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Our Feature Destination for your caribbean vacation"CARIBBEAN VACATION"
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11/1/1998 "CARIBBEAN VACATION / A Family Affair on St. John. SIDEBAR: INFORMATION, PLEASE-(see end of text)" SO THIS IS what they mean by family bonding: three generations of far-flung Fagins trying to work together to coax a wild donkey back through the front gate of our vacation villa on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. My dad, my nephew and I usually do most of our communicating via long-distance telephone or e-mail, and we discovered those modes to be less than ideal preparation for the intricate choreography needed to tag-team a 200-pound animal chewing languidly on hibiscus and bougainvillea. The side-by-side caribbean vacation villas our extended family rented came complete with meticulous landscaping, and their owners had posted signs politely warning guests to keep the front gates latched shut. But amid the bustle of unloading seven adults, six children, a high chair, a portable crib, 11 snorkel sets, three tennis racquets, 10 suitcases and six boxes of food shipped from the mainland . . . well, we forgot about the latches, and a donkey wandered in. Caribbean Vacation My father, ever the patriarch, tried to take control of the situation by ordering the donkey to move, using the same tone of voice in which he cross-examines cheating husbands in divorce cases. Ten-year-old Max and I took an even more theatrical approach, whoopin' and hollerin' like a couple of cattle-driving cowboys in a bad western. The donkey looked up from its flower-grazing and took in our behavior with a mixture of boredom and irritation. But after a few more mouthfuls of blossoms, it turned around and trotted back out the front gate and into the palm forest beyond. Our weeklong Caribbean vacation and experiment in inter-generational bonding was a lot like the donkey incident: Everything always seemed to work out fine, in spite of our best efforts. Caribbean Vacation We traveled during the hurricane season, in early August, but enjoyed perfect weather. The kids spent way too much time in the sun but didn't burn much. We snorkeled too close to manta rays and fire coral, but no one (except I, mildly) got stung. My brother drank the tap water but didn't get sick. Although we were often on the verge of being lost, we always managed to stumble onto beach after beautiful beach. And even though I kept forgetting to drive on the left side of the road, I was able somehow to turn in my rented Jeep Cherokee without a scratch. We para-sailed, sea-canoed, scuba-dived (and even tried something called snuba) and returned home to California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Long Island without major injury. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
Caribbean Vacation Chalk it up to the magic of St. John. We even managed to live together for a week without driving each other crazy. There are some compromises in sharing your caribbean vacation with relatives. You end up having to abide by group decisions instead of following your own whim, which is why most people go on vacation in the first place. But the two-villa, four-car setup masterminded by my stepmother, a whiz at vacation planning, allowed for a lot more flexibility than I thought possible. My brother-in-law and I could slip out to play tennis while other members of our group napped, food-shopped, soaked in the hot tub, went scuba diving or explored the boutiques in Cruz Bay. It also helped that the villas my stepmother found through the Internet were spacious and very well-equipped. Their location was spectacular: on the quiet eastern end of St. John, on a beach that featured a small but gorgeous coral reef just 50 feet offshore. The price tag matched the amenities: Even in low season, the combined rent for the two villas was $6,000, including taxes. Caribbean Vacation We spent our mornings exploring St. John's wide, uncrowded beaches and clear-to-the-bottom turquoise coves, where each reef we found was more exquisite than the last. Only the tacky snorkel trail at Trunk Bay showed signs of wear, but we didn't mind because at my brother's suggestion most of us had paid $50 each for a snuba lesson (no diving certification is required). We hiked to a deserted corner of the bay and met our instructor, who explained that our air tanks would float on the surface in rubber rafts while we swam 20 feet below and breathed through long hoses. That sounded intimidating but turned out to be easy, even for my 8-year-old niece. We spent 45 minutes in close encounters with parrot fish, groupers, urchins and lobsters and caught a glimpse of a sea turtle or two. Afternoons were reserved for quiet time by the pool, shopping or errands. If the kids weren't swimming, they were watching videos or drawing pictures. We took turns cooking dinner for 13, and the children got a kick out of eating their spaghetti under the steady gaze of a lizard that perched for days outside the screened kitchen window. After dinner, we swam or played hearts or just sat on the patio and watched the sun throw dappled slivers of light across Coral Bay toward Tortola on the northeast horizon. And when the sun finally slipped below Bordeaux Mountain behind us, we watched the constellations form in corners of the sky unfamiliar to those of us who normally stargaze in more northerly latitudes. Caribbean vacation By the end of the week, we had all gotten so used to being around each other that it felt easy and natural to work together on the cooking, the cleaning, the baby-sitting. I even secretly hoped one of the kids would accidentally leave the front latch open again and another wild animal would wander in so we could demonstrate our newly found teamwork abilities and corral the beast. Sure enough, I spotted another donkey lurking in the palms outside the gate on our final afternoon, and I'm sure it would have slipped into our compound if given half a chance. Even a real ass knows a good time when it sees it.-- Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
INFORMATION, PLEASE Caribbean Vacation MOST OF St. John is part of the Virgin Islands National Park and off-limits to development, which is why there are relatively few vacation homes on its steep hills and pink beaches. And the ones that are there don't rent cheaply. During the high season, Dec. 15 to April 15, renting a well-equipped villa for a week can cost from $1,500 for two bedrooms to $11,000 or more for six bedrooms, plus a 13 percent local tax. Off-season rates can be as much as 40 percent lower, and if you're willing to travel for your caribbean vacation on short notice, you may be able to negotiate a better deal. Be prepared to pay a premium for a waterfront location, since few are available. A few big agencies dominate the rental business, marketing their homes with toll-free phone numbers and on the Internet. My stepmother found our side-by-side villas, called Rainbow Beach and Calypso-by-the-Sea, through the management company that has the largest rental inventory on St. John: Caribbean Villas & Resorts, reachable at 800-338-0987 or on the Internet at www.caribbeanvilla.com. Other major rental agencies on St. John include Villa Portfolio Management (800-858-7989) and Destination St. John (800-562-1901 or www.destin ationstjohn.com). Rentals from smaller agencies are listed on Internet sites such as www.stjohnusvi .com and www.st-john.com. Book tickets for your caribbean vacation here /cheap airfares home |