I was going to offer both Grenada and Barbados as possible options. Both are totally different than St. Maarten/St. Martin and each one is lovely each in their own way.

Both islands drive on the 'other' side if the road but if you can get beyond that, both islands are great and both are on our 'must go back someday' lists.

I don't think you'll find any other island in the Caribbean that has food that equals that of SXM although there are a few island's we've missed so maybe you might, but we found the food on both of these islands to be good though of the two, I think I enjoyed the food in Barbados more than in Grenada.

The people of both islands are very friendly, or such was our experience in all our encounters. Both islands are throwbacks to their earlier heritage and I think we found Barbados to be the more proper of the two - British leanings I guess. No nude beaches although I know it's done, at least on Barbados, but I don't think it's the norm like it is in SXM. Not really sure about topless as we spent most of our time in Grenada on Grande Anse Beach and didn't notice any topless bathers, but this was a few years ago. While in Barbados, we really only frequented Crane Beach and we were generally the only ones there so who knows?!

As far as shopping, I'm not much into it - just not my thing - but I'm sure Bridgetown is good, it's a huge and fairly modern city atmosphere as I recall, and I know there's a huge marketplace in Grenada and I'm sure they have a shopping hub as well.

My favorite activity in new places is exploring and both islands offer a wealth of different things to see, from rocky coastlines complete with the requisite lighthouse, to inland rain forests and mountain lakes and waterfalls. What you see is mostly dependent on how adventurous you are. We drove all over Barbados and it has a wealth of places to explore but we weren't as optimistic/daring on Grenada and chose to go the private tour guide route. I had studied my trusty Fodors before we went to Grenada and our driver took us everywhere we wanted to go including a stop outside his home to view his love pointsettia bushes. It's a truly beautiful island. For that matter, they both are.

One really nice aspect of Grenada, or so we felt, was that the islanders truly liked and appreciated the American visitors and were still appreciative for having been saved from the plans of the would have been evil dictators there who had their own plans for that island destination.

It's been a while, probably fifteen to twenty years, since we vacationed on either island and sadly, the older we get, the easier it is to keep returning to the places we know the best but if the island's are today even remotely what we experienced when there, I can't see how you could miss with either one. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />