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St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 2012
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Scott in BHM
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:51 pm
- Location: Birmingham, AL
St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 2012
Just bringing this 2009 post over to the new site & updating actual cost. Although we are out of the “Great Recession” and times are not as dire as 2009, I think this type of low budget trip still works well on STJ and is relevant. Please skip down below the dotted line for the actual post.
What follows directly below is some personal background info since my trip report was originally posted in 2009.
2012 Update – My wife and I just returned from 10 days @ Ylang Ylang Villa on top of Pocket Money Hill (just outside of Cruz Bay). It is safe to return to the Pocket Money Hill area now that noisy construction has ended on Sirenusa across the valley. Details and pics shown in my Blog (not “monetized” & nothing for sale) http://retireonstjohn.blogspot.com/
We did rent a car on STT for this trip and brought it over on the car ferry. Great deal from Avis @ $443 for 10 days. Don’t let the car ferry scare you. It ended up being very easy and was a great way to get back to the Airport on the last day. Great trip overall!
2011 Update – Solo camping trip in early January @ Cinnamon like 2009. FANTASTIC! Some pics in my Blog.
2010 Update – HUGE MISTAKE. Tried to recreate the “magic” of a low cost camping trip with my wife…NO MAGIC. If your spouse or partner is not a camper, this type of trip does not work…trust me on this guys/gals! After 3 nights @ Cinnamon we ended up staying with a friend in his downstairs unit in Cruz Bay that was not booked.
I just looked at page 4 of comments for this old post and had not seen the following from early 2011 until now. My additions shown in italics:
Ondine – “Bumping this up, maybe should be done annually, such a great trip report!” – Thank you!
Lovermont – “I think Scott is on island right now, or has just been there. Scott – are you there? Dying to read your report. You’re my value” hero.” – Sorry for the looong delay in responding. I had just returned from my 1/13 – 20/11 solo trip when you posted. Same great camping trip as 2009, except I did rent a car for a few days. Thx!
Final Update Note - $500 may be slightly low 3.5 years later in 2012/2013 dollars. Frequent Flyer tickets are no longer free or even $15. For our 2012 summer trip, my wife and I each spent $100 on our Frequent Flyer tickets when you include $25 each way for luggage. Still a great value, but not free. Camping costs @ Cinnamon have increased slightly to $32/night for a bare sight (up from $30/night in 2009). Caneel does not offer the Buffet in the low season, but most other food options were open. Caneel buffet re-opens after Hurricane season!
A more accurate 2013 title would be “St John on less than $600/wk”. Whatever you end up doing on STJ, HAVE A BLAST! Still one of the best places on Earth in my book.
Thx, Scott in BHM
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St John on less than $500/wk (no plasma donation or dumpster diving required) – ORIGINAL POST FROM 2009
Disclaimer! The story below is not for all and is not an anti Villa, Caneel, Westin or Gallows rant. We will return to more traditional STJ vacations in the future. If you love STJ, but are thinking about skipping a trip because things might be tight financially right now, the story below may be for you.
This all started as a friendly bet with my wife that went something like this back in mid 2008.
Husband: We need to book a 2009 trip to STJ
Wife: It's the worst economy since the great depression
Husband: Things don't look that bad to me, let's do a camping trip as a compromise
Wife: I'm not a camper and you will still spend to much just camping
Husband: I can do a solo camping trip for under $500 (using frequent flyers on USAir)
Wife: I'll bet you can't…….
GAME ON! I love my wife and we have had many friendly bets over the years. This one was going to be the most fun winning. We normally stay at Gallows Point http://www.gallowspointresort.com/ and spend about $4,000 per week for the two of us. I made a quick mental list of my favorite things to do on STJ and realized that most of them are free or would cost less than $30 per person. We usually don't rent a car for a full week because we like to hike the North Shore trails and find hitch hiking to be fun and easy.
In order to stay below $500 for a solo trip, I came up with the budget shown below.
Plan
$30/day x 7days = $210 for bare camping site @ Cinnamon Bay http://www.cinnamonbay.com/
$30/day x 7days = $210 for food
$10/day x 7days = $70 transportation & misc
$70/day x 7days = $490/wk TOTAL
To pull this plan off would require four main cost saving measures:
1) Frequent Flyer ticket - Easy, most airlines offer 25,000 miles just for signing up for a new card. Trips to STT require 30,000 miles if you do a little work and find mid week dates.
2) Sleeping in a tent - Fun for me, I do a lot of backpacking and motorcycle camping in the Smokies and along the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC. Tents and air mattresses have come a long way in the past 20 years. Part of why I am writing this up is to encourage people to "step out" and try something new. Check out ThermaRest's web site http://www.thermarest.com/ . I used a ProLite 4L mattress and a medium Compressible Pillow. No sleeping bag, just a light sheet. PM me if you want more details. I would be happy to help get you set up with the basic equipment.
3) Large meal for lunch, small meal for dinner - Doctor recommended for me, 25 year as a white collar slave for Mega Corp has given me the early stages of a stomach ulcer and GERD. I brought a box of LIFE cereal, qt bag of dried fruit and a qt bag of cashews. I planned for three lunches at Caneel. Caneel's cold buffet (11:30 to 2:00) is one of my favorite meals on the planet. At $23 + $4 tip this would work in my budget if I had cereal in the morning and fruit or nuts at night. More details on food if you want them. Don't let the Caneel name scare you away. They welcome day guests for meals or the bar. Just put on a clean collared Polo shirt and some nice shorts and sandals and you will look like all the other anesthelogists and CEO's that are staying there.
4) Hitch Hiking - This is always fun, made myself a "hobo sign" this time. In 4" block letters on one side I printed "CINNAMON" and on the other side I printed "CRUZ BAY". Worked like a charm. As mentioned to all 15 people who picked me up during my week, I want to formally say THANK YOU! First names only listed below:
Evan, Kurt, Sherry, Kiswit, Freddy, Bill & Becky, Jan*, Lina, Tony, Diana**, Jim, Noreen, Mark, Oriel, John & Sue
* friendly and knowledgeable Real Estate Agent @ Holiday Homes
** IMHO the best Real Estate Professional on St John (Owner of ReMax in Cruz Bay 340.775.0949)
watch for Diana's upcoming TV debut on House Hunters Intl (no air date yet):
http://stjohnsuntimes.com/house-hunters-virgin-islands
How did it turn out? Better than expected. My total spend was $444.60. This included unexciting things like $15 to USAir to schedule my free Frequent Flyer ticket, Taxis on STT to and from the airport and a 1/2 price $10 T-shirt from the store at Gallows Point. Great snorkeling and hiking. Always good people. Great views of turquoise blue water from so many lush green vantage points. Snorkeled from Cinnamon to Trunk for a Cheese Burger lunch one day. Four hours round trip!
If my wife would have joined me on a FF ticket, our per person cost would have been just over $350 because we would be able to split the Cinnamon camp site cost.
Was this as good as staying at Gallows or Caneel? No. Was it 85 to 90% as good? Probably. So much of what I / we do on STJ is in the water or away from where we stay. As long as I get a good night sleep, I'm ready for a full day of outside activity. Cinnamon Bay camp ground http://www.cinnamonbay.com/ (I used a bare site, bring your own tent) was fantastic for a base camp. Nice people, great beach, easy access to North Shore Rd. They will rent you a tent or a small cottage if you want…that's no way to win a bet.
Again, this story is not meant to try to get us all to revert to tent sleeping hippies from the 60's & 70's. I just wanted to share my unique STJ experience with those that might think STJ has become to pricy or that these crazy economic times should prevent us from finding a way to do the things we Love.
Peace (from a clean cut Mega Corp guy), Scott
What follows directly below is some personal background info since my trip report was originally posted in 2009.
2012 Update – My wife and I just returned from 10 days @ Ylang Ylang Villa on top of Pocket Money Hill (just outside of Cruz Bay). It is safe to return to the Pocket Money Hill area now that noisy construction has ended on Sirenusa across the valley. Details and pics shown in my Blog (not “monetized” & nothing for sale) http://retireonstjohn.blogspot.com/
We did rent a car on STT for this trip and brought it over on the car ferry. Great deal from Avis @ $443 for 10 days. Don’t let the car ferry scare you. It ended up being very easy and was a great way to get back to the Airport on the last day. Great trip overall!
2011 Update – Solo camping trip in early January @ Cinnamon like 2009. FANTASTIC! Some pics in my Blog.
2010 Update – HUGE MISTAKE. Tried to recreate the “magic” of a low cost camping trip with my wife…NO MAGIC. If your spouse or partner is not a camper, this type of trip does not work…trust me on this guys/gals! After 3 nights @ Cinnamon we ended up staying with a friend in his downstairs unit in Cruz Bay that was not booked.
I just looked at page 4 of comments for this old post and had not seen the following from early 2011 until now. My additions shown in italics:
Ondine – “Bumping this up, maybe should be done annually, such a great trip report!” – Thank you!
Lovermont – “I think Scott is on island right now, or has just been there. Scott – are you there? Dying to read your report. You’re my value” hero.” – Sorry for the looong delay in responding. I had just returned from my 1/13 – 20/11 solo trip when you posted. Same great camping trip as 2009, except I did rent a car for a few days. Thx!
Final Update Note - $500 may be slightly low 3.5 years later in 2012/2013 dollars. Frequent Flyer tickets are no longer free or even $15. For our 2012 summer trip, my wife and I each spent $100 on our Frequent Flyer tickets when you include $25 each way for luggage. Still a great value, but not free. Camping costs @ Cinnamon have increased slightly to $32/night for a bare sight (up from $30/night in 2009). Caneel does not offer the Buffet in the low season, but most other food options were open. Caneel buffet re-opens after Hurricane season!
A more accurate 2013 title would be “St John on less than $600/wk”. Whatever you end up doing on STJ, HAVE A BLAST! Still one of the best places on Earth in my book.
Thx, Scott in BHM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
St John on less than $500/wk (no plasma donation or dumpster diving required) – ORIGINAL POST FROM 2009
Disclaimer! The story below is not for all and is not an anti Villa, Caneel, Westin or Gallows rant. We will return to more traditional STJ vacations in the future. If you love STJ, but are thinking about skipping a trip because things might be tight financially right now, the story below may be for you.
This all started as a friendly bet with my wife that went something like this back in mid 2008.
Husband: We need to book a 2009 trip to STJ
Wife: It's the worst economy since the great depression
Husband: Things don't look that bad to me, let's do a camping trip as a compromise
Wife: I'm not a camper and you will still spend to much just camping
Husband: I can do a solo camping trip for under $500 (using frequent flyers on USAir)
Wife: I'll bet you can't…….
GAME ON! I love my wife and we have had many friendly bets over the years. This one was going to be the most fun winning. We normally stay at Gallows Point http://www.gallowspointresort.com/ and spend about $4,000 per week for the two of us. I made a quick mental list of my favorite things to do on STJ and realized that most of them are free or would cost less than $30 per person. We usually don't rent a car for a full week because we like to hike the North Shore trails and find hitch hiking to be fun and easy.
In order to stay below $500 for a solo trip, I came up with the budget shown below.
Plan
$30/day x 7days = $210 for bare camping site @ Cinnamon Bay http://www.cinnamonbay.com/
$30/day x 7days = $210 for food
$10/day x 7days = $70 transportation & misc
$70/day x 7days = $490/wk TOTAL
To pull this plan off would require four main cost saving measures:
1) Frequent Flyer ticket - Easy, most airlines offer 25,000 miles just for signing up for a new card. Trips to STT require 30,000 miles if you do a little work and find mid week dates.
2) Sleeping in a tent - Fun for me, I do a lot of backpacking and motorcycle camping in the Smokies and along the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC. Tents and air mattresses have come a long way in the past 20 years. Part of why I am writing this up is to encourage people to "step out" and try something new. Check out ThermaRest's web site http://www.thermarest.com/ . I used a ProLite 4L mattress and a medium Compressible Pillow. No sleeping bag, just a light sheet. PM me if you want more details. I would be happy to help get you set up with the basic equipment.
3) Large meal for lunch, small meal for dinner - Doctor recommended for me, 25 year as a white collar slave for Mega Corp has given me the early stages of a stomach ulcer and GERD. I brought a box of LIFE cereal, qt bag of dried fruit and a qt bag of cashews. I planned for three lunches at Caneel. Caneel's cold buffet (11:30 to 2:00) is one of my favorite meals on the planet. At $23 + $4 tip this would work in my budget if I had cereal in the morning and fruit or nuts at night. More details on food if you want them. Don't let the Caneel name scare you away. They welcome day guests for meals or the bar. Just put on a clean collared Polo shirt and some nice shorts and sandals and you will look like all the other anesthelogists and CEO's that are staying there.
4) Hitch Hiking - This is always fun, made myself a "hobo sign" this time. In 4" block letters on one side I printed "CINNAMON" and on the other side I printed "CRUZ BAY". Worked like a charm. As mentioned to all 15 people who picked me up during my week, I want to formally say THANK YOU! First names only listed below:
Evan, Kurt, Sherry, Kiswit, Freddy, Bill & Becky, Jan*, Lina, Tony, Diana**, Jim, Noreen, Mark, Oriel, John & Sue
* friendly and knowledgeable Real Estate Agent @ Holiday Homes
** IMHO the best Real Estate Professional on St John (Owner of ReMax in Cruz Bay 340.775.0949)
watch for Diana's upcoming TV debut on House Hunters Intl (no air date yet):
http://stjohnsuntimes.com/house-hunters-virgin-islands
How did it turn out? Better than expected. My total spend was $444.60. This included unexciting things like $15 to USAir to schedule my free Frequent Flyer ticket, Taxis on STT to and from the airport and a 1/2 price $10 T-shirt from the store at Gallows Point. Great snorkeling and hiking. Always good people. Great views of turquoise blue water from so many lush green vantage points. Snorkeled from Cinnamon to Trunk for a Cheese Burger lunch one day. Four hours round trip!
If my wife would have joined me on a FF ticket, our per person cost would have been just over $350 because we would be able to split the Cinnamon camp site cost.
Was this as good as staying at Gallows or Caneel? No. Was it 85 to 90% as good? Probably. So much of what I / we do on STJ is in the water or away from where we stay. As long as I get a good night sleep, I'm ready for a full day of outside activity. Cinnamon Bay camp ground http://www.cinnamonbay.com/ (I used a bare site, bring your own tent) was fantastic for a base camp. Nice people, great beach, easy access to North Shore Rd. They will rent you a tent or a small cottage if you want…that's no way to win a bet.
Again, this story is not meant to try to get us all to revert to tent sleeping hippies from the 60's & 70's. I just wanted to share my unique STJ experience with those that might think STJ has become to pricy or that these crazy economic times should prevent us from finding a way to do the things we Love.
Peace (from a clean cut Mega Corp guy), Scott
Re: St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 201
thanks for the update!!!!
Re: St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 201
Thanks for bringing the post back.
Very interesting.
Very interesting.
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EagleRayLover
- Posts: 1474
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:56 pm
- Location: St. John -WooHoo!!
Re: St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 201
Pretty,amazing since we hear about so many spending so much!! Great job Scott!!
Leslie, Kids Night In Babysitting
Re: St John on less than $600/wk – 2009 post updated for 201
Scott, I'd have probably taken you up on that bet.
Sounds like you had no issues. Maybe this could become a new series on HGTV?
Sounds like you had no issues. Maybe this could become a new series on HGTV?