We fell in love with St. Martin on our very first trip back in November of 1989 and immediately reserved again for April 1990, November 1990, April 1991, April 1992 (Honeymoon trip), and November 1993. Except for 1993 trip, we stayed at Club Orient. Since we were a bit disappointed with our trip in 1993 when we stayed at a private apartment in Grand Case, we opted not to go the next year…..then came the hurricane and we took a longer break than planned. In 2002, we decided on a Christmas/New Year vacation when we happened across a bargain charter vacation to St. Martin @ the Princess Port de Plaisance. Despite the 5-star rating, it was less than desirable, but that’s a story for another time. We traveled to Orient beach every day of our stay and realized that no other place would satisfy our vacation needs like Club O so we vowed that the 2003 Christmas/New Year vacation would be there and preferably longer than the typical seven day charter. We discovered TTOL just before the 2002 trip but didn’t register until a few weeks after we returned. Although we’ve not made many posts, we’ve enjoyed reading the many posts and trip reports this past year and decided to take a stab at our own trip report.

Day One – We just can’t understand why it takes so long to get to St. Martin (perhaps we were a bit spoiled by last year’s charter that left Boston @ 7am and arrived @ Princess Julianna @ around 1:30pm). Our airport limo picked us up at 3:30 am and we didn’t arrive at Club O until nearly 7:30pm. We obtained our room key from security and snacked on the few items purchased en-route to Club O from the airport before retiring.

Day Two – We’re typically early to bed and early to risers but managed to sleep in a bit this morning. Our studio was directly across the way from the Dolphin Massage and Fitness Center so Pam took the opportunity to do a little weight training each morning at around 6:00 before returning to brew a pot of coffee and get Wayne up and out of bed for the morning walk down to Mount Vernon. Wayne’s two-week old rib injury from his Krav Maga class was still healing so the daily walk was about all the exercise he could manage this trip. Since we had not been able to officially check in the night before, we did so after our walk and left the property to purchase provisions. We decided to shop at Ram’s in Cole’s Bay as we found fairly good variety of supplies and reasonable prices last year. While traveling from Club O to Cole’s Bay by way of Marigot, we found ourselves right in the middle of what appeared to be a road race on the Grand Case bypass. There were spectator vehicles lining both sides of the road and motorcycles and cars racing one another along this strip of road. We later discovered that this was a regular Sunday morning event that started around 5am and ended just about the time that we were passing through the area at around 9am. Although we talked about going back next Sunday to see a bit more, we opted for a leisurely coffee with new found friends instead.

After returning from our shopping trip, we spent several hours soaking up the sun before walking down to Orient Village which we heard about from TTOL. We opted to have an early dinner at the Fish Bar. We shared the ceviche (Mahi Mahi) appetizer. Wayne ordered a Curried fish dish with rice and Pam had the Swordfish Osso Buco with Polenta. The swordfish was a bit overdone, but everything was flavorful. We will go back again.

Day Three - During our morning walk, we stopped at Tap 5 in Orient Village to purchase a couple of croissants and a bagette. Although L’Orientique at Club O always has fresh bread and pastry each morning, we decided to use this opportunity to see what Tap 5 would have to offer especially since they open @ 7am vs 8am for L’Orientique. We found it to be a reasonably well-stocked market. Since we rented a car for this trip, most of our provisional shopping will be done at the major stores and L’Orientique certainly has all of our other basic needs. After returning to our studio and enjoying our croissants with a freshly brewed cup of coffee, we headed to the beach for our first full day of sand gravity. A rain shower had Pam scurrying to The Perch, Wayne spotted a couple walking along the beach and recognized Milt and Michelle from the photograph they had emailed to us several months back. We had directly responded to an inquiry from them about six months ago and maintained contact since our vacation plans coincided. They were staying at Cap Caribes, but nonetheless on the same beach during the same two weeks. Ultimately we enjoyed spending much of our vacation time with Milt and Michelle. We hope for future opportunities to meet up with this couple again.

Day Four through Twelve – Since our trip notes stopped for several days, we decided to condense the report for the remainder of our stay. Wayne finally got his Caribbean lobster at Talk of the Town (Lolo’s-Grand Case). Last year’s lobster at Kokomo’s (Princess Port de Plaisance) was such a disappointment that he was hesitant to bother again, but he’s glad he did. We watched a woman making coconut ice cream as we dined and couldn’t resist when she came around to sell the fruits of her efforts (hand cranking the whole time we were there). Lolo’s were not charging more for dollars vs euros. We met many people during the happy hour at The Perch. On Christmas Day, we were invited for cocktails at Beverly and Graham’s Mini Suite. They’re a charming couple from Zimbabwe and one of the “regular” couples that we met at The Perch. After cocktails, it was time for happy hour at The Perch. Another couple, Gunnar and Jeannette invited eight of us to join them for dinner at L’Auberge Gourmande in Grand Case. We enjoyed a wonderful meal. As we walked back to our vehicles after dinner, a local church choir was entertaining us with caroles. A perfect end to our Christmas Day 2003. The group took the Tiko Tiko cruise on the day after Christmas. Since there were too many of us to go together and we’d already taken the cruise twice before, we volunteered to back out, but we saw the crew off in the morning and greeted them on their return. On Saturday, we went to the market in Marigot with Milt, Michelle, Rene, and Anita. Rene and Anita are another couple that we met at Club O. They were on vacation from Holland. After the market, we continued on to Philipsburg and we finally had the pleasure of meeting Deepti at DK Gems. Wayne insisted that Pam take home the beautiful white gold ring with one yellow diamond flanked by two white diamonds. Deepti was very charming. As TTOL members, we were treated quite well and expect to visit her again on future trips. That evening we decided to have dinner at Papagayo. Pam enjoyed her onion soup and prime rib. Wayne had cold smoke fish and the fish stew. The stew was so-so and the service was so slow (LOL) but we’re on vacation and not in so much of a hurry anyway. The next day we had coffee and pastry with Milt and Michelle at their place (Cap Caribe) before we all headed for a day at the beach. The four of us had a late lunch/early dinner at Baywatch. Although we frequented Surf Side South in 1993 when we stayed in Grand Case, this was our first visit to Baywatch. Remembering past TTOL posted recommendations, Wayne had the Mussels ala Andy and Pam had the Margarita Shrimp. Both were simply marvelous. Milt and Michelle ordered the ribs. There wasn’t a morsel of food left on any of our plates. The next evening, Milt wanted to cook dinner for us. Although he persisted in apologizing for the meal, we thoroughly enjoyed the rice and bean with pork as well as the paella dish that he prepared. It’s not always easy to cook in unfamiliar surroundings with limited resources but the meal was truly as enjoyable as the company. The next night, December 30th, was the scheduled TTOL party at Baywatch. Although we’d met Dave and Regina as well as Paul Streng on the beach a few days earlier, we were really looking forward to the opportunity to meet many more TTOL er’s this evening. Our thanks to Bob and Marla for arranging and hosting this party. We skipped the wine and cheese party at Papagayo in order to get to Baywatch when the party started at 5:30. Our studio neighbors, Maryann and Joe, decided to join us as we’d talked so much about the TTOL website and encouraged them to check it out on their return home. It seems that many others wanted to attend both events so we started the evening with a small crowd that grew to an estimated 60 people by 7:00 or so. Bob and Marla passed out “Mardi-Gras” style beads to everyone. Andy and Cheryl had arranged for Karoake that evening and many in attendance took advantage of the opportunity to be on “stage”. We had a fine time at our first TTOL party and enjoyed meeting many other TTOL er’s. New Year’s Eve at Papagayo’s proved to be very enjoyable. Wayne gave all his beads away during the evening (Is that what you’re supposed to do?) and even stole some from Pam to give away. We danced the night away and Wayne exhausted the supply of youngsters on the dance floor after he wore Pam out. Pam couldn’t make it for the fireworks and Wayne doesn’t quite remember them anyway so we’re not quite sure if we were in a fog the next day because of the events the night before or just because it was our day to return home.

Travel home was again draining but our biggest disappointment was the fact that we missed saying goodbye to Milt and Michelle as well as several others that we’d met during our vacation. We’re hoping for a return visit in May and will definitely be back at Christmas again too.

All in all, our stay on St. Martin, and in particular, Club Orient, was a vacation to remember. Maybe it’s because of the people. Yes, that has to be it. Folks on this forum wiser than we, have uttered these words before, and we certainly have to agree. It’s the people who make it all enjoyable. Sorry that we’ll miss the BIG party at the end of the month, but we really had a ball with EVERYONE who we met during our short, twelve-day, stay.

Wayne & Pam Hall - Londonderry, NH