We had this crazy idea last summer while we were paddle boarding on the James River with some of our best friends one Saturday morning…Ryan, Chad, Ali and I had rented stand up paddle boards near Belle Isle and as Chad and Ryan were paddling through the mini rapids and Ali and I were sitting on our boards, one of us casually mentioned, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this somewhere tropical together??”. And that little idea started to grow into a big idea for a dream trip!

Ali and Chad had been to St. John before so as we were talking about ideas, it didn’t take TOO long for them to convince us that it should be our destination.  Long story short, we booked tickets and found a gorgeous house on the Hart Bay…and that’s how the #hartbaygetaway was born!!

This was one of our favorite trips we’ve ever been on…we loved the laid back vibe of the island and the fact that you can go to a different bay every day of your trip and never even see them all. Each bay has it’s own unique personality…some are more calm, some are more rocky…some have wider beaches and some have no beach…it’s so much fun to explore! I’m not a big fan of snorkeling (I’m kinda terrified of fish), but I LOVED renting stand up paddle boards for the week and spent a lot of time paddling around on the gorgeous, clear water while everyone snorkeled. Ryan and I really love vacations that are a mix of active and relaxing…we laid on the beach and relaxed at the house with gorgeous views, but also spent a lot of time on the water, went on a hike, spent an afternoon on a sailboat, and (my favorite!) explored the Baths at Virgin Gorda…which is basically a natural theme park of rocks and pools…it was amazing!! The last day we stayed in an Eco Lodge on the side of a hill…basically it was a one room cabin with mesh sides and an outdoor shower with a big basin of water above it that had to be heated by the sun…we’re glad we didn’t stay there the whole time, but it was such a fun experience for the last night! The last morning we went on a hike with stunning views of the ocean and island and we were SO sad to leave! 

We can’t wait to go back one day! Chad and Ali are the perfect travel buddies and we are so grateful for them!! The boys even agreed to a little photo shoot one evening and I’m so excited to share these…we had talked about the different locations we could shoot at on the island, but we ended up taking them on the coral covered beach right below our house! It was so beautiful and I’m obsessed with these photos!! Shooting just for fun in a pretty place can be so inspiring! But it also obviously doesn’t hurt that we have really good looking friends…If you want to see more from our trip, I also embedded the video that Ali made of all of our iPhone videos we took at the end of this post…she is super talented and I love watching it and reliving our trip! Enjoy!!