I've been to the carribean three times and the Westin St John was the best so far (comparing to St Martin and Aruba). There's really two factors here: the island itself, and the Westin resort.

St John has alot going for it. First it is beautiful, especially the northern shore and at the top of the mountain peaks. It is not overbuilt as a large portion is a US National Park. There is plenty to do: beaches, snorkeling in the many accessable corel reefs with plenty to see, hiking, sailing, exploring some ruins, and dining are the highlights. The island is also very friendly and at least seems safe. It is also a US territory, so language, phones, and currency are not problems - but, even though your travel agent may say otherwise, be sure to bring your passport and children's birth certificates for when you leave a US territory! St John can be somewhat tough to get to as it does not have an airport - you have to fly into St Thomas, then take a boat. If you have a decent travel agent, they should take care of all transfers for you; the boat we were provided brought us right to the Westin's dock.

I thought the Westin resort was quite nice, though expensive - trick here is to get a good travel agent to get you a good rate. I paid about $320/nite in January. Our room location was unbeatable: about 20 yards from the beach and maybe 30 yards from the pool and bar. Not all of the rooms are this convenient, and the resort is quite large, so be sure to find out where your room is when you reserve. The staff was for the most part very friendly and accomodating (though I did have one minor attitude incident), and we did find the front desk was a little out-to-lunch (requests for a small refrigerator - a common item, toilet paper, and more in-room coffee were not filled). I brought my family and we all enjoyed the resort; from what I could see there was not much going on for singles.

The resort has a very nice (but not fantastic) beach, nice pool, good food, great grounds, tennis, exercise facility; you could also sign up for water sports and side trips.

The resort is a short, dramatic taxi ride from town, which has an assortment of very good restaurants and some shopping. We rented a car for our stay so we could tour the northern side of the island as well as hike and snorkel. One could get around strictly using taxi's; if you want a rental car for a few days the front desk can set you up for a rate that was actually better than ours. Again, the local people were all very friendly and accomodating - we felt very comfortable on St John and will be back.


Recommended: Yes