I'm pretty sure our first visit was in 2004; friends and co-workers of David suggested we try it. Based on their recommendation, we stayed at Le Meridien in Anse Marcel (now Secrets). We pretty much stayed at the beach there most days, but went into Grand Case for dinner every night. The next year we stayed at Cap Caraibes, spending most days on the beach at Waikiki or Kakao, and again, dinners in Grand Case or La Vie en Rose in Marigot. Towards the end of that week, we decided that we should look into timeshare, since we were paying north of $2,000 for one week in a hotel room. On the back cover of the little guidebook you pick up at the airport was an ad for La Vista: "Timesharing Done Right, No Gifts, No Gimmicks." That sounded like us, so we went to La Vista the day before our flight home departed, walked up to the bar, and announced to the bartender (after ordering drinks, of course), that we wanted to buy a timeshare. Without missing a beat, he ran to get Caribbean Al, who showed us around the resort, explained how things worked, and showed us the list of the units that met our criteria. We ended up buying two consecutive weeks at La Vista Beach, and were fortunate enough to get a third week, all in the same unit, a couple of years later. We're continually amazed at how lucky we were to have chosen probably the most well-managed timeshare on the island on a whim and without any research.

Our three week visits now include a different beach pretty much every day, and mostly dinners on the Dutch side. But the best part is the lifelong friends that we see on the island at the same time every year, and visit at opposite ends of the US, North and South as well as East and West, throughout the year. Best decision we ever made.