It’s not every day that we run into another Grand Banks in the islands, and definitely not every day that it also has two kids onboard. We’ve been online friends following each other’s travels and while we spent the past couple of months in Puerto Rico lockdown they were spending theirs in the Dominican Republic. With things opening up again we were able to meet up and hang out in the USVIs.
Quick hike up to a Cruz Bay overlook.
Caneel Bay Resort has an interesting history but was destroyed in the recent hurricanes. Now that it’s owned by a faceless corporation it just sits here in a National Park as a giant eyesore. The owners won’t rebuild without a bunch of concessions from the Park Service, and they wouldn’t dream of wasting their insurance money on cleaning up the garbage, so instead they just post a bunch of no trespassing signs and disappear.
Caneel Bay. Somehow we always manage to find a spot off to ourselves.
The great Saharan dust cloud blew in and gave us solid gray skies for a few days. This was just the first day.
We went exploring a bit around the abandoned resort. Sort of reminded me of the resort in Dirty Dancing.
It was right about this point when some guard showed up on a golf cart and went off on an expletive laced tirade (apparently they still charge tourists $10 bucks a person to take them from the front gate to a public beach), thus ending our little exploration.
Of course, the beach in the National Park is still open to everyone.
17 Comments on “Trespassers”
with a visual comparison…seems like forever ago that your children were as small as compadres? it used to amaze me all the time! Goodonyas! Go get’m tiger(s).
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Very, very sad about Caneel Bay. I remember visiting there many decades ago with my parents as a child for a drink at the bar. We couldn’t afford to stay there. It was a division of “Rock(efeller) Resorts”. Very posh and well maintained. Only the Rockefellers would have been allowed to build there. It was a privilege. You would think their family would feel an obligation to those who permitted them to do it. But, apparently not. A sign of the times.
Sounds like there is a bunch of legal stuff going on with it – so maybe at some point it will get cleaned up. The back ruins are gorgeous with trees growing in the middle, but it sure would be nice to get the beach area ruins removed.
Rockefeller purchased much of the island and donated it as a National Park.
Rockefellers are long gone from here, though. It’s awesome what they did with the National Park. The resort was sold off to a different company, quite a while back, and it doesn’t seem like the running of things with the resort have really been the same since.
Yes. You would think the family would feel an obligation to do something. We stayed there for a special anniversary. It was expensive but very green and natural. There were no TVs or phones in rooms, no buildings over 2 stories and wild donkeys roamed all over. Our room was right on the beach and it was heaven. Pure water and velvet sand. It was definitely worth the splurge. Are the donkeys still there?
Yes, the donkeys are still roaming around. And deer.
Here’s a good article on Caneel Bay Resort. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/travel/st-john-caneel-bay-resort.html
Family sold property in 2004
That sounds like heaven. Glad you have such fond memories.
TripAdvisor still lists it and has pics.
Yes, it states it is “temporary closed” – beautiful place.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g147413-d147592-Reviews-Caneel_Bay_Resort-Caneel_Bay_St_John_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html
My wife and I honeymooned at the other Rockresorts facility in the Virgins — Little Dix Bay. Absolutely magical, although this was more than 40 years ago. Very sad Caneel Bay has been left to decay.
Lowe for 2020 Heisman trophy
I thought the same thing. 🙂
Uh, the Rockefellers gave the land to the NPS to preserve. It’s common on barrier islands (like off the coast of GA) to have “in holdings” that last until the last relative living there dies, then it goes to NPS.
Yeah, but they gave the land so long as they could retain a lease to run the resort. They then sold the resort, and those owners won’t repair or clean up without concessions from the NPS. The Rockefellers are long gone from this place, but it’s great that they had the foresight to give the land to the NPS.