Do you love Hawksnest as much as I do? Check out this quick video I took earlier this week. Enjoy!
Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?
Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
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Hello everyone, and happy Wednesday! Let’s start with the positive stuff today… St. John’s Festival is right around the corner! The queen pageant, food fair and coronation, and the boat races are all happening this weekend. Now to the not-so-positive… Parking is going to be severely limited due to Festival for the next month.
For those of you who have been lucky enough to be in Cruz Bay this week, you may have noticed that the large parking lot beside the Customs building and across from the Post Office is currently closed. This is so the Festival Village can be set up. The first booth went up Tuesday, which is always such an exciting sight to see!
This parking lot will be closed through July 19th. The Festival culminates on July 4th. The closure will allow for the removal of the booths and stage following Festival.
The parking lot beside the tennis courts is also closed for Festival. I apologize for not taking a picture for all of you.
Want to know where else you can park in Cruz Bay? Click here to view Explore STJ’s Logistics Map. This searchable map shows the location of both free and paid parking areas, public restrooms, markets, gas stations and more.
The queen pageant is this Saturday at 7 p.m. Food fair and coronation is Sunday at 1 p.m. Want to view the full 2024 Festival schedule? Click here to do so.
Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?
Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
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Well this is pretty cool, folks. For those of you who enjoy snorkeling, there is a great new website that tells you exactly where you can find great snorkeling spots within the Virgin Islands National Park. Plus, it even tells you what you will see at each location. How fun is that?!
Friends of Virgin Islands National Park just launched the “Plan Your Snorkel” website and app, which is an easy-to-use guide to exploring the underwater world around St. John. Whether you are brand new to snorkeling or a seasoned pro, I’m pretty certain you will find this app useful.
As you can see in the image above, you can search based on a variety of factors, including difficulty, time needed, how to access the location (car, boat, etc.) and features like coral, turtles and more. As an example, I clicked that I wanted an easy snorkel and to see turtles. Not surprisingly, Maho and Francis bays came up as the two options. Here is the search result with an abundance of details:
Looking for something more challenging? Want to see an abundance of fish? I checked off a couple of boxes, and here is the result:
Very cool stuff.
The Plan Your Snorkel website is completely free. Click here to view it. There is also a free app. The only caveat with both is that you will need wifi to access this tool. You can always take screenshots prior to heading out if you think wifi may be an issue.
Want to learn more about some of these snorkel spots? Take an island tour with me! I only have two available spots this week, so please reach out sooner than later. Learn more about my island tours at www.explorestj.com/tour.
Have a great day everyone!
Looking to purchase a vacation rental, home, condo, land or business in St. John? Let me help you! Please contact me to jenn@explorestj.com or at 203-376-3786 for more info.
The following properties have been listed for sale over the past week on the St. John Board of Realtor’s Multiple Listing Service:
15-1 Peter Bay, Maho Bay
Amarosa is a beautiful, four-bedroom, five bathroom home located in the prestigious Peter Bay neighborhood. This villa, which is currently being used as a vacation rental, features a large pool with waterfall, outdoor bar, and more.
List Price: $4.5 million
Listing Agency: Cruz Bay Realty
1 Kestrel Perch Condos 173 Contant/Enighed, Cruz Bay
Be the first to own in this brand new waterfront condo complex. This new two-bedroom condo offers the perfect blend of luxury and convenience. It’s a quick walk from Cruz Bay and the ferry, making island hopping a breeze.
List Price: $1,050,000
Listing Agency: Cruz Bay Realty
The Westin – 479 Chocolate Hole, Cruz Bay
Enjoy a two bedroom, three bathroom condo every year for week 21. This is a fixed week from Saturday to Saturday.
List Price: $4,000
Listing Agency: Holiday Homes of St. John
Grande Bay – 86-3, 86-4 Cruz Bay Town, Cruz Bay
Enjoy one week at a one bedroom, one bathroom condo at Grande Bay. Located right across the street from the beach in Cruz Bay. The lease terms are the time remaining from two consecutive 75-year leases.
List Price: $15,000
Listing Agency: Islandia
Five parcels listed for sale last week ranging in price from $245,000 to $775,000. Please email me at jenn@explorestj.com for more details.
Looking for additional information on any of these properties? Please contact me to jenn@explorestj.com or at 203-376-3786 for more info.
I have great news to share with all of you today! The new ferry dock is almost complete!
As you may or may not know, the ferry dock has been under construction for the past year, and we’re finally nearing completion! The updates include new restrooms, which is something it did not have before. There is also a brand new roof that covers a majority of the dock, so no more waiting in the hot sun or getting drenched in the rain. Winning! And lastly, there is a backup generator, so credit cards can still be processed during the outages.
Speaking of outages, we have had very few the past few days. 🙂 But back to the ferry dock…
If all goes as planned, the Port Authority is expected to complete construction at the ferry dock and adjacent taxi area within the next two weeks, just in time for St. John’s Festival. Fingers crossed!
For those of you who enjoy watching our webcams, you have probably seen construction happening on the Spice Cam. You can view the ferry dock in real time, which is always fun. Check out the Spice Cam and more than 20 others at www.explorestj.com/webcam.
And for those if you who would like to know this year’s Festival schedule, click here to read that post.
That’s it for today, folks. Have a great day!
Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?
Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Follow Explore STJ on Social Media
I was hoping that I didn’t have to write this story, but I guess it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room – the ongoing power outages.
I have to admit, I am a social media lurker. I’ve been reading your questions and comments on the Facebook pages, on TripAdvisor, and I understand your concern about the current state of the islands. You are spending a ton of money to visit us, and you want to make sure there is power. I 100% understand that. Please know that this is not normal, and I do not expect this to occur forever.
I received an email from a guest who was curious if they should cancel their October vacation. I said absolutely not. I received another email from a guest asking is their upcoming visit would be a burden to the island seeing what we have been going through with WAPA, our power company. Again, I said absolutely not.
St. John is a community that relies on tourism. Without tourism, we do not have much of an economy. We experienced this twice over the past seven years. Once with the hurricanes, and again with Covid. We need you all to continue to visit us.
I know you have heard that businesses have been forced to close due to power issues. Yes, it’s true that Wharfside’s generator was broken for a bit, which was forcing Beach Bar, Rum Hut, Parrot Club and La Tapa to close, among other spots. Well I am happy to say that the generator was fixed last week, and everything is running as normal, despite the rolling outages. Check out the Beach Bar’s webcam here to watch the action live.
The majority of the restaurants inn Cruz Bay have generators and remain open. Skinny Legs over in Coral Bay has one too, so the burgers continue to be served over there regardless of the status of WAPA. Did someone say fresh-squeezed margaritas? Yes, please!
The beaches are open and beautiful no matter what the status of power is. I saw that question asked on Facebook too.
What is currently happening is rolling outages. We are having bouts in about two-hour increments where power is turned off. This is happening due to old equipment and the inability to generate the amount of power that the islands currently need. Yes, it is frustrating, but, again, this is not the norm. This will not last forever. We’ve had less this week than last week, and hopefully they will stop altogether soon.
I have also read a lot from repeat and future guests about securing a rental that has backup power. I completely understand that, although I feel for the property owners who do not have backup power. It’s not their fault that the outages are happening.
There are two types of backup power sources – generators and solar. The Westin, Grande Bay and Gallows Point, for example, all have backup generators that automatically kick on when the power goes out. You wouldn’t even know it happened if it happened to occur when you were staying at any one of those properties. Lots of our vacation rentals have generators too, as well as solar panels with battery backups.
Speaking of solar, I just signed the contract to get solar at my house -woohoo! I am able to get numerous solar panels and a Tesla battery backup without a single dollar paid upfront… winning! I opted to lease the system, rather than buy, and I could not be happier! (However if I chose to buy, I still wouldn’t have had to put any money down for that either. Again, winning!)
If you own a vacation rental on St. John and you would like to know more about how I was able to get solar without killing my bank account, please feel free to email me at jenn@explorestj.com or call/text me at 203-376-3786, and I will tell you all about it. It was so easy that I want everyone to do it!
This, too, shall pass. Please continue to book those vacations. Please do not let these outages deter you from visiting us. I appreciate each and every one of you. -Jenn xoxo
