We’re home! We miss SXM terribly and are already planning a longer trip next summer, as long as time and finances work out. This was our sixth on-island vacation to St. Martin over the past 15 years, plus four or five cruise stops. We hadn’t been back in close to four years, obviously before Irma, and weren’t sure what we’d be walking into. This summer was our 25th wedding anniversary, but due to both time and financial constraints (two kids in college, two sets of elderly parents to help care for, and in the process of buy a house in the Florida Keys), we could only pull off a 4-night trip right now. It was way too short! The majority of the trip was awesome, with just a couple of hiccups.

Our flight on AA out of MIA was scheduled for noon on Wednesday, so we drove down to Miami Tuesday night and got a cheap room at Sleep Inn near the airport. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean, updated, and we felt safe there. For less than $60, we weren’t going to complain! Checking in at MIA on Wednesday was quick and easy, and we actually had quite a bit of time to kill after we got through security. I’m one of those 3-hour-minimum people, and we easily still had 1.5 to 2 hours of leisure time once we got to the gate. Now, this was on a Wednesday morning during off-season, so I’d still plan for three hours in most cases! The flight was uneventful, and we were in SXM a little after 3pm.

We had booked a car rental through Kenny’s, and after about 15-20 minutes, Lesley arrived. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a car available for us after all, but he had set us up with another company. He walked us over to the lot, gave us a map and made sure we knew where we were going, offered alternate routes due to traffic at that time of day, then handed us over to the gentleman we would be renting from. This was our first hiccup. I know that a lot of cars were probably damaged during Irma and rental companies are still rebuilding their fleets, but this car was a beater with a Capital B! We had discussed a Toyota Corolla with Lesley, and this was a very old Yaris. The plastic hubcaps were scuffed and cracked, the plastic back bumper was cracked in several places, there were lots of “touch up” paint spots, the interior was cracked in several places, and one whole front panel of the interior was missing. Hubby shrugged it off and commented that at least he wouldn’t worry about someone bumping into us in a parking lot! Honestly, the looks of the car were really not a big deal to us. What actually affected our trip (which I’ll get to later) was that the engine was super weak (hubby had to shift into 2nd gear just to go up the hills in the Orient Beach area) and the brakes weren’t great. But hey, we were on our 25th anniversary vacation, and we were ready for a great time!

We jumped in the car and headed to Esmeralda. We had originally booked at Palm Court, but their renovations weren’t finished yet, so they moved our reservation to Esmeralda for the same price. Awesome!! The resort was beautiful - there are strips of four rooms per building, each strip sharing a small private pool. The room was spacious and beautifully decorated, with a little kitchenette area that had a sink, mini fridge, microwave, and electric tea/hot water pot. The rate included free continental breakfast at L’Astrolabe each morning and free wi-fi.

After unpacking and resting a bit, we headed down to Orient Village. We drove down that first night, but realized it was a short, easy, and well-lit walk back to Esmeralda from there. So, on subsequent nights, we walked. We picked up a few necessities at the Casino market (sunscreen, creamer for the coffee in our room, water, Ma Dou Dou), dropped them back at the room, then went back down for dinner. After reading so many good reviews here, we chose Le Piment. It was amazing! I ordered duck confit with an gratin potatoes, and Hubby got the Camembert salad. We finished it off with a creme brûlée and had leftover duck to take back to the room.

Thursday morning we drove down to the parking lot behind Kon Tiki, then walked to the Club O portion of the beach. We stayed at Club O for three of our previous on-island vacations, and we were heartbroken to see the current state it’s in! Seeing the chairs and yellow umbrellas out, and seeing Perch Lite up and running, made us feel good though. We had a nice leisurely beach morning, then went to Kon Tiki for lunch. Hubby got cod and veggies in lemon butter off the menu, and I got a special - pork cheek stew over sweet and white potatoes. Both were divine! I think those pork cheeks were the best thing I ate all trip! We had a yummy citrus cheesecake for dessert, and had leftovers to take back to the room. After dropping off the leftovers and grabbing a quick nap, we headed back to our chairs at Club O till they started packing things up around 5:30. We went back to our room, hung out at the pool, and heated up leftovers for dinner. We sat out on the back deck to eat, and soon had a beautiful little tabby cat that showed up for handouts. Hubby couldn’t resist and gave her a few scraps, and we had a friend for the rest of the trip. A friend who brought along a few more friends...

Friday was the same routine - continental breakfast at L’Astrolabe, pack up our beach stuff, drive down behind Kon Tiki, walk to Club O. The morning was wonderful. Around 11:30, a couple of young guys came down and got chairs in front of us. They brought one of those speaker things you can use with your phone (yes, I’m old, and no, I don’t know the technical term) and were playing rap music with lots of F-bombs and N-words. They sat there, fully clothed, listening to that, and chain smoking. It was not exactly relaxing. We were about to get up for lunch, though, so it didn’t bother us too much, and we crossed our fingers that they’d be gone when we got back. We did lunch at KK
O that day. Hubby had a yummy meal of unicorn fish - I still need to look up what the American term for that is! I wanted sushi, which is supposed to be available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but our server said they didn’t have any. So, I ordered the Coquille St. Jacques appetizer as my meal, which was the wrong pick on my part for a meal on a hot beach day - the cheese and cream sauce were too heavy. I helped Hubby eat his fish, though, and it was great! When we got back to Club O, the boys were still there with their music, and we were a bit disappointed. Other people mush have complained, though, because one of the chair guys came up and said something to them, and they turned it off. We enjoyed the beach a while longer, then headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. I really, really wanted pizza, and I knew I couldn’t go into Marigot and get my favorite at La Belle Époque, so I was determined to find good pizza in Orient Village. We looked at L Trattoria, but their pizzas are more flatbread on focaccia bread, and I wanted REAL pizza. So, we ended back at Le Pimente! I had a Regina pizza, and Hubby got fish again, mahi, I think. We ended with Tiramisu. All of it was once again amazing! There were vendors selling things in the courtyard area and live music playing, so we strolled around, listened to the music, and purchased a couple of prints of Orient Bay.

Saturday we decided to drive around. Our original plan was to drive up to Anse Marcel (which we’d never been to), hang out at the beach in the morning, grab lunch, then drive into Philipsburg for the afternoon. Well, this is where we ended up not being thrilled with our rental car. After driving it around for three days, Hubby was not 100% sure the engine would make it up there and even less sure that the brakes would make it back down. Now, this is the guy who drove a mini van full of preschoolers up a volcanic glacier with no guardrails when we lived in Iceland, so he’s not exactly a chicken when it comes to driving. So, we scratched that idea and just went straight to Philipsburg. We had a nice time wandering around. We’re not big liquor or jewelry shoppers, but I was hoping to get a new beach bag. I priced them at the straw market when we walked in from the parking lot by the police station, and they were asking $25 for the ones I was interested in. When I walked away, they dropped to $20, then $18. I passed, since I didn’t want to carry it around, figuring I could grab one on the way back to the car. After walking around, we grabbed lunch at one of the little spots right on the beach Nu-Love. We split a plate of BBQ ribs and a salad, and it was delicious! We popped into some of the tourist shops, and U was able to find the same beach bag for $10, plus 3 for $25 sundresses, which I wear all the time around the house during the summer. So, I was a happy camper! We got home, rested, then headed back to Orient Village for dinner. This time we went to L’Petit Bistro. Hubby got fish (again)- I don’t even remember which kind. I ordered the Raclette charcuterie, and it was amazing! They brought out this little mini-broiler for me to heat the cheese in, plus there were meats, boiled potatoes, pickles - I was in heaven! We ended with the chocolate dessert, which was delicious.

Sunday morning we had to pack up to leave. We checked out of Esmeralda around 10:30, then took a leisurely drive around the island, going down past Sandy Hook and Cupecoy, past Simpson’s Bay, and around to the airport. It was still too early to check in for our 4pm flight, so we stopped at Sunset Beach Var to grab burgers and watch the planes come in. We arrived at the airport around 1pm, but AA wouldn’t let us check in till 1:30. Again, it was all easy, and our plane left on time, arriving back in Miami around 7:30. We were through customs, had picked up our luggage, and were back in our car and heading home by 8:15.

This mini trip definitely reminded us of how much we love SXM, and we can’t wait to go back for a longer stay!!

Thanks for the report.

Nice report. To bad about the car. Hope the price was reduced to make up for the substitute.

Really great report......Next time will definitely try out a few of those restaurants in Orient. Thx.

Thanks for the report! We thoroughly enjoyed our recent meal at Le Piment! Hopefully you are able to return soon and stay longer!!!

Thanks for the nice report. Personally, I would have insisted on a better car. Yaris has the thinnest sheet metal I've ever seen on an automobile so thankfully you did not have accident. Especially with one of those out-of-control scooters on the island. When this stuff happens with rental cars I sometimes think it's better to forego the rental and just use taxis around the island. As for Esmeralda what is it with all the cats (felines) hanging around up there? I've heard others talk about this in the past so go figure. BTW, unicorn fish is a type of tang or surgeonfish like the Naso Tang. It gets it's name from the long, protruding appendage that extends from it's forehead. Many public aquariums have these interesting looking fish on display in the coral reef areas.

Regarding Esmeralda and cats, there have been a ton of cats there for YEARS..

We felt the cats added charm! We always miss our own two dogs and cat when we travel, so they didn’t bother us in the least.

Pixiedust,

I remember those years when we’d do those short but oh so good four or five day get-always to SXM. We usually went in the spring as a family but those long Fall weekends were strictly for us. I always found it amazing how rejuvenating they could be.

Re the car situation - glad you were able to take it all in stride even if you didn’t get to try Anse Marcel Beach Resort.

Lesley has gotten to be very popular and all it takes is for one car to break down, or get involved in an accident, or have a renter who extends their trip but doesn’t bother to extend the rental but assumes it will be fine, and the whole schedule is blown to bits. And the agencies often can’t win no matter what they do. At least Lesley found another company to accommodate you so you weren’t left stranded. And as strange as it might seem to some, we never have an issue with the more lovingly used cars as long as they’re road worthy. We had a brand new one a year ago and we were nervous wrecks the whole trip, not wanting to be responsible for the first dent or ding.

We once had a company do that to us - not Lesley for sure, but Budget whom we had rented from several times prior to that trip. We took their van from the old airport to their car location with all our luggage and our kids and when we got there they had no car for us. So much for a reservation. And to make matters worse they had no idea when or if they would soon have a car so there we were. I asked if they could at least take us to the hotel where we were staying since it was pretty close and they said we’d have to take a taxi as they were very busy! I was livid but st least they called a taxi for us. It was very soon after that trip that we rediscovered Lesley Bruce, having known him from his Holiday Car Rental days at MBR&C, and the rest has been history.

With reference to the cats at so many locations, we’ve always been told they help to keep the rodent population under control. The Towers was one of many resorts who participated in the catch, neuter and return program, and once they were back at the Towers they were taken care of through the feeding station program overseen by Terri, the activities director. Those kitties were incredibly well fed and cared for. Most of the guests enjoyed their presence and many of us would leave cash with her to buy food for them as needed throughout the year.

Your trip sounds lovely and I truly hope there’s another one in the not too distant future.

Thanks Pat and Holiday Car Rental days at Mullet Bay Resort we were handling over three hundred cars . At that time is was only Toyota Corollas. And from handling Company , I was able make tons of good friends and repeat customers . After Luis 1995, that's when we started our own business , named after our Daughter Kenya aka Kenny's lol.