Customer Reviews

St. John Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drive

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used this book to help plan my week long stay on St. John a couple of years ago. What a week! It has some excellent driving tours of the island that will take you to out of the way bays for snorkeling where you may be the only people there! It leads you on hikes through the rain forest to places that few people venture with spectacular views and interesting historical sites. If you are planning a trip to St. John and want to see the real island, from the End of the Road Stand to the Salt Pond, this is definitely the book to take along.

Rob Sparks

My wife and I used this book a great deal on a recent one week vacation to St. John. The book was excellent and very accurate in detail of information. A very useful guide to hiking trails, back roads, with a very thorough and accurate review of beaches. If you know what you're looking for, this book provides an excellent reference. If you don't know, it provides an excellent resource for reading and planning. It helped make our trip more enjoyable. I highly recommend it.

This book was part of the library in the villa my wife and I rented on St. John for our honeymoon. It was indispensable - It had descriptions for all the beaches, including the hard to get to but worth the hike Waterlemon Cay.

I'm going back to St. John this year, and I'll be taking this book with me.

We used this book everyday in St. John to locate beaches, hikes, and places to visit. It is a good comprehensive overview but also includes details about each area as well as information on driving (on the left) and snorkeling. Our host home included several travel books on St. John's that were very helfpul and included other perspectives. I also recommend "Off the Beaten Path-St. John." I hope you'll love St. John's as much as I did. I'm ready to return!

This book is invaluable for visitors who appreciate thoughtful commentary on local history, customs, and gossip (ie: why the island's only stoplight hangs in the mayor's office). As others have noted, the author clearly describes how to reach beaches and hiking trails--and the relative merits of different sites. Without this book, I never would have found the beautiful unmarked trail that led to a completely deserted beach. If you go to St. John--and are not particularly interested in bumping into masses of tour groups--you will worship this book.

Written by a "local," this book has a plethora of information pertaining to trails, beaches and snorkeling sites, and miscellaneous attractions on Saint John, US Virgin Islands. Each site of interest is thoroughly described, with humorous comments and local stories inserted where appropriate. If you want a lot of detail about a vast quantity of snorkel spots, hiking trails, and what to see, this book is for you. You simply won't find this level of detail in more generalized travel guides.

An excellent feature of this book are the "driving tours" presented in the back of the guide. These tours provide helpful mileage and locational information which makes it easy to find sites that may not be so apparent to a non-islander. We used this feature frequently, and were impressed with how it was organized and cross-referenced to the more detailed location descriptions presented earlier in the book.

What you won't find in the book is a wealth of information about restaurants, bars and shopping spots. While some such sites (primarily the old island favorites) are pointed out, it's just not the focus of the guide. Neither does it get into detailed information about available excursions and specialty vendors such as watersports outfits.

We highly recommend the book for folks planning to do lots of outdoor activities, be it snorkeling, swimming, hiking, or visiting historic and cultural sites.

I returned from a July, 2007 trip to St. John thinking that this book - that I stumbled upon in our villa - was superior to the Fodors, Frommers, and Off the Beaten Track books I had hauled over to the island in my suitcase. I had seen it on Amazon but had been put off by its cover. Well, I was wrong. This updated, fun to read book was my main guide on the island and it proved very accurate and informative. Ms. Gaffin obviously knows her subject and happily shares her love of this beautiful island.

i bought several guide books before spending a week in St. John, and found that this had all the information i needed, and just the right level of detail. It was accurate and enhanced our family's vacation.

Had Purchased many different guides for our one week stay in St Johns.
Im glad we had this one!
For People staying in the island for more than one day and wanting to explore There is no better guide.
It was So usefull we used it every day we were there.
The Comments and the Directions were always SPot on!
We were all so Thankfull for the Amazing Local knowledge poured into this book.

I Recommed this book for anyone wanting to spend more than one day in St John and willing to take a chance a go away from the main turist beaches.
It was amazing.

Pam Gaffin does a great job of guiding visitors on St. John Island. We used her helpful information for hiking the trails, using the maps she included. We rented a jeep and used her tours to navigate the roads. We followed her advice and found some woderful snorkeling. It was a marvelous vacation, made better with the information she presented.
Donna Ecker
Rochester, NY