Love Anguilla and personally think, if judging by beaches alone, AXA is a far superior beaching destination and IMO, the snorkeling is superior on AXA. And while I love the look of most of the AXA beaches I do think the SXM beaches are very beautiful with more 'life' to them.

AXA is very unlike St. Maarten/St. Martin - logistically not nearly as easy to get to, for us at least coming out of the NE corridor, and very expensive by simple comparison. Food is great in either place but again, I think SXM has more variety at different price levels.

SXM has far more opportunities for different activities that just don't seem to exist on AXA. No casinos and the nightlife on AXA is a little more subdued, IMO anyway. That's not good or bad, better or worse - just different.

If you're looking for clothing optional to make your trip perfect, you'd probably be better off looking elsewhere as I don't even think they're particularly tolerant of even topless on most AXA beaches.

The good thing about staying on AXA is that it's very peaceful - no traffic headaches like SXM - and if you get tired of 'peaceful' then SXM and all it's positives are just a short boat ride away.

We generally stay on SXM but do some time on AXA often - sometimes at the beginning and sometimes at the end and a few times, right smack dab in the middle of our SXM time and we love them both for very different reasons. St. Maarten has our heart but AXA is a very close second for totally different reasons.