Marc and Jo-Ann's Trip Report: October 19 - 27, 2003

This was our fifth trip to St. Martin and our best ever. This vacation was very relaxing and we spent a lot of quality time together.

Here's our Very Long trip report:

We woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday, October 19 for our 7 a.m. flight from Providence to SXM. Flight left on time and connected through Charlotte. Left Charlotte on-time and arrived in St. Maarten at about 2:10 p.m. Immigration in SXM was a breeze (I guess we lucked out). We only brought carry-on luggage, so we avoided the luggage pick-up hassle.

Hotel and car arrangements were booked through Jim & Mary Ruos at Caribbean Islands Travel Service. They provided us with very good service and nice recommendations for restaurants and places to visit on the island. We rented a car through Hertz, a received a small, scratched-up silver Subaru. The Hertz shuttle brought us to the car rental place and we were on our way to Club Orient by 2:50 p.m.

On the way to the hotel we stopped at Cost-U-Less for beer, wine and water supplies. We just got there before closing time.

The road to Club Orient is horrendous - many, many potholes! Arrived at Club Orient; check-in was a breeze. We booked a beach chalet and our assigned unit was #64. The landscaping was a little barren around our chalet, but the surrounding chalets had nice trees and shrubs around them, so the privacy of our unit was actually pretty good. We loved the location, even though the ocean views from this chalet
were very minimal. There wasn't much to unpack, so we instantly shed our clothing and headed for the beach for an hour or so.

Since we had been awake since 4 a.m., we opted for an early dinner tonight. Drove to Cul de Sac and ate at Au Grain de Sel. Marc had a pizza and I had an excellent shrimp salad. Prices were reasonable and we ended up taking leftover pizza back to the chalet.

Monday morning. We woke up at the crack of dawn, enjoyed the sunrise and then walked the entire beach. Drove around to look for a place for breakfast. Stopped at Baywatch, but they're closed on Mondays. Drove to Grand Case to go to Michael's, but they were closed for vacation. We headed back to Orient Beach and stopped at Le Fish Bar for breakfast. The food was good and the price was reasonable. After all this running around, we decided to buy our own breakfast supplies and we cooked breakfast each morning in our chalet. This worked out very well for us.

We spent most of Monday on the beach and in the clear warms waters of Orient Bay. We met lots of nice people all week. Today we met Rose & Harold and Art and Jo from New York who were particularly friendly. We enjoyed chatting with them all week (and ribbing them about their tennis skills).

For dinner we were in the mood for local creole food, so we ended up at Poulet D'Orleans. We sat on the front porch and were the only ones seated for dinner. Service and food were both very good. The Romney kids weren't around, but Tony did a fine job of cooking and serving all by himself. It was a very pleasant evening.

Tuesday (our 25th anniversary)
Ate breakfast at Papagayo's, an American breakfast which was quite good. The view from Papagayo's is absolutely beautiful.
The yellow umbrella's at Club Orient against a gorgeous blue sky is a sight to behold.
After breakfast we sat at the bar and Carlos treated us to two Mimosa's to celebrate our special day. Saw TTOL Clem walk by. I called out to him, but he didn't seem to recognize us from the TTOL party in Galilee held in August. Spoke to him for a little bit. I expressed my jealousy over the fact he and Paulette were in SXM for an extended vacation. We were glad to hear that Paulette's broken foot is getting better.

We went jewelry shopping this morning (much to Marc's chagrin). We drove down to Philipsburg and visited Deepti at DK Gems. It was great meeting her after all the wonderful comments about her on this message board. She is very personable and was extremely knowledgeable and patient while I looked at lots of different pieces of jewelry. In the end she showed me a pendant that was not in the jewelry case because she had just sold it to another customer. I fell in love with it. Deepti placed an order that day and said the jewelry would probably arrive on Friday. During our long conversation, Deepti spoke warmly about her mother who owns a store on Back St. After shopping at DK Gems we stopped by to say hello to Deepti's mother, Rupa. She is just as lovely as her daughter. We left DK Gems as very satisfied customers!

Drove back to Orient and decided to have lunch at Baywatch. We had never met Cheryl and Andy before, so I introduced ourselves. Cheryl made us feel right at home - she's a sweetheart! Marc had the buffalo chicken sandwich and I ordered the eggplant plate. Both were very good. It was a fine lunch.

Drove to Grand Case for dinner and strolled the street looking at menus. Bistrot Caraibes was closed for vacation. We ended up celebrating our anniversary at Le Cottage. It was an excellent choice. The food and service was very good. We sat on the porch and had a "water view" table (looking through L'Escapade Restaurant across the street). For appetizers Marc had frog legs and I had foie gras. Dinner was a delicious shrimp dish with sweet potatoes and spinach for me and Marc had one of the best pork tenderloin meals he has ever tasted (very tender, perfectly cooked). We split the crème brulee dessert trio - coffee/rosemary/mint flavors. This was one of our best meals all week.

Wednesday
Cooked breakfast in. Sat on the beach for most of the morning. Since Wednesday is market day in Marigot, we drove down there to browse and to have lunch. Lunch was at Enoch's Place, which is on the waterfront. Marc didn't care for the menu, so he ended up ordering a hamburger and I had the fried fish dish, which was very good. We did a little shopping and headed back to Orient.

We attended the wine and cheese party at Papagayo's. Met and spoke with Mike (the firefighter) from Boston for a while. He's a friendly guy with a great sense of humor!

After eating appetizers at Papagayo's we weren't too hungry, but we still drove to Grand Case for a light dinner. We decided on Le Ti Coin Creole a quaint little place that serves good food (great Creole stuff). The service was a little slow (brand new waiter), but we weren't in a rush to go anywhere, so we just relaxed and chilled for a while. We met Carl, the owner who came over to chat. He treated us to very good after dinner drinks of homemade rum. Tonight was another good night of dining and meeting new people.

Thursday
Sat on the beach again for the most of the morning. Strolled to Papagayo's and ordered a couple of Bloody Mary's - very good! For lunch we drove to Grand Case and ate ribs and chicken at one of the lolos. I can't remember the name of the lolo we chose, but it was directly on the waterfront. In our opinion, Talk of the Town's ribs are better than the ones we had here. But the view was definitely better on the waterfront!

Strolled up and down the street and visited with Clive, a friend of Brian and Stephanie's. Nice guy! We were headed back to the car when a man working at the hardware store called out to us. He introduced himself as Michael. He noticed that Marc's Harley-Davidson shirt was from Connecticut and asked us where we were from. When we mentioned RI, he laughed. He worked for many years in RI and was now living in St. Martin, where his grandmother has lived all her life. Chatted for a while; we're really meeting a lot of friendly people on this trip!

Ate dinner at LaGondola in Sandy Ground tonight. Valet parking at the door. Food and service were very good. Marc had the veal osso bocco special and it was outstanding. I had the lobster ravioli which was very good. The only drawback to LaGondola is the location. No view whatsoever, but the air conditioning worked well and we were happy with the service. Towards the end of our meal who should walk in but Deepti! She was meeting a TTOL group from New York (Kevin?) for dinner. It was nice to see her again, and Deepti thank you for the complimentary drinks.

Friday
Spent Friday morning on the beach. Do you see a pattern here?
Friday is mussels marinara day at Baywatch and I did not want to miss it! Marc does not eat seafood, so he ordered a pizza @ Pizza YoYo's and I placed an order of mussels "to go" @ Baywatch. Said hello to Clem and Paulette while waiting for my food. We ate lunch on the patio of our chalet - it doesn't get much better than this! A big thumbs up for Baywatch's mussels.

Drove down to the Dutch side to have dinner at LaVista's Hideaway Restaurant. The food was very good, but the service was not that attentive - we would have liked the waitstaff to check on us at least once during dinner to make sure everything is OK. The location / setting is nice, however. Marc had a filet mignon that appeared to weigh about 8 to 10 oz. It was very tender and delicious and perfectly cooked. I had the rack of lamb which was very good also. The chocolate cake dessert was yummy.

Saturday -
The only "touristy" thing I wanted to do on this vacation was visit the Butterfly Farm. We arrived there at 9 a.m. The price is $12 per person, and we felt it was well worth it. The tour was very informative (according to Marc) and we're glad we stopped by. The butterflies are very active in the morning, and we were amazed by the many different varieties we saw.

We purchased a timeshare unit (not in St. Martin) in the past year. So we drove over to Anse Marcel to check out one of the only timeshare hotels on the French side - Les Cottages de Lonvillier. The hotel manager showed us a unit - it was pretty nice. Perhaps we will stay there next time. It's not Club O, but the price would end up being a bit lower and would afford us to stay on vacation longer (perhaps 2 weeks next visit).

We drove back to Philipsburg to see if my jewelry had come in. Deepti greeted us warmly and told us that my pendant had indeed arrived! I was thrilled with it. Deepti treated Marc to a couple more beers to ease the pain and we were on our way.

Based on recommendations from Jim and Mary Ruos and Michael from Grand Case, we had lunch at Loterie Farm. Loved it! The atmosphere and food were outstanding! We will definitely put this place on our list for dinner on our next visit to the island. Marc wore another Connecticut tee shirt and we were stopped again at the farm - twice! One party of
people were visiting SXM while on a cruise and lived in CT. Then when we were leaving, a young woman stopped us again and said she was from CT, and living in SXM. She was a nice young woman who teaches at the University and works part time at Bucaneer Beach Bar. We were hoping to visit her later in the week, but never got around to it. Perhaps next time!

Met TTOL members Doug and Wendy on the beach. Very nice couple from our neighboring state of Mass. - it was nice chatting with you two!

The clouds rolled in late in the afternoon. We packed up our stuff and headed to Grand Case for dinner. Since Marc was not very hungry, we opted to eat at La California. Their menu is varied, offering everything from pizza to fine dinners. We were seated at one of the last waterfront tables available. Within 5 minutes of sitting down, it started to pour, thus eliminating the view of Anguilla. The restaurant seemed to be seriously understaffed. There were two waitstaff to cover at least ten tables, plus the bar. My red snapper special was overdone (very dry), but I could not send it back because no one checked to see how our meals were. A little disappointed with the food and service here.

We finished the evening off by stopping by at Papagayo's for a couple of drinks. Tonight was karoake night - everyone seemed to be having a ball! Seeing the electric slide performed at Papagayo's was very interesting! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Blush.gif" alt="" />Had a couple of drinks with Rose, Jo and Art who were leaving the next day for a week in Jamaica. Oh, to be retired!

Sunday - didn't do much today. We really wanted to relax on the beach for our last full day in St. Martin.

I did drag Marc off the beach to go out for lunch. Today we visited Yvette's in Orleans for local cuisine. We were the only tourists in the place. Several local families were enjoyed Sunday lunch at Yvette's. Felix greeted us warmly and showed us pictures of Yvette, who passed away four years ago. The food and service were very good. I had the homemade conch and dumpling stew - it was very filling and delicious. Marc's meal was very satisfying also. Felix introduced us to his grandchildren, who were seated at the table next to us. They seemed to be a nice group of kids.

Stayed on the beach until 5 in the afternoon. We decided to do a load of laundry before going out to dinner. Club O's laundry facility is very nice (it costs $2 to wash and $2 to dry). It was nice to arrive home with clean laundry (especially since our dryer died on the night before we left for SXM)!

We walked around Grand Case looking for a place for dinner. Marc wasn't especially hungry, and just wanted a "plate of spaghetti". We ended up at Spiga. What a good choice for our last dinner in St. Martin. The food and service were exceptional. Marc had a plate of angel hair pasta and I had the ravioli in a veal ragout sauce. Both were excellent. Even though I was quite full, I just had to have dessert. We chose Tiramisu. It was heavenly - nice and light and beautifully presented! This was one of our best meals all week.

Monday - last day in paradise. Got up early, cooked breakfast in, and then packed our luggage. We were sunning ourselves on the beach by 8 a.m. (did not want to waste one precious moment of beach time). Since our chalet was not booked for that day, Club Orient allowed us late check-out. We had one final drink at Papagayo's and said our goodbyes to Carlos, the charming bartender. We checked out at 12:30 p.m. and headed for the airport. We stopped at the Market at Cupecoy to pick up deli sandwiches for the flight home. They were delicious and reasonably priced. Our plans were to have lunch at Sunset Beach Bar, but we got stuck in traffic and were running a little late. So we returned the car rental to Hertz and had drinks and appetizers in the airport lounge.

Flights back home were uneventful. We landed a little early in Charlotte. The customs line was long, but we had no problem making the flight home to Providence (with only an hour layover).

With the exception of one night of rain, the weather our entire stay was fantastic! Our visit was very special. St. Martin is one beautiful island!