Sapphire Beach was exactly the island vacation I had pictured in my mind. The beach and the water were indescribably beautiful! We rented through VRBO and I believe we stayed in 304 (Villa Bonne Vie), the same condo mentioned in one of the other reviews. Very nice owner, and Sam, the property manager was extremely helpful. However, I did hear bad things about Antilles. Our owner was not a member of the hotel group. Our condo was clean, but we had been promised a cleaning mid-week which did not happen. That's the only reason I gave it a 4 for cleanliness. The condos are older, but that didn't bother me. Ours had had the bathrooms newly renovated and I understand she has done the kitchen this year. The kitchen is very small, but we didn't do any real cooking so it was not a problem. There were appliances--microwave, toaster oven and blender. Groceries are very expensive there. We ate 2 meals a day in the condo and one meal out each day. The bedroom upstairs had a new king-sized mattress which I assume was very good. There was a fold out couch in that room. My daughter and her family slept in that room and I had the fold out couch in the living room. I'm a grandma and wasn't sure how comfortable that might be, but it was fine. The pool was magnificent! Extremely clean and beautiful. Another review from 2009 complained about the pool being cracked and rusty-looking, but they must have redone it because when we were there in 2010 I was very impressed with the pool. The pool bar is still closed, but that was not a problem for us. We had food and drinks from the little beach take-out place and it was very good. Both the hamburgers and mixed drinks were excellent. We enjoyed eating at the East End Cafe and Big Bambooz in Red Hook. We rented a car. Budget had lost our reservation, so Sam arranged a rental car for us, very reasonable, and it was a big Jeep--perfect! I don't think Sam is associated with Antilles at all, but manages some of the individual units. We took the car ferry to St. John and spent a whole day there. The weather was great for us. A tropical storm had just passed through the previous week, but it cleared up just as we came in. I would have liked to stay another week--or month. I would definitely go back to Sapphire Beach and I would stay in the same condo as well.

Having had a couple of great vacations in ‘condotels’ in Anguilla & Turks & Caicos the last couple of years – thank you Shoal Bay Villas on Grace Bay last year! – was hoping for similar experience this year.

Having seen such rave reviews of the resort I booked.
Later I hit on the contrasting “beware” reviews and took a closer look.

Reality is that if you book through Antilles/HotelPlus website and not through an independent owner expect major disappointment. Antilles book an unknown percentage of the condos in the Resort/Crystal Cove complex. Their excuse re the lousy reports is that they’re all individually owned – and they clearly take no responsibility for the bad conditions. They refuse to tell you which condo you’re getting until you check in and then it’s too late! Could have a really good one - or more likely a major disappointment.

On arrival expect to be unimpressed by the shabby grounds and exterior and the “junior “ receptionist inside the concrete reception ‘bunker.’He refuses eye contact, often ignores questions altogether and – I noted on several occasions – avoided giving his name. (Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners young man?!)
I know about many other people’s bad experiences as, if you want the Wi-Fi, you have to boot up your laptop and allow them to put the code in! Then you have to sit in one small area of the reception where there is a signal – bring bug spray as you will get eaten by the no-see-ums !
Blown light bulbs, non-functional safe and generally worn furnishings throughout my rental.New mattress – thank God no bed bugs.

The beach really is very good, never crowded and had plenty of shade under bushes and trees on the water line.
Beach staff were very pleasant and made sure it was clean every morning.
Many I spoke to were delighted with their clean, modern, well equipped condos– but none had booked through Antilles. All seemed to know ‘the deal.’

I would like to think that there should be some standard which owners need to maintain for Antilles to agree to manage them.
But then Antilles would probably go out of business.

Sapphire Beach looks just like the beach in the corona commercial - it is gorgeous. The condominiums are older but very nice (ours had been nicely renovated). We were there for our daughter's wedding with a party of 35 and the staff gave perfect attention to our needs.
Yes the condos aren't new, but the staff took care of anything and everything that we needed their help for and with a smile. Staying in a condo is not for those who wish to be pampered, but for those who would like a nice comfortable place to stay at the best beach on St Thomas, this is the place. There is the added bonus of incredible snorkelling right out from the beach, why else would the cruise ships bring passengers here. The pool bar is still closed, but we figured that saved us a huge bar bill and we bought plenty of supplies at the Super K-Mart. You can take your laptop to the lobby to use the free internet or pay to have access in the condo.
Red Hook is close by and the many young people with us enjoyed the night life there. The Resort will shuttle you over or you can catch a cab. Two great restaurants in Red Hook are the East End Cafe and Molly Malones. The little cabana type hamburger stand set up between building B & C was very good. We split a hamburger one day and enjoyed many of their blender drinks during our stay.
I recommend booking a beach front place if you can - it is so nice just to be able to walk straight out on the beach.
The wedding was perfect through Colleen with Simple Island Weddings and the resort is a place that I can't wait to go back to.

We just stayed at this hotel and overall enjoyed it a lot. The beach is one of the most beautiful around. St. John is so close it looks like you could swim there (of course you can't). The ferries are about 5 minutes away (in Red Hook) and you can go to St. John for about $5. The resort only has one restaurant which has what I would call bar food-it's okay, but the restaurant is for sale so there are some problems there and the service can be a bit slow. You pretty much need to go to Red Hook to eat and it's kind of expensive, but good food. If you climb to the top of the hill at the resort (more like Mt.) you can catch a safari ride that comes by about every 10 minutes and it only costs $1 or $2 depending on where you're going. It goes one way in a circle so if you want to go to Red Hook and then come back you'll probably want to take a cab back (unless you want to go for a really long ride). The taxis are much like the safari ride, but they cost way more and don't have locals on them. I enjoyed taking the safari ride, but if that's not for you you'd probably be best off getting a rental car. AVOID BUDGET RENTAL through the resort though. The lady there is beyond rude!!! We were going to get a rental car but she was so rude we decided not to bother. If you stay on the safari ride past red hook you can go to a shopping area with a K-Mart and some stores/restaurants. If you go past that you can go all the way downtown to shop.

As far as the resort is concerned, if you're expecting something ritzy you will be very disappointed. The bar at the pool is boarded up and like I said there is only one restaurant there that is so so. The pool, however, is nice and like I said the beach is awesome. You can go snorkeling right off the beach and it's very good. We liked our room a lot. It was spacious and clean. The bathroom could use remodeling, but overall we liked it a lot. We were on the first floor so you could walk right out to the beach. The one major complaint that I have about the resort is the people who serve the continental breakfeast. They must be related to the Budget Rental lady because they are really evil! You can only have 3 items and one drink and they yell at you if you take more. If you take an extra jelly they glare at you. When we said good morning they didn't even respond. It was unbelievable. I complained to their manager a couple days before we left and they seemed to be better so hopefully things have improved there. Despite these mean ladies, I would stay at this hotel again mostly because of the beautiful beach, good snorkeing, and spacious room. We had a bedroom area, dining area, kitchen area, and living area, plus of course the bathroom. It's all about expectations and if yours are really high you'll be disappointed. I had read some bad reviews and was really nervous about the resort, but I ended up really liking it. If you go to St. Thomas definitely take a day trip over to St. John and visit the beautiful beaches. You can take a rental car over for about $49 and drive the entire Island in a day. It's gorgeous. We also took a trip to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Jost VAn Dyke which was a lot of fun.