Flight:<br>Newark - Miami - SXM on American. No problems. Actually, both legs of the flight arrived about 20 minutes early. <br>Similarly good luck on return leg. On-time flights. Got to airport too early, and had too much carry-on luggage to walk anywhere, so read in SXM for a few hours.<br><br>Car:<br>Kenny's car rental worked out pretty well. He met us with a sign, did the paperwork in the car, and we were out in 10 minutes. He made a mistake in calculation that I caught that would have charged me more - don't think it was deliberate but you never know. Only other thing was that the car got a flat tire for no reason on a main street in Marigot. We changed it ourselves in the parking lot and never called him, largely because it looked like it would be difficult to get a phonecard, etc. Luckily he had shown us that there was a spare in the trunk.<br><br>Hotel:<br>Le Petit Hotel in Grand Case. WOW. What a great property. Immaculate. Beautiful views off the balcony (straight out over the ocean). Highly recommend 3rd floor studio rooms for loft ceilings and no roof over the balcony - slightly inconvenient when the rain was dripping a little, but so nice when the sun was shining. Feel free to send a personal message if you have any questions about the hotel. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.<br>Also took the opportunity to use the pool and check out the rooms at sister hotel L'Esplanade. Equally gorgeous, equally immaculate. Wonderful pool with bar - Fred the bartender is a great guy, makes awesome drinks. The pool there is a very social scene - meet lots of people - which is something that Le Petit doesn't really have given the lack of a "common" area, but as everyone has said, it's a tradeoff between being right on the beach or that social pool scene. Toss up for me. Both great.<br><br>Beaches:<br>We visited a lot. Wanted to see all the great ones that y'all told me about. Here's my ranking of the ones I saw, in order of how much I liked them (all factors included):<br>Happy <br>Mullet<br>"Buey" (a little private? beach on the cliffs between Mullet and Cupecoy that we deemed "Buey")<br>Friars<br>Grand Case<br>Baie Rouge<br>Dawn<br>Orient<br>Petite Plage<br>Cupecoy<br>Even as I see Cupecoy on the bottom of that list, I really liked it, so I guess I'm saying that I think all the beaches are great. There's one for whatever mood you're in. Happy to elaborate if anyone's interested...<br><br>Restaurants:<br>Staying in Grand Case, it was hard to convince ourselves to drive somewhere else, rather than take a romantic stroll down the beach into town to go to any of the great restaurants in that town. So we ate in GC every night. Treated ourselves. Similar to the list above, here's my ranking of the places we ate dinner, all things considered<br>Le Testavin<br>Le Pressoir<br>L'Alabama<br>Le Cottage<br>Rainbow<br>La Romance (L'Amandier)<br>Didn't like La Romance very much (except for the setting), but besides that all of the above are recommended, with the emphasis on the first two. Those places would probably be among the best in most cities. <br><br>Non-Beach Activities / Observations:<br>Voyager to St. Barths: Wow, this was quiet an experience. First the good: St. Barths is beautiful. Gustavia is a pretty town with great stores (read: expensive). You get just enough time there to explore the town with a little beach time. We didn't rent a car or take a tour of the island (not enough time in one day I think - i.e. how could you see all of St. Martin in 1 day). Gustavia peaked our interest enough that we'll probably go back to St. Barths sometime. Now, the bad: we got a flat tire on our way to meet the ferry in Marigot. Luckily made it to the parking lot. It was raining that morning. Because of the rain and some other factors, the trip out to St. Barths was a nightmare. The water is rough that way anyway, and about half the passengers (yea - maybe 20 people) vomitted. They were handing out sick bags to everyone. Luckily, Rebecca and I held strong. But barely. The ride back, for whatever reason, is about 1000x more pleasant. Not a sick bag in sight. Ferry takes about an hour and a half each way. <br>Shopping in Marigot: Did this a few times - really like the market for the artwork and jewelry. Thought there were some very good deals here. And the town, especially near the marina, is very cute.<br>Phillipsburg: We went there on Good Friday, knowing everything was gonna be closed, but just to see it and verify that we didn't really want to spend any time there. While not trying to disparage the Dutch side, we decided in Phillipsburg that we just liked the French side much better, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps we would have liked Pburg more if things had been open, but then again, we weren't looking for more jewelry and it seemed like that's all they sold there.<br>Driving: Very fun. I love a challenge, and St. Martin was one, more-or-less. Very fun roads to drive on, especially between towns, in the lowlands, cul-de-sac, quartier orleans, etc.<br><br>Overall, absolutely am smitten with the island. The culture, the people, the beauty, the variety of things to do. It's one of the few places in the world where I don't think I'd ever get bored. I can see what you've all been talking about. Rebecca was trying to convince me to change our flights to stay an extra day. I know we'll be back. Thanks everyone for the help.<br><br>Colin
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