This trip was in celebration of our 40th anniversary. We had wanted to go to Europe to celebrate it, but decided that I could not do the walking necessary to really enjoy it, so we decided instead to book TWO separate trips to SXM this year, which we had not been able to do for several years. So we decided to do a trip in a villa in June, and then also a trip to our ‘home away from home’, Beachside Villas, in October. We were able to score frequent flyer tickets on Delta for June, Orlando through Atlanta to SXM, and on AA non-stop from Miami for October, so that cut down on that cost for us. This report is pretty wordy, so feel free to skip ahead on the parts that don’t interest you.


We had not started out necessarily to pick a villa on the French side, but based on our criteria at the time, which were views of the water, sunset views, and a/c in the living room, we chose Villa Canoua. Click here for a review of Villa Canoua

Villa Canoua Review
The views are amazing!



We had not stayed on the French side in a very long time, probably over 10 years. We first started coming to SXM on cruise ships, then our first trip staying on island was at Green Cay Villas, overlooking Orient Beach, in February 1995, 7 months pre-Luis. After that, we stayed at L’Hoste, Plantation, Cap Cariabes, Sun Cariabes, Club Orient several times, Caribbean Princess, several more times at Green Cay Villas, and at another villa overlooking Orient, whose name and owner has since changed hands. Eventually for mostly business reasons we started staying on the Dutch side. Once we decided that we would stay at Villa Canoua, we decided that we would pretty much stay on the French side this trip, as we hadn’t spent much time on the French side lately. We basically did stay on the French side, except for a trip to Carrefour, to fill up our top-up card and get a few groceries. It was great staying on the French side again, although Grand Case is still a shadow of it’s former self, almost two years post Irma.

TRIP DOWN Our flight from Orlando to Atlanta left at 6:30 AM. So, since we are 1.5 hours away from Orlando, this meant getting up at 2:15 am, and leaving the house at 3 AM. Joy, joy. There was no traffic of course, and we arrived at 4:20 am at the airport. There were actually several people around at that hour, which I had been somewhat worried about. Although I had pre-reserved it, I decided not to use wheelchair assist in Orlando, and we were through security in an easy 15 minutes. Because of using frequent flyer miles, mine and Eric’s, our reservations were not booked together, and while we requested them to be linked, somehow this didn’t happen, so Delta upgraded me (only) to Delta Comfort, so we weren’t together. We got it changed back so we were seated together, although we lost our two aisle seats we had booked. The flight was basically full. We arrived a little late in Atlanta, but since we had two hours there, it was no problem. I used wheelchair assist in Atlanta, which was VERY helpful, as that place is freaking HUGE.

We grabbed breakfast at Burger King, for a whopping $16. Don’t ya just love airport prices, even when it doesn’t involve alcohol!! Eric grabbed us a couple of pre-made salads for the flight, which salads contained lettuce which was FROZEN, which we discovered once on the plane. Yuck. He also got a wrap which was ok, so we shared that. The flight was basically half empty, so the cabin stewards told everyone to spread out. I have a Delta Skymiles card, so we got zone one boarding, and one free checked bag per person, which was nice. The seats were very comfortable, much more so than AA, and there is a seatback TV on Delta, which is nice.

As with most all airlines in SXM these days, I had to walk down the stairs to deplane. One of the fellows standing by saw me struggling with my carry-on bag and he came and got it for me and carried it the rest of the way down, which was nice of him. I have to say that everyone I dealt with using wheelchair assist this trip was very nice and very helpful. Once I was down the stairs, they had a sign with my name on it, so I took the ride from there, and he took us through the local line! He waited with us to get our suitcase, and took me all the way out to the rental car area, which was nice. There wasn’t a huge line for immigration regardless, as we arrived on a Wednesday, and we ended up waiting on the checked bag to come out, but we were still out of the airport in under 20 minutes.

Once out of the terminal, we were met by the fellow from AAA Car Rental and off on the short trip to Beacon Hill to get the car, which is a white ??? with several dings, which is very OK with me. The a/c worked great and the engine got us up and down some pretty good hills without any problem, including to the villa, Anse Marcel, and the road going to Princess Heights in Oyster Pond. Good job, AAA!

We headed through Marigot toward the villa, which is not really backed up at all. As of then, it was one way ONLY from the Super U just to the roundabout. We arrived at the villa at around 3 PM, pretty good timing considering our flight landed at 2! The owner, Jules, and the maid were there, and he handed us off the keys. We dumped our bags and headed out to Hope Market for some first day supplies. Overall, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the store, but we did get most of what we needed, including important stuff like Bacardi Limon and Tanqueray, plus non-essentials like coffee, bread, eggs, water. They were doing 1 to 1 for cash, so that was nice. I suspect they will have some problems keeping business there since Super U opened in Hope Estate, the day before we left to come home.

Before we left home, we had stewed and stewed about what to have for our first day meal. I had decided I wanted to get pizza from the little place almost directly across the street from Rainbow. Problem, we went through Grand Case around 4 PM, and it was not open. So just went home, intending to go back out for dinner. As usual this trip we had brought a very small cooler with us, with some meats from home. We brought a couple of boneless chicken breasts, a couple of steaks, 4 burgers, and some sliced ham. Once we got back ‘home’ and had a couple of drinks, we had no desire to leave, so we just ended up cooking some chicken breasts we had brought from home, along with mashed potatoes and corn. Sorry, no pictures of the meal. After a very short night last night, the view out front and the sounds of the waterfall in back are very soothing, and it was off to an early bedtime, after a decent sunset.




Thursday morning dawned beautiful, although slightly hazy. We rarely go out to breakfast at home and this trip, we did not go out to breakfast at all, which was just fine. We bought croissants, chocolate croissants, and quiche over the course of the week to supplement our eggs and ham and of course, champagne, for that essential mimosa!! If you have this view as you eat your breakfast, why would you ever want to leave?


We headed to Super U in Marigot for our big grocery shopping trip, which had always been our plan for the first morning. As of NOW, the Super U in Hope Estate is open, so there is no reason to go to the Marigot Super U from Grand Case. I wish it had opened a week earlier, as it was a royal PITA to get to the Super U because of construction in Marigot, but we survived.

As I was perusing the shelves at Super U, I came upon a white wine for 1.9E on sale! There was a French lady standing there, also looking at it. I said to her “probably garbage”, and then suggested “cooking wine”?? She said something in French to her companion and we both laughed. She bought two bottles, as did I. Since there were not plastic cups or wine glasses at the villa, we bought a stack of plastic cups for 2 E and 6 plastic champagne glasses for 3E. 1.9E white wine, out of a plastic champagne flute, a marriage made in heaven! We bought some anniversary flowers for me




and some Super U brand diet lemon-lime soda, since I had trouble otherwise finding diet soda, as well as some lovely mint, for a mojito in my future! . Super U is NOT doing 1/1 for cash, but giving $1.10 to a Euro.

We went home and got out of those hot clothes , and had some cheese and crackers, while waiting for hamburgers to unthaw. Lunch was burgers with gouda, and some Super U potato chips, which weren’t bad at all for 1.7E for the bag.



We will definitely skip those high-priced US potato chips in future, in favor of Super U chips!

The rest of the day melted away, with time in the pool and generally doing a lot of nothing!



We did sort of miss seeing the cruise ships, which we always have a lovely view of, at Beachside Villas. Here, the only views you have of them are WAY off in the distance.



There are lots of other boats, ferries, etc., to watch though, so that is always interesting.

We brought our own binoculars, as we always do, but there was a pair of binoculars provided at the villa, which is definitely a nice touch. There was no one on Happy Bay today, although Eric said there had been a few people there yesterday.

Especially in the summer, that view of the sunset does have a cost, which is that the deck does really warm up, especially once the sun peeks below the roof line. We left the a/c off all day until around 4 to 4:30, when we would close up the doors, turn on the a/c and close the curtains slightly until the room cooled down, which took about 15 minutes. Since we weren’t using the second bedroom, we just kept that door closed and the storm shutters down over the French door for that bedroom. After a couple of days, we also just kept the storm shutter down over the French door in our bedroom also. This kept our bedroom pretty cool throughout most of the day, and it was quickly cooled down if we wanted to turn the a/c on at any point in there.

The pool deck is tile, of course, and after a day or so, we decided to keep a small towel down by the pool to dry our feet on when we got out. It wasn’t an overly slick tile, but no reason to risk a nasty fall. The pool has lights with a couple of different settings to use at night. There are steps going down into the pool, and it was fairly easy to get out of, even for me, even though there was no hand rail. It’s all one depth, around 5’8” or so.

It would be nice if there was a shallow seat on the side, but you can sit on the stairs if you like, which I did a lot. There is a villa very close to the left, but no one has been there so far, that we have seen. We have heard that the dogs that are there are there only when the villa isn’t occupied. They bark occasionally but it is not annoying at all. It’s very quiet here. Occasionally you’ll hear just a bit of noise from a construction project of a couple of villas that they are building as you come up the hill and occasionally you hear a plane going into Grand Case airport, and one night I heard a couple of cats caterwauling, who sounded like they were engaged in a battle to the death.. Otherwise, you hear only the birds and the lovely sounds of the waterfall in the back.




The water in the shower/sink/ etc is VERY hot, so be careful with it. The water pressure is excellent. The water is either cistern or community water and the owner recommends bottled water for drinking, which is what we did, even for making coffee, which was not big deal at all. There was a welcome basket in the villa, which included some water, a bottle of wine, some chips, nuts, some crackers, etc. The coffeepot uses those cone shaped filters, and there were a few here, as well as some salt and pepper and some plastic wrap and aluminum foil and parchment paper. I’m sure many people leave condiments, etc., there but I’m sure they are trashed, or given to the maid because you never know what people might do. There are a bunch of pots and pans, lots of dishes, although not really a lot of matching dishes. Again, there are fair amount of glasses, several different kinds. The separate icemaker makes lots of ice. There is a stackable washer and dryer, and laundry soap provided. Bath towels and beach towels look pretty new. The beach towels aren’t huge, like the ones at Beachside Villas, but certainly good enough. Since it was just the two of us, I grabbed the beach towels out of the second bedroom also, so used two on the chaise lounge. They provide some mini bottles of shampoo/crème rinse and bar soap. There is a TV in the master bedroom also, but we never even turned it on.
The rest of the day melted away, with time in the pool and generally doing a lot of nothing!
Dinner was steak, baked potatoes, and salad.

And so endeth another lovely day

Nice trip Report Carol....looks good.

Sounds lovely, Carol.

Can't wait for Part II.

Great report as always- and Happy Anniversary!!!

Great report.thanks for sharing. Glad you had a great anniversary!

Thanks everyone. Got part two and at least part three to go yet!

Sweet

Nice report and nice pictures.

Sounds lovely and perfect for the anniversary you looked forward to.

It’s a little surreal to be looking at those views as I write this. Canoua could turn me into a hermit real fast...lol. Your first days sound like they were not rushed and that allowed you to ease into your celebratory vacation.

It’s weird that Super U in Marigot has an exchange rate when the new store is offering 1 for 1.

Nice report. Looking forward to the next instalments.

Both shops are 1:1 until July 14th.

OK, must be a grand opening special for the new store. Makes sense.

A beautiful report as always. Looking forward to the future parts!

Beautiful views! No need to leave to go anywhere for a few days!

For sure!