Just back Feb 13 from a week in Orient Village area.
1. rent a car, maybe with the taxi from airport / get rental on 2nd day
2. We picked up at airport from Leslie @ Kenny's and he reinforced 'do not leave luggage unattended' even in grocery store lot
3. We did one day of car touring mainly to give our slight sunburns a break from the beach. Grand Case was a lost cause due to road closures and lack of parking. We made it back later in the week for breakfast but never ventured there for dinner. The place is still a shambles and I am glad that we cancelled our Grand Case hotel (Hevea) and elected to AirBNB in Orient Village.
4. We were told in the Village that there were no ABM's. We were directed to the banks in Hope Estate (10 minutes drive)
5. Bank machines in Hope Estate only dispensed euros. When we compared the exchange rates for those SXM EU versus the USD that we had withdrawn the week before in St Kitts - Nevis we got hosed on the EU. This is an important cost when beach vendors are taking 1 USD as 1 EU. Having a bag of USD dollars would have been better than withdrawing EU.
6. All of the Village restaurants present the bill in EU or USD but if you pay by CC you are charged in EU. Again the EU exchange premium only this time on your CC.
7. On our one day away from the Village we drove the island circuit, stopping in Marigot briefly. Its marina is a wreck but Tropicana, which I remembered from my 1995 visit was fully open. As we left Marigot headed for the bridge we were greeted by a threesome of bikers doing 1/4 mile long wheelies as we crossed the bridge. To think that I used to walk AM and PM from Nettle Bay to the Marigot Marina along that same stretch of road....I just wanted to get away from that stretch as fast as Kenny's Kar would take us. There are still a couple of piles of burned out cars along side the road.
8. La Playa is where we did all of our beach days....why pay $30 for 2 chairs 15 feet away at Bikini when $20 at La Playa gets you the same.
9. We ate lunch at La Playa, KKO, Bikini and The Wai. All are very good. Dinners in the Village were excellent. La Piment for sure, and we did Telegraphie 2x. If we had thought about eating in Grand Case I personally would have taken a taxi. I enjoy wine and would not drive the roads at night let alone try to park my rental in Grand Case and then try to extract it in the dark and drive home.