What I Liked
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Beautiful views from anywhere in the resort
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Comfortable apartment
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Lovely and calm beach with warm waters
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Swimming pool with slide
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Daily activity schedule, including bingo and crafts
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Table Tennis
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Pool Table
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I had a lovely week at Marriott Frenchman’s Cove in the US Virgin Islands. A beautiful beachfront resort. Nestled on a hillside, overlooking the sea.
There’s good views everywhere in the resort. A small beach, nice swimming pool, an activity centre and a schedule of activities.
As the property is with Marriott Vacation Club, they have apartments rather than guest rooms. I stayed in a two bed apartment. The sea view was fabulous! FYI Marriott Vacation Club is Marriott’s timeshare Program.
The Marriott Frenchman’s Cove is one of two Marriott hotels in St Thomas. The resort is next door to the Westin St Thomas Resort. Guests at the Marriott are allowed to use the amenities at the Westin. Which is a pretty cool benefit. Go to this article for my review of the Westin St. Thomas.
This article is a detailed review, with over 100 photos. Each photo can be clicked, to open out the full slideshow. Know exactly what to expect when you visit.
The resort isn’t cheap, but it’s worth the money in my view. You’re next to the beach in beautiful Caribbean waters. In a luxurious apartment with great views. The cost of m apartment was $1,123 per night during my stay. However, as I’m a member with Marriott Vacation Club, I used my annual allocation of points to book my stay.
In the article, I also explain how you can stay at the resort. $1,895 for five nights. By booking a timeshare preview package. But you’ll need to sit through a 1 hour timeshare presentation. To book up, email me and give me your name, email address, telephone number and the city you live in.
My general strategy as a Marriott Timeshare Owner is to book resorts that would be expensive in cash. This cash rate for a two bed apartment was $1,123 per night during my stay. So $7,861 for 1 week. This is obviously a lot of money, so I was happy to use Marriott Timeshare Points.
One great way to stay at the resort is by booking a preview package. You can stay for 5 nights, and pay $1,895. You’ll need to sit through a one hour timeshare presentation. Where Marriott will do the hard sell. And try to get you to buy a timeshare.
But there’s no obligation to buy anything, during the presentation. You’ll also receive a free gift of your choice. There’s a range of gifts. 20,000 Bonvoy Points is one option. A sunset cruise is another option.
If you’re considering to become an owner with Marriott Timeshare. I wrote a complete guide to Marriott Vacation Club. The article really is a must read. I love being a member, but the program isn’t for everyone.
For me, ownership has been amazing. I’ve been able to stay at amazing resorts, that I never thought possible. Basically, I have made an investment in the future happiness of my family.
I’ve visited all four Hawaiian Islands with Marriott Vacation Club! I stayed at Marriott Maui Ocean Club. A fantastic ocean front resort, with so many activities!
I also stayed at the Westin Princeville in Kauai, Hawaii. That property is on a cliff overlooking the sea. We had 9 days there. Amazing views, beautiful swimming pools and fun activities.
Marriott Frenchman’s Cove (aka Marriott Cove St Thomas) is a resort in the US Virgin Islands. Which is a Caribbean island, next to Puerto Rico. However, it’s a part of the United States. So you need a US visa to enter the country.
One thing to note is that they drive on the left on the US Virgin Islands. Even though it’s part of the US. I didn’t actually know this, when I picked up my rental car! I had come from Florida and expected them to drive on the right. Luckily, I saw a car driving on the left. So I asked a question to a local!
The Marriott Cove St Thomas is 15 minutes drive from the airport. It’s not far at all – 5 miles. And most of the time, I was driving at 20 miles per hour. Near the hotel is a little hilly. So be careful when you drive. And obviously drive on the correct side of the road!
The resort itself is nestled on the side of a hill. Overlooking a beautiful cove.
The nearest grocery store is a five minute drive away. Pueblo. The walk is 30 minutes, so it’s better to drive.
Marriott Cove St Thomas is a stunning resort. If you stay here, you’ll probably spend a lot of time at the resort. As it’s so beautiful.
But I still suggest to explore the Islands, as there’s a lot to do. The setting is fantastic. Below are the most recommend things to do during your stay.
Book a sailing trip here. The trip lasts for 5 hours, and includes snorkelling, breakfast, lunch, open bar and snacks! The tour is rated 4.6* and costs $157.
Book a 3 hour Kayaking tour here. Tour is rated 4.7*, it lasts for 3 hours and costs $99. Make your way through the narrow mangrove waterways, then enjoy a scenic hike to tidal pools, volcanic cliffs, and a geological blowhole.
Book your ticket here to Coral World Ocean Park. The cost is only $29. They have an Undersea Observatory where you can see into the Caribbean Sea, 15 feet under water. You’ll see sea lions, turtles, sharks, and stingrays. And much more.
Marriott Cove St Thomas is a beachfront property, nestled on the side of a hill. Overlooking Frenchman’s reef. All of the apartments are forward facing and have sea view. This layout is really good. It means that there are great views all over the resort.
The downside of this layout, is that it’s a challenge to get around. I stayed in apartment 554, close to the top of the resort. So the views were great. However, I had to take three elevators, to get down to the beach. The layout of the resort is similar to the Intercontinental Da Nang. They solved the problem by having a cable car to take you up the hill! Sadly, Frenchman’s Cove doesn’t have one!
The resort has 220 rooms and villas.
The resort has the following facilities:
There’s one swimming pool at the bottom of the resort. It has a water slide and a whirlpool. All the other main activities are close by. The beach, fitness centre, restaurant, market place, activity centre etc.
There’s only one restaurant. This is next to the pool. I ate here a few times. I found the food to be well priced and well made.
The resort isn’t massive. It’s not a mega resort. You can get from reception at the top of the resort to the beach in about 10 minutes. That journey will take you through the whole resort.
The Marriott Cove St Thomas does have some activities, in addition to the pool and the beach. There’s corn hole on the beach. Also table tennis and pool tables.
There’s a spa available for guests to use.
One pretty cool feature is that there’s a shuttle bus to the Westin. You can use all of the amenities at the Westin. The Westin is right next door. A 10 minute walk from the Marriott. However, the road doesn’t have a sidewalk, so I wouldn’t suggest to walk. You can take your car, but the Westin charges $30 to park it! Better to take the free shuttle bus and spend $30 on two glasses of wine!
The nature of the resort means that the views are amazing, at nearly every location in the resort.
The resort is on a hill overlooking the sea. Every apartment has sea views. With those calm, crystal blue waters.
The Marriott Frenchman’s Cove is one of two Marriott hotels in St Thomas. The Westin St Thomas is right next to the Marriott Frenchman’s Cove. Both hotels have the same owner. Guests at both hotels can use the amenities from both hotels. This is an excellent benefit.
The shuttle bus runs every hour. The walk is only 10 minutes. But it’s on a busy road with no sidewalk. So not recommended.
The Westin has similar amenities to the Marriott. I visited the hotel one time with my family. We enjoyed it. However, we couldn’t just pop back to our room if we forgot something. Which was a little annoying.
The Westin was really nice. Don’t trust the Google reviews! Google reviews are only 3.6* for this resort. The resort has been refurbished and is pretty great.
The Westin has a spectacular infinity pool. The views from the deck are really nice. The vibe is a bit like an Ibiza beach party. There’s a large pool and two smaller pools on either side. The smaller pools are adults only.
The Westin also has pickleball courts.
The Westin isn’t great for beach access. The hotel is at a raised level, compared to the beach. This means that the views are awesome. But not good for beach access.
To get to the beach, you need to walk down some outside steps. When you get the bottom, it’s mainly rocks. You need to walk a bit further, to get to the sandy beach. For this reason, I didn’t see anyone use the beach from the Westin. The beach at Marriott Frenchman’s Cove is much better.
The design of the resort is high spec. They had renovated the resort and it looked great. Lot’s of white. The décor was modern.
I had so many photos of the Westin, that I wrote a separate review article on the resort - read that article here.
I stayed in a two bed apartment at the Marriott Cove St Thomas. Room 554. This was close to the very top of the resort. There was only one floor above us. As our apartment was at the top of the resort, the view of the cove was spectacular.
The two bed apartment was 1,200 square foot. The resort has 220 apartments. Made up of two bed and three bed apartments. There’s no guest rooms to book. If you want a guest room, then stay at the Westin St Thomas next door.
The two bed apartment was excellent. It had all of the facilities that you have at home.
The décor was solid. Not luxury, but still pretty nice. All the furniture was in good condition. Also, there was some nice art on the wall.
The living room was in the middle of the apartment, with a bedroom on either side.
There were two balconies. One balcony was larger. You could possibly describe it as a terrace. The other balcony was smaller. We didn’t spend that much time in either balcony. The living room had a floor to ceiling with a fantastic sea view. We ended up sitting and eating there.
The apartment had an excellent washing machine and dryer. I know I say this in every review of Marriott Vacation Club Resorts! But I love having fresh and clean clothes every day.
The living room had a dining table and a sofa, looking at the TV.
The master bedroom had a king size bed with en-suite bathroom. The bathroom had separate bathtub and shower.
The 2nd bedroom had two double beds. It also had an en-suite bathroom.
My wife and two kids took the 2nd bedroom. My wife said that she felt scared without my kids! I took the master bedroom alone.
Annoyingly, neither room had a desk. So I had to use my laptop on the dining table. In fact, I’m sitting on the dining table as I write this!
The kitchen was excellent. As always with Marriott Vacation Club. It has everything you need and more. There were pots, pans, cutlery, toaster, coffee machine and complimentary tea selection. There was also a blender, which I made heavy use of. This was in addition to the items you expect, like cooker, fridge and microwave.
Marriott talk about the concept of ‘home away from home’. And this is exactly it. An apartment with all the facilities that you have at home. A kitchen to make breakfast and a coffee. Washing facilities to have crisp clothes. The space to breathe. No need to order a pizza and eat it on your bed!
The above slideshow has over 30 photos of the apartment.
There’s an infinity pool at the bottom of the Marriott Cove St Thomas, next to the beach. It’s not huge. I used it a few times. The water was lovely and warm. The pool was also pretty shallow.
The pool is a large rectangle. It looks more like a local swimming pool, rather than one you’d see at a Caribbean Resort. But you won’t be doing laps here! The pool is very social.
There’s also a whirlpool. AKA jacuzzi/hot tub. I used it once with my daughter. The jacuzzi was really hot. However, the weather was so hot and humid, that we couldn’t stay in for long. Also, the water in the swimming pool was nice and warm anyway.
This was the first time I’d been somewhere it was too hot to use the hot tub.
There was a small water slide. This is one of the smaller water slides that I’ve seen at a Marriott Timeshare. There was no staff member on duty either, unlike the larger water slides.
However, the slide was really fast. So a thumbs up from me.
I took my 2 year old son on the slide and he really enjoyed it.
Marriott Cove St Thomas is a beach resort. The beach is right next to the pool.
The beach was small, but really nice. I would say that the beach was perfect. Beautifully warm and calm water. The water was lovely to get into. There were also loads of loungers for hotel guests.
The nature of the beach meant that only hotel guests could use it. There’s no way that the public can access the beach. You have to go through the hotel to get to the cove.
Ultimately, this beach is all about the vibes. It’s so chilled out and relaxing when you’re there.
As with any Marriott Vacation Club, there’s a number of activities to keep you occupied. In addition to the swimming pool, there ‘s also table tennis, a pool table and corn hole.
There’s a daily schedule of activities. These activities include aqua fit classes, bingo, kids crafts and more.
I should mention that the resort doesn’t have as many activities as other Marriott Vacation Club Resorts. There’s no tennis courts. They don’t have shuffle board either. Marriott Crystal Shores in Marco Island had so many activities – review here. There was so much to do, I was almost overwhelmed!
There’s an activity centre, next to the pool. It’s pretty good. There’s loads of fun stuff in there. Board games, jigsaws, computer games consoles, soft play games, skittles and more.
I went to the activity centre for one hour a couple of times. We didn’t want to spend too much time there. After all, I could play computer games at home (not that I do). I didn’t come to the Caribbean to play computer games!
The Marriott Frenchman’s Cove has a fitness centre. It’s located next to the swimming pool.
It’s pretty small. However, I used it a couple of times and had a good workout.
They had dumbbells, with the heaviest being 50lb. It was fine for me and my workout. But at my gym at home, I know many people that need higher weights! They had a pulley machine. Sadly, there were no barbells.
There were also resistance machines, exercise bikes and treadmills.
There were changing rooms next to the fitness studio. The men’s one had a sauna in it. I imagine that the women’s one also had a sauna. Although I didn’t check! Frankly, it was so hot that I didn’t see anyone use the sauna.
One of my favourite things about Marriott Vacation Clubs are the grills.
There were a couple of grills outside the apartment building. I used the grill a couple of times. Myself and my family are vegetarian, but we still enjoy a cook out!
I didn’t see anyone else use the grills. This is different to most resorts, where the grills are normally very popular.
Next to the pool is a small market place. It had some basic grocery items like bread, milk, beer etc. It wasn’t very big and there wasn’t a large variety of items. But it was better than nothing.
The market was expensive, as you might expect. I’d say that prices were 30% higher than the nearest supermarket (Pueblo).
Not expensive enough that I would go to the supermarket instead. But pricy enough to annoy me!
The resort was fabulous. I had a fantastic time with my family. The apartment was modern and had great views. The swimming pool and the beach had beautifully warm water. There were also loads of activities to keep us occupied.
I reviewed Marriott’s Waikoloa Ocean Club in Big Island Hawaii. A Marriott Vacation Club Resort. Also a beach resort. They have three swimming pools and four hot tubs. My apartment had lovey sea view.