St. John on our own with rental car

[Henn1313]

We have researved a mini van for our party of 6 at St. Thomas. We would like to take it to St. John. The car rental person told us this is not recommended because it takes to long to get there and back. Has anyone actually done this? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Wonderwoman1982]

YES, we did it. It was NOT difficult or hard to find our way around, either. NOR did we find it hard to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Not scary, or dangerous. What WE did was rented a car at Avis in St. Thomas, made our way to Megan's Bay for a few hours, then took the Red Hook ferry to St. John and went to Trunk Bay. Take the RED HOOK ferry. It didn't take very long to get to it, and then the ferry ride was short. If you take a car ferry from the side of the island where the ship docks, the ferry ride is like 45 minutes. Ours was about 10-15. The fery we had was scary looking, sort of a rust bucket, but we didn't sink and we lived to tell about it!! Anyways, do your homeowork. Study up and become familiar with St. Thomas and use a little logic, and you will get around JUST FINE. Have fun..

 

[Gillian]

I don't know if this would be better, but you can also rent cars in st john. Is the car rental place in st thomas near the ship or near the ferry?

We rented a car in St John and had a great time exploring the island. But we were on a Windjammer cruise that took us directly to St John.

If you only plan to go to trunk bay, you can also take a bus/taxi thing there. They run frequently & are waiting at the entrace/exit to the park to take people back to town. A car rental is probably cheaper with 6 people, but it might be easier to just ferry over and get a ride. It's not far.

 

[TwinMom7]

We were just there - St. Thomas and St. John - a month ago. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me!!! Our resort looked right down over the cruise ship port. We could stand on our deck at night and see going back out to see....BEAUTIFUL!!!

You'll have a wonderful time!!!!!!!!

 

[Wonderwoman1982]

Well, I know that AVIS is at the Havensight dock mall- where the ship docks. Actually,it's directly accross the street from the "main" entrance. Not familiar with any other car rental companies though... I'm also not familiar with car rentals in St. John. I didn't notice any agencies, BUT I wasn't looking for one, either. When you have that many people, it is WAY cheaper to rent a car and take a ferry. The ferry was only $27 ROUND trip when we were there...and that was for all 7 of us.

 

[Henn1313]

Thanks All! We were successful at renting a mini van from Budget and I even found detailed directions from the peer to red hook on the cruise critic/ports info board! I also found car ferry schedules. I'm much more confidant now that we can do this on our own. As long as we catch a 2:00 ferry back, we'll make it in plenty of time. Could even get the 2:30 ferry and be back by 4:00