Trunk Bay - St. John

Do NOT take an organized excursion there.

Not only are they more money, but too rushed. They try to cram in 2
excursions per day.

And they used the same taxis and ferries anyway.

Take a taxi from the ship to Red Hook. Ferries leave on the hour, so plan
on getting a taxi 30-35 minutes before the ferry you want to catch. If you
want the 10:00 ferry, get a cab about 9:25. Give yourself enough time...
they may make you wait to fill a taxi. You may also hit traffic. If you
somehow time it wrong and miss the ferry (which we've done - no big deal),
there are AT&T phones at Red Hook so you can make all you calls back home
for cheap. The ferry ride is about 17 minutes or so, and the taxi from Cruz
Bay to Trunk Bay is about 5-7 minutes. Ask the driver to stop at the Scenic
Overlook for pictures.

Ferries on the way back also leave on the hour... so plan accordingly. Plan
to get a taxi by quarter of.

Leave enough time to buy tickets each way for the ferry.

E-mail me if you'd like some photos of Trunk Bay.

--tom


"Karen Henelde" <khenelde@> wrote in message
news:fs6dnXzJFI9_aYvdRVn-uA@...
> I'm sitting here looking out the window on the frozen Maryland landscape
and
> am daydreaming about our upcoming cruise on the Jewel OTS in November. We
> pretty much have nailed what we want to do in each port, and when we are
in
> St. Thomas, we'd like to ferry over to Trunk Bay in St. John. Is this
> something we can easily do independently, or should be book the excursion
> with RCI? I'd appreciate some input from people on this ng who have done
> this (Tom & Linda?). As a rule, we typically don't do the organized
> excursions, but we will if this is the best way to get to Trunk Bay.
Thanks
> for any input.
>
> Karen
> Owings Mills, MD
>
>

Do it yourself. We did it with our 2 sons and everything went very
well. Spent the whole day over there. There is a good snuba thing you
can do. The instructor is great and the experience good. If you
don't want to do anything, you get off the ferry, plenty of little
shops right there or lots of Taxi's/lifts to take you to Trunk Bay to
just veg out. Just plan your time - sometimes ship time there
different from island time- depending on who you are on- according to
ferry time and travel time from the pier. Most beautiful place second
to Virgin Gorda - and I certainly haven't seen it all, but a little
place of heaven. Envious you are doing the Jewel.

C
__________________________________________________
On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:31:47 -0500, "Karen Henelde"
<khenelde@> wrote:

>I'm sitting here looking out the window on the frozen Maryland landscape and
>am daydreaming about our upcoming cruise on the Jewel OTS in November. We
>pretty much have nailed what we want to do in each port, and when we are in
>St. Thomas, we'd like to ferry over to Trunk Bay in St. John. Is this
>something we can easily do independently, or should be book the excursion
>with RCI? I'd appreciate some input from people on this ng who have done
>this (Tom & Linda?). As a rule, we typically don't do the organized
>excursions, but we will if this is the best way to get to Trunk Bay. Thanks
>for any input.
>
>Karen
>Owings Mills, MD
>

Christina wrote:
> Do it yourself. We did it with our 2 sons and everything went very
> well. Spent the whole day over there. There is a good snuba thing you
> can do. The instructor is great and the experience good. If you
> don't want to do anything, you get off the ferry, plenty of little
> shops right there or lots of Taxi's/lifts to take you to Trunk Bay to
> just veg out. Just plan your time - sometimes ship time there
> different from island time- depending on who you are on- according to
> ferry time and travel time from the pier. Most beautiful place second
> to Virgin Gorda - and I certainly haven't seen it all, but a little
> place of heaven. Envious you are doing the Jewel.
>
> C
> __________________________________________________
> On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:31:47 -0500, "Karen Henelde"
> <khenelde@> wrote:
>
>
>>I'm sitting here looking out the window on the frozen Maryland landscape and
>>am daydreaming about our upcoming cruise on the Jewel OTS in November. We
>>pretty much have nailed what we want to do in each port, and when we are in
>>St. Thomas, we'd like to ferry over to Trunk Bay in St. John. Is this
>>something we can easily do independently, or should be book the excursion
>>with RCI? I'd appreciate some input from people on this ng who have done
>>this (Tom & Linda?). As a rule, we typically don't do the organized
>>excursions, but we will if this is the best way to get to Trunk Bay. Thanks
>>for any input.
>>
>>Karen
>>Owings Mills, MD
>>
>
>
Do it yourelf as early as possible. We had the whole beach to ourselves
for an hour before the first cruise ship group arrived. We headed off
the ship as soon as we could and got a cab right at the pier.

Mike

"Helen Kolln" <hello@stupid.com> wrote in message
news:zLORb.199$GO6.146@newsread3.news.atl.earthlin k.net...
> We did it on our own. We picked up a taxi at the pier in St Thomas and
took
> it to the Red Hook Ferry. Then we ferried over to St John, rented a jeep
> and toured the island on our own. There were alot of taxis also waiting
at
> the pier in St John where the ferry docks. You can always pick one of
those
> up to take you to Trunk Bay. Trunk Bay also has taxis waiting when you
> leave to take you back to the Red Hook Ferry.
> I suggest you do it on your own but remember the ferry only goes each hour
> so plan the timing right as to be back to your ship when they advise.

Many people suggest taking at least 1 ferry earlier... in case of any
problems.

--Tom

In article <fs6dnXzJFI9_aYvdRVn-uA@>,
"Karen Henelde" <khenelde@> wrote:

> I'm sitting here looking out the window on the frozen Maryland landscape and
> am daydreaming about our upcoming cruise on the Jewel OTS in November. We
> pretty much have nailed what we want to do in each port, and when we are in
> St. Thomas, we'd like to ferry over to Trunk Bay in St. John. Is this
> something we can easily do independently, or should be book the excursion
> with RCI? I'd appreciate some input from people on this ng who have done
> this (Tom & Linda?). As a rule, we typically don't do the organized
> excursions, but we will if this is the best way to get to Trunk Bay. Thanks
> for any input.
>
> Karen
> Owings Mills, MD
>
>



it is easy to do -- you can get a taxi [really a pickup truck with a
sort of canopy covered seating area in back for about 8 people] to Trunk
Bay and there are usually Taxis in the parking lot there to get people
back -- this is not something to bother with a tour for

Or you can go to Hawks Nest beach which is closer in -- I actually
thought the snorkeling was better there and there is more shade -- also
a big public beach with easy transportation

I'm with everyone else- Do it yourself!!
It's real easy. Cab ride is great, trunk bay is beautiful. We were there pretty
much by ourselves for about an hour and a half, until the cruise hordes started
coming.

Stayed about another hour, hopped a cab ,caught the ferry back, and still had
plenty of time for "she who must be obeyed" to go shopping.

St. Johns is such a paradise.

John
Office of Caribbean Jewels
The Zamgwar Institute