We returned Friday from our Summer Beach trip. We went to St. Thomas, US VI to the Marriott Frenchmen’s Reef from Friday until Monday. On Monday, we took a short ferry to St. John’s island to the Westin and stayed until Friday.
All in all, the trip was fun, relaxing and hot.
We didn’t prefer the St. Thomas part of the trip that much. Luckily, I got upgraded to a nice suite. But that was probably the best part of the stay. We didn’t too much care for the up and down of the rocky terrain of the hotel. The hotel is magnificient and it sits on a huge cliff overlooking the ocean. However, it’s slightly impractical – especially with a stroller and 3 little children who just want to get to the beach or pool. Also, we noticed that the people – both the hotel employees and the locals – we mostly rude. I’ve heard that’s the “island personality” – but we got quite a different experience at St. John. St. John was very pretty, very private and people from all walks were pleasant and helpful.
St. Thomas also didn’t have a good kids program – although to their credit, the saturday of our stay was their first day doing a trial kids program and our kids enjoyed it – although they really just watched a movies and did crafts in doors. Contrast with St. John who had a very organized, very fun kids program called “Westin Kids Club”. At the Westin, the kids built and flew kits, went to the beach to make sand castle’s, spent time in the pool and of course, watched videos, played games and built crafts. My oldest son, Jared (6) was actually very mad at me one day when I picked him and his brother, Jack (4) up a little early while Mom put Jenna (2) down for nap so we have some alone time at the beach swimming. He was going to “miss his afternoon ice scream snack and watch a movies with his friends”.
The food at the Westin was much better as well. While the food on site was very good, even the pool bar’s chicken fingers, we enjoyed going into town (round trip taxi less than $20 compared to $50 at St Thomas) and eating a several very good local restaurants.
All in all, if you’re looking for a US carribean vacation for kids and family oriented, I’d recommend the St. John Westin.
Some random photo’s from our trip on Flickr. Please visit our album to see all of the trip photos, as well as others!
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