TravelTalkOnline

The long version… (The quick highlights, etc. at the bottom in case you’d like to skip to that part.)

Friday June 15th – Our party of 6 (our 2 friends who went with us last time and my sister and brother in law for their first visit) met in Tampa and headed out to Ft. Lauderdale to catch a Spirit Airline flight the next morning. Stayed at Comfort Suites – all went well.

Saturday June 16th – Got up and headed to the airport. Had some issues with Spirit Airlines double booking our seats. We found this out after we got on the plane and saw people in our seats. Had to wait at the back of the plane and watch everyone else board getting more and more nervous with each passengers arrival. We finally got seats but of course we were spread out all over the plane. We landed in STT on time, grabbed a cab to the ferry in CA and ended up on the 2:30 Native Son as the 3:00 Smiths did not have 6 seats available. The stop in Red Hook was quick and stress free. Customs took a while but not too terrible. Jerry was waiting for us outside – the guys went with Jerry and got us our cars while the gals got drinks at Jolly Roger and waited for them. We headed over to Rhymers straight away and checked in. Checked the rooms out – not bad overall for the price. Headed over to Bobby’s to stock up on some basics then went to dinner at Stanley’s. Good food and good service overall. Headed over to Quito’s to catch him live with the band. Recognized Manpot the moment we walked in the door and introduced our selves. Our group got some drinks and grabbed a table in the corner and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Quito and the band were awesome! True talents. My sister and brother in law had never heard Quito live and LOVED it.

Sunday June 17th – We slept in a bit then and ate breakfast at Rhymers. Good food, good value and good service. We then headed over to Brewer’s Bay and spent a good bit of the day there snorkeling. Visibility was pretty good though the sun was hiding a lot during our time there. We did get to see a stingray resting on the bottom. We played some Frisbee then ate lunch at Nicole’s and all enjoyed our meals. We waited out a quick rain shower there and then left to head over to check out Josiah’s Bay as we hadn’t been there before. The place is beautiful and we enjoyed watching some guys surf. We head back to CGB and get ready for dinner. We drove over to Bananakeet and had an excellent dinner. The sunset was a bit muted (maybe Sahara dust?) and the service for the last ½ of the meal was very slow but the food was fabulous. We turned in early to get plenty of rest for the big day ahead.

Monday June 18th – Got up early and caught the ferry to Anegada. Dean Whitley and his wife were waiting for us at the dock. We got our car and headed to Neptune’s for breakfast. Service was extremely slow (even for island time) but the food was good. We met some real nice folks from California and chatted about our dogs – they have an Australian Shepherd like 2/3’s of the couples in our group. My husband can’t believe Sarah and I have found someone to “talk dogs” with even in Anegada! After a quick stop at the Purple Turtle for some t-shirts we headed over to Loblolly, put in our order for lunch and then snorkeled the right side of Loblolly (when facing the water). We saw some great stuff but most impressive was a HUGE fish we came across sitting in a “hole” of sorts. Some folks thought it was a barracuda but if so it is a FAT one. It had teeth like a barracuda – I just wasn’t 100% sure due to his overall size. We kept a respectable distance then moved on. We chilled out on the beach a while and then headed up to the Big Bamboo for lunch. We ate lunch there last time and really enjoyed it. The barbeque chicken was not near as good as this time (it was overcooked) but everyone else enjoyed their meals (lobster, a fish dish and ribs) and the service was great. After lunch we headed over to Cow Wreck to spend the rest of the day. When we got there it was really crowded – compared to last time anyway. The rest of the gang went snorkeling while I hung out on shore taking some pictures and such. I saw a stingray from the shore and walked down the beach a bit. I got to see Walker’s cottage. I looked around for Walker too but never spotted him – guess I’ll have to meet him some other time. Towards the later afternoon the place started to clear out and it started to feel like the Cow Wreck we saw last year. Gary got an afternoon snack of pineapple pie and said it was great! After hanging out a while we headed back to the ferry and to Tortola. We made reservations for dinner at Myett’s and headed over there around 8pm. They sat us right up front by the band so we could hardly hear the person next to us talk and the service was extremely slow. We’d chalk it up to island time except that others sitting around us who came in after us got served well before us. It was a pretty un-enjoyable experience overall. The food was good enough but the music was too loud and not all that exciting and the slow service just totally did us in. I will say we ate at Myett’s last time and thoroughly enjoyed it so hopefully it was just an off night.

Tuesday June 19th – We slept in a little and then got up and headed to Sebastian’s for breakfast. The food was great and the service was good. The banana pancakes were a big hit again this year! After breakfast we headed up to Sage Mountain. We did a little shopping at the little gift shop up there. We all agreed the shop was pretty good for your basic souvenir type stuff and had pretty decent prices. We eventually headed up the trail and explored Sage Mountain. We had a great time – it was a good hike with lots of neat stuff to see. We took the central trail out and the north trail back. The central trail was very clear and quite easy. The north trail was obvious almost all of the time but certainly was a bit more challenging and less of a “traditional” trail. It was a lot of fun to hike though and we got some cool pictures. After the hike we headed down to Roadtown to check out some catamarans. We are planning our first charter trip next year but have never even been on a cat so we figured it would be a good idea to see if we really knew what we were getting into. Capt. Kris was kind enough to show us one of the cats they are using for the Seatrek program. Just as we suspected… we thought it looked awesome! It was nice to meet him and Capt. Monk. Everyone in our group agreed we wished our parents had sent us on something like Seatrek at those kids age! We meandered back to CGB and made plans to eat at Coco Plums. Dinner was excellent and the service was great too! Every one of us enjoyed our meal thoroughly. TTOL reviews are right in that the mushroom appetizer was outstanding (as were the conch fritters and onion rings). We all left VERY stuffed! Before we took off though we checked out David Thrasher’s art studio behind Coco Plums and spent some time talking with him. He has some great pieces and I had a hard time choosing which one to get. I finally decided on the “Bananas” print. We headed back to CGB and over to Quito’s to see him solo. We grabbed a table just off the dance floor. He was fantastic!!! We just can’t get enough of Quito. We had a wonderful time! We are definitely planning our charter around being in CGB one of the nights Quito is there.

Wednesday June 20th – We got up and ate breakfast at Rhymers again. Food and service were still good! We reserved a power boat with Glenn in CGB so we got ready and ventured over to get our boat. We bought some drinks and ice, loaded up in the boat, got some last minute instructions from Glenn and headed out. Our original plan was to get a captain but Glenn didn’t think we needed one since we were just going to Jost. This made me a bit nervous at first but my brother in law did great with the boat and our friend Gary did a great job ensuring we were well anchored. We had no issues at all. Our first stop was Sandy Cay for a brief visit and look around. Next stop was Sandy Spit and we thoroughly enjoyed the snorkeling there. The best we had seen this trip. My sister and brother in law got to see an eel! The rest of us saw great fish, great coral, etc. The sun was in and out all day but mostly in however the visibility was still pretty good – just not good for any underwater pictures. Eventually we made our way over to Foxy’s for lunch. Though we hadn’t had any bad burgers, Foxy’s were the best burgers for sure! Service was good too even with a seemingly large crowd. After lunch we boated over to White Bay to explore a while. What a gorgeous place! None of us had been to Jost before this trip and we definitely see why it is a hit with everyone. We are eager to see more of the island next time. We walked over to Ivan’s to check it out and then back over to the Soggy Dollar side to explore that side. Suggestion: Don’t go ashore without shoes if you are going to walk from one side to the other if you have tender feet at all! :o) We made it but it was slow going in some parts. We spent a while just hanging out at White Bay. It seems the ring toss game at Soggy Dollar is harder than the one at Cow Wreck – I’m thinking wind was a factor. We got some mango sherbet at a little place down the beach and it was pretty good. We swam back out to the boat and made the quick jaunt back to Cane Garden Bay. It was a bit bumpy due to some weather coming in but that just made it a bit more fun. Glenn checked Randy, Jack and Laurel back in while Sarah, Gary and I played Frisbee with a little black dog on the beach. Since Jack and I and Sarah and Gary compete in disc dog events with our dogs at home this was particularly cool for us! I had read about a little black dog on CGB that played disc – glad we got to run into him/her and play! :o) We all went and got cleaned up and headed to Roadtown for dinner at Cappriccio de Mare. Good food, service and value! On our way back to CGB we got lost in Roadtown due to construction and ended up going the wrong way down a turn lane but lived to tell about it! Once we got back to CGB we packed up, spent some time hanging out on some beach chairs watching the charter folks go back and forth and then headed to bed sad to see our last day in BVI come to a close.

Thursday June 21 – We got up, ate breakfast at Rhymers again, finished packing and headed to West End to catch the 10:00 ferry to STT. Turns out Smith’s was running late and Native Son early. Smith’s showed up around 10:20 and did leave before Native Son. We headed straight for Charlotte Amalie. We went through customs with no issue and grabbed a cab to the airport. Once at the airport we went through customs again (is that normal to go through twice?). This was our first time coming back to STT via the ferry so the whole “double customs” thing seemed a bit strange. Once through we headed to our gate for a long wait that turned longer due to us boarding 45 minutes late. But hey… at least we had seats this time! We got into FLL, grabbed our car and headed home. While we were sad to no longer be in BVI we were quite happy to see our dogs (and my sister her kids) and sleep in our own beds!

Quick summary:
Rhymers – good value overall. Pros: Clean, the staff was friendly, location, location, location. Cons: Not so great water pressure, no hot water (another traveler told us you had to shower early to get any hot water), some of our beds were somewhat uncomfortable, some rooms AC worked better than others. We’d stay there again for a quick budget minded trip.

Jerry’s Car Rental – excellent again.

Dean Whitley’s Car Rental – excellent again

Spirit Airlines – good overall value ($180 round trip) even with delays and mishaps. Would fly again for the right price.

Food:
Best breakfast – Sebastians (though Rhymers is good too)
Best lunch – Foxy’s with Nicole’s a close 2nd (Sarah and Gary did love their lobster at Big Bamboo too)
Best dinner – Coco Plum’s with Bananakeet in a close 2nd and Cappriccio de Mare in 3rd
Best entertainment – Quito with or without the band!
Best snorkeling – Sandy Spit though all of it was very good

Though it was a last minute, quick and busy trip it was great. My sister and brother in law now have a serious case of DIF and told me on the 2nd day there that they now knew why we obsessed over this place called BVI! We’ll all be back!!

Here's a link to a few pics.
Trip pics