By now I know that a lot of you have given thought about packing up your things and moving to the island. But for one reason or another a full time leap just isn’t in the cards. Well today we have a great alternative that you may be interested in, as the Grande View Residences at Grande Bay are now available for fractional sale.
The Grande View Residences offer all of the advantages of second home ownership, yet are complimented with the amenities and personal services of a luxury resort. Owners have exclusive access to Grande Bay’s Jeep Club, Yacht Club, concierge services, indoor gym, pool and spa and more.
Pricing for a one-bedroom unit starts at $19,700 per week. Two bedroom units start at $25,900 per week. The units are truly remarkable. See for yourself…
For more information on the Grande View Residences at Grande Bay, please call 888-383-9019 or click here to visit its website.
So as we mentioned back in September, Deli Grotto had closed its doors and a new deli was planning on opening in its place. Well we finally got over to try it this week, and it was absolutely delicious!
The new spot is called North Shore Deli and the new owners have done an amazing job with the place and with the food. I ordered a greek flatbread with grilled chicken, feta, lettuce and tzatziki sauce, which was $10. I grabbed it to go and ate it over at Cinnamon Bay with some friends. It was very good.
North Shore Deli offers a great variety of breakfast and lunch options including sandwiches, salads, hot dips, grab and go food and more. All are reasonably priced too at about $10 or less.
Now I know a lot of you were concerned about the fabulous desserts of Deli Grotto going away forever. Well we’ve got great news for you – North Shore Deli has a ton of delicious desserts including the ever-popular coconut chocolate bar. Yum!
They even added some specialty drinks to the menu including Bucket List Bushwackers, pina coladas, daiquiris, milkshakes and more. All come in a nice little North Shore Deli to go cup too.
Another great thing about North Shore Deli – free wifi! It’s the little things in life. 🙂
Definitely add this to your list of places to eat on your next trip down, or if you’re lucky enough to be on island now, make sure to stop in and grab some great food today.
A few months ago we told you about the new restaurant that’ll soon be in the space formerly occupied by Joe’s Diner. Well, today we got some more details, and I have to say, I’m pretty excited about this one.
I had the pleasure of meeting Clint and Tyler, the two men behind the new restaurant, Wednesday morning. They were cool, very laid back and both know St. John pretty well. Tyler lived here years ago (and moved back about a month ago) and Clint has visited for the past decade, including a short stint on-island in 2008. They’re super excited about the new restaurant, which got me super excited, and I hope you all get super excited too. Here are the details…
It’s going to be called The Longboard and it’s going to have a very coastal feel with a surf bar vibe. Construction started last month and their new banner went up early Wednesday morning. Clint and Tyler described the food as being “coastal cantina”, which is best described as Caribbean meets SoCal. It’s going to be fresh, healthy and best of all affordable. They’re also planning a big focus on the bar program, offering affordable craft drinks into the menu, as well as a few exclusive house specialty offerings.
In terms of seating, they’ve completely gutted the space and plan to create a very large L-shaped bar top that will have seating for 19 and additional bar area seats. They’re also going to have arm rail seating, which will be great for people watching, and tables along the street as well. It will be completely open air and inviting. We saw some of the drawings and it truly looks neat. Here’s one that’ll give you a feel for the layout…
The Longboard is expected to open in mid-January. We’ll keep you posted on all the latest details.
Team River Runner at the Trunk Bay overlook on November 5, 2014.
One of the things I love about St. John is the fact that you never know who you’re going to run into. Yesterday I was cruising along North Shore Road when I saw a large group of people taking pictures at the Cruz Bay overlook. I slowed down the Jeep and realized it was Team River Runner! I immediately pulled over and chatted them all up for a bit.
As you may recall, News of St. John, along with a ton of other local businesses, participated in the Chaotic Kayak race last July. The event (which was super fun by the way despite the fact that we lost in the first round) raised money for Team River Runner, which is an organization that brings wounded veterans down to St. John for a week of rest and relaxation. The event raised more than $38,000 – $2,000 of which was from all of you. So a big thank you again for that!
The St. Johnopoly raffle we held last month also raised money for Team River Runner, and a portion of the proceeds from St. Johnopoly goes to the group as well. So in total so far this year, all of you have helped us support this amazing organization to the tune of about $4,000 this year. Amazing!!
So all of this money helped get these men and women down here this week, and honestly I cannot thank you all enough for helping the cause. And based on the smiles I saw yesterday, I’m pretty sure the wounded vets are thankful as well. 🙂
Who wants to live in work in paradise? Sounds amazing, right? Well today we’d like to tell you about a great opportunity that will allow you to have the best of both worlds – a business that’s booming plus a great place to live. It’s called Garden By the Sea. Check it out…
Garden By the Sea is an adorable bed and breakfast located in a fun little neighborhood behind Frank Bay. It’s located right on Little Salt Pond and is only one block from the water. It has three bedrooms, two of which have outdoor bathrooms. The third bedroom has a semi private balcony with amazing views of the salt pond and out to the water.
Garden By the Sea was established 14 years ago and has a great rental history with a large number of repeat guests. It has plenty of room for expansion and is zoned R-4.
One of the best parts about Garden By the Sea, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s green. It has 70 solar panels which keeps electricity costs to a minimum.
In addition to the B&B, Garden By the Sea also has an in-house art studio where the owner makes fun little creations from glass bottles including wind chimes, bracelets, sea glass pictures and more. The owners have a business license for the art studio, so the right person could easily increase revenue by expanding the art sales.
Garden By the Sea is listed at $1.495 million. For more information on Garden By the Sea, please contact Hilarie Oliver at American Paradise Real Estate at 1-888-757-7325 or visit their website at www.americanparadise.com
Today, it’s all about sunsets. We saw the picture above on Facebook, and it got us thinking about all of the beautiful sunsets that happen here on St. John. It also got us thinking about the green flash.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the green flash, it’s something very cool that can happen here over the winter months. Just as the sun sets over the horizon, you can see a quick flash of green as the upper rim of the sun falls into the water. (It obviously doesn’t fall into the water, but you all know what I mean 🙂 ) It only lasts for about a second or two, so you really have to be lucky to actually see it. I’ve only seen it twice, but it was very cool. (I saw it in late December both times from Gifft Hill.)
If anyone has ever been lucky enough to photograph the green flash on St. John, we’d love to see your pics. And if you have any fabulous sunset pics, we’d love to see those too. Feel free to send them to us at [email protected]
In the meantime, here are a few more good ones…
Image taken from Coconuts VillaImage taken at Caneel Bay by Brian Siegel.Image taken by Aletia M. Thompson of Virginia
Piper and Justin recently became the new owners of Paris Car Rental.
After graduating high school in southwest Missouri, Justin Bartosh decided to forgo his first semester of college, instead opting to visit a place he fell in love with over the internet but had never visited – St. John. One semester became two, which soon became three, and seven years later, Justin still calls St. John home. But it’s something else cool that happened to Justin late last month that we’d like to tell you about – he and his good friend purchased a pretty popular business on island – one we didn’t even know was for sale.
Justin and Erin Piper, known simply as Piper around the island, are the new owners of Paris Car Rental. It took six long months of running around to seal the deal, Justin said – they had to hand deliver papers in St. John, involve the commissioner on St. Thomas … the list goes on and on – but it was all worth it when they signed the paperwork in Cruz Bay just over a week ago.
“We were pretty excited,” Justin said.
Paris Car Rental will soon be renamed Mr. Piper’s Jeeps, and Justin and Piper plan to replace all of Paris’s current vehicles with Jeep Wranglers. They plan to keep a handful of seven-passenger vehicles on hand, as well, but the business will primarily rent two- and four-door Jeep Wranglers. Half of the fleet will be replaced by December 1st and the second half will be replaced by January 1st. They also plan to stick with Paris’s seasonal discount which is a big draw for tourists in low season.
The duo plans to sell their current vehicles which range from Wranglers to Durangos to safari trucks. They’d like to sell all locally if possible. The cars are from 2008 and newer, so if you’re looking for a new vehicle, this may be the way to go.
They’re also looking to make the vehicle pickup a bit less hectic and easier for the customer. They plan to offer shuttle serve from the ferry dock to their office where the villa greeter can also meet guests. They also plan to offer villa drop off service for an additional fee which will be determined based on the villa’s location. Arriving on the midnight ferry? No problem. Justin and Piper will meet you at any hour.
“It is our mission to really go above and beyond for our customers and villa companies on island,” Justin said. “We will entertain any request and do our best to accommodate everyone. Piper and myself of all people (the pair worked together in the villa rental business for the past four years) understand the difficulty and the hard work villa companies go through to simply get guests from the ferry to the villa. If we can help make that easier, that is our goal. Another beautiful things is, Piper and Myself are workaholics, so with that being said, we don’t care if guests are coming on the 7 a.m. ferry or the midnight ferry. We will be there to make sure they get their car when they arrive. Villa companies don’t get the option to close their doors when they have guests coming in, so why should we? We are working for them!”
So you want to live in the Caribbean, right? Ever think about how or if you can get health insurance coverage? One of the biggest issues about moving to the islands from the States – beside the high cost of living – seems to be the lack of quality and affordable health insurance. Well today we’d like to tell you about a new option that’s available starting today.
The Caribbean Expatriate Medical Association is a group of Caribbean and Latin American expatriates living abroad who demand low cost Global Medical Insurance & Air Ambulance service. It offers a rate reduction of 25 percent for all members. It believes in the “power of the people” who make up its “pool” of members. There is no charge to join the group.
CEMA offers global renewable Medical Insurance, Air Ambulance, Travel Insurance, Long Term Disability, Life Insurance and Group Coverage for three or more employees. Open enrollment begins today, November 1, and continues through Jan. 31, 2015. The CEMG has been in operation since January 2013. Here are the rates:
Men & Women – Major Medical & Air Ambulance (hospitalization, cancer, broken bones, diseases, etc.)
Age 41-45: $578. 25 annuallly
Age 46-50: $600.75 annually
Age 51-55: $643.00 annually
Age 56-60: $834.75 annually
Age 61-65: $1,085.25 annually
Age 66-70: $1,612 annually
Age 71-75: $3,255 annually
*Annual medical coverage includes 30 days of accident and emergency in the States with a 30% coinsurance.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Caribbean Expatriate Medical Association or for information on plan design, rates, etc., please call (504) 264-3250 or visit its Facebook group page by clicking here.
Happy Friday everyone and happy Halloween! I’m not sure about all of you, but it’s been a long week here at News of St. John. Today we are taking a bit of a break to relax, and we thought you might need one too. So please sit back and enjoy this little throwback video of a nice, relaxing cruise from the East End to Maho Bay. You may have seen it before, but it’s with watching again. And please, turn on your sound. It makes it that much better.
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