Sunshine,

We are preconstruction Towers owners and longer yet, St. Maarten visitors but every so often we take a vacation just to see what else is out there, which is how we ended up in Barbados.

It is a beautiful island for sure but if beaches are your thing, IMHO, they don't come close to those of SXM. They're there, but they didn't seem as accessible, just for starters. We never found anything like Rosie's on Mullet and even though I tend to not be a huge Orient fan myself, for those who love it, we found nothing close to that either.

It's an island based on British sensibilities and formalities and when we were there there was no nudity permitted and even topless bathing was verboten. It's been a while and this may have changed and I know there used to be a poster here who lived on Barbados and vacationed on St. Maarten who said it was done, but not openly as on some SXM beaches.

For me, the best part of Barbados was the wide variety of coastlines and seascapes to explore. We did wander into Bridgetown a couple of times but it definitely wasn't at all my idea of a Caribbean experience. And actually, we wandered ALL over the island and even dealing with driving on the 'wrong' side of the roads - I have to admit, sometimes the round-abouts were on the scary side - but in the end we put huge amounts of miles on our rental car. We explored the caves along Crane Beach, and found a working sugarcane processing plant along the road to 'somewhere' and were treated to a tour of it and they even allowed us to climb the ladders and walk the catwalks to see how the cane was handled from raw product to finished molasses. Not everyone's idea of what to see or do but we enjoyed it. The Bathsheba coast line was gorgeous. We explored the coastal lighthouse and in the middle of absolutely no where, we found an old working church or monastery - not sure which is the proper nomenclature but it was beautiful and unexpected and well worth the trip down the road less traveled. Took another dirt road to nowhere and found a wooden dock where the local fishermen were selling their catch to the local housewives. We even got to watch a Bajan sunset wedding happening on the grounds of the resort where we were staying.

If you are a golfer it's there with a lot more formality and maintenance of the courses than at the Mullet course. But my understanding is it's very expensive though I can't say from firsthand experience. We get free golf at Mullet and don't bother. And as I recall, horse races, too, and there are a lot of other more organized activities as well - you won't want for things to do and if you're into exploring, OMG, Barbados is a great destination. But no near island's such as you have just off SXM.

It's been a while since we were there, but I have to say, as much as we enjoyed our long week on Barbados, I don't think it compares to SXM for what I want in a vacation but it is a very beautiful destination. I would never give up my Towers weeks to be there.

I loved our visit to Barbados and it definitely is an island I'd enjoy revisiting but it didn't hold the charm of St. Maarten for me. The food was very good, particularly the flying fish as a first time experience, but again, IMHO, its not equal to SXM though it was quite expensive. The people were very pleasant and seemed to welcome us warmly but we didn't find them as engaging as so many we've encountered on SXM.

And with regard to selling your SXM Towers timeshare weeks, good luck on that. Every once in a while we hear of someone who was able to sell their weeks but it seems that most people end up giving them back and walking away happy to be AMF free at that point.