

[Pisces Diver]

I once stayed at a place in St. John called Serendip, it was pretty reasonable although not on the water. Check out www.serendipstjohn.com. I just looked and they are pretty booked for the week after Xmas, and their rates are quite a bit higher than it was a while ago, but not bad for St. John.

 

[RICHinNC]

Would you consider going to Barbados instead??