Pages

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Caneel Bay: My Happy Place (Part 1)

As the boat pulled up to Caneel Bay, I knew we were going to like the place, but didn't realize how much we were going to love it!  I had read that the rooms were not luxurious and the lure is the natural beauty of the 170 acres and 7 beaches.  You either "get it" or don't we and we definitely did! 

The trip to Caneel Bay started by flying to St. Thomas.  Once we were in baggage claim the Caneel experience began.  We checked in at the air conditioned Caneel lounge and had a cold drink and freshly baked cookies.  We handed over our luggage and didn't have to touch it again until we were in our room to unpack.  A van took us to the dock and then we boarded Caneel's boat to take us to the island of St. John.  St. John does not have an airport so the only way to arrive is by boat.  As soon as we boarded the boat we were offered some punch and asked if we wanted it with or without rum.  Silly question.  After we and the other guests received our punch we all had the same surprised look on our faces after just one sip....not fooling around here with the punch!  After about 20 or 30 minutes Chris asked me when I thought we'd be there.  I told him to turn around and look...there's our room.


As the boat was pulling up to the dock, I knew everything was going to be good just based on the feel of the place.  Our vacation the year before to Aruba didn't go so well so I was happy that this place had good feel.  My last worry was about the rooms.  I knew from reading reviews and seeing pictures that the rooms were not luxurious, and didn't have a TV or even a phone.  Our room was not ready when we arrived so we had lunch and drinks (on the house since our room wasn't ready) and then were taken in a golf cart to our room.  The room was small and basic, but the bed and linens were as nice as any high end hotel...and the view was amazing!  All my fears were gone and knew this was going to be a great vacation!

From the balcony we could see Honeymoon and Salomon beaches


Caneel and Little Caneel beaches


And St. Thomas


Once we got settled and had some champagne on the deck, we headed out to Paradise beach which is perfect for sunset.



All this was only the first day...

No comments:

Post a Comment