Posted previously about our first few nights, this to follow and if I find time, more to come.

First full week we had six friends arriving on island, the November Gang plus two friends for our home town. No more resting at Le Petit, the party begins! Whooooop Whoooooop!!!
Start with the Beaches, beaches.

Beach Bars –
LTC already stated above, certainly has become one of our favorites and the Grand Case Beach is one of if not the nicest beach on island. Easy in and out into the water, crystal clear and peaceful. Gets a bit busy on Sundays as most do but still not crazy at least this year.

La Playa – we arrived to find out that Bruno has left the day to day here, but we have known Carole for several years and we think it is fantastic that she is getting to run this place and we know she will do a great job. While of course we miss seeing Bruno when there, the place did not miss a beat. Beach chairs were comfortable, service on the beach we very good as well as the drinks. We ate lunch under the canopy as well as over at the new structure that has the Sushi Chef from Dreams putting out some of the best on island. We felt like royalty and have enjoyed every meal there in all our days this trip. Not sure what the future is for La Playa, I will all well and hope it works out.

Friars Bay Beach Club – Some of the best food on island for a beach bar, love the service there as well and the setting is pretty awesome as well. The only wish we would have is that they would bring back having pads for the chairs, they are not my favorite there.

Grand Case Beach Club – This is a “we will be back” kind of place. Did not go until later in the trip, much because of the road construction that stopped us one day when trying. I think it is $20 for two chairs and an umbrella for outside guest and you have to park on the street which is all fine, we entered through the main gate but there is a walk way that you can use just a bit past the entry gate to GCBC. Comfortable chairs, they will keep moving the umbrella for you to keep the shade and while it does not have the same flag system for beach service it once did that was fine with us. The restaurant there, Sunset Café, now has Koko and Marina running it and the food was possible the best we had at any beach bar. The salads looked the best I have seen on island, I had a pasta with shrimp and ham in a tomato sauce, the Duck had by two was raved about as well. Really good cocktails and it is another place with a nice setting and beach with easy to get in and out water. Made two stops here and will be back in April.

Karakter and Mary’s Boon – We went on a Tuesday where the kitchen was closed, it was not busy and my thoughts at the time was that’s ok as we will have the nicer chairs with pads and then go over to the Boon for lunch which we made sure was acceptable to Karakter which it was. The beach was nice, drinks were good and all was fine with Karakter, lunch at Mary’s Boon was poor from service to the actual food. It was a won’t be back kind of lunch, salads lacked any inspiration and the burgers and other items were subpar and add that to service that was closer to feeling like we inconvenienced them by stopping by. None of us were happy with it, what I would refer to a “wasted meal” when you only have so many on island and you used up one there. I don’t pan many places and have had good food there in the past but they earned this one bad day or not.

Dany’s at Cupecoy – MJ and I have this as one of our favorites, one of the few places that we are fine not having the luxury of pads on the chairs and regular rest rooms but we just love the setting. Had ribs and chicken most days there, enjoyed the lobster one day as well and I still state that it is the best lobster on island.
Da Watering Hole – This is at Mullet, same people from Daleo’s but they have taken the place to another level. We did not go there during the day, no pads on the chairs being the reason but we did go for sunset and a couple evenings for drinks and ate there once as well in the evening. Really enjoyed the staff there and especially Jonesy (sp?). They also have some of the cleanest bathrooms on island, really enjoyed out stops there. Might be a good place for an evening party once all this Covid crap clears up.

More to come, but a couple closing notes for this part of my report.

It really sucks feeling that you can’t hug people, or for that matter really branch out and see people noting while I personally am not in fear of all of this I completely get that some are and that changes a lot of normal habits.

I also am always amazed on how many people in a given trip that I see just drop garbage where they are with no regard like it is just not wrong. WTF people, I watched one person try their Bic type lighter and it did not work so he just dropped it, no effort to see if there was a garbage can, just dropped it.

I feel very lucky to have the group we travel with, especially this year. We had a blast and were living well. I hope that a bit of normal returns to the island and again for all of you that are pondering, there is no better time to go. Think about being able to go to Maho and the beach there with no cruisers! Much less traffic and as I have stated before I have never felt more welcome on island.

Cheers!