Our first trip to St Martin. Many more to follow!

Left home on Nov. 22nd, drove to Miami, spent 1st day
of our vacation at Haulover Beach. Spent the night at
Ocean Point Resort: http://www.oceanpointresort.com/
Great resort, great staff, all rooms have a view of the ocean.

Up early on Wed, off to Miami International to hurry up & wait.
American flight was 45 min late. Otherwise, smooth flight to SXM.Had rented a car through Unity. One of Michael’s men was still waiting for us outside the terminal. Quick trip to their lot to sign forms. Michael gave us a map, showed the route to our hotel, highlighted areas we should never travel through, highlighted areas to avoid after dark, gave us a security briefing including the following:
NEVER leave anything you care about in the car unattended.
ALWAYS lock the transmission with the provided lock.
Leave car doors UNLOCKED to prevent broken windows.
We appreciated the good advice, but it left us feeling a bit
uneasy about our personal safety!

Drove across the island to Esmeralda. Missed the correct road, wandered around through the Orient Bay neighborhood until we stumbled into the Esmeralda entrance. Check-in was smooth & professional. We stayed in villa #469. It was very nice. The views from our unit & from our pool area were awesome! I can’t put the beauty into words. See link to photos below.

Due to safety concerns, we stayed in the Orient Beach and
Grand Case areas during most of our trip. Our observations:

Our entire experience at Esmeralda was fantastic!
Only disappointment (no iron in room) was quickly
resolved with one phone call. Will definitely return.

We loved Coco Beach & the Coco Beach Restaurant
& Bar. Contrary to some previous posts that we had read,
we thought their food & service was excellent. My wife claims
that they had the best omelet she has ever tasted. We ate both breakfast & lunch there on two different days. Never disappointed.

The C.O. area at Coco was full each day. We arrived early, reserved our chairs & then joined the morning “beach walk.” A new experience that we enjoyed more with each passing day!

Had two breakfasts & one late lunch at Andy & Cheryl’s Baywatch. Breakfast was good. The ribs & eggplant parmesan were among the best we’ve ever had! Andy’s ribs were far superior to those at Talk of The Town. Andy, Cheryl & Adrianne were the best!

Had one dinner at Bikini Beach Bar & Resturant. Good service, good food, overpriced.

The dining highlight of our trip was dinner at La California. Please give this place a try. The food, the presentation, the service, the ambiance, the view, were all incomparable! I had the fillet, my wife had the grilled chicken ka-bobs. Both were delicious. Their French onion soup was the best we’ve ever had. Dessert was fabulous. One for one dollars/euros.
Two appetizers, two main courses, two glasses of wine, two desserts, one coffee for $90. We spent $60 at Bikini for far, far, far less.

All in all, a fantastic trip! After 26+ years of marriage & raising kids
my wife & I are finally able to get away & do some traveling. Have now been to Aruba & St Martin. Plan to revisit both islands in 2005.
Thinking of trying Grand Lido Braco in Jamica. Any suggestions?

Link to photos: http://groups.msn.com/SXMPhotos2/esmeraldaareanov2428.msnw