Valley Church Beach/bus review on a Sunday

[sprinkles]

Hi All,

 

Just got back and since there were some (and still) discussions about bus service to Valley Church Beach on a Sunday, I just want to share our experience when we were there on Sunday, April 3.

 

We took the walk to the bus depot, yes for some, the neighborhood might seem a little shady, but we felt completely fine as we take the bus whenever we get the chance. The walk really isn't that far, there were taxi drivers stopping and telling us the whole way - the "bus does not run on Sunday", but we ignored them.

 

Once at the "terminal" it might seem a little confusing. They are the little vans that have jumper seats and they line up all over the place. We did not see a #22 bus anywhere, but saw a #20 bus and talked to the driver. He said he only goes as far as Jolly, but would take us to Valley church since it wasn't that much farther (I gave him $5.00 and said keep the change as a Thank You). We also asked him if there would be any buses to come back, he said yes, "but it might take awhile". We were fine with the idea of having to take a taxi back if necessary.

 

So we took the bus out to Valley Church, the bus dropped us off on a main road and it was a short walk to where we could rent chairs. There is alot of shade right on the beach and many people just rented chairs and put them in the shade. The guy wanted $20 for two chairs and an umbrella, DH balked and started to walk away, the guy then said ok $15.00.

 

The beach was beautiful and not packed at all, almost all of the chairs had Princess towels on them. We talked with several people who all took taxi's out for $8:00pp. They told us it did not matter how many people were in the cab, because their drivers would stop and try to get more people.

 

Toward the end of the day, we could hear people talking about their taxi driver who had come back at the "arranged time" but were not willing to leave without more people.

 

Although we had "planned" on taking a taxi back, we were tired and ready to go when there were still plenty of people left on the beach, so we decided to take a chance. We walked back out to the main road - every taxi that went by stopped and asked us to join them, we said no thanks.

 

It must have been our lucky day, we found some shade on the main road and decided we would be willing to give it up to 45 minutes for a bus (we had a soft sided cooler with cold drinks with us). But lo and behold within 5 minutes we saw the #22 bus coming. We flagged him down and got back to town for $3.00 instead of $16.00 (plus tip?).

 

Oh, one more tip, which we do often on beach cruises. We brought two blow up rafts ($2.99) at wallmart before the trip. Which we really enjoyed at places like Valley Church where I did not see any raft rentals. Then at our last beach we always give them away to local children.

 

OK, hope this will be helpful to someone. Not trying to start a debate, just sharing our recent experience. I can't comment on Jolly Beach or any of the others as I have not been there, but we LOVED our day at Valley Church.

 

Happy Sailing everyone!

 

Tammy

[Irish90Cruiser]

Thanks for the info. I too had a good experience using the local bus service but it was on a weekday. Good to know using the bus on Sunday may be a bit more challenging but is still worth a try.

[manateelover]

Thanks for the info. I too had a good experience using the local bus service but it was on a weekday. Good to know using the bus on Sunday may be a bit more challenging but is still worth a try.

 

Thanks Tammy! We are planning to go to Valley Church as well...can't wait! Can you comment on the food/drink availability and how long of a ride it is back to the cruise port?

We'll have our two boys with us who are always hungry...so just asking what was available.

[sprinkles]

Sorry,

 

I guess we can be some of those really "cheap" cruisers and never went over to the restaurant/bar (plus I'm not big on eating off the ship). We had our cooler with cold drinks and packaged snack stuff with us, so there was no need.

 

Maybe someone else can answer that better, but have a great time. When my DH read my post he said he would have used the word "stunning" for Valley Church.

 

Tammy

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

My wife Irish90Cruiser has kicked me off her username so i now have my own. "The Nest" is a great beach bar at Valley Church with the usual grub. I've heard the coconut shrimp is excellent but the only thing I had that day was several Wadalis which is the local Antiguan beer. It took just 20 minutes to get back to the port.