Okay, here is our trip report for Thursday February 10th thru Tuesday February 15th. It does get wordy and I ended up all over the place, but I tried to separate it out by rental car, hotel, beaches, and restaurant segments. I hope I don't sound negative in certain parts of the report, because overall, we had a great time. Really did enjoy the island again. As noted in another trip report, I had also heard from two folks who were in the business area that the French side is getting killed because of the Euro. I understand why. But I don't understand why it has to be this way.

We arrived in SXM on Thursday February 10th using US Airways for the first time. The flight from St. Louis to Charlotte and than on to SXM went flawless. Of course, we had no luggage to check-in. Our flight arrived on time and we went through customs rather quickly. Craig from Pack-light was to meet us at the airport, but he wasn’t there yet. He showed up maybe 5 minutes after we were outside and he was amazed that we were out there already. He said that he never had anyone make it through so quickly. Again, we will be using Craig again in April. The beach chairs and umbrella just worked out great, especially at Plum beach where there is no facilities. He was a great big help because we still had not seen anyone from Tropical Tropicana Car Rental. We used Tropicana instead of Value Car Rental that we used before because of the special that they were giving through JMB Communications. When he asked who we rented from, he knew exactly who to look for and found the gentleman. He had just arrived. We had a small problem though. Tropical Tropicana had no cars available, even though we had reservations and had confirmed them a week before leaving. They were trying to find a car for us, which they eventually did through Alpha Rental. Not very happy with Tropical Tropicana at this point. Alpha was okay. The car was a piece of sh*t and good thing I checked for a spare, since there was one, but it was flat. They tried to put air in it, but it had a hole in it. They than took a spare out of another car and filled it with air and put it in our car. This was a good thing because on Saturday night on the way to Hot Tomatoes for dinner, coming down the hill to Cole Bay, we blew out one of the front tires. I really didn't know that we had a problem with a tire because of how slow we were going but we knew for sure after some lady on the side of the road pointed at the front of our car and shook her head. I drove the car all of the way to the Texaco station that is in Cole Bay. My wife thought it was even getting worse because after we made the turn at the end of the hill, we had more people pointing at the front of our car and just shaking there heads. Suffice it to say, I was driving on the tire rim versus the tire. Pretty well chewed up that sucker. (I forgot to say that I actually had to change the tire).The next day, on the way to Atlantico for our breakfast treats, I drove on over to Alpha to get another spare. They had no problems with how the spare looked. I hope the next folks to use that spare have good luck with it. One other thing that was pretty weird about the car was that after we picked it up, we discovered that neither of the two keys would open the passenger side door. It appears that the passenger side door was broken into and they put a different lock in it from the driver side. Not a very pretty car, but it got the job done. (Oh way…the brakes squeaked as soon as you used them, very annoying. especially in heavy traffic). The other thing that was a pain in the butt with the car was that it had an anti theft system on it, but if you opened the trunk without putting the key in the ignition, you had maybe 20 seconds to get the car started or the alarm system would go off. This eventually came back to haunt me at Captain Oliver’s. I ended up locking the keys in the car because of the stupid alarm system after we returned from Plum Beach. Alpha was good about it and had somebody out in about 40 minutes. The only problem we had was that the spare keys would open the trunk of the car, but none of the doors. So, we took the air out of two tires and they drove us all the way back to the airport where their offices are at and gave us another car. That is when we decided to eat at Jimbo’s because it was close by and it was really hopping. They came by the next day and I guess did whatever because the car was gone when we came back that afternoon. I did like the service from Alpha, but the cars were pretty sh*tty. Even the second car had its problems, but it was better than the first one.

We usually stop at Grande Marche to pick up a few things but weren't sure what to expect at Captain Oliver’s. Stopped at the Rainbow Grocery which is on the road to Oyster Bay or to Philipsburg, depending on which way you are going.

We stopped at Grand Marche on Friday before having dinner at Peg’s Leg Pub. Grand Marche has a very good selection of items that we like, versus the Ram store. (Even though, this time I did not go into the Ram’s store).

Captain Oliver’s is another story. The front desk personal was nice and courteous every time we had to use them. The grounds area needs work. Not much, but it just needs some tender loving care. Our room overlooked the Oyster Bay marina, which was nice. The room on the other hand was not what we were expecting from a 3 or 4 star resort. We would give it a 1, maybe a 2. Not more. What we can’t fathom is that they do not supply box springs on the bed (maybe for the noise of the box springs when folks are having fun in bed). The mattress is sitting on a piece of plywood that has the bed framing around it. Let’s just say that the corners of the plywood frame were not the cleanest. The toilet was separate from the shower/tub sink area. The toilet was clean, but the pipes that were exposed were very dirty. The baseboard had dust caked on it. The small kitchen area was not the cleanest. It had a small stove with a small frig, but why have a stove when you supply no dishes, pots, utensils, dish cloths, no nothing…made no sense. The cabinet under the sink was fully exposed to everything. Did not want to venture what was in there germ wise. The screen in the shower was torn so that we had a constant flow of mosquitoes in the room. They also said that they had satellite TV, that’s great, but if you don’t supply the channels, who gives a sh*t. We had the choice of USA, CNN International and HBO (which the volume was way low). There were 6 or 8 other channels, but all French. Yeah, we are on vacation and really don’t watch much TV, but when we get up or go to bed; we like to have the TV on to catch up on things. That sure didn’t happen here. As you can see, I would not recommend this place to anyone. Our bed sheets were not changed the whole 5 days we were there. That is just uncalled for. We were surprised to have fresh towels everyday, but we never would know how many hand towels or small towels we would get. It would change daily. Princess Heights puts this place to shame. It is not even close. So, what did we do while in SXM.

We went to Dawn Beach (still no 2 on our list of beaches), Plum Beach (still no. 1 on our list). On Sunday, February 13, we tried to go to Long Beach, but there was no sand by the water area, just boulders. So, than we tried Cupecoy beach and that was totally void of sand. So, we went back to Plum Beach. There was sand, but we could tell that the waves were a lot rougher. By mid day, we had about 12 surfers out in the water hitting the waves. They were pretty big and it appears that they were getting some good runs out of the them. I made my walk down Prune all of the way to Long Beach again and the pretty beach at the point where the two meet was completely gone, expect for boulders. Even just from the day before when we were at Plum Beach, the beach had changed dramatically. I was really amazed at the change in just 24 hours. It really does put you in your place at what mother nature can do.
We didn’t go to any of the beaches on the French side since we will be returning in April and staying at Grand Case Beach Club. We will than hit the French beaches. As a side not, we did see some nude sun bathers at Plum and they were on both sides of the beach entrance. Dawn had a few, but again, they were all down toward the end of the beach by the villas.

The weather was great on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A little windy on Sunday, but what the heck, you’re in paradise. Monday it rained in the morning and than it was mostly cloudy after that. Tuesday was also cloudy and a little drizzly in the morning at Oyster Bay. By the time we made it to Sunset Beach it the afternoon before our flight, it was sunny and hot. What a shame to leave.

We again, think that the Atlantico Bakery shop across from Hot Tomatoes is just to die for. They have a ham and Gouda cheese sandwich that is just fantastic. We had croissants on the first day from La Fregate which is located down from Captain Oliver’s. It was okay, but we just don’t think they are as good as Atlantico. Also, because of the conversion factor, it cost more at Le Frigate. Just not worth the extra money.

We had lunch at Scavengers on Friday and it was worth the money. I had the grouper plate lunch and my wife had the cheeseburger. It was good and it hit the spot. All other lunches were the ham and cheese sandwiches from Atlantico (except for Monday when we had lunch at Taloula Mango’s in Philipsburg. It was very good, especially since they had a band playing across from the restaurant on the boardwalk. Very very pleasing). The new Boardwalk area is fantastic. I think it really makes the area look a lot better than before. The new Rose Plaza (I think that’s part of the name) is really nice.

Dinners were at Le Planteur in Oyster Pond. The food was good and the service was real good. Neat view over the Oyster Pond area. But was it worth the extra 20% for the conversion. No. The next night was Peg’s Leg and I found a coupon in one of the magazines (the one that has Contessa’s picture in it) for two free wine drinks. It ended up being one free bottle of house wine. The dinner was excellent and the service real good also. It was worth the price of admission. Then we tried Hot Tomatoes and we were totally disappointed in them. They were not the same since our last visit. Would not return. Service was good, but the food was just not anything special. The next night was a try at Jimbo’s. This was pretty good. Nice atmosphere with the music blaring through the place. Would return here again on our next visit. Valentine’s evening was spent at Il Nettuno’s. This was very very good. Service was very good and the food was very good. Again, though, was the food worth the extra 25% here. I don’t think so, especially with all of the eating establishments on the Dutch side. We were early so I was able to park in front of the restaurant, which the restaurant folks said was okay. About one hour later, a police officer was in front of Il Nettuno’s and it appeared he was getting ready to write a ticket. One of the waiters went outside and asked what he was doing. The waiter returned and asked to have our keys so that he could move the car to their small parking area. They said that they could never figure out the police. One night it would be okay to park in front and than the next night, they would ticket everything in sight. I think this is rather stupid. It’s like cutting the hand that feeds you and end up starving to death. This was our last night to eat out at SXM.

On the Monday that we went shopping (Valentine’s Day), we finally ended up at Deepti’s store and she was very friendly as usual. Deepti had a necklace that my wife has been eyeing for some time and we never did see it at any of the other stores, so my wife got a real nice Valentine’s present. That Monday was also very very busy in Philipsburg. Even though there were only two boats in, because of the rain in the morning, everyone was out shopping. Deepti was very surprised on how busy they were that day, especially since on Tuesday and Wednesday there was going to be 5 boats in.

We left on Tuesday, but did some shopping again in Philipsburg, but it was quick. Dropped off the chairs for Craig and than checked in at the airport. Than off to Sunset Beach for a good lunch and some beers. The lunch was good and the atmosphere was great. A great place to go before having to leave.

Looking forward to returning at the end of April when we are staying at the Grand Case Beach Club.


Dave and Cindy