MONEY

We went with some USD with the intent of using ABM to withdraw cash as we needed it. The week before in St Kitts we had the option of withdrawing USD or Euros
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1. Staying in the Orient village we found no ABM's. We made the short drive to Hope Estate to withdraw at the bank beside the grocery store (name escapes me). There was only the option of withdrawing Euros.

2. The exchange on the Euros was significantly worse.

3. Since the beach chairs / bars considered USD & EU to be 1:1 we would have been way better off taking a bunch of USD. Or perhaps we could have gotten USD by lining up at a bank counter but we were never there when the branch was open.

4. Non-beach stuff we put on our CC but with the knowledge that in the French side all CC charges are in EU. So with the higher cost of EU we got hit.

(re-posting the following…

1. Always rent a car, maybe with the taxi from airport / get rental on 2nd day. Kennys is good. We did one round the island drive and the back and forth to airport plus a couple of runs to ABM. Gas bill was $18.00

2. We picked up at airport from Leslie @ Kenny's and he reinforced 'do not leave luggage unattended' even in grocery store lot

3. 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. 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.
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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 When we compared the exchange rates for those SXM EU versus the USD that we had withdrawn the week before in St Kitts - Nevis we got hosed on the EU.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 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 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. Dinners in the Village were excellent. La Piment for sure, and we did Telegraphie 2x.
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