Our August newsletter for your reading enjoyment:
St John -- before and now
St John's Cruz Bay in the mid 1950's
One of our favorite St John organizations, the St John Historical Society, has just relaunched their wonderful website with a treasure trove of historical pictures.
While there is no doubt Cruz Bay - and St John - have both changed significantly over the last few decades, much has also stayed the same. Thanks largely to the generosity of Laurance Rockefeller, in 1956 just a year after the above picture was taken, the Virgin Islands National Park was created ensuring that about 2/3's of St John is forever protected from development. In contrast, pictured below, thanks to our friend Steve Simonsen, is Cruz Bay today -- still a quaint and friendly town where baby chickens (and people) roam freely.
Cruz Bay is just as wonderful as days long ago
August St John news flashes & fun St John clips:
Condé Nast Traveler announced their 'Reader Choice' awards and St John was among their 'Top 25 Islands in the World' along with some other great islands like New England's Nantucket, Maldives and Seychelles both in the Indian Ocean, Canada's Prince Edward and Vancouver Islands, and several other magical places around this world. While these 'other' islands are wonderful destinations not many of them are as easy to get to and offer fabulous weather year round as our very own St John! Condé Nast's readers found: the "natural beauty" of St. John to be unparalleled. Most of the island is a preserved national park, allowing visitors to enjoy the "emerald green beaches" and exotic "native fauna and flora." Bounce around the numerous cays in a kayak, or snorkel at Trunk Bay, where you might end up swimming "with a hawksbill turtle."Here is their actual rating for St John: > Scenery: 94.1 > Friendliness: 85.5 > Atmosphere: 90.4 > Restaurants: 73.3 > Lodging: 82.0 > Activities: 83.6 > Beaches: 92.3
USA Today also published its '10 Best Bucket-List Beaches' and St John's Virgin Islands National Park made the list with the following write-up: From tropical forests to an underwater snorkeling trail, this 19-square-mile park offers visitors a chance to explore one of the Caribbean's best-preserved natural areas. The park covers more than half of the island, and includes the popular Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay beaches, which rent water sports gear, and have guest facilities. Elsewhere there's kayaking, sailing, hiking and camping.
As you can tell, we are hooked on all things St John. Let us again share some of our favorite St John forums, blogs, and news links so you, too, can bookmark and enjoy them: - Virgin Islands On Line/St John Forum - Trip Advisor/ St John Forum - St John Source - News of St John - On-St John - St John Tradewinds - See St John - Virgin Islands News (have to also include our Blog!)