Hi all - We are making plans for our first (hopefully of many!) trips to St. Barts and could use some of your expertise when it comes to planning our beach trips. We will be staying in a small loft in the harbor so no lovely pool or even host-supplied beach chairs and umbrellas for us this time around. As we will be there at a fairly busy time (Jan 16-23), we thought it might be prudent to make some reservations/plans for the beaches in advance (unfortunately enjoying a "towels on the sand wherever we may land" approach won't be ideal as my husband has back issues that will require a chair).
We've so far booked lunches at Shellona and Gyp Sea and are considering others (recommendations welcome!), but are discovering that booking transats could be problematic - Gyp Sea gives priority to hotel guests and we will need to call at 9:30am day of to see if anything is available for us; Shellona also gives priority to hotel guests and doesn't make them available to anyone else until 1pm day of (although they said we could stop by in the morning day of and ask but there's no guarantee). So, my questions:
1. Am I worrying too much about this (I have been known to do this!
) and chances are we won't have any problems renting chairs day of?
2. Any tricks of the trade you can recommend for securing chairs? (Tips, compliments and general goodwill to the right person/people, etc?)
3. Nikki Beach looks a little bit too "Mykonos in August" (this is the only reference I have but if you've been there you know what I mean) for our peace and quiet-loving ways, so I haven't enquired there or at Lil Rock yet - worth trying? Other suggestions?
4. Are there less "organized" folks offering chair and umbrella rentals that we will find once we are on the ground - if yes, any recs on who to try/your fave spots?
5. And finally, should all else fail, we'd be totally fine buying a couple of nice chairs and umbrellas we can keep in the back of the car and deploy whenever and wherever the spirit moves us. (I love this idea for the flexibility it gives us to go anywhere, anytime actually.) Will we find foldable lounge chairs (the chaises longues - not the little half chairs) and brellies available for purchase and, if yes, any places you'd recommend we do our shopping?
Thanks so much for any insight you can provide - this forum has been such a delight and so helpful as we prepare (especially the "Top 10" lists!) -
Dani
We've so far booked lunches at Shellona and Gyp Sea and are considering others (recommendations welcome!), but are discovering that booking transats could be problematic - Gyp Sea gives priority to hotel guests and we will need to call at 9:30am day of to see if anything is available for us; Shellona also gives priority to hotel guests and doesn't make them available to anyone else until 1pm day of (although they said we could stop by in the morning day of and ask but there's no guarantee). So, my questions:
1. Am I worrying too much about this (I have been known to do this!
) and chances are we won't have any problems renting chairs day of?2. Any tricks of the trade you can recommend for securing chairs? (Tips, compliments and general goodwill to the right person/people, etc?)
3. Nikki Beach looks a little bit too "Mykonos in August" (this is the only reference I have but if you've been there you know what I mean) for our peace and quiet-loving ways, so I haven't enquired there or at Lil Rock yet - worth trying? Other suggestions?
4. Are there less "organized" folks offering chair and umbrella rentals that we will find once we are on the ground - if yes, any recs on who to try/your fave spots?
5. And finally, should all else fail, we'd be totally fine buying a couple of nice chairs and umbrellas we can keep in the back of the car and deploy whenever and wherever the spirit moves us. (I love this idea for the flexibility it gives us to go anywhere, anytime actually.) Will we find foldable lounge chairs (the chaises longues - not the little half chairs) and brellies available for purchase and, if yes, any places you'd recommend we do our shopping?
Thanks so much for any insight you can provide - this forum has been such a delight and so helpful as we prepare (especially the "Top 10" lists!) -
Dani
