There are exciting new options for visiting the islands of St Croix, Anegada and Virgin Gorda starting this month.
Read moreNew Options for Island Hopping Beginning this April
Best of St. John
A Moment at Maho Bay…
Hello all! It’s Jenn again. Hillary is still sailing back to St. John, so I’m overseeing the site again today. 🙂 So as I mentioned Monday, the island looks absolutely fantastic right now! The seas are so calm and clear, and the island is green and lush. But rather than you take my word for it, I wanted to show you so you all can see for yourselves.
Town and Country Magazine Features Love City!
Last month, a HUGE national publication featured St. John, and some of our favorite stops on island, in a lengthy travel guide style article with the tagline: Everything you need for an idyllic stay on the hidden gem of the USVI. The article shines a light on Love City as a “scene- stealingly gorgeous and unique destination” that you don’t have to travel halfway across the world to experience. But, we already knew that, right? 🙂
Win an “All-Inclusive” Trip to St. John!
This is NO April Fool’s joke! The Island Green Living Association is launching a raffle in celebration of Earth Month and in support of their mission to “Preserve St. John!” The winner of this particular raffle will take home a prize valued at over $10,000 that includes accommodations, boating adventures, car rental, airline tickets, dining vouchers and other activities that will ensure their next trip to St. John has a five star stamp on it!
Maho Ranks Among Best Beaches in the World!
Good Morning! Trip Advisor recently ranked their 2021 top 25 beaches in the World and in the Caribbean and I think you’ll notice some familiar views on both of those lists!
Maho Makes the List
Maho Bay recently made the TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice List for top 25 beaches worldwide! Landing at number 18 amidst some pretty incredible places in Greece, Aruba, Italy and Turks & Caicos (to name a few), Maho is putting St. John on the map thanks to reviews from travelers like you!
And the Best Bar According to All of You Is…
Congrats Nikki and crew! You all took the top spot!
Congrats to Dan over at Castaway’s for taking second place!
And you know what’s super cool about all three of these bars… All of them are on our St. Johnopoly board! It’s not too late to get yours. Visit www.StJohnopoly.com/order to get yours. All orders placed today, Thursday, September 25 will ship within 24 hours.
Good News From the East End!
So lately we’ve had a lot of negative news about the East End – beaches being blocked, barbed wire being put up, trespassing signs, etc. Well we’re happy today to tell you about some good news coming out of the East End.
One group of property owners along Hansen Bay beach are opening up their land for public use. Most notably, they’ve invited Captain Peter of Angels Rest to anchor offshore. (Not sure what Angels Rest is? Click here to read about our Easter jaunt on the floating bar.) This stretch of beach along Hansen Bay will now be Angels Rest’s primary destination. Here’s what Captain Peter said about it on his Facebook page:
“(The owners of that stretch of beach) are so nice to me and are planning to make a fun beach to visit,” Captain Peter wrote. “They will be offering a lot of beach toys, such as paddleboards, kayaks, tri sailboats … There will also be a snack shop, cabanas and lots of free parking. And of course, Angels Rest bar (will be) a little closer to the beach.”
We reached out to the property owners Tuesday, and they are super excited to open their beach to the community.
“We want to enhance the community idea, to welcome businesses to a beautiful place,” one of the property owners said Tuesday. (She asked to keep her name out of today’s story, and we happily obliged.)” That is very difficult to do here on St. John, especially with the North Shore being mostly National Park. We’re opening up the shoreline as it should be opened, to those people who want to participate in that beach. We want to help the community. We are very community oriented.”
While they could not confirm Captain Peter’s statement about a possible snack shack, they did say they are welcoming Angels Rest with open arms. The owners are working on installing signs to let people know that Angels Rest is in the area and also to direct them where to park (across the street from the beach).
They did stress, however, that they do not want the beach to get overrun. They simply want people to come out, experience the beach and enjoy themselves while being respectful of the neighbors of course. They’ve also asked that all visitors pick up after themselves.
I’m not sure about you all, but I think this is amazing news! Kudos to these ladies!!
Something “Amazing” Just Happened…
Anyone see an abnormally high number of seaplanes flying near Lovango and Congo cays yesterday? Perhaps you saw a helicopter flying back and forth in the area? Want to know why???
CBS chose our happy little slice of heaven as a location in its latest season of The Amazing Race! How cool is that??!!
We got the call yesterday morning from Captain John Brandi of Palm Tree Charters. He mentioned how someone inquired a while back about booking a charter for yesterday. Seeing how Captain John typically takes weekends off, Island Sue [Captain John’s better half :)] turned down the request. Captain John did do a bit of snooping, however, and soon learned what was up.
It turns out that another boat captain friend of ours was tapped to help out. (Now we’re not sure if any confidentiality releases were signed, so we’re keeping his name out of today’s post.) What we do know is that this second captain was out near Carval Rock for a good part of the day. It seems that they did some filming in a variety of places around St. Thomas and St. John.
Check out this mobile movie of the seaplane coming in courtesy of Captain John Brandi:
And here is a helicopter moving in, again courtesy of Captain John Brandi:
Once we heard that CBS was using helicopters, we knew Caribbean Buzz had to be involved. Here’s their super official statement (my guess is they signed something):
“We provided aerial support for filming of a CBS reality TV show. It included (Carval) rock, Hans Lollick, Magen’s Bay and downtown at Fort Christian.”
So cool!
Laurie and Craig Crandall just happened to be passing through St. Thomas yesterday afternoon when they caught a glimpse of filming.
“We just came home from a week in Alaska and were coming to the waterfront. And there were all of these filming crews and teams,” Laurie said. “We asked what was happening and we were told it was The Amazing Race. The seaplane was at the waterfront, so I think it was whoever arrived first got on the plane … There were probably about six teams. I wish I was able to get out and talk to them because it looked really cool.”
Angel’s Rest: Easter with the Angels
Hi everyone, happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday for those of you who celebrate. I had one of the best holidays ever, and I wanted to tell you all about it.
So a friend and I were taking a nice cruise out east yesterday when we happened upon Angel’s Rest in Haulover Bay. For years, I’ve been trying to catch up with Captain Peter and the Angel’s Rest, but our paths never officially crossed until yesterday. So naturally the second I saw him, all of our other Easter plans got put on the back burner. We parked the Jeep, grabbed some cash and hopped in the water.
What Is Angel’s Rest?
For those of you unfamiliar with Angel’s Rest, it’s a very cool floating bar. But what makes it even cooler is Captain Peter himself. Captain Peter built Angel’s Rest a few years back and it’s the only boat on St. John that has a liquor license. It’s a comfy little spot with a bar with seating for about seven or so people , a glass table with chairs for those looking to relax while watching the critters swim by through the circle cut out in the floor below, two beds in the event that you need a little catnap and a very comfortable rooftop sun deck for those looking to chill or work on their tans.
You need to see this for yourself. Check it out this little video we took:
Angels Rest goes out a few times a week (when Peter feels like it) and it can be found either at Haluover or Vie’s. If you’re on island and looking to find him, give him a ring. You can see his number on his “business cards” below:
And an added bonus, the head at Angel’s Rest has probably the best restroom view on island.
