We like to camp so after landing in St. Thomas we headed over to St. John and
spent the week camping in our own tent in the National Park.
There is plenty of readily available transportation to Cruz Bay as
well as many of the beaches. Taxis are at the entrance to the
park early in the morning until late at night and some offer special
excursions for snorkeling or dinner.
We stayed at Cinnamon Bay while on St.
John. A bare
site was under $30.00 that year and no tax is charged on bare sites.
Five days cost us under $150. You can easily spend that much
for one night in a hotel or villa.
The bare sites are basically walk-in site but the
park provides aluminum carts for transporting your gear. On
our first trip we had two 50# duffle bags. The cart was a most
welcomed. Next trip we'll be scaling back a bit. After
all, this is the Caribbean, how much stuff do you really need?
Our basic gear consists
of a 4 season backpack tent, sleeping bag, camp stove (propane for
the Virgin Islands), freeze dried food, snorkel, mask and fins, and
clothing for the duration. One thing to keep in mind is that you
are probably not going to need more than a swimsuit and a few pair
of shorts and shirts. We packed a good shirt and a good pair of
pants to wear to dinner on a couple of nights and the rest was just
excess baggage.
