I need a good 3 or 4 hours to shop there. Shopping is her priority and a beach stop is not. She over heats to fast, so an all day beach thing is not to her liking. Still though, it would be neat to stop off and see a big plain come in. Looking at the boards, everyone seems to rave about Bernards for tours, reasonable and you see all the sites and best shopping areas. Remember the tour we did several years ago in St. Marten, after the sites he took us to a great shooping area with little bar huts on every corner, with very reasonable drinks. The women got their fill of shopping and the guys got drunk The only resort that allows use of the premises seems to be Bongo Bay... but it's not all-inclusive and quite spendy. Being that St. Thomas is the longest day, maybe booking a group tour here would be a good idea. Any good tour operator is bound to know the best eating / drinking / entertaining spots to go to. Looking at St. John, between taxis and ferry rides, we are looking at 1 1/2 hour trip each way. Not sure if everyone wants to take up 3 hours of day commuting back and forth. The first time we went to St. Thomas, we went to Saphire Beach...but that was all day; nice place, but too long at a beach. We are figuring Cococay to be the all-day lounge island, but not sure if we will consider long beach stays on the other islands. The only bar/club/restaurant w/pool setting that I could find was the Paradise Gate,,,but even that looks more like a Furr's cafeteria than a club/restaurant setting.o Plenty of straw hut bar setups all along the shopping venues. 