Saturday, September 15.
Arrived on-time (Spirit Airlines, first time, fairly smooth but just not impressed). Getting through the airport and out was quick and easy and the heat actually felt great. We were surprised that Lesley wasn’t available however we we’re delighted to meet his wife instead (Kennys Car Rental, used them since 2003, the best on the island). As usual we were on our way very quickly. However, his legendary service was even more legendary this trip. In addition to always addressing issues with the car, this year he responded to my need for beach chairs and umbrellas. So, nicely tucked into our trunk when we picked up the car was a beautiful set of beach furniture. It doesn’t get much better than that.
After a quick stop at Market Garden for some basics we arrived at The Belair and quickly got checked-in and to our room on the fourth floor. We both dropped everything and walked straight to the balcony. We opened the curtains and the VIEW literally took our breath away. We opened the door and stood at the railing checking out our new surroundings and neither of us said a word for several minutes.

Big smiles, kisses and hugs and then we went into action. Checked out the bedrooms, put away the groceries and jumped into our suits. To the beach! Drop the hastily packed beach bag on the nearest available chair and head straight into the water. Ah! Ooh! OMG how great, and we had that same feeling every time we swam.

The Belair

What can I say!

The staff…Beulah, Glenda, Bradley, Dominic, Rufus, oh and Thelma one of the guards who rode the storm out at the resort, just to name a very few, all became friends. The maids, the maintenance guys, the gate and patrol guards. Everyone was great. (Oh and if I forgot anyone or if I got a name wrong, I sincerely apologize. I plead temporary insanity, or sun glare or Caribe fever, choose one.)

The room…a beautiful little apartment overlooking the beach. Our first week was just the two of us celebrating the 40th year of our marriage. The kitchen is a little small but very serviceable with a nice sink, new microwave and toaster oven and a nice little cook top (oh and a nice blender, made use of that). A nice living room/dining room with a fabulous view and comfortable sofas. The main bedroom is good size with a nice bathroom and a really good shower. For our second week our daughter joined us from Chicago to celebrate her 30th birthday. The second bedroom was perfect for her and even though a little small, I think it was still larger than her Chicago apartment.

The waterfront…there are not enough superlatives to describe it and all would sound cliché. We LOVED it! All of us! The best beach. The best view. The most refreshing water. Very close. Not too busy, at least in September. During our two weeks, just enough waves and virtually no rocks. You choose your chairs for the week and Dominic tapes your room number on the chairs. Easily accessible outdoor full and foot showers and bathrooms.

[A quick aside. When I asked Dominic what the cat’s name was he gave me a big smile and said “Cat”.]

The store…the little mini-store is wonderful. It carries a little bit of almost anything you need and all at quite reasonable prices. The lady that runs it is friendly and fun and she’ll order pastries and baguettes, anything you want.

The restaurant…The Gingerbread Café…very good food, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good drinks, good staff and right at the beach and the swimming pool. If you stay here you have to attend the Monday barbecue, a really nice buffet, good music (a steel drum duet the two weeks we attended) all in a beachfront setting. We love dancing and really enjoyed ourselves, but were unable to get many to join us.

The location…could not be any better. Very easy to find and to access. Private gate always staffed. Easy parking. It is not close to a lot of restaurants and nothing is within walking distance, except Divi. For us that was not only not a problem but very desirable. And being close to Divi just adds to the The Belair’s experience. We ate a Gizmo’s several times and walked from The Belair to Divi almost every morning for exercise.
Oh, did I mention the view! I am a boat nerd. I track the great lakes freighters all summer using Marine Tracker app. The location of the Belair is perfect, for me, because all of the major ships, cruise ships and freighters, entering and leaving Philipsburg harbor lay up in front awaiting the pilot boat. Also loved seeing not only Saba often but also Saint Eustatius and Saint Kitts for several days in a row.
What else can I say, for travel to SXM we have found a home…The Belair forever!

Restaurants, food and shopping

On our first Sunday we had a light breakfast, swam and lounged by the beach for a while. We took a quick drive around the island. Wow, Orient does not look like the place I remember. Nothing left but rubble. Had a drink in downtown Marigot, bought pastries at La Express and then shopped for food at Super U. Now that is a very nice, large supermarket with everything, however Sunday noon might not be the best time to shop there as it was packed with people in their Sunday best having just come from church. We found some wonderful Norwegian salmon and stocked up on the supplies we would need for breakfast, lunch and some dinners. We were surprised to see that the store was closing at 12:45pm just as we were heading out.

We ate at The Gingerbread Café at The Belair many times and were never disappointed. Loved their chicken sate app on the lunch menu, had it many times.

The Sint Maarten Yacht Club. Why we had never had been there before was a mystery but we loved it and the people so much that we kept coming back. We ate breakfast and lunch twice each and drinks several more times. Love the place. Highly recommend the Eggs Benedict, the pancakes, the Coconut Shrimp and the Grouper Fingers. This place seems to attract mostly locals and some frequent SXM travelers and is in an excellent location if you’re into boats. If you go, give a shout out to our favorite bartender/waiter Maarten and checkout the railing on the lagoon side that is made from an 80 foot long sailing mast.

The Buccaneer Beach Bar. A perennial favorite by all and for good reason. Cold, inexpensive beer, good food, great beach and view and good people. Our first trip here I had a typical SXM people experience. My wife was looking through a beach vendor’s pareos when a short guy came up to me and said he thought that we had met before. I didn’t think so but smiled and introduced myself despite the slight feeling that I was now going to receive some kind of a pitch. I could not have been more wrong. He said his real name, which I now forget, but told me that everyone called him Shorty (it fit). It turns out Shorty is a retired Mechanical Engineer and had worked at the Dutch side power plant for thirty years. I have an Engineering degree and my son is also a Mechanical Engineer so that led to a long friendly conversation with two proud papa’s talking about they’re kids.

The Greenhouse, Philipsburg. We had drinks here one night and a really good dinner on another. Great prime rib. If you go and meet Troy the bartender ask him for his Irma story.

Toppers, Simpson Bay. Wednesday night must be in the universal bar playbook as being the night for karaoke (it’s true at home too). Topper was in rare form singing all his favorite Sinatra tunes. I had my first and only ‘hanging shish-kabob’. A neat idea and very tasty. My wife had the coconut shrimp which was good but not as good as the yacht club. If you go, give a shout out to Z the waiter, a cool guy from Suriname and The Netherlands with another survivor story.

Gizmo’s, Divi Little Bay. Had drinks here many times, it’s such an easy walk, and dinner another. A wonderful open air location with good staff and a nice menu. Met some cool people here including Chris and P.J. from the States.

The Blue Bitch Bar, Philipsburg boardwalk. Did a little shopping on a no-cruise day. Parked at the lot near the police station. Very few street vendors and many shops were closed but we weren’t really disappointed. Bought a few things at the store on the pier near the water taxi dock and stopped for lunch at The Blue Bitch. It was quiet and we had a nice lunch and some nice cold Caribe. Bought a t-shirt and they threw in a cool coozie.

We attempted to go to a few other places but were frustrated by closings, Marks Place, La Pressoir Jimbos and locations we could not find despite multiple attempts, Jamtillian for one. For the most part we ate in and loved it including a celebration night that included baked salmon, a scrumptious salad and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

Activities. Generally almost every day was spent at The Belair beach swimming, lounging, reading, basking and more swimming. Two days we left the resort for the day. On our first Thursday we went for a day sail with our old friend Neil Roebert of Celine Charters on his new boat Enigma. Wow what a boat. I’m so jealous and Neil seems to have this knack for upgrading to a bigger, nicer boat after the last one was destroyed by a hurricane. Enigma is a power (sail too if desired) catamaran. It is a 62’ Lagoon that is 30+ feet wide and very luxurious with six separate state rooms, two dining/serving tables, a galley, tons of comfortable seating including an awesome fly bridge. Neil and crew created one of best, if not THE best, meal we had on the island. We swam at Baie Longue (heard the La Samana story) and a quick trip to Mullet Beach too. A wonderful day and a wonderful way to see the island. I highly recommend a trip with Neil and his crew.

The other day away from the resort was a full day at Mullett Beach. Ah, what can I say about Mullett. It was a non-cruise day, intentionally, and a perfect Mullett day. Gentle rollers, the most awesome colored water anywhere and a lot of beautiful white sand. We arrived early and stayed late and got a little fried, but we loved every second. And the entertainment was quite good too (twenty to thirty little beach crabs that pop in and out of holes in the sand as the waves sweep across the beach. What a hoot!)

One day both of my girls treated themselves to a massage in our room from Patti, the massage girl associated with the resort (they raved about Patti and how wonderful and relaxing it was having a massage in our room with the slider door open and soothing music playing.). We had a light breakfast and I loaded up a beach bag and hit the road. I drove all over including Dawn Beach and Oyster Pond, and Coralita Beach and on to Orient. This was a cruise ship day and I ended frog-hopping cruisers in buses, rental cars and vans, but I survived. It was my first time at the little observation tower overlooking Étang aux Poissons and Baie de L’Embouchure where I saw goats all over the hills that were literally posing on top of the rocky hills like statues. The observation tower really lends itself to some great videos and panoramic photos of the surf and hills. Stopped at Orient Village and the newly built Bikini Beach Bar and again it was full of cruisers (but again I survived). What a beautiful new beach bar. Very elegant bar and dining area and gorgeous new bathrooms. Had a few cold Heineken drafts and I seemed to get better service and a genuine smile when I presented Euros instead of Dollars. Drove into the Pinel ferry area and just like the Orient Beach Resort area I hardly recognized it. It stunk from the seaweed piled on the shore and looked very quiet.

Another memorable day happened our first week at our resort. We had met these two ladies earlier in the week and then on Wednesday they put together a floating Tiki Bar. They had two paddle boards and an inflatable that held the cooler. They had rigged up signs and portable lights and offered quite an array of treats. Rum punch, vodka and cranberry, vodka and ginger, beer and soda and snacks (pretzels and chex mix in little paper cups and served in a muffin tray). This lasted most of the afternoon as they yelled at anyone that entered the water to join them for a free cocktail and snack. The crowd, all buoyed by foam noodles, varied from ten to twenty and long after we gave up they were still out there after dark with they’re lights flashing away. A good time was had by all. I will never forget that day and in fact we plan to try and duplicate this next summer at our beach on Lake Michigan.


Saturday, September 29
Departed on Spirit and it was nice that our daughter flew with us on the same flight to FLL together. We arrived at 11am for a 1:50pm flight but when all said and done we were glad. Stood in line way to long (a computer terminal was down) before getting into the waiting area but we managed to find three seats near our gate and finished our books as we waited for our flight.
Summary. We didn’t do all that we planned to do, we spent too much time just chilling out, drinking and reading, i.e. the perfect SXM vacation. This was our first two week vacation and as others predicted we will try for that every time now.
I just wish we hadn’t come home to sub-50 degree temps back home. Oh well.