Westin St. John Resort & Villas

We stayed for a week in a 3 bedroom villa. The size of the room, furnishings, and kitchen amenities were excellent with a great balcony for viewing the resort, wildlife, and landscape. The resort is hilly, like most of the island. There are golf carts and drivers to get you around the resort but we did not mind walking. The pool was okay. Enough room to cool off and we did get drinks at the pool side restaurant which were well made and good value. The pool and beach are not a place where you would want to spend the day like you would at fancier resorts. You want to be off the resort at the island's beaches anyway. The restaurant (Lemongrass) had decent offerings, but much better to eat in Cruz Bay. The outdoor views were fun until the sun goes down and the "No-see-ums" come out, so after dark, dine inside. There is a market (Dolphin market) about a 5 minute walk from the front gate which is good to stock the fridge with drinks and for breakfast items/snacks. Mango Deli on site also has some market items reasonably priced. We did not have any issues with delayed check-in and found the staff helpful. One day we returned from the beach and were unloading our car in the parking lot. One of the staff came by with a golf cart with dirty towels and offered to exchange our towels right there so we did not have to bring them to the pool hut (You get a card for each guest for 2 towels. At the end of the visit, return the towels to the pool hut and give the cards to checkout). We rented a car and enjoyed that freedom but there are plenty of guests who use the ubiquitous taxis. They were helpful on a couple of occasions when one of our party wanted a late start and would take a taxi to meet us later at the beach. They are also a good option for dinner in Cruz Bay since parking there is tough unless you want to use a pay lot. Fitness center was good. Open 24/7 and definitely enough machines and weights to get a 30 minute workout in. The resort is designated as a wildlife preserve (I can't remember the exact wording but there is a plaque explaining it). Fitting with the national park on the island, the resort makes an effort to protect and provide habitat for natural wildlife. We saw plenty of gulls, hummingbirds, pearly eyed thrashers, junglefowl, frogs, iguanas, amd even deer. Personally we enjoyed that part of it and didn't mind seeing an iguana swimming in the pool. Overall we were pleased with our visit. I wasn't expecting a super luxurious resort understanding what the island has been through. It was a great place to unwind at the end of the day with plenty of space to stretch out for our family of 4.

Arrived about 3:30PM knackered from the trip. It’s a cattle call experience in the lobby. Made 6PM dinner reservations at a place 20 mins away. Not a problem I thought. Fool me. Front desk says room isn’t ready and it’s 5:30. Can’t tell us when either. Whole vibe was ‘not our problem’. No apologies just ‘we will let you’ know. Offered to let us shower in the gym as their only suggestion. Not off to a great start. Stayed at several of the Westin resorts and this one was a whole new bad experience.

The Westin sprawls over hills down onto the beach, and so you will likely need to use their complimentary golf cart service to get around unless you get a villa close to the pool and beach. The pool is about to be closed for repairs, and I thought it was in decent shape - but it is time for repairs. The smaller pools nestled between the upper villas are in need of some TLC, though. If you are across the street from the main resort on the hill, there is only a sidewalk part of the time and you walk by an unpleasant looking dumpsite. There is also no security gate on that side of the road. However, the villa we stayed in - a one bedroom loft - was wonderful and the view was pretty good. We had plenty of space and everything we needed. You can recycle on the island, but the Westin does not provide recycling bins in their units. I am a MVC owner, and there are a couple of things that are different from my usual Marriott experience - in addition to the lack of recycling bins, there is no food donation box in the lobby. While we try to plan to minimize waste, we always seem to have some leftover shelf stable items that are appropriate for donation. Additionally, the Westin still uses a manned towel hut system - which is very nice. There is no take/leave bin for pool floats, but I did manage to find an air hose hiding near the towel hut on our last day. Activities announcements were not great at the pool. You had to know what was happening - they had a mic but did not use it often. The onsite restaurant is passable, but the pool bar is better. There is a food market a 5 minute walk from the resort that is a must stop for essentials for your unit. The Westin will give you a card so you can use non-motorized equipment (kayak, paddle board) at their beach, but we did not take advantage of this perk as we were often at off-site beaches. The Westin was beautiful and it's a great spot to stay if you can manage to get a room. If I come back I will definitely use my learnings to maximize next time.

I’m a loyal long time Marriott / Bonvoy member. My husband and I had a studio and our family had a 2 bedroom accommodation. Both were ok. Clean, enough but out dated and worn out. The kitchens are well appointed, the washer and dryer were good to have. The landscaping was lovely, close to St John and the beaches by car or taxi. The main pool was filthy. We couldn’t believe it, SO green in corners and some spots on the deck, otherwise black especially in the hot tub area. Sub par for sure. We felt safe. The food was just ok. Jarad the Concierge was SO helpful. The resort is kid friendly and quiet. WAY over priced, no experience.

St. John USVI have week in early December and wanted to change to the following week but I’m locked out and will loose the investment since can’t go that week