I am not an expert, having been there only for a day on a cruise, AND I tend to like places that are different from St Thomas, but I thought the Holetown area was dreadful. You drive down the street and you can't see a thing for the high rise hotels one after another. We really liked Bathsheba and the east coast. It was away from the crowds, seemed to have a lot of vacation cottages with small, local restaurants around. Of course, there isn't the great food you get on St Martin, but it's an English island, so what do you expect? We hired a car and our driver was a woman who spent her weekends on the race track, so nothing seemed far away!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Hairy.gif" alt="" />