More about Secret Harbour Beach Resort
St. Thomas' Best Resort
by Courtney5882 about Secret Harbour Beach Resort
Our hotel was fabulous. It is on the small side, but gives you the feeling of seclusion and relaxation. Make sure you stay in one of the beach front suites. We had a master bedroom, bath, living room with 2 sleeper sofas, fully stocked kitchen, dinning room, balcony with table and lounge chairs. The hotel has a pool on the hill overlooking the beach front suites and Nazareth Bay. Behind the pool on the hill is the oceanview suites. The beach is beautiful and has some of the best snorkeling right off the beach. There is a swim dock, scuba store, shopping boutique, bar, restaurant, and massage therapist. Everyone who works at the hotel is incredibly nice and they even have a manager's party every Tuesday, an oppurtunity not to be missed.
PERFECT FOR THE FIRST NIGHT
by sabsi about Secret Harbour Beach Resort
We had booked one night at Secret Harbour Beach Resort because we knew that it might be tricky to get from the airport in Charlotte Amalie to the ferry port in time to reach the last ferry to our destination, the BVI. We chose it because of its good reviews on tripadvisor.com and because of its location near the ferry port of Red Hook. A wise decision! Our plane was late, the drive to the hotel took a long time (over an hour!) and it would have been a similar drive to Red Hook.
So we came to the hotel, totally exhausted from the humid welcome to St. Thomas and enjoyed the airconditioned room and the huge terrace most. All I wanted was to jump into the pool which was only one staircase away from our room. As soon as we were ready a bad thunderstorm started and introduced us to the Caribbean. We sat on the terrace, it was getting more humid and all I could think of was to dive into the water. Which I did as soon as the lightning moved away. It was still raining and I enjoyed this a lot. The sounds of all the animals around us and the rain on the water was fantastic!
Later we checked out the resort's restaurant which was ok - ABSOLUTELY - and collapsed into the comfy bed. The next morning at around 7 the sun was out. I went straight into the pool again and enjoyed a relaxing hour in the pool on my own.
Great stay. Would ABSOLUTELY stay here again if I had to go to St. Thomas again ;) We paid 195$ for our Oceanview Suite. As this is rather cheap for Virgin Islands prices I think it was a fair deal. Our room was huge, it had a fully equipped kitchen, a not so well working bathroom, a wardrobe, telly and a huge terrace with deck chairs and a table with 4 fancy bar stools. Everything apart from the bathroom was clean and comfortable. The bed was fantastic. Air conditioning was very cold and loud but necessary to keep the heat and the mosquitoes away.
The pool was only one staircase away. It was empty when we were there and I enjoyed it very much. We only saw the beach in the darkness. It looked smallish but nice.
Staff was very friendly. A bit hard to understand the drivers though ;)
Wonderful Cuisine
by Courtney5882 about The Blue Moon Cafe
This is the restaurant located at the Secret Harbour Beach Resort. It combines outdoor dinning with wonderful food. Jerk Mahi Mahi was sooo good. Other favorites were also the surf and turf.
Glad We Did Not Listen. Secret Harbour is the Best!
by A TripAdvisor Member
We just returned from a trip to Secret Harbour and had the most wonderful time of our life. The trip was to celebrate my husband's birthday which meant alot to both of us and we wanted a special place to celebrate it. Let me tell you, we had the most splendid time. If we were to judge from the negative comments about the property, which by the way are in the minority, we would have lost out on a great experience.The condos are beautifully painted (they were repainted only 3 months ago) in the tropical colors of apricot, purple and rosetta.
They have the best snorkelling beach on the island with all kinds of fish you can think of. The condos are extremely large and well kept.
The maids do a great job! I am very picky when it comes to this. The resort was even exempted from its annual inspection by AAA (the organization that rates resorts) for providing consistently good houskeeping and maintenace services.The staff is extremely friendly and Ernest, the manager, and another staff member perform at the Tuesday night manager's party to the sound of steel drums. We toured the entire island and looked at other resorts as well, but Secret Harbour is the best if you are looking for tranquility, great snorkeling, friendly people and large fully furnished suites.Secret Harbour is located on the eastern end of the island and is only a minute away from Red Hook ferry dock where the ferry takes off to the island of St. John every hour on the hour. At RedHook there are plenty of restaurants, banks, and a supermarket. We ate at a different restaurant every night while we were there. Our favourte was The Frigate. On our second day after arriving, we went to Marina market to stock up on drinks, fruits, etc and spent most of the day relaxing on the beach either in a hammock or reading a book under a palm tree.We will recommend Secret Harbour to all our friends and he have now made it our special place away from home. We left rejuvinated! Don't be fooled. We glad we did not listened!Happy Guests.
ABSOLUTELY!
by sabsi about Blue Moon Cafe
Hunger and thirst forced us to leave our comfortable room at Secret Harbour Beach Resort even though we really only wanted to sleep and it was raining badly. Still it was good that we left, like this we had the chance to try out the hotel's Blue Moon Café and experience what happens when US style customer service goes "over the top".
The location right on the water's edge is lovely. The food was good, a bit pricey though I think. What drove us crazy, however, was our waitress' friendliness. She was a bit too enthusiastic and answered "Absolutely" to every "Thank you" we said. After a while I couldn't stand it anymore. I wanted to kick her as soon as the word came out of her mouth. Absolutely annoying! ;) I had a nice ceasar salad followed by a simple tomato pasta dish. Both were good. Thomas had a duck dish he really enjoyed washed down with a terrible "Virgin Island Ale". We paid approx. 80$ for this meal.
Terrible Accomodations and Unfriendly Staff
by A TripAdvisor Member
I too am going to write an unbiased opinion about Secret Harbour. I am not a disgruntled employee or someone paid to write something bad about the resort (if you can call Secret Harbour a resort). What I am is a very unhappy customer who spent quite a lot of money to stay at Secret Harbour and had a terrible time there. The place is dirty, the staff is unfriendly and unwilling to accomodate its guests. The units are old and are badly in need of renovations. The cleaning staff does not know how to clean at all! They basically just surface clean if you can call what they do surface cleaning. The air conditioners are old and do not work well at all. One of our children has asthma and had a terrible time in the unit because of the heat. When we complained we were told that the unit was working fine. All the staff did was come in look at it and tell us it was fine. They didn't try to fix it. The restaurant was good especially for breakfast and lunch but not overly accommodating for other things like take out. The bartender was nice but unable to offer anything but drinks. No snacks.The bathrooms are old and we too had yellow water in our toilets. We didn't see yellow water anywhere else on the island except at Secret Harbour. If you have reservations here, cancel them and go someplace else. We should have listened to some of the reviews on this site and cancelled our reservation but our travel agent assured us it was great. Our travel agent now knows not to book anyone at Secret Harbour. Stay away from this place!
Pleased from Texas
by A TripAdvisor Member
I also read the bad reviews immediately before our trip. Nothing could have been further from the truth. My wife and I travel considerably.
Our trip to St. Thomas and Secret Harbour was one of our best. The accommodations were first class, spacious, updated, and comfortable.
The view from our beachfront suite was spectacular. The beach area was beautiful and very well kept. We had several wonderful meals at the Blue Moon Restaurant and used the the convenient scuba center on the grounds. The entire staff was hospitable, but Ernest Halladay, the manager, was most accommodating. We will go again and we will recommend Secret Harbour to family, friends, and anyone else who will listen.
Great Relaxing Location
by A TripAdvisor Member
Just returned from a lovely week at Secret Harbor. Beautiful view from a large nicely furnished condo style unit. Along with a very friendly staff and almost perfect weather, we came home to the winter snow completely refreshed. Our only regret is that we should have stayed longer. It is a little remote, and slightly off the beaten path and it's not a glitzy big hotel. It depends what you a looking for; but for us, it was almost perfect.
Wouldnt stay there!
by A TripAdvisor Member
We had the opportunity to see Secret Harbor because we ate at the Blue Moon restaurant, which is located there. While we were there we looked around, and would not choose to stay there. It looked old, the parking lot is crowded because of the restaurant, and you have to be careful especially with children. I didn?t hear any compliments as I walked around, and some of the accomodations are far from the beach. Someone in the restaurant who was staying there wasn?t very enthusiastic. The general impression was unfavorable, but again that?s only from seeing it. The food at the restaurant was good!
Extremely Disappointed
by TripAdvisor Member Gavvy
We just returned from Secret Harbour and were very disappointed. The view is the only thing this place has going for it. We were so unhappy there that we eventually left as soon as another hotel had rooms available and went to another hotel on the island which was wonderful. Leaving SH was what saved our vacation. The buildings are in dire need of renovations as are the units. When we got to our unit, we found rust in our bathtub and hairs all over the bathrooms. We called to have it recleaned and the first person who came out did nothing. The second person who came out was rude and extremely unpleasant. She told us it was not her responsibility. She said it was the responsibility of the day cleaning service. Some of the other staff, including some office staff, were rude as well. Ernest, the general manager was accommodating but could not make up for the rudeness of his staff. The air conditioners in the units are outdated and do not work well. The unit in our living room had trouble cooling the unit and when we called for service on it, we were told it was working properly. The hot water heater in our bathroom kept turning itself off so we ended up having to take cold showers. There appears to be no insulation between the units and therefore, if you have a family with young children above you, like we did, you constantly hear everything little thing that is going on. Whenever one of the children would cry, we heard it. It was especially bad in the middle of the night and woke us up several times. It is not the fault of the children, but it is definitely the fault of the buildings. It had been raining a lot before we got there so there was a mosquito problem. Our unit was loaded with them. What made it worse was the fact that the cleaning service kept the doors open whenever they cleaned (if you call what they did cleaning). We finally had to ask them to close the doors. We usually do not complain about condos that we rent - and we have rented many - but this one is worth complaining about. Don't go. There are many other nicer places to stay on St. Thomas for around the same amount of money. SH charges about the same as other hotels but they have not gotten the message that they need to improve their facility and teach their staff to be polite before they can call themselves a top resort.
Photos
Secret Harbour Beach at night, St. Thomas, USVI
Forum Posts
Hotel for one night
by sabsi
Hi!
We will be on St. Thomas for one night in November on our way from New York City to the British Virgin Islands. As our plane from NYC will arrive in the afternoon and as we don't want to risk missing the last ferry to the BVI we want to spend a night in a hotel in St. Thomas.
I have checked hotels and B&Bs but I am not sure which location to pick. Is Charlotte Amalie nice? Or would it be wiser to stay in a place near Red Hook ferry landing, e.g. Secret Harbour Beach Resort. We will rely on public transportation and taxis.
Can anybody help me decide please?
Thanks a million!
Sabine
Re: Hotel for one night
by vanderlust
Sorry I can't help much with hotels as we have never spent the night on STT. I have heard that the Holiday Inn at the airport is reasonable (Lindberg Beach I believe)don't know of any near Red Hook. I thought you might want to know that there have been some ferry schedule changes occurring in the last month. I know it has affected travel to St. John. This website might have the ferry operators contact information you need. I know that the STT to STJ ferry schedule listing are all messed up right now. I would check with the operator as your trip approaches. Fuel prices and drop off in tourisism is blamed.
http://www.bvivacations.com/Ferry.html
Re: Hotel for one night
by sabsi
Thanks Tim,
had heard about this before but the link you sent is very helpful.
For the same reason as the ferry mess our flights to NYC were cancelled, too and we were booked on a flight from Frankfurt instead of Cologne. Seems like travelling does indeed becomes more complicated these days.
Thanks again!
Sabine
PS: We have booked Secret Harbout Beach Resort, close to Redd Hook, a while ago. I'm sure it will be ok, actually it should for that price ;)
Re: Hotel for one night
by STTSteve
Sabine:
Secret Harbour is a great place to spend a night. It is indeed close to Red Hook, but is very quiet. Remember that all of the units at Secret Harbour are privately owned. If the unit they put you in is not to your liking, make a fuss (politely), and get another.
Steve
Hotel Advise
by sabsi
Hi all,
does anybody here have advise on a good and reasonable priced hotel somewhere near the Airport or the Port at Charlotte Amalie? We will just stay there for one night in order to continue our trip to the BVI the next morning. The trip will be in early November.
I have looked at VT's hotel tips for St. Thomas before. Unfortunately there aren't many recommendations. As I expect that there are more people here who are too lazy to build pages (like me ;) I assume more people have visited the USVI?
Another question is what we could do around the area considering we land at STT in the afternoon and leave the next morning. We won't have a rental car so we have to rely on public transport and/or taxis. Is there anything we shouldn't miss?
Thanks a lot in advance for your replies.
Sabs
Re: Hotel Advise
by Sergeyu
Best Western Carib Beach Resort right near the airport. The reason why we stayed there was rather similar : it was just one night as we arrived late evening from BVI to meet our friends from cruise ship and go with speedboat back to BVI in the morning.There is another Best Western in teh same area 1.5 more xepensive but you don't need that just for ivernight. There is restauarnt on teh site, still tolerable. But in contrats to BVI, I didn't like St. thoams at all: smiling faces on BVI vs. tired ones at St. thomas, lazy srevice, overdecveloped etc.- that by far not waht I am looking on my holidays.
Re: Hotel Advise
by grandmaR
I am assuming that you will take a ferry to the BVI, otherwise you wouldn't ask for a place to stay in Charlotte Amalie.
Why not stay near Red Hook instead? Secret Harbor is there and it has a good snorkeling beach. I don't know if you can get it for one night though.
The Ritz Carlton is also near the east end, and they have airport check-in.
I've only stayed in boats in the Virgin Islands so I really have no personal knowledge of these hotels.
Re: Hotel Advise
by monica71
For affordable places to stay close to Charlotte Amalie:
1. Miller Manor http://www.millermanor.com/
2. The Crystal Palace (you may have to pay extra if you stay just 1 night) http://www.crystalpalaceusvi.com/
3. Danish Challet Inn http://www.inntravels.com/cbn/usvi/danish.html
Things to do in St Thomas: go to Paradise Point (take the tramway and try to catch the exotic birds show at 3:30pm if you have time)
http://www.paradisepointtramway.com/
Another option is to take a cab and go to Drake's Seat (nice view of the island also)
Check out my St Thomas pages (things to do) for more ideas.
If you are into shopping, then you can spend the whole afternoon in the Havensight Mall, but I would reccommend doing a little bit of sightseeing instead.
Enjoy your vacation!
Monica
Re: Hotel Advise
by sabsi
Thank you all for your advise. I will check out the hotels you mentioned and will read through all must see activities, too of course.
Thanks!
Sabs
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