Where to stay for our PMV?

You should get many suggestions. We stayed in small houses (villas) on St John twice... more than 20 years ago. The first one was overlooking chocolate Hole and the second was overlooking Coral Bay (across from Skinny Legs). St John is a wonderful place. I would suggest finding a small house or apartment to give you the island feel. We loved the Coral Bay area (not many apartments) . We chose to go to St Croix rather than st john for many reasons including the cost of living.

We came to St Croix after trips to Florida, Tortola, Anguilla,st martin, Virgin Gorda, St Thomas and StJohn even Anagada. St Croix was less touristy and more economical ...well not less than Anagada.... I hope you find what you are looking for.

I don't think staying on St John for a PMV is a good idea at all. Most St Johnians come to St Thomas to do most of their general business and their major shopping. If you base "island living" on the very laid back St John experience then the reality could come as quite a shock when you get down to day to day living. Do you know for sure that you're going to be working on STJ? The jobs are mainly on St Thomas, followed by St Croix and with St John in last place. Many who work on St John commute by ferry each day from St Thomas where the COL is quite a bit lower and, in my opinion, you'll get a far better feel for island life in general by staying on St Thomas. You can go to St John for a day and quickly find your way around. If you're not sure which island you're headed to then split your time between STT and STX. Good luck!

If you hope to live on STJ than stay on STJ. Stay on the island that may one day become your home. Trust me plenty of mainland transplants currently occupying STJ. You can always take the ferry over to st thomas to get a feel for what it would be like running errands to kmart, homedepot, costuless, denists appontments and alike.

OldTart has good advice. I lived on St John for a while. The cost and time commuting to St Thomas for everything on ferry boats was oppressive and no fun after a while. It was fun at first though. Shop around rather than make a firm decision now, unless you are wealthy and can do whatever you want no matter the cost!