We just returned from 10 days in St. Martin – 12/30 to 1/8. We used Expedia and ended up at the comparatively inexpensive, Mt. Vernon Hotel. After all the worry, it was really not too bad. We luckily got a free upgrade from a rather sorry looking room to a much better ocean front room. This was accomplished after we were woken up the first morning by a group of roosters who live, it seems, right in front of the cheapy rooms! Very St. Martin!

Our ocean view room was as nice as many rooms that we have stayed at in St. Martin, including our time-share room at the Flamingo. It was clean and tidy with a nice view. As many here pointed out, you have to be able climb some rather steep hills in order to access the rooms so you had better be in decent shape. We didn’t mind the exercise after all of our eating.

This time we stayed away from our usual Grand Case restaurants and branched out to some uncharted territory. We had our best meal and our worst meal at the same place – Mai’s Vietnamese restaurant in Marigot. The first time we ate there it was really special. We eat Vietnamese all the time in NYC and this compared with the best of them. A beautiful French-Indochina décor and well prepared Viet-specialties. Delicious spicy soups, flavorful Vietnamese salads (with mint, peanut, coriander dressing) and one of the best vegetable curries we had ever had. We were so excited that 3 nights later we brought some friends there (Daniel & Rebecca from Ma) after raving to them about it all day at the beach. Wouldn’t you know .. it was a huge disappointment. The salads didn’t taste as great as they had our first night, the curries were terrible and our new friends thought we were big losers at picking places to eat! I’m sure it was just an off night and I will go back again next time … but we were disappointed nevertheless.

Another find was a new Moroccan restaurant in Marigot called Marrakesh. Like Vietnam, another one-time French outpost, Morocco has a wonderful cuisine. Although this place looks rather undistinguished on the outside, it’s an amazing looking restaurant on the inside. Very cool bar which looks like a sultan’s tent. The salad sampler was incredible and the lamb tangine w/ prunes was as good as any we’ve had. Try this place.

Our one French meal this trip was at the beautiful, Sol y Luna near the Mont Vernon. Expensive, but very good food .. had nice piece of Bass and filet of Duck. Both were great. A very, pretty, romantic place.

We also went on a small rib hunt after all the discussion here. Here are the results of our extensive testing.

1) Danny’s ribs at Cupecoy - best we tried, go figure;
2) Under the Tree – a close second;
3) Lido – best bang for the buck – but not the best ribs.
4) Talk of the Town – nothing to talk about this time .. not great.

*Next time we will try Mrs B’s.

Other highlights were:

Breakfast at Mary’s Boon – always great, try the carrot pancakes!;
Breakfast at Hilma’s Windsor Palace – first time there .. what a great island treat .. patties with salted fish – yum!;
Breakfast at Top Carrot – great healthy food .. best veggie wrap you can buy, great juices.

Stopped in at DK Gems, met the lovely Deepti and bought some earings for my sweetie. Good price, nice service. Thanks to those who recommended her. We will do business there in the future.

Orient was windy as hell, so we spent our days at Cupecoy which was great. The rocks make a nice barrier. Sand is plentiful out to the left when facing the water, up the little trail. Caution .. its very gay some days if that bothers you. It didn’t bother us but some people might be uncomfortable. Also, when we were there, there was a cliffboy convention going on .. both gay and straight. Its amazing what one can buy in the bushes above Cupecoy if one is so inclined. It was a bit much after awhile.

Other than that, another great trip in memory banks. Tough to come home though.

If you are on your way … you are lucky.

Have fun!

Lawrence & Jurgita
Connecticut, USA