Update: New mattress as of Fall 2022! Ocean Blue Cottage located in Upper Carolina, 400' above sea level, overlooking Coral Bay harbor, Bordeaux Mt, Carolina valley and a peek of the Caribbean Sea. 23 steps down from the road, it has a bedroom 9'x12', dining/kitchen area 6'x10', bathroom 3'x10', private outdoor shower 4'x5', deck 8'x4' with grill, furniture, umbrella. Pricing is $150 night. There’s also an $90 cleaning fee per reservation. 5 min drive to restaurants, 10 min to beaches. Our tiny house, which we call a cottage, is all you need for an active or relaxed stay on St John. The cottage, 23 steps down from the road, is attached to a private separate lower cottage 10 steps below. You can sleep, eat, shower, read, and relax in the cottage or on the deck in between your daily trips to the beaches (39), hiking trails, restaurants and bars, retail shopping, sight seeing and exploring St John. Then return to your cottage at the end of the day to start all over again. Located in and above Coral Bay on St John's funky, quiet east side, you are a few minutes walk from the bus lines and the hitchhike-highway, (a very common way of getting around St John), although we highly recommend renting a vehicle so you can access all the out of the way places St John has to offer. (St John is a series of very steep hills.) The bedroom has a ceiling fan (and AC at extra cost) and screened windows with fantastic views, a queen sized bed, small closet, small desk area for laptops, and storage room for your travel bags. The TV offers a dvd/blu-ray player and a Roku for Netflix, Amazon video, etc. for access to your own accounts. Free wifi is available. There is also a bluetooth/mini-jack speaker for your music enjoyment. (note: ATT cell service usually works well over much of St John, Verizon sometimes, other cell services not so good, although ATT has recently sold us to Liberty Central America, so the jury is still out on the service change, especially for stateside cell accounts.) The kitchen/dining area offers a small/medium sized refrigerator with small freezer, small kitchen table for 2 with great views adjacent to the 3 large screened/louvered window openings, and a kitchen area with a counter, sink, coffee maker, double burner cook top, toaster oven, and all the silverware, dishes, cups, and utensils you need to feel at home. The bathroom has a toilet, sink, lighted mirror, and is stocked with soap, shampoo, towels and a hairdryer. Beach towels are also supplied, along with beach chairs and light coolers. The outdoor shower is private and spacious and the first place to relax after traveling, hiking, a day at the beach, or a day exploring the restaurants, bars, and shopping on St John. Shampoo, conditioner and soap are supplied. Electrical receptacles in all rooms. Hot water at the kitchen sink, bath sink and shower. And there is a small deck with a great view off the kitchenette, with a small propane grill, sitting area and shade umbrella. The full cottage, just 23 steps down from the road where you will park your rented vehicle, is your space for the duration of your stay with us. We live in the lower cottages, down the same stairway. Since we live on site, we are often on the property down below, or we may be either working off site or enjoying the beaches, hiking trails, etc. during the day (yeah, that's why we live here!) So although you will live in the upper "penthouse" cottage privately while we live in the private lower cottages and main house, we will be available for answering questions or offering ideas to make your St John stay better, more relaxing and more exciting. Or, if you choose, we may only see each other in passing, saying "Good morning/day/evening" as appropriate. Upper Carolina consists of 4 dead-end streets (thats good, no thru traffic), one turning off the next while climbing higher uphill from Centerline Road (the main island traffic artery) up to the ridge top. The 3 higher roads are paved and are populated by numerous high end rental villas. Our section of the neighborhood, the far end of Stone House Road (the lowest of the 4 roads), turns from paved to dirt, is not very populated, and only has modest sized homes, usually occupied by local working people. It is quiet, untravelled, peaceful. BUS SERVICE runs from Cruz Bay via Centerline Road to Coral Bay, and out to Salt Pond. Usually hourly, sometimes every other hour, sometimes less often, and always less often on weekends and holidays. HITCHHIKING is relatively easy if you aren't carrying too much baggage, and don't mind riding in the back of an old jeep or pickup truck, with other hitchers or dogs or tools. TAXI SERVICE is minimal in Coral Bay unless you made earlier arrangements with a taxi driver you already met. NOTE: we have a list of reliable taxi drivers if needed. RENTING A VEHICLE is the way to go. We recommend keeping it small, look for a Suzuki Jimny (spelling correct) as opposed to the oversized Jeep "World Domination and Destruction Vehicles" offered by many rental agencies. Not only are they too big of many of the small areas off St John, but they aren't even comfortable, getting into or riding in. WALKING/HIKING is also a way to get around and really see the island at a slow pace. You can hike from Ocean Blue Cottages to Brown Bay Trail to Johnny Horn Trail to Leinster Bay to Annaberg to North Shore Road to Centerline Road and back to Ocean Blue Cottages in 2 1/2 hours, not counting sight seeing/swimming/talking to strangers. NON-SMOKING: The cottage, deck and stairway are non-smoking areas. At the top of the stairs at road level, you can smoke with a great view. HOUSE WATER: We do not drink from the tap. We catch rainwater for house use, and have to buy water delivered by a truck if there's no rain. SO PLEASE CONSERVE WATER, ANY WAY YOU CAN. This water is used in the sinks, shower and toilets, and hoses for rinsing sand off. DRINKING WATER: Although rain and delivered water is clean and filtered, for drinking and cooking purposes (for bodily consumption) we supply you with some bottled water, and highly recommend that you purchase and carry bottled water with you all the time. ELECTRICITY: We do get occasional blackouts, some lasting 4 to 12 hours. That's when you get to experience "old St John", the simple life. If power were to remain off longer than 4-8 hours we have a back up generator which has to be manually started and controlled (by the owner.) But when electricity is flowing, it is also very expensive (prices you wouldn't believe) so we also ask you to PLEASE CONSERVE ENERGY. AIR CONDITIONING: There is an AC in the bedroom but it is at an additional cost, $5/ night, on the honor system. When using the AC, it is only for nighttime sleeping comfort, other details are posted in the cottage. VEHICLES/GETTING AROUND: Whether you plan an active or relaxed vacation on St John, we highly recommend renting a vehicle. And we usually recommend taking the St Thomas airport taxi to Red Hook where you catch a people ferry to Cruz Bay, St John where the car rental offices are located. (Renting a car on St Thomas can leave you stranded waiting for a St Thomas service man to get to St John if your vehicle has trouble. And returning to St Thomas on a timely schedule for your return flight is easy to plan using the people ferry and the many St Thomas taxis always waiting to serve you. Planning to catch a car barge over to St John or returning to St Thomas can often turn into a long wait for that next barge, due to breakdowns or long vehicle lines.